Review of Babylon 5: The Movie Collection

Introduction

I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind…

So began the opening narration of Babylon 5, a Sci-Fi TV series that ran from 1994 to 1998 over a span of 5 seasons. Babylon 5 was created by J. Michael Straczynski, a TV writer who had previously written episodes for Murder, She Wrote and Walker, Texas Ranger amongst other credits. The series itself had a plot arc that stretched over the complete 5 years, something still unique to this series, in that events were eluded to or actions taken that would not be apparent to the viewer for a while, sometimes years.

In the gap between the 4th and 5th seasons, it was felt that some standalone movies would be made and aired prior to the big finale of B5. Three of those were made and collected on this set along with the pilot episode and one other film.

The Gathering - The pilot episode that set a 5 year arc in motion. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is in command of the Babylon 5 space station, charged with gathering together representatives of the most powerful alien governments to establish peace and prosperity. When the last of these representatives, Kosh from the mysterious Vorlon race, is subject to a murder attempt upon arrival, Sinclair falls under suspicion and it`s a race against time to both capture the murderer and save the life of the Vorlon ambassador.

In The Beginning - The first standalone film that fills in the backstory to Babylon 5, explaining some of the mystery from the previous few seasons. Man is attempting to expand his sphere of influence in space and a tragic mistake condemns the humans to an incessant attack by the powerful Minbari race. As the Minbari sweep aside all resistance, a few heroes may be needed to hold the Line and slow down the Minbari advance on Earth itself.

Thirdspace - A mysterious giant artefact is found within hyperspace. Towed back to Babylon 5 for further investigation, the artefact has a strange effect on many of the space station`s inhabitants, leading to a breakdown in order that threatens to tear Babylon 5 apart. Meanwhile, investigations into the origins of the artefact reveal that much more is at stake than the survival of one space station.

The River Of Souls - An archaeologist comes to Babylon 5 with an interesting find he has stolen from a species called the Soul Hunters. The Soul Hunters attempt to capture the souls of important people, sometimes entire species, at the point of death and want the stolen item back. Meanwhile, station commander Elizabeth Lochley faces problems with the owner of an illegal holo-brothel.

A Call To Arms - Set five years after the events described during the Babylon 5 TV series, the Shadows have long since been banished to the rim. The Drakh, a one-time servant of the Shadows, have been biding their time and it is now time for revenge. Sheridan and his cohorts must head off the attack, but there is more to this act of revenge than is initially thought.

Video

No restoration work has been done on the picture, it is clearly of broadcast quality with some grain of some shots. Mind, you have to remember that these were made in the 90`s and the story is far more important than the picture. The CGI is still very impressive for a TV series, although it clearly doesn`t compare with big budget movies.

Audio

All the soundtracks have been remastered for 5.1 Surround and are pretty impressive. The music from ex-Tangerine Dream man Christopher Franke is suitably epic for this space opera.

Features

Creating The Future featurette on disc 5 - examines the creation of the TV show and how all the science is based on physics as we understand it today.

Movie Introduction - each film gets a quick 4-5 minute intro from Straczynski, crew and various members of the cast.

Commentary - each film also has a commentary track. All are good, but the cast ones are easily the most fun to listen to.

Conclusion

In terms of the films collected here, there is a bit of a mixed bag, in terms of style at least. The Gathering was the pilot film for the series and actually aired a long time before the series ever got to air. This then attempts the ambitious task of setting up not only a good storyline but also establishing a new universe, alien races and technology. This film was actually re-edited by Straczynski in 1998, so it is a different version than the original pilot. The running time is virtually the same but scenes have been tightened up to allow the insertion of new footage, and the whole thing has been re-scored by Christopher Franke. It is an improvement over the original pilot, which did seem to drag out in places, but it`s still strange to see a few characters that either disappeared entirely or in the case of Delenn, had makeup changes for the new series.

In The Beginning is really the epic film that fans of B5 were waiting for. It filled in all those events, hints and little clues left by Straczynski over the preceding four years. This film is an absolute belter, although it would probably be better not to watch this until you`ve watched the first four series at least. The joy of watching B5 is because it really is a cerebral experience, you have to think about everything and things aren`t neatly tied up at the end of each episode as with many series. You could watch this first and get immense enjoyment from it, but you won`t have quite the same sense of wonder when watching the series itself.

Thirdspace is a kind of Gothic horror in space but without the gore. It`s a more psychological story about a dark mysterious portal to another dimension with hints of what is contained on the other side. It`s a different kind of story than normally seen on B5 and explores the lengths people will go to in order to attain knowledge. The artefact was designed by renowned Sci-Fi artist Wayne Barlowe and contains nods to Giger`s work.

The River Of Souls shows Martin Sheen pre-West Wing as an alien Soul Hunter, a really odd thing to imagine now. The eyes and voice are the only recognisable things about him, but he comes across as a very likeable and sympathetic character from a race universally despised across the B5 universe. This film also sees the B5 movie debut of Tracey Scroggins as the B5 commander, and there is a shot or two in there for the boys in a funny yet surreal plotline about copyright issues.

A Call To Arms essentially set up the short-lived Babylon 5: Crusade series. It`s not a pilot as the series focussed purely on the resulting story and different characters. This is a pure B5 movie in every sense of the word and simply sets the stage for the newer series. As the B5 series and movies progressed, the battles got bigger and better. This is the last, and there is some pretty amazing CGI scenes in here.

Babylon 5 was the epitome of intelligent yet entertaining science fiction for me, the standard that all subsequent shows should follow. Never before on the small screen was such an epic attempt at character and event arcs planned, and with good reason. Generally most shows don`t know how long they will run, lots fall by the wayside every year. The initial plan was always a 5 year piece, a plan that almost fell apart by year 4 when it wasn`t clear if year 5 was going to be sanctioned. The subsequent renewing for the final season lead to three of these movies, so as hard as the uncertainty was at that time, I guess it was all worth it in the end.

There will be the inevitable grumbles about picture quality and comments about the CGI, but they can justifiably ignored. I can agree about the picture and think it wouldn`t have been too much to expect a little cleanup, but put it into perspective. This is a TV series and all of these films were made for TV. I still believe that the CGI on this series has never been bettered on the small screen, with some of the most complex battle scenes seen on either the TV or cinema screen. Besides, when you have top-notch storylines, you can forgive quite a bit and Straczynski has proven he is a master storyteller - he wrote every episode in season 3, a feat never seen before on US TV (the closest record at that time was Terry Nation`s first series of Blake`s 7). When you consider the gaps between the series and Straczynski`s day-to-day involvement in the making of the show, this is a phenomenal achievement. From this you can deduce that this is very much one man`s vision, and what a vision.

I never get tired of watching anything in the Babylon 5 universe, although I don`t read the books, collect card, etc, etc. And no, I don`t have anything from that other sci-fi franchise either…

How can this be anything less than a whole-hearted recommendation?