"The first S4 episode (Hour of the Wolf) doesn't have nearly as many FX as
the later S3 episodes, and what is there is mostly stock shots of the
station rotating, etc."

There are as many CGI shots in "Wolf" as in most of our episodes, and more
than in "Rock," a later S3 episode. There's also the new establishers of
Centauri Prime the planet, the revised Palace shots, new establishers of
the station, a big new shot of the interior of the Garden that pans down,
the beside-Z'ha'dum sequence...there's a LOT there. So a) your latter
observation is, I gently point out, factually inaccurate, and b) most
station shots have been recycled stock since year one, adding new ones
each season then dropping them into rotation (so to speak).

We always balance big EFX shows with smaller ones, building up to some big
stuff. We're doing the same thing here this year as we've ever done.
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jms