Review for Babylon 5: The Complete Collection + The Lost Tales

8 / 10

Introduction

Voices in the Dark comprises two stories set in 2271, on the 10th anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance.

Over Here

When man ascended to the heavens and found no God there, it was inevitable that faith and worship would begin to wane, especially when the Angels (Vorlons) left the galaxy at the end of the Shadow War. But now it seems that there might be a call for religion after all, as a worker on Babylon 5 has been possessed. At least no other explanation seems to fit, compelling Colonel Lochley to resort to actually requesting the presence of a priest.

Over There

Travelling to Babylon 5 for the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Interstellar Alliance, President John Sheridan once again receives a visit from the technomage Galen in his dreams. Shown a vision of utter destruction, Galen tells him that it’s in his hands to avert this dark future. All he has to do is to kill one person, a passenger that they are about to pick up on their way to the station.

Picture

The Lost Tales gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It’s clear and sharp, with no problems with visible compression. Made in 2007, we’re well into the widescreen and indeed hi-def era, and although this isn’t on Blu-ray, detail levels are excellent, while the CGI has had a major upgrade. Ships, planets, and indeed Babylon 5 itself all look fantastic. Having said that, it’s with the live action where the budget falls off, with a whole lot of green-screen work, or a handful of small sets. Just as with Legend of the Rangers, you might get that fan-film sense from it.

Sound

You get Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English, French, and Spanish, with subtitles in these languages and a handful of others. The audio is fine, the surrounds are put to adequate use, and the dialogue is clear throughout. One problem is an obvious, and given the length of the programme, wholly needless layer change.

Extras

You get one disc in an Amaray case, which boots to a static menu. Leave it too long, and it will autoplay the programme.

Proportionally, this is the best Babylon 5 disc when it comes to extras.

There are 17:37 of Interviews with the cast and Joe Straczynski.

13:17 is devoted to memorials, with the cast and creator paying tribute to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs, who both passed away prior to this production.

The Straczynski Diaries lasts 21:16, and offer 6 featurettes behind the scenes of the production.

Fireside Chats lasts 18:50, where Joe Straczynski answers a few fan questions about the show.

Conclusion

It’d become a case of diminishing returns for the Babylon 5 universe by this point. It’s certainly no Star Trek or Star Wars. The original series survived cancellation by the skin of its teeth, and made it to the full, intended five years, but the spin-off series Crusade didn’t get past thirteen episodes. The Legend of the Rangers concept never got past its pilot, and by the time Lost Tales came around, J. Michael Straczynski tried something different, bypassing traditional television and catering directly to the fans. The Lost Tales was meant to be another Babylon 5 series, an anthology of short stories in the B5 universe, and these two stories were proof of concept, subsequent episodes depending on DVD sales. As you can tell, there are no other Lost Tales discs.

The problems are immediately apparent. A lack of budget means the sets have to be small, or obvious green-screen against a digital backlot, the cast is similarly small, just a few actors for each story, and consequently the stories are small too, padded with dialogue despite the shorter running time for each ‘episode’. Despite their best efforts, The Lost Tales were never going to feel as big, or as alive as the television series.

With all that taken into account, the two stories here are not too bad, although the first story, the space exorcist suffers the most from the lack of scope, and the overly verbose script. In its premise of waning religions, it also contradicts the Babylon 5 series, such as the season 1 episode where Sinclair invited representatives of all Earth faiths aboard, or later when a group of monks set up home on the station. The second story, also small in scope and limited by budget is enjoyable enough. Although it does at first seem like a redux of A Call to Arms, the end of the story subverts those expectations.

I’ve seen Babylon 5: The Lost Tales described elsewhere as a radio play with pictures, and that is as good a description as any. They’re not going to turn the B5 universe on its head, there’s no great story revelation or plot development, but it’s just a nice bit of extra colour thrown on the Babylon 5 canvas. Not essential, but appreciated.

5/10