The Fall of Night

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

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Before I launch into any actual review, I must first say...this was the VERY FIRST B5 episode I ever saw!
That's right. If you read the "About Me" page on this site, you know that I first came in about halfway through and had been seeing the episodes out of order. But until today, I wasn't sure exactly WHEN I had come in. Now I know. Up until this point, the episodes had been "new" to me, all the first and almost all the second seasons. From now on, until the beginning of the FIFTH season, I will be writing about things that are familiar to me.
Not that you care about any of that, of course. On to our review!
This was a great episode. It wasn't as good as, say, "The Coming of Shadows", "The Long, Twilight Struggle", "Severed Dreams", or "The Hour of the Wolf" to name just a few, but it was very good. It had, as all B5 episodes worth their salt do, different plots going on at once. Let's tackle the main one first:
The main plot involved the war between the Narn and the Centauri spreading into other people's territories; threatening other races. JUST as G'Kar tried to warn people that it would in yesterday's episode. The Pak'ma'ra and the Drazi have both been invaded; who will be next? Sheridan is growing increasingly worried that soon the greedy Centauri Republic will turn its eye to Earth itself, so he has sent an urgent report to Earthdome, in hopes that it will get a response.
It does, but not the way he wanted...
His report brings in too very officious characters to the station: Mr. Lantze, of the Ministry of Peace, and Mr. Welles, head of Nightwatch. Mr. Lantze was good at being sinister in a grandfatherly, kindly sort of way, but real acting kudos must go to John Vickery--who also played NEROON!--for his portrayal of Mr. Welles. First of all, I must say that he LOOKS better as a Human. Yes, I know that sounds superficial, but hey, I watch PEOPLE as much as plotlines on this thing. With thick, glossy black hair instead of a bald head, and a trim, tailored ordinary suit instead of that heavy, bulky, HUGE-shouldered Minbari Warrior Caste thing, he looks SO much thinner, smaller, and younger. But enough about that, let's talk about ACTING. John Vickery does a great evil--whether it's an up-front, arrogant, in-your-face, type like Neroon, or a slick-talking, oily, "friendly" slime-bucket like Mr. Welles. A great villian who honestly put chills down my spine and who I wouldn't mind seeing again.
And was it just me, or did anyone else watching this keep expecting him to ask someone: "What do you want?"
His wide but insincere smiles, and cold, staring blue eyes, REALLY creeped me out, especially during that scene with Zack Allen and the other Nightwatch people. That scene was so CREEPY! We learn more about exactly HOW bad EarthGov is really becoming. They consider the slightest negative comment, just in PASSING, to be a sign of treason! When Zack was asked to "corroborate" the "report" about the possible "sedition" of some harmless old shopkeeper on the Zocalo, (which of course was NOT to get the information so much as it was to see if he was loyal to Nightwatch) I kept hoping he would say "No", he DIDN'T see it. But he says yes...
Is this really 2259, or perhaps "1984"...?
Back to interstellar affairs, a Narn heavy cruiser--the ONLY one left!--comes to B5 and begs for asylum. Sheridan grants it, but soon realises what a dangerous decision that was as a Centauri warship comes through the jumpgate and proceeds to start firing at EVERYTHING--including B5 itself!
Meanwhile, inter-racial ALLIANCES are being made on a much smaller scale. In a DARLING scene at the beginning of the episode, we see Lennier and Vir, the two put-upon, unappreciated little sidekicks, meeting just to commiserate about how their respective ambassadors "NEVER listen to us!" It was hilarious, and yet poignant at the same time--and the line at the end--"Same time tomorrow?"--made it perfect. In the middle of chaos and darkness, it never hurts to have friends (even if only for a little while..). (This, by the way, was the very first SCENE of B5 I ever saw.)
Back to the chaos and darkness--the Centauri succeed in blowing off a LARGE chunk of B5 (you know those two huge spike things that stick off the very front of the station? One of those.) and Starfuries are sent out to fight them, and escort the Narn ship. Now involved whether they want to be or not, B5 is returning fire. They, without meaning to, completely blow up the Centauri ship.
And Earth has entered the war...
The Narn ship, while damaged, has enough power to make it into the jumpgate, and Zeta squadron is escorting through hyperspace to the next gate so it won't be followed. All except for Warren Keffer--who picks up readings on his instruments that match those another Starfury pilot got when HE encountered the "ghost" in hyperspace, so he turns around and goes off his own way to investigate. He finds, sure enough, a Shadow ship, and sure enough, it BLOWS HIM AWAY.
But NOT before he manages to both attach a homing beacon to the ship...AND dump his ship's logs, which contain PICTURES, actual PICTURES, of a Shadow ship, for everyone to see.
