Babylon 5 Second Season
Original air dates: November 1994 – November 1995
Executive producers: Douglas Netter, J. Michael Straczynski
It was the dawn of the third age… Lots of changes on B5 from the very first couple of episodes, as we get a new CO in Captain John Sheridan, a new pilot character in Lieutenant Keffer, a new security guard in Zack Allan, a new actor playing Na’Toth, and a new look for Delenn, who now presents as a mix of Minbari and human.
We also get a new Earth Alliance President, and Clark starts out under a cloud of suspicion, as he left the presidential transport carrying Santiago right before it went boom. Sheridan, it turns out, is part of a cabal of EarthForce officers who are concerned about the direction Earth is taking under Clark, including the greater power of Psi Corps. Ivanova, Garibaldi, and Franklin join that coalition quite eagerly. Actions by Psi Corps—including embedding a sleeper agent personality inside Winters, and brutally hunting down what they deem as rogue telepaths—give credence to this concern, as do the actions of the newly formed Ministry of Peace. Among the latter’s actions are creating NightWatch, a citizen watch group that is tasked with reporting behavior that might be detrimental to Earth.
On the wider galactic stage, there is concern about “the coming darkness,” which is eventually revealed to be the Shadows—who are also the “associates” of Morden’s who have been assisting Mollari in his rise to greater prominence in the Centauri Republic. Mollari also gets an apparent new ally in Lord Refa. While the Centauri emperor wishes to make amends with the Narn Regime, he dies before he can make that wish a reality, and Mollari and Refa take advantage of his demise to start a war against the Narn. Between aid from the Shadows and Refa’s use of (incredibly illegal and immoral) mass drivers on the Narn homeworld, the Centauri win that war handily, resulting in Narn being once again conquered and made part of the republic. G’Kar is stripped of his diplomatic post, and is granted asylum on B5, the only thing keeping him safe from arrest by the Centauri.
In addition, we learn about the Rangers, a group of humans and Minbari who are working to fight the Shadows—initially, just by gathering intelligence, though they also start working more in the field, particularly in getting a message from the conquered Narn homeworld to B5. Sinclair is in charge of the Rangers on Minbar, with Sheridan and Delenn sharing command of the Rangers on B5, with Garibaldi as the liaison.
At the end of the season, EarthDome signs a nonaggression pact with the ever-expanding Centauri Republic. Kosh reveals himself to the assembled multitudes in order to rescue Sheridan, and we discover that people see Vorlons as angelic beings from whatever their mythology is. (Tellingly, Mollari sees nothing.) And Keffer’s final act before being destroyed by a Shadow ship is to send out his flight recorder, which is picked up by ISN. Now everyone knows there’s a nasty-looking spider-like ship out there…
Favorite Get the hell out of our galaxy! From “The Geometry of Shadows”: Sheridan threads the needle very nicely when talking to Garibaldi, making it clear that he can have his job back, but also that the captain will understand if he doesn’t want to come back. I particularly like his response to Garibaldi speculating that it would be easier if he resigned and moved on: “The universe doesn’t give you any points for doing things that are easy.”
Favorite Nothing’s the same anymore. From “The Coming of Shadows”: While Sinclair is indeed serving as Earth’s ambassador to Minbar, he is also now in charge of the Rangers, though Earth doesn’t know that…
Favorite Ivanova is God. From “GROPOS”: Ivanova starts the episode talking about how much she enjoys the quiet, which is always a recipe for things to stop being quiet any second. You’d think she’d know better. She also urges Franklin to be good to his father, so he doesn’t get the same regrets we saw her express in “TKO” at her father’s shiva.
Favorite The household god of frustration. From “Hunter, Prey”: Garibaldi thinks he can move easily through downbelow as long as he’s out of uniform and in a fedora because (a) he doesn’t spend much time in downbelow and (b) the people down there usually only see the badge. This is belied by the number of times he’s been in downbelow just in the show to-date, plus he, um, doesn’t actually wear a badge…
Favorite If you value your lives, be somewhere else. From “And Now for a Word”: Torqueman’s interview with Delenn starts out friendly, asking her about Minbar, but it turns ugly quickly as the reporter all but accuses her of taunting the families of the humans who died in the Earth-Minbari War with her transformation into looking human-like. Delenn is very visibly affected by this.
Favorite In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… From “There All the Honor Lies”: Both Mollari and Vir got sent to B5 because it was a shitty useless posting, but now that Mollari has made it less shitty for himself, it becomes untenable for Vir until Mollari steps in. Of course, given how soul-crushing it’s been for Vir, it’s telling that he still views staying as better than going home to his family…
Favorite Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. From “The Coming of Shadows”: Quite a busy episode for G’Kar—he goes from righteous indignation about the emperor’s visit to planning the emperor’s assassination to being frustrated by the emperor’s collapse before he can be killed to being given hope by the emperor’s words to being devastated by Mollari and Refa’s actions to being the spokesperson for a people now at war.
