Babylon 5, "Shadow Dancing", S03E21, OAD 10/21/96 *spoilers*

[gchance]

Guide page: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/065.html

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/249/60179249.jpg

- Zima minus 7 days!
- Delenn says, "If you do not trust us by now, you may go and nothing will be required of you." Then the camera pans across the concerned faces of the aliens. Or is it excitement? Sadness? Anger? It's hard to tell with that pakmara, it's like reading the facial expressions of a turtle.
- Oh look, they're planning their Shadow attacks the way celebrities plan their weddings. Or the way people organize raves.
- "Take the White Star, it's the fastest ship we've got." Hey John, what about the other white stars?
- You know, if Jeff Conaway says addiction recovery takes time, it takes time! I think he would know.
- A couple goes through Downbelow with their kid, and the wife makes all sorts of condescending comments. She's obviously listening to Clark, but aside from all that, and the reason we're being shown their attitude... why are they there? Wouldn't Clark have banned travel to Babylon 5 by now? And the husband says, "We DO have homeless back home," and the wife doesn't deny it. Wouldn't that be treason in the eyes of Clark?
- Ooh! Zima minus 6 days!
- "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever met." That Marcus!
- AAAAAAUGH! Got Shadows?
- Zima minus 4 days, and Franklin's awake! Zat's aztounding!
- Meanwhile, Delenn is awaiting Sheridan's pleasure. I bet she is.
- So Sheridan goes to sleep, while Delenn watches him sleep in order to see his "true face." Apparently my true face is drooling all over my pillow.
- Hey! It's Laura Ingalls! No, it's Bruce Boxlightner's wife! Odd, Anna Sheridan looks different.
- Actually, the original actress was unavailable, and in 1996, Melissa Gilbert was very available. I would imagine, she'd be as available as Bruce Boxleitner was in 1994, heh.

They tried to make it a surprise reveal, what with Delenn's vision in War Without End, but even at that time, it was quite obvious it would be Melissa Gilbert. She has one of the most identifyable voices, especially since she still sounds exactly as she did when she was 14 years old. She didn't play Anna Sheridan earlier, but given she's Bruce's wife in real life, it was a dead giveaway. But that's just me.

Also, as I whined about earlier, I think that the director really blew it, trying to show emotion on the alien faces. She should have been showing the aliens where the actors could at least emote instead of showing the animatronic ones.

The Walkabout arc is FINALLY over! Good God, that took forever.

In the end though, this episode was great overall. Just as it seems things are beginning to go well in the war, and we're making headway exploiting the Shadows defenses, a wrench is thrown into the works. Anna Sheridan's back! This will most certainly affect what's going on:

- Delenn & Sheridan are moving towards what is obviously shaping up to be a long and eventful relationship (in the flashforward, Delenn even mentions their son). Is that future in danger now?
- The Shadow War is still going on, but now we have Anna Sheridan to distract John from his duties. D'oh!
- Delenn is the head of the Rangers. You think that, perhaps, she'll be distracted as well?

So as in life, when things are going well, everything turns to crap. And John hasn't even woke up yet.

I have more thoughts about Anna but I'll hold off until the season finale. Don't read its title if you don't want to be spoiled.

Greg

[Craigbob]

- Zima minus 7 days!
- Delenn says, "If you do not trust us by now, you may go and nothing will be required of you." Then the camera pans across the concerned faces of the aliens. Or is it excitement? Sadness? Anger? It's hard to tell with that pakmara, it's like reading the facial expressions of a turtle.
- Oh look, they're planning their Shadow attacks the way celebrities plan their weddings. Or the way people organize raves.
- "Take the White Star, it's the fastest ship we've got." Hey John, what about the other white stars?
- You know, if Jeff Conaway says addiction recovery takes time, it takes time! I think he would know.
- A couple goes through Downbelow with their kid, and the wife makes all sorts of condescending comments. She's obviously listening to Clark, but aside from all that, and the reason we're being shown their attitude... why are they there? Wouldn't Clark have banned travel to Babylon 5 by now? And the husband says, "We DO have homeless back home," and the wife doesn't deny it. Wouldn't that be treason in the eyes of Clark?
- Ooh! Zima minus 6 days!
- "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever met." That Marcus!
- AAAAAAUGH! Got Shadows?
- Zima minus 4 days, and Franklin's awake! Zat's aztounding!
- Meanwhile, Delenn is awaiting Sheridan's pleasure. I bet she is.
- So Sheridan goes to sleep, while Delenn watches him sleep in order to see his "true face." Apparently my true face is drooling all over my pillow.
- Hey! It's Laura Ingalls! No, it's Bruce Boxlightner's wife! Odd, Anna Sheridan looks different.
- Actually, the original actress was unavailable, and in 1996, Melissa Gilbert was very available. I would imagine, she'd be as available as Bruce Boxleitner was in 1994, heh.

They tried to make it a surprise reveal, what with Delenn's vision in War Without End, but even at that time, it was quite obvious it would be Melissa Gilbert. She has one of the most identifyable voices, especially since she still sounds exactly as she did when she was 14 years old. She didn't play Anna Sheridan earlier, but given she's Bruce's wife in real life, it was a dead giveaway. But that's just me.

