The second instalment of the Mick Garris/Stephen King miniseries adaptation of King’s epic yarn of good and evil, The Stand, first aired on 9 May, 1994.

Honestly, I remember it airing, but what I really remember was how it did gangbusters when they released the mini-series to home video. People who had missed it (or forgotten to tape it) when it aired, or just wanted to revisit it, were renting them like crazy.

The story continues to introduce characters as the lines between good, led by Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee) and those of evil, Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan). Guiding their followers on their journey, dreams are sent out.

Abigail is calling, asking people to travel to Nebraska, and if missed there, on to Colorado. Flagg, meanwhile, is amassing his people in Las Vegas.

Nick (Rob Lowe) meets up with the mentally challenged, Tom Cullen (Bill Fagerbakke), and they run into a couple of problems on the road. Fran (Molly Ringwald) buries her father, and she and Harold (Corin Nemec) set out before meeting up with Stu (Gary Sinise) and Glen (Ray Walston).

Larry Underwood (Adam Storke) meets up with fellow New Yorker, Nadine (Laura San Giacomo), and they work their way out of the city through the Lincoln Tunnel.

But Nadine is being summoned by Flagg, she’s been chosen. And she’s not the only one. He’s found a firebug, the unstable Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer), and he’s also released Lloyd (Miguel Ferrer) from prison. He’s drawing his forces together.

Some of the sets and visual effects really don’t stand the test of time, and sorry, some of the dialogue is soap-opera clunky, but King delivers a solid take on his own source material, adapted for 90s television standards.

You can see relationships forming, and jealousies and problems arising. Parties travel across the country heading towards their chosen sides, summoned by forces greater than themselves.

Plot-wise, not a lot of things happen; it’s a lot of travelling and little character moments and beats to establish the world, and hint at the bigger story happening around them. But it’s the journey with these characters that is the point; we grow attached to them, and that way, when things play out over the last two episodes, things are going to get really emotional.

I’m enjoying this rewatch, which I haven’t done in forever, but it’s also making me really want to dig in and read the book again, which I haven’t done since 1991.

Let’s see how the rest of the miniseries plays out first…