Have to say that I wasn’t that impressed by this episode…except for the last few minutes.
Both Jeff and I recognized Barclay from DS9 almost right away. It was interesting to get a deeper look into Garibaldi’s history through his conversation with Amis about the war.
Mariah didn’t strike me as all that interesting, except for the brief encounter she had with G’Kar, when touching his hand seemed to spark that weird nightmare flashback in Mariah.
Either this is coincidence (and bad writing, IMHO), or something about G’Kar stirred that memory. From the scene at the end of the episode, I’m suspecting the latter (don’t tell me).
I don’t trust Mariah. For one thing, she didn’t seem all that upset about her dead husband, at least past the initial reaction. She also didn’t come out with all the info until later on, like the fact that she thought there was something in the lifetube with her, and that it had been using her to stay alive until it could find more food.
As you know by now, I’m not a huge fan of the doctor, and this episode didn’t really change my mind.
For one thing, it seems enormously tacky and unprofessional and unrealistic for him to go all swoony over Mariah considering she just lost her husband AND she’s a patient.
The monster itself was interesting, but even more so when we see G’Kar looking at a page in an ancient-looking book depicting the monster:
Hm.
Plus we find out that the ship’s heading had been changed to head toward the Rim, toward the place where G’Kar said an ancient enemy was gathering its forces. I think Mariah is not as innocent as she seems. I think she was in collusion with that monster-thing somehow, and I predict we haven’t seen the last of her. Don’t tell me!
G’kar’s mood seems to have darkened considerably since that episode where he was singing as he cooked his dinner. He tells Mariah, “Take my advice and go back to the time you came from. The future isn’t what it used to be.”
What is G’Kar’s part in all this? Don’t tell me. I suspect I’m going to find out soon.
Next episode: Spider In The Web.
[For those who comment below: As the title of my blog indicates, I'm watching B5 for the very first time so PLEASE refrain from posting plot/character spoilers/hints about upcoming episodes, or including links to pages with spoilers (unless you warn readers that they contain spoilers). More info about spoilers here. Thanks so much! - Debbie]
10 comments ↓
True, the episode as a whole was weaker than average (though it did have a few good scenes).
On rewatching this episode, I noticed that Garabaldi’s ‘bedside manner’ was better than Franklin’s. Garabaldi knew some of what happened, knew Amis was having war-time induced nightmares, and could relate to him better. I don’t think Franklin would have shown that kind of compassion.
Have you been keeping track of which episodes you liked and didn’t like and looked up who wrote them (i.e. saw if they were written by JMS or not)? It can be revealing.
On shows like Star Trek where you have so MANY different writers this gets sort of pointless - but on B5 you have a single writer responsible for more episodes per year than any other series. If memory serves he wrote every single episode in season 3, something never done before (or since).
The Long Dark has Scott Frost as the writer, not JMS. The previous episode (A Distant Star) was D.C. Fontana. The first three in season two (Points of Departure, Revelations, and The Geometry of Shadows) were all JMS.
Now granted, this show is all about change, and all characters have facets of their personality that are not immediately revealed. New facets WILL pop up from time to time. But if a character seems “off” in a particular episode it is sometimes worth checking to see if this was written by JMS or not. JMS, knowing the full 5-year plot, really knows who the characters are, what their backgrounds are and where they are headed. The other writers - not so much. And while JMS always had a chance to insist on changes (or even fix it himself) if the error was REALLY bad, very often time constraints prevented him from going after the “somewhat off” problems in characterization.
Of course, JMS had off days now and then and the other writers he used would come up with brilliant scripts/scenes from time to time. Nothing like this is perfectly consistent. But check in general - of the shows you liked the most and the shows you liked the least, what percent were written by JMS?
^Well, I’ve at least track of the little speeches she’s quoted, by Londo, Deathwalker, G’Kar, Delenn, the Grey Council member on Minbar, and of course “Ivanova is God”, they were all written by jms (while Born to be Purple and Deathwalker were non-jms scripts, these monologues were inserted into them by jms).
For one thing, it seems enormously tacky and unprofessional and unrealistic for him to go all swoony over Mariah considering she just lost her husband AND she’s a patient.
Unprofessional, yes. Tacky? Perhaps. Unrealistic, I’m not so sure, given the number of doctors who indulge in such conduct.
Franklin, although like many doctor characters in space-based SF is set up as the conscience of the cast, isn’t a perfect character by any means.
w/ who the writer is:
Somewhere along the line in the lurker’s guide, JMS explained that he gave an episode to someone else to write, they got sole credit for it, regardless of what he wrote, rewrote or got as feedback from the set. That way, he said, is that writter will get the full royalty for that episode.
On this re-watching, I have also been following the directors. Janet Greek and Jim Johnston, as directors, seem to be leading in episodes I’m enjoying in this re-watching/watching.
Yeah “The Long Dark” isn’t the best episode really. I’d say it stacks up pretty well against most season 1 episodes but not so much against the better quality of season 2.
G’Kar at this point has sort of seen the face of darkness. He’s realized to some extent that there’s this great dark threat out there, but he’s been mostly ignored. So yeah, his character’s gotten a lot less whimsical. There are still some nice humorous moments from him though.
>>” If memory serves he wrote every single episode in season 3, something never done before (or since).”
He wrote 91 out of the 110 episodes, among those all episodes starting from episode 18 in season 2 (”Confessions and Lamentations”) to the end of the series, safe for one, “The Day of the Dead” which was written by Neil Gaiman, in season 5.
Both Jeff and I recognized Barclay from DS9 almost right away.
I’m sure Barclay was in TNG first, but more importantly, Dwight Schultz plays Murdoch in the A-Team. (Please tell me you’ve seen the A-Team?
In other news, I can only second the comments about the writers. There aren’t many episodes that JMS himself screwed up.
Mili: Yes, I’ve seen the A-Team. Thanks for the reminder about where else I’ve seen Barclay.
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