Babylon 5: The Long Dark

[Darth Wedgius]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/babylon5/b5s2e05.php

This one always bothered me for a really, really stupid reason. "How did you survive?" "I didn't."

Um... So you died?

Making this number 47,895 on the List of Things Darth Wedgius Took Too Literally. At this point, I'm pretty sure I can't help it.

Other than that, really nice performance from Dwight Schulz, someone I've almost always enjoyed performances from. I wonder where they got the idea that he could play a crazy person? Nice performances from pretty much everyone, really. Really good humor. Special effects... well, at least it wasn't an invisible dinosaur. It didn't ruin it for me.

It's a shame we never got to see a wider variety of the Shadows' servants in the run-up to the war, or after the Shadows left.

[Robovski]

Do all doctors on space stations in science fiction move on their patients to an uncomfortable degree?

Btw the Long Dark joke was pretty good.

[Nevix]

So... this episode might be unimportant overall, but I do think it's still entertaining.

It's good enough that while you could skip it, I recommend watching it.

There are some really good scenes here and there, and the monster has a good concept, with special effects that are good enough.

I just honestly enjoyed this episode, even with the flaws.

This one always bothered me for a really, really stupid reason. "How did you survive?" "I didn't."

Um... So you died?

Metaphorically. His life has been broken ever since due to fear and horror.

[jadenova]

Shocked that Chuck didn't make an A-Team joke.

[Marveryn]

there only a few thing that make this a more eh show down the line. First the thing clearly was a servant of the shadow but we never see it again. So was it the last of its kind. how did it survive in its world I first thought that world was barren, but was there other life before human appear to be its snack? If the shadow had servant and later season it show there were some species working for the shadow why we never see there ships. It would be nice to see some of the species that the shadow had control over prior to there exit out of the series.

[Nealithi]

I liked this episode for two reasons. Addressing the go now but will better tech happen while we are going? Question. Like if we did send a ship to the nearest star and before it got there we developed better engines and get there before the first ship.

And the almost glossed over part from Garibaldi. Asking his subordinate if he served in the war. "No sir I missed it." Garibaldi: "He didn't." Subordinate: "How do you know?" Garibaldi: "I have the same dream."

It really sells the plight of people returning from combat to me. And in some ways I see a relative or two in Amis. People who went to Vietnam and came back having trouble coping.

[Mickey_Rat15]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/babylon5/b5s2e05.php

This one always bothered me for a really, really stupid reason. "How did you survive?" "I didn't."

Um... So you died?

Making this number 47,895 on the List of Things Darth Wedgius Took Too Literally. At this point, I'm pretty sure I can't help it.

Other than that, really nice performance from Dwight Schulz, someone I've almost always enjoyed performances from. I wonder where they got the idea that he could play a crazy person? Nice performances from pretty much everyone, really. Really good humor. Special effects... well, at least it wasn't an invisible dinosaur. It didn't ruin it for me.

It's a shame we never got to see a wider variety of the Shadows' servants in the run-up to the war, or after the Shadows left.

What he meant was that he did not survive through anything he did. The creature just kept him alive to feed on but did not finish him off.

[cdrood]

Shocked that Chuck didn't make an A-Team joke.

I figure the episode did that when he says some in the medical community think he's lying, and not crazy.

[Yukaphile]

It's so good seeing Dwight Schultz here! He's a great actor.

LOL. Best dick joke I've seen in a while!

I was happy SF Debris brought up what would happen to the Markabs. Yeah... bit of retroactive irony there.

Tbh, when I first saw this, I was disappointed that they just shot the creature to death. I get it, it's an ally of the Shadows, and you can shoot them, but... as we later see with Kosh and Ulkesh, a Vorlon is a lot tougher, and you really need to WORK to kill it. I remember thinking what I would say if Chuck ever covered this, and it's this. That this is one of the few times I wish B5 had employed more Trek-style technobabble. Because otherwise, this doesn't make sense.

That said, I thought Schultz had a great character here, and I wish he'd come back. Oh well.

I do think his final rating is fair. Again, if they had followed up on these events later on, it might have more value.

[AllanO]

there only a few thing that make this a more eh show down the line. First the thing clearly was a servant of the shadow but we never see it again. So was it the last of its kind. how did it survive in its world I first thought that world was barren, but was there other life before human appear to be its snack? If the shadow had servant and later season it show there were some species working for the shadow why we never see there ships. It would be nice to see some of the species that the shadow had control over prior to there exit out of the series.

I think many monster stories have a problem of wait what was the monster/ancient evil up to all the time before the story started.

In this case you could imagine that the creature was in some kind of suspended animation (artificial or a natural ability), since the last Great War or whatever and the Earth soldiers disturbed it somehow (set off a proximity alarm? or activated its natural predatory ability?) and so then it attacked them and kept the one guy around long enough to then get the chance to escape on the ship or whatever. Although that would just be speculation, it is what leaps to my mind, I am not sure I ever saw the episode, so this is going on what Chuck went over.