Jane Killick, Babylon 5: No Surrender, No Retreat
***
My other episode guide ran out and someone else loaned this out from the Internet Archive part way through, leaving me to go it alone and catch up later without even having had various shocking events carelessly spoiled. Turns out that would have been quite a good approach all along. This damned show, I'll have to go on a recovery programme of sitcoms for a year.
2000-01 (collected 2001) / Ecomics / 224 pages / USA/UK
*
The old DC comics were rarely much good, but at least they captured the spirit of the times. I read a couple of these retrospective Wildstorm comics at the time before giving up due to lack of interest, only to pick them up again a couple of decades on for the sake of pointless closure or something. They got worse.
1999 / Ebook / 200 pages / UK
***
A largely episodic victory lap makes reading about individual instalments more worthwhile than doing it in batches, and the interviews have the same reflective finality as the season. I wonder where she filed the specials.
1999-2000 (collected 2015) / Ebook / 123 pages / USA
***
I might get around to at least some of the canonical novels, but these short trips were an easier digestif for now. Not further stories I needed, but neither was the majority of the final season.
Faves: J. Michael Straczynski's 'The Shadow of His Thoughts' & 'Genius Loci.'
2017 / Ebook / 480 pages / USA
***
Rather than going over the production yet again, this companion mainly concerns itself with themes and allusions. Comprehensive coverage of the entire franchise is the main thing this has going for it, but page limit and personal interest mean that coverage can only be fleeting.