Later in the episode, Delenn says that as long as the Shadows think the other races are unaware of them, they will be safe to build up their forces a while longer.
That kinda becomes a moot point at the end of the episode, when Keffer's logs are BROADCAST on ISN!
And Lt. Warren Keffer, Mr. BORING hot-shot pilot pretty boy, is DEAD. Good riddance. I'm sorry, but I just did not like the character. Pass the Cheesy-spoo.
Back to the main plotline--after blowing away the Centauri warship, Mr. Lantze and Mr. Welles demand that Sheridan, of all things, APOLOGISE to the Centauri! Seems that Earth wants a TREATY with them. All a treaty will do is make it so that the Centauri are free to move in on the other races with impunity, but all Earthdome cares is that THEY are "safe". Sheridan has to apologise in the garden, as it's more public, but he can word it any way he likes. "As with everything else," Mr. Welles smarms as only he can, "it's the thought that counts."
Herein follows one of the best "speeches" of B5 history, which I will now attempt to quote from memory. Bear with me if I mess parts of it up:
Sheridan (standing in front of mirror, practicing): "I apologise. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an UNPROVOKED attack. I'm sorry your pilots were STUPID enough to fire on a neutral station containing a quarter of a million civillians including your OWN people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all STRAIGHT TO HELL!"
(straightens collar, smiles): "As with everything else--it's the thought that counts."
While everyone else is gathered together in the garden (including G'Kar, who, as he is no longer an Ambassador, shouldn't be there, hiding behind a tree), and starting to worry about what's keeping Sheridan, the good captain is riding the core shuttle to get there. (This GORGEOUS shot of the shuttle flying high through the middle of a hollow world is ANOTHER one of the things that impressed me on my first ever viewing of B5 and made me decide to give it another chance). Several other passengers get on at the same time, including a young Centauri guy who is seen briefly talking (conspiring?) with another young Centauri guy, and they are both wearing some kind of strange badge.
Hmmn...
Remember in that Season One episode where a bomb went off right near the shuttle entrance, and RIGHT before it went off, we saw this young Centauri guy behind Ivanova and Garibaldi, and because CENTAURI ducats were tied to the case later on, I thought that maybe the guy on the shuttle had been the one to plant the bomb? (The episode is called "Survivors", read my review of it if you don't believe that I really said that at the time!) WELL...this episode proves that I was RIGHT to be keeping such a close eye on the background people all this time! THIS young Centauri dude DOES plant a bomb--on the seat of the shuttle!
Sheridan realises what it is and has only enough time to do one thing--he JUMPS!
As if that wasn't dramatic enough, guess who saves him?
KOSH. And he finally comes OUT OF HIS ENCOUNTER SUIT!
When he does, everyone sees different things. Lennier sees Valeria, G'Kar sees G'Lan, the Drazi Ambassador sees Droshalla. As for Londo...he sees...
Nothing.
Shudder...
Now, here we have to pause and ask, does the fact that Londo saw NOTHING mean that he is too far gone into his own darkness to see a "being of light"? Or is it something a bit less sinister, such as, the Centauri were never..."guided" by the Vorlons? We may never know...
Anyway, Kosh saves Sheridan, and when he does, Sheridan sees a HUMAN face on the "being of light"--with wings--an angel! That's what Kosh meant when he said that if he revealed himself, EVERYONE would recognise him. It seems that the Vorlons either "guided", as Delenn said, or "manipulated and programmed" as Sheridan said (and I like HIS wording better), many different races millions of years ago when they were in their developmental stages. So that we would be sure to react the correct way when we saw a Vorlon.
Not many shows could make ANGELS seem somehow menacing...but B5 manages it!
The season ends during the holiday season of 2259, and Ivanova gets to say the ending monologue as she lights her Hannukah candles. She speaks about how the Babylon project, while it FAILED in its mission to keep the peace, might just now be what they need for VICTORY (her opening monologue for the third-season uses almost exactly the same words.)
And all over the station, people crowd around to watch viewscreens as ISN reveals a Shadow ship to the PUBLIC for the first time, from the now-deceased Keffer's logs.
A very agressive Londo is shown screaming and shaking his fists in the council chamber as the Centauri take more and more territory from more and more non-aligned races--is his anger genuinely at the other Ambassadors, or at HIMSELF...?
A confused and frightened little old shopkeeper is dragged away by Nightwatch for "sedition" and his shop closed down, as Zack Allen looks down in shame at the black armband he's wearing...
The Shadows have come, and everyone is approaching the point of no return.
And so 2260 begins...

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