Babylon 5 (TV Series) Walkabout (1996) User Reviews

A different opinion of Walkabout...

[WildStallion69247 · 8/10 · 6 February 2009]

I realize it's been a few years since B5 has been on the air, but Plankton's comment lacked so much intelligence that I had to register just so I could comment. "Walkabout" was an excellent episode, in which the Doctor's character grew beyond that of a self-centered addict into someone more real, if also more jaded. Admittedly he's never been my favorite character, but I thought more of him after he stopped whining about how hard things were for him & did something about it.

Erica Gimpel's guest appearance also deserves some credit, both for her acting and her voice as a singer. If anyone knows where I can buy or download the two songs she did for that episode, please let me know.

Well done and Erica Gimpel is an amazing singer

[nihihine · 8/10 · 10 September 2022]

I love Babylon 5 - every time I start watching it I think "What? Why do I like this again? It looks so lame" and then 3 episodes in I'm bingeing it and won't watch anything else for the next few months until I'm done.

B5 throws out a number of surprising episodes, this is one of them. Steve's stim problem: he and the writers do a remarkable job of making him increasingly stubborn, self righteous and unlikeable as he descends into addiction and takes on the traits that addiction causes. Unfortunately the result is that many get irritated at the whole subplot without recognising it's because they do such a good job of it.

Luckily during unlikeable Steve era, we get this episode. Erica Gimpel's voice is as smooth as silk with a beautiful timbre. RANT: I don't understand why she only has one album out. She's gorgeous and it's always lovely to see her pop up, but I wish she would stop wasting her time on bit parts and run with her singing. I seriously think the world is missing out on something special, and I say this as a lifelong opera goer, eclectic music listener and accomplished musician - not a teenage pop fan type. I didn't know who she was but when I asked other people if they had heard of her they all immediately said "of course, Coco, from Fame" and I live on the other side of the world from the US, so its not like there's no base to leverage. R&B, Jazz, Gospel... Lady, whatever you put out I will buy and follow on streaming services!

They don't call it "space opera" for no reason...

[yincognyto-91718 · 6/10 · 12 May 2018]

Make no mistake, this wasn't the worst episode of the series (or even of this season), BUT its only flaw was that the "opera" part of it was very poor. Had it been only the "space" part of it, this episode would have rated as a 9 or so, as the story is of major importance and very well done, but that rushed "love story" musical part of the episode had no reason to be included here (other than filling the remaining minutes or promoting a virtually unknown singer, maybe). Even if they were to include such an "opera" part in the episode, it could have been done much much better (like they superbly managed to do the Londo Mollari - Lady Adira story earlier in the show, which spanned for rougly the same amount of minutes, for example). This time, added to the fact that these 2 parts of the episode didn't mix well AT ALL, the romance part wasn't great either, didn't properly engage the viewer emotionally and the singing was great only if you loved the genre or the singer.

All in all, this was a missed oportunity to have another 9+ rated episode in the series. It would have been better to put this attempt of a musical part in another filler episode than to damage an episode with such great potential like this one.

Too harsh

[wilvis-93963 · 20 September 2017]

OK while i agree this was not the best episode of the season i would not call it the worst of the show.Erica Gimpel is a good singer no doubt.And having the doc meet someone while on walkabout is natural.And this part of the episode is no worse then the episode in season 1 where Londo meets a woman and gets attracted to her.If a series was just about wars and death it would not be a good show.Besides in the same episode you get a confrontation with the Shadows that is important for the rest of the show.Besides in season 5 there are a lot more bad episodes then this one.Personally i think they should have quit after 4 years when they killed off Marcus and Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova) left.Her replacement and the backstory they had for that character was almost something out of a soap-opera.Every now and then the show does get a bit over dramatic.As for this episode there is more to it then just the Steven arc.If you miss it you miss something important

Fame comes to B5

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 26 May 2021]

It doesn't say whether or not Erica Gimpel did her own performance in this episode, but I am assuming she did. Even when I originally saw this episode I was impressed with her voice and Performance.

We get to see a 24th century version of a rhythm and blues ensemble. And we get to see that musicians in the 24th century have the same hangups as musicians in the 21st, but what we initially see as a "hangup" is not that at all.

This is just one of those episodes were a number of random threads are addressed. "Kosh" returns to Babylon 5, but not Kosh. Where the real Kosh was fairly abrupt, this "Kosh" is downright rude, also he has some kind of agenda that isn't really clear at this moment other than the fact that he was expecting to locate a piece of the real Kosh, who normally would have been traveling about inside of Lyta Alexander.

Mainly, the subject of Dr. Franklin's stim addiction has to be addressed and he will only do this on his own terms. Ergo he has to wander about the station until he "meets himself".

Although this episode appears to be "Filler" after the amazing "war without end", it is fairly important and if we just ignore it, we miss a couple of important things. Especially because this is the episode where they put Garibaldi's discovery about shadows and telepath's into effect, there is a confrontation between the white star and some shadow vessels- and the shadows really don't want this discovery to become public.

I highly enjoyed the musical interlude and even if it is a bit "soap opera-ish", so what? Erica gives us something pleasant to look at and listen to.

Uggh!! One of the worst shows of the series!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 8 January 2007]

It's odd, but two of the poorest episodes of Babylon 5 have a lot in common--the Doctor and his unbridled hormones! While the characters on the show are usually exceptionally well-written, twice now the writing for the Doc has fallen apart. In THE LONG DARK (season 2), a woman is taken out of suspended animation and the crew suspects her of having murdered the other crew member. So what does the doctor do? Yep, sleeps with the lady in spite of common sense dictating you WAIT to be sure she isn't evil! Now, in season 3, the Doc is back to his horny ways as he decides the best way to treat his drug addiction is to aimlessly wander through the worst parts of the ship in search of a sick relationship. It must be his motto "when in doubt, sleep with her". Frankly, for a smart man, he seemed awfully dumb in this episode and spent so much of his time whining and looking for a lady who might be even more screwed up than he was. Hadn't anyone in the 23rd century ever heard of AA or the Betty Ford Clinic? The episode had many frequent lapses into lousy writing--too many clichés and the characters just didn't act like they had a brain. This MIGHT be good for some characters in some roles, but the Doctor is supposed to be a smart guy and one of the best and brightest on the station!

Yeesh

[VenVes · 1 September 2018]

What a weird episode. After the past few episodes, this episode had big shoes to fill, and it mostly fails in my opinion. This is due to the subplot involving Ex Doc Franklin and another character with a proclivity for singing. Much like the more emotional episodes in Star Trek with Geordi LaForge, it comes off as cringeworthy and creepy as opposed to it's actual intent of deepening our connection and empathy level for the character. Let's hope they either stop doing this (this is the second time now for Franklin) or they do it right.

It was amusing to see "Steve" getting manipulated

[polite-45692 · 2/10 · 17 May 2019]

The realistic part of the show was the shady woman using Steve Franklin to get drugs.