Reviews of Babylon 5 Season Four

Last updated: 5/8/98

I'm taking a different tack on this season. Instead of going through each episode like I did for the other seasons, I'm going to say what I think of Babylon 5 now that it is nearly over (and it has finished filming, the final episodes just won't be shown till late 1998).

Colin's Essay On Babylon 5

Babylon 5 ended with the last episode of Season 4 (as yet unshown). Although TNT contracted with JMS to create a fifth season of Babylon 5, in most respects, this 5th season is an unneeded and anti-climactic appendage to the truely great Babylon 5 episodes in Seasons 1 through 4.

As a true fan, I like watching these 5th season episodes and I have enjoyed them. I'm glad that TNT picked up the show and funded both the made-for-TV movies and the re-edited Pilot program (which really was a big improvement over the original). However, for me, the series is over.

What Happened to Season 4?

JMS is a smart man who knows a thing or two. He knew going into Season 4 that with the recent merger of Time-Warner with Turner Television, the company that had purchased all the previous Babylon 5 episodes, PTEN, was going to disappear. That ment that the odds a 5th season of Babylon 5 being shown were almost non-existant. So, he made the perfectly rational decision to combine everything he was going to do in Season 4 and Season 5 into just one group of 22 episodes.

This is what season 4 became: a very dense, event-filled season in which all the major issues were resolved by the final episode of the season. I think, partly as a result of this and partly for other reasons, none of the episodes of season 4 really worked, at least in the same way as some of the best episodes from previous seasons worked.

The single bigest error that was made was the too rapid ending of the Shadow War. The Shadow war ended in episode 6 of season 4. That left 16 more episodes to resolve Babylon 5's conflict with the evil government of President Clark. The Shadow war was the central event in the Babylon 5 story, as it turned out it was a conflict between the Vorlons and the Shadows with neither side being right or just in the end.

The comparison here with the Lord of the Rings is not that strong but still it is informative. In Tolkien's 3 volume trilogy, the war against Sauron and the effort to destroy the one ring is the central plot in the books. When that effort is ultimately successful, Tolkien does have a last book in which all sorts of loose ends are all tied up. People get married, kings are crowned, Wizards leave for Valinor and finally our heroes, the hobbits return home and quickly put things in their home land of the Shire, to rights.

When JMS ended the Shadow war in episode six, he used the remaining 16 episodes to clean up all sorts of loose ends. Sheridan and Delenn get married, Garibaldi regains his true love, the evil President Clark is defeated and a legitimate government is restored to Earth. I personally think this clean-up should have taken at most 8 episodes, not 16.

Why? Because fundementally there was very little drama in the clean-up. Once the Shadow war was over, the Babylon 5 forces were militarily and technically the strongest forces in the known galaxy. Sheridan had a fleet of White Star ships made from an unbeatable combination of Vorlon and Minbari technology. Considering that Earth couldn't even touch the Minbari ships 10 years earlier in the war, the idea that the White Stars were anything other than slam-dunks against the Earth fleet was laughable.

Not only was the White Star fleet unmatched, Sheridan had powerful allies. Delenn became the unquestioned leader of the Minbari, Londo was declared the future emperor of the Centauri, and G'Karr was held in very high status among the Narn. With the backing of these three, Sheridan had the support of all the other major races in the galaxy. The Earth Alliance of President Clark had not the slightest chance of defeating the Babylon 5 forces and the only real question was whether Sheridan would be forced to destroy all the Earth Alliance ships or would some of them do the rational thing and surrender.

So, for those of us who understood the situation (and lets be fair, JMS did stick to underlying reality of his universe), every battle against the Earth Alliance was a foregone conclusion. It was nice to see how Sheridan avoided destroying all the Earth Alliance forces, but it did not make for high drama.

