DVD Babylon 5 - The Complete Television Series (5-Pack):
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DVD Babylon 5 - The Complete Television Series (5-Pack)
The epic sci-fi series Babylon 5 was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and familiarizes the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. The first episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line," plays at a breathless pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). B5 hits warp speed with a run of exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part "Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, the story leads to the superb time-travel-based "Babylon Squared." Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the usual television cliffhanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a decision that laid the groundwork for Babylon 5's eventually becoming a great love story.
Delenn's future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) arrived on Babylon 5 in the first episode of season 2, "Points of Departure." The show marked the handing over of command of B5 to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor Michael O'Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted a bigger star in the leading role. "Revelations" explains that Sheridan's wife, Anna, died during an archaeological survey of the world Z'ha'dum, the name being just one of many references to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (the bridge at Khazad-Dum). "The Coming of Shadows" proved to be Babylon 5's finest hour to date, and in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Sheridan learns that Morden was on the ship on which Anna died. Three exceptional shows conclude the season. The Narn-Centauri war escalates in "The Long, Twilight Struggle," Sheridan faces a most unusual ordeal in "Comes the Inquisitor," and in "The Fall of Night" all hope of peace is shattered as a nerve-racking assassination attempt reveals a startling secret about Ambassador Kosh.
"Matters of Honor" launched Babylon 5's third season with the introduction of the White Star, a spacecraft added to enable more of the action to take place away from the station. Also introduced was Marcus Cole (Jason Carter)--in another nod to The Lord of the Rings, a Ranger not so far removed from Tolkien's Strider. A third of the way through the season "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" prove pivotal, changing the nature of the story in a way previously unimaginable on network TV. Earth slides into dictatorship, the fascistic Nightwatch takes control of off-world security, and Sheridan take decisive action by declaring Babylon 5 independent. "Interludes and Examinations" presented the death of a major supporting character, while the two-part "War Without End" reached apocalyptic dimensions in a complex tale resolving the destiny of Sinclair and the fate of Babylon 4, resolving a 1,000-year-old paradox and presenting a vision of a very dark future for Sheridan and Delenn. All this was trumped by the monumental "Z'ha'dum." In the preceding "Shadow Dancing" Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner's real-life wife) returned from the dead, no longer entirely human. In the mythologically resonant climax Anna invited Sheridan back to the Shadow homeworld with no hope of survival. Just as in The Lord of the Rings Gandalf fell into the abyss at Khazad-Dum, so Sheridan took a comparable leap into the unknown on an alien world.
Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows in "Into the Fire." If this colossal narrative was resolved a little too easily and the ultimate aim of the Shadows turned out to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one relentless cycle of conspiracy, betrayal and conflict, Babylon 5 siding with the rebel Mars colony against the totalitarian Earth. On an unstoppable wave fuelled by roller-coaster plot twists and spectacular action shows from "No Surrender, No Retreat"--when Sheridan avows to overthrow EarthGov--to "Rising Star"--when the aim is realized--Babylon 5 achieved a consistent excellence rare in television.
The final season found Claudia Christian departed and Ivanova replaced by Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), who in a soap-opera twist turned out to be Sheridan's first wife. Sheridan was promoted to President of the Interstellar Alliance and the action moved to a group of telepaths seeking sanctuary from the PSI-Corp on B5. Meanwhile the aftermath of the Shadow War was explored, and as usual the season picked up toward the end, with a string of fine political episodes. The final episode, "Sleeping in Light," was directed by J. Michael Straczynski and made an epilogue to the series. Set 20 years later, after all the sound and fury this quiet, elegiac tale is the apotheosis of the love story that proved the balance to the tragedy of the preceding darkness. A personal story resolved against a background of the epic, at once transcendent, deeply human, and profoundly optimistic, "Sleeping in Light" is as moving as any hour in the history of television drama and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to one of the greatest series ever made. --Gary S. Dalkin
Review(s): DVD Babylon 5 - The Complete Television Series (5-Pack)
Babylon 5, - an epic!
Story made over decades about human and alien with human feelings and toughts (sic!), but epic in giving and account for the familiarity of life and evolution of all beings. It make sense, it's plausible (except alien with human toughts and feelings)and it's catching!
Slight physical damage makes for a Penultimate Product
The show was every bit as delightful and engaging as I had remembered. The boxes, unfortunately, had strange scraps and cuts on them. The discs themselves had no damage, and all features worked fine. Used purely for viewing, this is a must-have collection. I would not, however, suggest this as a valid venue for Collector's quality.
A Science Fiction Soap Opera
Like a typical television soap opera, this series drags on and on through dozens of plots and sub-plots featuring at least as many characters. A situation is introduced in one episode and eventually concluded ten to fifteen episodes, or maybe even entire seasons, later. In the ensuing episodes, one is introduced to even more plots and sub-plots, many with seemingly no purpose whatsoever other than to fill time.
