Babylon 5: Season 2
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Tony Dow |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Season 2 |
| Distributor | Warner Home Video |
| Delenn’s future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) arrived on Babylon 5 in the first episode of season 2, “Points of Departure.” The show marked the handing over of command of B5 to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor Michael O’Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted a bigger star in the leading role. This excellent installment also revealed more about why the Minbari surrendered to Earth at the Battle of the Line when they were on the verge of victory. “Revelations” explains that Sheridan’s wife,… | |
Reviews
Amazon.com
Delenn’s future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) arrived on Babylon 5 in the first episode of season 2, “Points of Departure.” The show marked the handing over of command of B5 to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor Michael O’Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted a bigger star in the leading role. This excellent installment also revealed more about why the Minbari surrendered to Earth at the Battle of the Line when they were on the verge of victory. “Revelations” explains that Sheridan’s wife, Anna, died during an archaeological survey of the world Z’ha’dum, the name being just one of many references to Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings (the bridge at Khazad-Dum). “The Geometry of Shadows” introduced the Technomages, characters who featured more significantly in the ill-fated spinoff series Crusade (1999), while “The Coming of Shadows” proved to be Babylon 5’s finest hour to date. The story of political intrigue foreshadowing the fate of two of the major characters beat Apollo 13, Toy Story, 12 Monkeys, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Visitor” to win the Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation at the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention and proved so powerful that J. Michael Straczynski included it in his Complete Book of Scriptwriting.
“And Now for a Word” took the unusual step of presenting a day-in-the-life of B5 seen through the eyes of a TV news crew, just as the Narn declared war on the Centauri. The inclusion of a PSI-Corps commercial paid homage to Paul Verhoeven’s satirical ads in Robocop (1987), while his later Starship Troopers (1997) seemed at times like a spoof of B5’s earnest space opera. In “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum,” Sheridan learns that Morden was on the ship on which Anna died; the episode sees the captain pushed to his limits by grief and determination to discover why Morden survived. Three exceptional shows conclude the season. The Narn-Centauri war escalates in “The Long, Twilight Struggle,” Sheridan faces a most unusual ordeal in “Comes the Inquisitor,” and in “The Fall of Night” all hope of peace is shattered as a nerve-racking assassination attempt reveals a startling secret about Ambassador Kosh. —Gary S. Dalkin
Barnes and Noble
Inspired by, but in no way derivative of, the long-running Star Trek, this early-’90s sci-fi series acquired a devoted and sizable fan following, making its issuance on DVD not only welcome but inevitable. Creator J. Michael Straczynski designed his series with a master plan, intending each episode to be part of a unified story that would stretch across five seasons. This narrative cohesiveness gave Babylon 5 a little something extra, making it more aesthetically satisfying than open-ended TV series. Season 2 saw Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) take over for Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare)—changing the chemistry among a staff that includes chief security officer Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian), and resident telepath Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson). Things truly begin to get more complicated in this sophomore run, which includes such memorable episodes as: “The Coming of Shadows,” in which the Centauri emperor comes to deliver a message of peace; “The Geometry of Shadows,” wherein a group of Techno-Mages pass through the station on their way to an unnamed destination; and “In The Shadow of Z’Ha’Dum,” a suspenseful episode where Capt. Sheridan investigates the death of his wife. Consistently fine writing, inventive production design, and above-average acting made Babylon 5 extremely popular with genre fans. It also earned extra points for such gambits as casting Lost in Space’s young Will Robinson, Bill Mumy, as the alien Lennier; Animal House’s Flounder, Stephen Furst, as the alien Vir Cotto; and erstwhile Taxi hack Jeff Conaway as Zack Allan, a member of the Bab-5 security team.