Why the Shadow War Ending Was A Failure

1. It happened too quickly. The whole of seasons 1, 2, 3 and part of 4 built up to this one episode and suddenly, its over. He should have spent at least two full episode on nothing but the resolution of the war. I expected more use made of the other old ones and Lorien himself. Instead the other old ones make brief cameo appearences, destroy a big Vorlon ship and then leave. Lorien does almost nothing. Meanwhile in the same episode, we have the resolution of Londo, Morden and the Shadow fleet on Centauri Prime. The whole Centauri Prime plot should have been pushed off to another episode (before the final end of the Shadow war).
2. The ending didn't make sense on a logical level. In the episode, Sheridan gets three fleets in the same place at the same time, and then talks to them. Sheridan could have talked to the Vorlons at any time he wanted (at least he could have until he killed Kosh II. Talking to the Shadows would have been harder but still possible. After all, Morden talked to Londo and the Shadows were willing to talk to Sheridan a few months earlier (but then Sheridan destroyed their capital city so you would imagine they don't much like him...). Anyways, why did he need to get all three fleets into the same place at the same time? He wasn't going to fight!
3. The Vorlons changed from being good guys to being just as bad as the Shadows very suddenly in episode 2, season 4. Up until that time the Vorlons were basically a force for good. Sure, they could have done more for our heroes, but if they had solved the problem at the begining, what sort of story would be have had? Then, out of the blue, the Vorlon fleet is revealed to be (a) huge and (b) capable of destroying entire planets. We discover that the Vorlons are going from star to star destroying entire planets and killing millions or billions of other living creatures. If they are so evil, why did they help the Minbari and give them the White Star technology? Why did the Vorlons help create the Alliance against the Shadows? I feel that this change on the part of the Vorlons was not rational and not handled well at all. (Though I understand the foreshadowing JMS had done with Kosh II being really mean to Leyta Alexander).
4. At a basic level, Sheridan failed to make his case. Why should the Shadows and Vorlons leave the younger races alone? Had the younger races demonstrated superior intellect? No. Superior moral reasoning or behavior? No. Were they a credible threat to the old races? Not really. Sheridan's arguent to the Vorlons and Shadows was something like that of Nehru of India trying to convince the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to leave the 3rd world alone in the 1950s. The Russians and the U.S. ignored Nehru and most of the other non-alligned national leaders because they failed to demonstrate any good reasons to leave them alone. The conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. was settled between us, and while a few nations (like Sweden) helped create the path to peace, most of the other nations demonstrated all the moral fiber of stray cats, shifting favor from one side to other based entirely on what they could get out of their current sugar daddy. The smaller races in Babylon 5 were modeled after their real world counter-parts, and as a result they were not shining examples of moral strength or political character.

   If I were the Vorlon or Shadow leader I would have responded: "You are not ready to live without our guidence and intervention." What kind of response could Sheridan have made to that? Realistically, only the Minbari showed even a hint of superior moral character, and they had a lot of blood on their hands from the Earth-Minbari war, in which they were prepared to commit genocide purely on the basis of an tragic accident.

5. Based on the previous actions of the Shadows and the Vorlons, Sheridan's plea should not have worked. It is obvious that the Shadows were not susceptible to moral arguement, if they were, they would not have been doing the things they were doing for the last three years. The same is true for the Vorlons, given their willingness to destroy entire planets in the weeks leading up to the final confrontation. It should have been clear that an appeal to the Vorlon's better nature was pointless as well. The only way Sheridan's moral arguement could have worked is if we were shown that both the Vorlons and the Shadows were internally divided, with some factions argueing for total war while other major factions argueing for the original mission of guidance, as set down by Lorien's race. However, we only saw a hint of Vorlon internal struggle, and not the slightest element of personality on the part of the Shadows.
6. So, for all these reasons, I found the final episode of the Shadow war to be a great disapointment.
7. This how I would have handled the end of the Shadow war: The Vorlons never start their campaign of planet killing. Instead the Vorlon fleet (which is 1/5 the size of the Shadow fleet) is finally brought out of hiding and secretly assembled. The Shadow fleet is forced away from Centauri Prime because their base is blown up. Then a huge battle is fought between the Shadows and their allies vs. everyone else (Babylon 5, Minbari, Centauri) around the Babylon 5 station. The combination of the Great Machine, the Vorlon fleet, and the appearance of the Old Ones (i.e. every card is pulled from the deck) is enough to utterly destroy the Shadow fleet and most of their allies. The Shadows are eliminated, Z'Ha'Dum is destroyed by the Vorlons and then, Lorien convinces the still moral Vorlons that their duty is over and it is time for them to join him "beyond". The Vorlons agree and all their worlds (and sun's) vanish into who knows where...