For example of all this, the idea of the "Shadows," a race of powerful evil aliens threatening the universe, is introduced in the first season and mentioned repeatedly in the following episodes. However, the first real confrontation with those "Shadows" doesn't take place until well into the third season, with the first major battle at the very end of that season (the overall "Shadow" confrontation doesn't end until the forth season). But even that very long-awaited first battle is side-tracked by distracting sub-plots, the most irritating being a doctor on the space station, not even involved in the battle, dealing with his own petty drug addiction. Who cares!! In my opinion, this doctor (his girlfriends and his problems) could have been written out of the entire series without any loss whatsoever. Instead, sub-plots featuring this doctor, and others, also side-track several other intense moments in the series.
I just don't see how the fans, watching this series on television, sat around for weeks, or even entire seasons, waiting for some particular event to happen. This is frustrating enough when one can fast forward through the boring parts while watching this DVD collection. But even then, it's irritating. An episode ends with a cliff-hanger, only to have the next episode focus on some alien's love life or whatever. The series may not get back to the cliff-hanger for several episodes (you really have to hunt if you want to skip to it). I would discuss the other characters, plots, sub-plots, and so on, but there are just way too many of each to cover.
In reality, this would have been terrific entertainment if the entire Babylon 5 series had been compressed down to about a single season, with many of the sub-plots, filler episodes, filler content, and lesser characters, written out entirely. It could have then focused much more strongly on the two main themes - the conflict with the "Shadows" and the political events on Earth. After all, those are the two areas where the most interesting aspects of this series reside - the most intense moments, the most impressive special effects, the most thought-provoking situations, and so on.
Regardless, the Babylon 5 series does at least have that, if one has the patience to sit through all the other nonsense - wacky aliens, endless conspiracies, preachers, rabbis, monks, gospel singers, absurd creatures, incessant pretences of grander, often infantile humor, the boring romance between the overblown captain Sheridan and somewhat homely ambassador Delenn, the ever-present liberal political discourse, and so on. But those comparatively rare good moments do at least make Babylon 5 worth watching.
However, do remember this is a soap opera. Each season ends at a decisive moment, a cliff-hanger, with several stories from that season left unresolved until the next season or perhaps several seasons after that. Therefore, to follow each story to it's ultimate conclusion, one would have to purchase the entire series instead of a single season. Since that is a very expensive proposition only a truly devoted fan would even consider, I simply cannot give this series a high rating.
Related DVD's Babylon 5 - The Complete Television Series (5-Pack)
The Babylon 5 pilot movie The Gathering was originally broadcast in 1993 a full year ahead of the regular show. A somewhat dull tale of an attempt to assassinate Koch, the Vorlon ambassador to B5, the feature served to introduce Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) as well as familiarize the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. Missing many of the main cast, and suffering from a leaden pace and mediocre music score, series creator J Michael Straczynski later improved The Gathering by tightening the cut for a special edition (the version released on DVD), adding some deleted character moments and commissioning a new score from series composer Christopher... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Richard Compton - Michael Vejar - Jesús Salvador Treviño DVD Release Date: Released the 17 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The first and only spin-off of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski's short-lived sci-fi series Crusade had its roots in the B5 television movie A Call to Arms, in which Earth was battling a Drakh invasion at the end of the Shadow Wars. When Crusade begins, the Drakh have released a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out all 10 billion humans living on Earth unless a cure can be found in five years. To take on this monumental task, Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) is assigned command of the state-of-the-art Destroyer-class ship Excalibur. His crew includes telepath John Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim); pompous but brilliant archaeologist-linguist Max Eilerson (David Allen Brooks); Dureena, a member of the Thieves' Guild and the last surviving member... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tony Dow DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Battlestar Galactica's Edward James Olmos wasn't kidding when he said "the series is even better than the miniseries." As developed by sci-fi TV veteran Ronald D. Moore, the "reimagined" BG is exactly what it claims to be: a drama for grown-ups in a science-fiction setting. The mature intelligence of the series is its greatest asset, from the tenuous respect between Galactica's militarily principled commander Adama (Olmos) and politically astute President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) to the barely suppressed passion between ace Viper pilot "Apollo" (a.k.a. Adama's son Lee, played by Jamie Bamber) and the brashly insubordinate Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), whose multifaceted character is just one of many first-season highlights. Picking up where the miniseries ended (it's included... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Babylon 5 represented some of the best television science fiction ever available. At it's worst, it was merely mediocre. At it's best, it was absolutely amazing. On the average, it was excellent.
I think this DVD represents some of the best of Babylon 5, and some of the... well, not the best. The pilot episode, while much improved with it's "special edition" release, is still less than a perfect example of what the series was able to do. But it's still better than any Star Trek series pilot ever did :) It wraps the feel and background of the series in a murder mystery that sets the pace for the action and political intrigue that was to continue for the run of the series.
"In the Beginning" is something of a spoiler for first-time B5 viewers, so beware. Many of the surprises of the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Richard Compton DVD Release Date: Released the 04 December 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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