Favorite We live for the one, we die for the one. From “The Coming of Shadows”: We’re introduced to the Rangers. All we know about them thus far is that they’re a small but potent army made up of humans and Minbari, they’re mostly just gathering intelligence at the moment, they’re headquartered on Minbar, and Sinclair is their leader.
Favorite The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. From “Soul Mates”: Psi Corps has been experimenting on their people to make them powerful enough to influence someone else’s thoughts and actions. (This is identified as being an empath in dialogue, which isn’t exactly what the word means, but whatever.)
Favorite Never contradict a technomage when he’s saving your life—again. From “The Geometry of Shadows”: We’re introduced to techno-mages, who are able to manipulate technology to an impressive degree, most of which seems to involve holograms, recordings, and the ability to take over the controlling systems of electronic equipment.
Favorite The Shadowy Vorlons. From “The Coming of Shadows”: The Shadows wipe out Quadrant 14 on Mollari’s behalf. Meanwhile, Kosh has all of two lines of dialogue, but they’re quite effective: The emperor asks how this will all end, and the Vorlon says, “In fire.” So that’s encouraging…
Favorite Looking ahead. From “The Coming of Shadows”: Mollari has one of his prophetic dreams. He sees his hand reaching out from a star. He sees himself being crowned emperor looking the same age as he is now. He sees himself standing on a desert, watching Shadow vessels fly overhead. He sees himself several decades hence, sitting on the throne, and then himself and G’Kar strangling each other, the Narn with one eye missing.
The hand reaching out of a star is a dramatization of something Elric described to him in “The Geometry of Shadows.” His watching the Shadows overhead will come to fruition in “The Hour of the Wolf.” His foreseeing himself dying with his hands around G’Kar’s throat was first mentioned in “Midnight on the Firing Line,” and will be seen in full context in “War Without End, Part II.”
Favorite No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. From “Confessions and Lamentations”: Before Delenn and Lennier go into the Markab isolation vault, Sheridan asks that, if they survive, that Delenn call him “John” moving forward. Afterward, a devastated Delenn collapses crying into Sheridan’s arms saying, “Oh, John.” (That last image is sufficiently powerful that it will be used in the opening credits of season three in a manner that makes it seems like she’s crying about the Shadow War.)
Favorite Welcome aboard. Back for more this year are recurring regulars Macaulay Bruton as Jack, Ardwight Chamberlain as the voice of Kosh, Joshua Cox as Corwin, David L. Crowley as Welch, Maggie Egan as an ISN anchor, and the great Ed Wasser as Morden.
Guests from season one who return and become recurring include Walter Koenig as Bester, Gary McGurk as Clark, and José Rey as Delvientos. Also, former opening credits regulars Michael O’Hare (“The Coming of Shadows”) and Patricia Tallman (“Divided Loyalties”) make return appearances, as does Caitlin Brown in a new role (“There All the Honor Lies”).
New recurring characters include Jeff Conaway as Allan, William Forward as Refa, Robert Foxworth as Hague, and Marie Marshall as Dodger.
Three guests from season one return in different roles in season two: Marshall Teague as Ta’Lon (“All Alone in the Night”), Jim Norton as Lazarenn (“Confessions and Lamentations”), and W. Morgan Sheppard as G’Sten (“The Long, Twilight Struggle”).
There’s some recasting-related stuff: John Schuck takes over the recurring role of Draal from Louis Turrene in “The Long, Twilight Struggle.” Beth Toussaint debuts the role of Anna Sheridan in “Revelations” (and also in a picture in “In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”), but that role will be taken over by Melissa Gilbert when she next appears.
Some very strong one-off guests, including Ian Abercrombie as Correlimurzon (“Acts of Sacrifice”), Wayne Alexander as Sebastian (“Comes the Inquisitor”), the great Michael Ansara as Elric (“The Geometry of Shadows”), the great Adrienne Barbeau as Carter (“A Spider in the Web”), the great Turhan Bey as the Centauri emperor (“The Coming of Shadows”), the great Jane Carr as Timov (“Soul Mates”), Wanda De Jesus as Sarah (“Hunter, Prey”), Richard Grove as Kalain (“Points of Departure”), Alex Hyde-White as Macabee (“In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”), Jack Kehler as Chase (“Comes the Inquisitor”), Beverly Leech as Liz (“Revelations”), Richard Moll as Max (“Hunter, Prey”), Lois Nettleton as Daggair (“Soul Mates”), the great Dwight Schultz as Amis (“The Long Dark”), James Shigeta as Isogi (“A Spider in the Web”), Tony Steedman as Jacobs (“Hunter, Prey”), Keith Szarabajka as Stoner (“Soul Mates”), the great Russ Tamblyn as Maynard (“A Distant Star”), the great Malachi Throne as the Centauri prime minister (“The Coming of Shadows”), the great Jessica Walter criminally underused as Voudreau (“A Spider in the Web”), Paul Williams as Taq (“Acts of Sacrifice”), the great Paul Winfield as General Franklin (“GROPOS”), and Kim Zimmer’s tour de force appearance as Torqueman (“And Now for a Word”).