What about the rest of Season 4

However, the whole plot of Sheridan being captured, tortured, and then rescued was really dull. How many times did we see one of our main characters captured and tortured? Delenn by the Soul Hunter (S1), Sinclair by the rouge Knights (S1), Sheridan by the Streb (S2), Delenn and Sheridan by the Vorlon Inquisitor (S2), Delenn by rouge Night Watch (S3), G'Karr by the Centauri (S4), Girabaldi by the Psi-Corps (S4), did I miss any? At least 8 times with Sheridan and Delenn tied at three kidnappings each. Talk about an over-used plot device. I think the only main characters that avoided this were Ivanova and Londo.

Finally, some huge plot elements were carefully developed, but were then left unused. The biggest of these was the Great Machine. We got a big speach near the end of Season 2 about how Draal was going to use the Great Machine to help Sheridan and Delenn but when all was said and done, it really was only useful for dealing with the Babylon 4 sub-plot. When the Shadow fleet showed up at the end of Season 3, Draal does nothing and amazingly, the Shadow fleet does not attack B5 but instead simply goes away.

The next huge plot left unresolved was Bester. Bester said towards the end of S3 that he was going to help Babylon 5 against the Shadows because they were using his telepaths. And as we later found out, the Shadows hate telepaths while the Vorlons created telepaths as weapons against the Shadows. But Bester does not help against the Shadows, nor does Bester help Sheridan against the President Clark (who, since he is under Shadow influence is presumably a latent enemy of the Psi-Corp).

The less said about the final episode (Deconstruction of Falling Stars) the better. It was a waste of time and offered little in the way of insight into either the characters or the history of Babylon 5.

So, all in all, Season 4 was a disappointment to me. It is not a surprise to me that for the first time in two years, no B5 episodes were nominated for Hugo awards.

Season 5 - Comments

Colin Glassey 5/7/98

The following is a review of the first 4 Babylon 5 episode from Season Four along with an evaluation of the show. Warning! I do have spoilers for the episodes of season 4. Sorry, but I just don't have the time to rewrite this material when the season ends like I have done in the past.

Note: JMS or "Joe" refers to Joe Michael Straczynski. Mr. Straczynski is: the inventor of Babylon 5; the co-executive producer of B5; and the writer of the B5 episodes. He is often on the B5 forum of CompuServe and will generally respond to questions. It is, in fact, the only reason why I maintain my CompuServe account. When Joe leaves CompuServe, I will too (there is loyalty for you)

Point Scale: I have given these a rating from 1 to 10 (well, nothing has a one). 10 is a truly great episode that might even win a Hugo award someday (like the Coming of Shadows and Severed Dreams both did).

Season Four : the first 4 episodes

#1 The Hour of the Wolf (11/96)

Rating: 9

Summary: The double loss of Captain Sheridan and Michael Garibaldi have hit people hard. Delenn takes a ship to Z'Ha'Dum to see if they can find Sheridan, but they find no indication that he is alive and they are nearly caught by a strange "thing" that seems to be able to control people's minds. Meanwhile, Londo leaves Babylon 5 for his homeworld, perhaps forever.

Review: The strongest opening episode Joe has written. The loss of these two characters is shown as it echoes throughout the lives of the people we know. Only Londo is unaffected, but he soon learns things are going very badly for his people. He has a great scene with Morden. I found the scene oddly touching. If you can get past the shock of seeing Morden so badly injured, you find that he is actually vulnerable for the first time in the four years that we have seen him.

