Babylon 5 Review – “Point Of No Return” (Season 3)

Now that I’ve got all five seasons, I can risk the
addiction of opening seasons three and four.

Cast

Bruce
Boxleitner
as John Sheridan.

Claudia
Christian
as Susan Ivanova.

Jerry Doyle as
Michael Garibaldi.

Richard Biggs as
Stephen Franklin.

Andrea
Thompson
as Talia Winters.

Mira
Furlan
as
Delenn.

Bill
Mumy
as
Lennier.

Peter Jurasik as
Londo Mollari.

Stephen Furst as
Vir.

Andreas
Katsulas
as G’Kar.

Jeff
Conaway
as
Zack Allen.

Jason
Carter
as
Marcus Cole.

Written by J. Michael Straczynski. (Well, at least
21 of the 22 are.
I missed the writing credits on that last one, but
JMS is a pretty
safe bet.)

Directed by various individuals. Full information is
available from
this
IMDB page
.

Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate

This, the third season, originally aired in 1996.

Synopsis

In this year, the Shadow War begins in full swing,
with the
introduction of Marcus, a ranger.

High Point

The War Without End has a little bit of
everything this
series was so good at, particularly the deeply
intertwined
continuity.

Low Point

The probe from A Day In The Strife. It just
wasn’t the
mystery that it was obviously intended to be, with a
cheap out. Of
course, I find it difficult to believe this show
would have something
meanlingless this far along, so I suspect that it’ll
have some impact
in a later season that I haven’t seen yet, in which
case I might
change my mind.

The Review

Once again, originality credit is due for
writing like this.
Every episode moves the larger story along, but the
majority of them
also contain completely contained storylines. That’s
something that I
don’t remember seeing anywhere else at this level of
integration.
Either every episode is disconnected, as in most
sitcoms, or they are
so tightly packed together than an individual episode
doesn’t have a
complete story within it, or the continuing and
contained storylines
are so independent that there’s no need to put them
in the same
episode. I give it 6 out of 6.

The effects show signs of budget
limitations. In cases with
live action and special effects mixed together, the
picture quality
drastically reduces enough to act as an indication
that effects are
coming, which takes away from some of Draal’s
appearances. I give it
4 out of 6.

The story is the driving force of the show
without question.
The level of interconnection, as well as the
naturally interesting
nature of the story itself makes for a very rewarding
show for
long-time viewers or DVD owners. I give it 6 out of
6.

The acting is generally good. Most actors
are convincing,
and some (such as Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas
in particular)
are excellent. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is very effective.
In fact, that’s
why I waited so long to write this review; I
remembered how addictive
the first two seasons were, so I left the third and
fourth seasons
sealed until I knew I’d have all five and not have to
wait for
resolutions. This one was more effective than the
first two seasons.
I give it 6 out of 6.

The production gives the impression of being
the result of
giving very talented people half of their requested
budgets. The job
gets done, with no ugly moments, but with few great
moments. I give
it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s an excellent series. I’m
sorry I missed it the
first time around, but I’m very glad that it made it
to DVD. I give
it 6 out of 6.

In total, Babylon 5: Point Of No Return
receives 38 out of 42.

4 replies on “Babylon 5 Review – “Point Of No Return” (Season 3)”

  1. low point/High point…
    the Low point of season 3 has to be
    "Gey Seventeen is Missing". JMS has even apologized for parts of it (sort of).
    From http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/063.html :

    "I think it’s about 3/4ths of a good episode. Where it falls down, for me, is
    the Zarg…I just have this constant desire to go to everyone’s house and
    personally apologize…."

    or maybe Exogenesis, I never really liked that episode too much either.

    <br>
    Hight point for me was the "Messages from Earth"/"Point of No
    Return"/"Severed Dreams" 3 episode arc, with high points also for "And the
    Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" and "Z’ha’dum" What a great way to end the
    season! I didn’t watch the show on first run, But man that had to have been
    quite the cliffhanger (better than the "Best of Both Worlds" Fire!… cliffhanger
    in ST:TNG).

    • Re: low point/High point…

      the Low point of season 3 has to be
      “Grey Seventeen is
      Missing”.

      The defeat of the Zarg is the main problem I have with it.
      The appearance was displeasing, but that struck me as more
      of a budget problem than a design problem. Still, that’s
      just a tool to keep Garibaldi occupied so that he’s less
      involved in the main plot, which he would normally be very
      involved in. The probe, on the other hand, was the
      driving force of that episode, so it urks me more.

  2. Ah the luck
    Ah fiziko you lucky puck, just imagine unseen seasons of Babylon 5 :)

    And all the rest of us have to look forward to is a (presumably) a movie – oh well.

  3. Well….
    I considered Grey 17 is Missing and Exogenesis to be the low points in what is probably one of the best television seasons ever. Of course, it’s hard to have just one high point in this season. War Without End, the mid-season trilogy that had B5 break away from earth, the final three episodes that ends with a better cliffhanger than the first season finale. Then there were little stand alone episodes that just worked so well like “Sic Transit Vir”, “Convictions”, “Passing through Gesthemane” and “Interludes and Examinations”. Just so much happens in this season that I’m still amazed that JMS wrote the whole darn thing and can forgive him for 2 less than stellar episodes.

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