Love that ship, love that ship, LOVE THAT SHIP!

There's some weird continuity in this episode:

at the end of several scenes, particularly on board the Cortez and in C&C, a split second before the scenes end the picture freezes even when the dialogue continues;

when Sheridan and Maynard are saying their goodbyes before the Cortez jumps into hyperspace, watch the background. During Maynard's penultimate line, an old lady walks into the frame, pauses dramatically just behind Maynard's shoulder as if determined to be caught on camera, then walks on. The scene cuts to Sheridan's face, then cuts back to Maynard's face ... at which point the old lady walks past again - in the same direction as she was going a moment ago!!

Nits

- At the end of the episode, the Cortez isn't in sight, but Stinky is still there

- Sheriden's desk looks to have a grid or some other texture to it, but I think that that would make it difficult to write.

The bridge of the Cortez is rather clearly B5's CIC.

A 'door' appears in the background of the CIC..sorry Cortez Bridge that ostensibly shows a long corridor leading off into the distance. This 'corridor' is rather painfully easy to spot as a picture.

I know that the Cortez, as an explorer ship, is meant to have a somewhat more relaxed attitude towards military protocol and procedure. Still, did the bridge crew of the ship strike anyone else as the last people on Earth you'd want controlling a ship in a crisis? They don't strike me as well trained-professionals.

Nits;

Babylon five, your last best hope for cheap sub-standard parts...

The Cortez has just spent the last few years moving around uncharted space, well away from any potential help, without any major problems.
An hour after being refitted and repaired at B5 their navigational system blows up, nearly resulting in the loss of the ship with all hands.


Oh, fighters! Well, everything was happening so quickly I totally forgot we had any...

Maynard's (painful) story about seeing a strange ship implies that the Cortez has at least some small craft or shuttles. The design of the ship - with a clear bay opening identical to that seen on Omega class destroyers would also support this.

So, when the ship lost navigation systems why didn't they just launch their own fighters/shuttles to look for the beacon?


Notes; The Cortez is an Explorer class ship, there are four other ships of her class in Earthforce.

As well as exploration explorer class ships are used to build and repair jumpgates.

Rumination; I wonder what happened to the Cortez and the other Explorer ships? They are never mentioned again.