Also, as I whined about earlier, I think that the director really blew it, trying to show emotion on the alien faces. She should have been showing the aliens where the actors could at least emote instead of showing the animatronic ones.

The Walkabout arc is FINALLY over! Good God, that took forever.

In the end though, this episode was great overall. Just as it seems things are beginning to go well in the war, and we're making headway exploiting the Shadows defenses, a wrench is thrown into the works. Anna Sheridan's back! This will most certainly affect what's going on:

- Delenn & Sheridan are moving towards what is obviously shaping up to be a long and eventful relationship (in the flashforward, Delenn even mentions their son). Is that future in danger now?
- The Shadow War is still going on, but now we have Anna Sheridan to distract John from his duties. D'oh!
- Delenn is the head of the Rangers. You think that, perhaps, she'll be distracted as well?

So as in life, when things are going well, everything turns to crap. And John hasn't even woke up yet.

I have more thoughts about Anna but I'll hold off until the season finale. Don't read its title if you don't want to be spoiled.

Greg

Greg,

I don't feel the same way about Franklin's walkabout as you do. I saw it as a very nice and honest way of him dealing with his issues.

Oh and the real JMS biographical part is in this ep.

JMS himself was mugged/beaten/ very badly a long time ago and only survived from sheer will.

As to another of your questions, see the lurker's guide:
Earth is still letting people come to Babylon 5 as tourists?
It's difficult and limited, but yes, there's still some travel, just as one may travel to countries that the US does not recognize officially or have diplomatic relations with. How long they continue to allow this...we'll see.

[gchance]

As to another of your questions, see the lurker's guide:

Oh, I realize it was in the Lurker's Guide. Those are just notes I took down as I watched.

With things like that, the way I see it is if you HAVE to ask, it wasn't clear enough in the episode and was bad writing. I realize that writers sometimes have so much in their head that they feel it's clear, but JMS does this a LOT. Honestly I think that when he wrote the scene he just wasn't thinking in those terms, he just wanted someone there to give Franklin perspective on where he's at.

As far as the walkabout arc, I just think it went on too long.

Greg

[Craigbob]

Oh, I realize it was in the Lurker's Guide. Those are just notes I took down as I watched.

With things like that, the way I see it is if you HAVE to ask, it wasn't clear enough in the episode and was bad writing. I realize that writers sometimes have so much in their head that they feel it's clear, but JMS does this a LOT. Honestly I think that when he wrote the scene he just wasn't thinking in those terms, he just wanted someone there to give Franklin perspective on where he's at.

As far as the walkabout arc, I just think it went on too long.

Greg

The walk about went on too long? 4 episodes? In show time that is.... hmmmm lets figure out the time...

Walkabout starts with Franklin gone for several days (say 4 days, and takes place over a 2 days) So at the end of WA we are at 6 days.

From the end of WA to the end of Grey 17 I'd say 3 maybe 4 days had passed, and G17 takes a day. so now we are at about 10 days maybe 14 at the very outside.

Between Grey 17 and Rock say 3 days to a week, on the long end we are at 21 days or 3 weeks.

10 days between "And the rock...." and "Shadow Dancing" So a month in show time. Not that long at all IMO of course.... :D

[Craigbob]

Mea Culpa, In checking the newly released JMS book the B5 chronology, it appears that Franklin's Walkabout went on from mid August 2260 to late Dec. 2260.

My apologies. But I still don't think 4 episodes covering 5 months is too long.

[busyba]

They tried to make it a surprise reveal, what with Delenn's vision in War Without End, but even at that time, it was quite obvious it would be Melissa Gilbert. She has one of the most identifyable voices, especially since she still sounds exactly as she did when she was 14 years old.

Not to mention that she was listed in the guest star credits at the beginning of the episode. :)

[Hunter Green]

- Delenn says, "If you do not trust us by now, you may go and nothing will be required of you." Then the camera pans across the concerned faces of the aliens. Or is it excitement? Sadness? Anger? It's hard to tell with that pakmara, it's like reading the facial expressions of a turtle.
I think this is intentional and realistic. Alien races ought to be alien and thus hard to read. Our instincts for reading faces ought to be completely inapplicable. Admittedly, this is the kind of realistic that even B5 usually has to sacrifice in favor of making people bipedal hominids, due to the shortage of really good actors with tripod-shaped bodies and eyestalks, but it's not completely foreign to B5 either.

- Zima minus 4 days, and Franklin's awake! Zat's aztounding!
In the news just this week: MillerCoors Discontinues Zima (http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/inc/quickread/e3ic7f8e4e0a6055a53551076d05d46e119?KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=310&width=600)

The Walkabout arc is FINALLY over! Good God, that took forever.
I also don't see the fuss about it being too long. The bit with the singer did feel like a bit of padding, at least in the contrast with the tempo of this season, but apart from that, I just don't see it.

[JYoung]

This is a significant episode as it shows the League taking on the Shadows head on and being more or less successful.

It was a tad dumb of Franklin to walk in there and get himself stabbed but I did like the dialogue he had with "himself".

I do have to say that the CGI is much improved by this point.
Watching this on my HDTV, I saw much less jagginess.