author : J. Michael Straczynski

Introduction, and the script of the Hugo Award-winning episode of Babylon 5.

[Comprises DC Comics series Babylon 5, issues 5--8. The story takes place prior to the events in the episode The Coming of the Shadows]

A dual story -- of Garibaldi trying to catch out Londo and having a Shadow encounter, and a parallel event when he first met Sinclair, and had a Shadow encounter.

Again, the story is fine, but the artwork leaves something to be desired -- Garibaldi is virtually unrecognisable in places.

Susan Randall is a crime reporter with the LA News-Tribune. Recovering in hospital from a gunshot wound, she sees a strange man. Following up on a serial killer, she comes across the same strange man. Further investigation leads her deeper into the case, and draws the killer's attention to her. Is the killer really possessed by evil? Is the stranger trying really to exorcise a demon, or is he the real killer? Finding the answers could cost Susan her life, or maybe worse.

This is a good page turner, keeping you guessing until the end, with a lot of people behaving exactly as you would expect if confronted with ambiguous evidence of demonic possession: that is, skeptically. Nothing deep, and nothing too horrific for a spot of bedtime reading.

Straczynski had a successful career as a TV scriptwriter long before the triumph of Babylon 5. Here he gives lots of USA-centric, but eminently practical, advice on his art -- on how to plot, how to market the script, and even how to lay the script out on the page -- with lots of concrete examples. He covers TV shows, films, animation, radio, and stage plays. A must-read if you are a budding scriptwriter; a fascinating glimpse at how part of the industry works even if you aren't (although you will then want to skip some of the repetition).