We’ve got a few Robert Knepper moments: the great Carmen Argenziano in “Knives,” the great Roy Dotrice in “The Fall of Night,” and Carel Struycken in “Soul Mates.”
But the most impressive guests are the powerfully voiced ones who showed their versatility in playing two different roles this season: Robin Sachs, who played Hedronn in “Points of Departure” and “All Alone in the Night” and Na’Kal in “The Fall of Night,” and John Vickery, who returned as Neroon in “All Alone in the Night” and also played Welles in “The Fall of Night.”
Favorite Trivial matters. The one for “There All the Honor Lies” because of the absolutely ridiculous teddy bear story that crossed over into Space Cases.
Favorite The echoes of all of our conversations. From “A Distant Star”:
“You think that’s good, wait till dessert.”
“Now wait a minute, I didn’t authorize dessert.”
“No? Then you can’t have any.”
“What is it?”
“Doesn’t matter—you’re not getting any.”
“No no no, let’s not be hasty.”
“No no no no no, too late.”
—Garibaldi torturing Franklin over bagna càuda.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I’m out of it for a few days, and the whole place goes to hell.” This season is a fascinating combination of whirlwind changes to the status quo, yet also of a seemingly glacial pace when it comes to parceling out revelations. Some of this is eventually revealed to be deliberate: Delenn, Lennier, and Kosh avoid giving away too much because they need the Shadows to think that their return remains a secret until they are better prepared.
In general, though, the main thing this season accomplishes is to take things we saw in season one and deepening and/or expanding them, and often making them way more interesting.
It starts, alas, with the person billed first in the opening credits. With all due respect to the memory of Michael O’Hare—who was a friendly acquaintance of your humble rewatcher—Bruce Boxleitner is definitely trading up. His charisma and relaxed charm works so much better in the commanding officer role. In particular, Sheridan is more compelling in multiple modes, whether it’s as the friendly leader, the talented former ship commander, the brilliant strategist, the diplomat, the clandestine leader, and so on.
Delenn goes through some brutal changes, as her transformation has many unexpected consequences, from humorous (her issues with hair care after being hairless for her entire life) to brutal (being ostracized by both humans and Minbari, being kicked out of the Grey Council). It seems that, just when she needs to be at her strongest to fight the Shadows, she’s at her weakest, with much less support from her own people.
As ever, the real stars of the show are Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas. After spending most of the first season as semi-humorous antagonists—Mollari as the drunken ambassador of a failing empire, G’Kar as the mustache-twirling villain trying to improve the Narn’s standing—both take a turn for the tragic.
Mollari watches as his deal with the devil goes about as well as those things usually go. While the benefits seem nifty and keen at first—including enabling him to divorce two of his three wives, which he views as addition by subtraction—he soon discovers the awfulness of what he’s done, both large-scale (he watches in horror as mass drivers all but destroy the Narn homeworld) and small-scale (Refa manipulating events so that Mollari is forced to kill his best friend).
G’Kar, meanwhile, goes on the worst kind of roller coaster: anger at the Centauri’s continued aggression, joy at learning that the emperor wishes to improve relations, anger at the emperor’s death meaning greater Centauri aggression, joy at the promise of assistance from Sheridan and Delenn, anger at discovering that their help is far less than expected and will not include official assistance from their respective governments, joy at the possibility of destroying a major Centauri supply line, despair at that campaign failing and the homeworld falling, righteous indignation at being stripped of his diplomatic post, and hope as he tries to rally the Narn to his cause.
Throughout all this, Jurasik and Katsulas simply nail every single emotional beat, every character nuance, every bit of drama, pathos, and tragedy. Both try so desperately to do what is right for their people, and both fail rather spectacularly—though, amusingly, in both cases it’s entirely the fault of Mollari’s hubris.
As usual, the stuff with the humans is the least interesting part of the season. But aside from Sheridan, who as a new character needs to be introduced and fleshed out, there’s not much by way of character development for any of the humans. We meet Franklin’s father, which is fine—aided by an actor of Paul Winfield’s calibre playing the part—and Ivanova is revealed to be a latent telepath, but that’s about it for the non-Sheridan humans. Far too many of their storylines don’t have anywhere near the interest as the ones for the non-humans, resorting to simple stuff like alien abductions, energy-being possessions, war-movie clichés, creepy romances, bitching about commerce, and so on. Some of this works—for example, I liked Sheridan (along with a reluctant Ivanova) committing civil disobedience to protest being charged rent for accommodations on a post he was assigned to, and pretty much any story that directly related to Earth’s creeping fascism was well done—but too much of it just doesn’t work as well. Tellingly, the best human-centric story was “And Now for a Word,” a brilliant special report on B5 that was actually more interesting for its revelations about the non-humans than it was the humans.
Still, as complaints go that, and the parsimonious doling out of revelations, are both extremely minor. This is a much more powerful set of episodes than the first season, building nicely on what came before, and, more to the point, making what came before more interesting in retrospect. And it gives us three of the strongest hours of television you’re likely to see in “The Coming of Shadows,” “The Long, Twilight Struggle,” and the aforementioned “And Now for a Word.”
Next week: “Matters of Honor.”
