The Long Dark (''Babylon 5'')

"The Long Dark" is the fifth episode in the second season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. It originally aired on November 30, 1994, in the United States. The DVD brochure included with season two teases the episode by saying "A drifting, century-old spacecraft carries a crewperson (Anne-Marie Johnson) in hybernetic sleep. And something else: a phantom-like spaceling that a self-styled prophet (Dwight Schultz) calls a Soldier of Darkness."^[1]

Synopsis

Babylon 5 discovers a century-old human spacecraft, the Copernicus nearing the station and brings it aboard. Within are two cryonic chambers, one with a dead man, his face in shock, and the other with a still-living woman. She is rushed to medlab to be revived, and Dr. Franklin learns she is Mariah Cirrus, the dead man her husband, and they had been part of a commercial space exploration opportunity, with the Copernicus designed to hone in on any signal. Dr. Franklin finds Mariah's husband's body to be missing all its organs, and Ivanova cannot find any trace of malfunction on the capsule. Dr. Franklin helps Mariah cope with the new world she is in, and becomes closer to her.

Meanwhile, a Lurker, Amis, becomes panicked when the Copernicus nears and Garibaldi is forced to lock him up for making a disturbance. He finds Amis is actually one of the Earth Alliance's ground forced that had held a listening post during the Earth-Minbari war, and he was the only survivor of this base after an apparent Minbari attack. Amis claims that it was not Minbari, but something else that slaughter his comrades and kept him alive to feed on, until he was ultimately rescued, and now that entity is on the station. Relaying this story to Sheridan and Ivanova, Ivanova affirms that the Copernicus had pasted near the listening post planet. When an alien is found dead and its organs absent, they agree that they are dealing with the same entity which likely boarded the Copernicus, fed off Mariah's husband, and then had begun feeding on Mariah before the ship passed near Babylon 5.

Amis is able to sense the being's presence and goes off after it before Garibaldi can stop him. Garibaldi enlists Mariah's help, as she has had nightmares about the creature and can also sense it. Garibaldi and security teams are able to isolate the creature and stop it before it consumes Amis, ultimately killing it. Amis thanks Garibaldi for his help, and while Dr. Franklin offers Mariah living space on Babylon 5, she decides she wants to return to Earth for some time. Ivanova with further review of the records discovers confirming evidence the creature had come aboard the Copernicus near the listening post, and that it had altered the ship's course within knowing about its homing programming - as it otherwise would have been heading for Z'ha'dum.

Cast

Arc significance

• Z'ha'dum is mentioned as being a possible destination for the creature that attacked the station. A stylized depiction of the creature is also shown to be in the Book of G'Quan at the end of the episode.
• Jumpgate technology was given to humans by the Centauri, in exchange for trade.
• Garibaldi was a ground-pounder "Gropo" (see episode "Gropos") during the war.

Series themes

One of the major themes in Babylon 5 is the significance of dreams and visions. In this episode, several characters experience significant dreams. Amis dreams about the mission where his men were killed by the creature. Garibaldi reveals that he still has dreams about his time in the Earth-Minbari War. Mariah Cirrus has a dream about the creature aboard the ship.

Historical references

• The Lord's Prayer - Amis tries to recite the Lord's Prayer, a significant prayer in Christianity, but fails to remember all of the words
• Hail Mary - Amis also tries to recite a Hail Mary, a type of intercessional prayer
• Matthew 7:17 - Amis paraphrases this verse, which reads "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit."
• Air and Space Museum - Ivanova remarks that she first saw a cryogenic chamber in the Air and Space Museum, but does not specify which one
• Sheridan references an "old Earth" saying that "where there's smoke, there's fire."
• The exploration vessel the Copernicus is possibly named after Nicolaus Copernicus, the famous Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center.

External links

• The Long Dark at The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
• Quotes from The Long Dark at Wikiquote

References