A splendid coupling of two of Babylon 5's best Season 2 episodes that offers viewers tantilizing glimpses into what is yet in store for the valiant crew of Babylon 5. In "Geometry of Shadows" Michael Ansara (better known to "Star Trek" fans as the Klingon Kang) is the technomage who delivers to Ambassador Mollari (Peter Jurasik) an ominious warning about his and the Centauri Republic's future. Meanwhile Commander Ivanova (Claudia Christian) finds herself caught in a bizarre dispute involving two Drazi factions. In "Distant Star", Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) comes to the aid of his old friend and mentor, Captain Maynard (Russ Tamblyn), and his EarthForce survey vessel, heading outward bound towards the mysterious Rim. A mysterious Rim which may be the source of large, almost unseen, dark starships lurking in hyperspace.
Reader Reviews
After using the first two episodes of Season 2 of "Babylon 5" to put the pieces in place (new commander Sheridan, Garibaldi out of his coma, and Delenn transformed), "The Coming of Shadows" really begins with the first episode on this videotape. "The Geometry of Shadows" (Written by J. Michael Straczynski, Aired November 16, 1994) focuses on Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and Ambassador Londo (Pete Jurasik), although in totally separate plot lines. Ivanova gets promoted by Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) and gets to deal with the diplomatic problem of the Drazi. It seems that every five years the Drazi divide into two camps and start fighting; whoever wins the most fights gets to rule the Drazi for the next five years. If you think this sounds rather stupid now, then wait until Ivanova tries to deal with these clowns (apparently it is not easy being green, or purple for that matter).Meanwhile Londo is trying to make contact with Elric (Michael Ansara), a Technomage who stays one step ahead of the ambassador and offers some ominous foreshadowing about the Centauri's future (It also occurs to me that somebody out there must be writing a comparison of Narn and Klingon opera). Clearly what is coming is not going to be pretty.
"Distant Star" (Written by D.C. Fontana, Aired November 23, 1994) has Captain Maynard (Russ "Yes, I am Amber's father" Tamblyn), an old friend of Captain Sheridan visiting the station. But as soon as he leaves disaster strikes and the commander has to mount a rescue mission to do what has never been done before. The comic relief for the episode comes from Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs) coming up with new diets for everybody on B5, whether they want it or not and Sheridan has his first interesting talk with Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan). This is a decent adventure episode, but it is really "The Geometry of Shadows" that is the important episode here and which compels me to round up on the rating.