#2 What ever happened to Mr. Garibaldi? (11/96)

Rating: 10

Summary: The key event here is that G'Karr moves off B5 and ends up on Centauri Prime. From here on out I suspect that G'Karr and Londo are permanently joined. The other key scene has to do with Sheridan and Lorien. We also learn that Garibaldi is still alive.

Review: The last 10 minutes of this episode contain some of the finest drama that I have had the pleasure of watching. We all have to face death at one time, and here is a scene that brings it all home. The scene works due to a combination of factors: dialog, the actors, the music, the set, the lighting, it all works together. There is another great scene in this episode, a meeting between G'Karr and Londo. Finely acted by the two "old guys".

#3 The Summoning (11/96)

Rating: 8

Summary: Garibaldi is rescued by a group of ships from Babylon 5. Sheridan reappears on B5 accompanied by Lorien. G'Karr survives more torture on Centauri Prime.

Review: Not quite as good an episode as the previous two. JMS is being really brutal on poor G'Karr. Also, the reappearance of Sheridan after the drama of the ending in the previous episode felt a bit "flat". I think we deserve to know a bit more about what happened between Sheridan and Lorien. Also, Sheridan's return to the station was not treated with quite the degree of joy that I would have expected. I think the news would have traveled throughout the station within seconds via com-links and computer terminals. The whole crowd would have been talking about it even before Sheridan arrived at the meeting place. Delenn would have known almost at once. Instead, everything is very calm and businesslike. The ending of this episode though, wow. Really a shock for me.

#4 Falling Towards Apotheosis (11/96)

Rating: 9

Summary: Sheridan wants the Vorlon ambassador to B5 "removed" from the station. The Vorlon won't go. Sheridan is willing to fight to get his way. Meanwhile Londo has manipulated the Emperor to go to the Narn homeworld. He doesn't have much time. The Vorlons are expected to hit Centauri Prime within a week or two.

Review: I'm not sure about the rating for the episode yet. I have only seen it once, just one day ago. I was very impressed, it had me on the edge of my seat. Once again we are in "count down" and this time that stakes are huge and the opposition is even greater than before. I don't have any good ideas for how our heroes are going to get out of this situation. We will have to wait till February of 1997 to find out.

#5 The Long Night (2/97)

Rating: 8

Review: OK, not great.

#6 Into the Fire(2/97)

Rating: ?

Summary: The end of the Shadow War.

Review: A failure. Interesting to watch but ultimately, a failed episode.

Season Four Notes:

Season Four has started out stronger than any previous season of Babylon 5. In previous season Joe has mentioned that he wanted more general episodes, not so "story arc" related as a way to draw the audience in. Well, there is no longer any concession to the uninitiated viewer. The first four episodes started out running and didn't let up.

On technical matters, the jury is still out on the switch to in-house special effects. Things look fine so far, but the big battle is coming up in episode six (Into the Fire). We will know more in February of 1997. The new opening sequence is great. Really well done.

Once again, it looks like Joe is going to write all of the episodes for this season (just like he did for last season). Let's face it, no one but Joe can write this story, it is his story after all. He has a lot more energy than I have that is for sure.

Lastly, there is a chance that this will be the final season of Babylon 5. Yes this was supposed to be a five year story but things change. The big change here is the merger between Time/Warner and Turner Broadcasting. This new, huge media conglomerate may ask Joe to wrap things up this year instead of paying for a whole additional season of episodes. I really hope this doesn't happen, but things could be worse, B5 might have never been filmed in the first place. Or it could have been canceled any time before this season. At least this way the story will be ended by the Joe in a fashion that is not completely silly. And there is good news, there is some chance that "made for TV movies" will be made about B5. And there may even be a new B5 series. Stranger things have happened.

Back to Season Three