In the beginning there was Babylon 5 the gathering. Which gave rise to Babylon 5 the show. Which I would diligently watch on the same day with Star Trek the Next Generation and sometimes Deep Space 9. The Fox channel which this show was syndicated on originally, had a formula: B to the 5th, DS to the 9th, T sub NG. Which was the order in which they gave us our Syndicated Saturday nights. And to which I was glued to the television from 5 o'clock in the afternoon to about 8 o'clock at night.
But then something happened. The syndication for Babylon 5 fell apart and it had to be absorbed into the TNT channel by Turner. Which gave the show a slight production value boost, and it was during this time we got a fifth season which finished up the Sheri-Delenn story that we saw developing at the end of season four. We knew that there was a telepath war coming up, although most of us didn't really like Byron too much, and that is primarily what was dealt with in season five. Season five also gracefully shut down the show as it resolved some of the other threads of the story, including the vision which was shared between Londo and G'Kar of them choking each other.
And so this movie must have occurred sometime during the fourth season... but there was no Marcus Cole and he should have been there, of course this was during the blockade of Babylon 5 by earth, but I am not quite sure where this happened in the timeline of the shadow war.
I was actually pleased when this movie was made because they brought back the Susan Ivanova character. She did have a cameo in the first TNT movie, "In the Beginning", but here she has a major part as her former rank as commander.
They even bring back a character "Deuce" played by the great character actor William Sanderson, from the first season episode "Grail".
Now there have been all kinds of Babylon five episodes, comedy episodes, mythos episodes which, like the X-Files and it's Purity Control/Alien Bounty Hunter plot line, told the story of the developing shadow wars, Lando Mollari's rise to power, and the birth of "Citizen G'Kar"- Comedy episodes, art episodes, even parody episodes. But there never had been an episode of freaky, sheer, terror like this.
And speaking of Londo and G'Kar, both of these characters were absent from this. We didn't even see Dr. Franklin until halfway through the movie and he shows up in a fight scene.
But the thing about this movie is that although there is all this standard Babylon 5 going on around us, including space battles with raiders, they find some thing unlike anything they have ever seen on the way back to the station.
It is this thing that they find, that sits parked over by the jump gate, while normal Babylon 5 procedures and stories are continuing... but while this thing sits out in space and they try to figure out what it is, things just start getting weirder and weirder on the station. People start acting crazy, even "Deuce" who is a survivor. And most importantly, Lyta. And the common thread is a common dream.
Other reviewers have suggested that this is very Lovecraft-ian, and they are correct. It is almost like the coming of the white worm.
Others have suggested that this would have worked better as a single episode but I don't agree: because the elements of horror that are interjected into this required more time to be developed into the background story. And that would not have worked with a standard 40 minute episode.
I always enjoy watching this "around midnight".