Last week I was surfing around somewhere and I saw that Babylon 5 was putting out a new movie which was releasing last week. Thinking back on it now, I think that I did hear about it previously but I didn’t remember it for the life of me and it took me by surprise. So I promptly ordered it.
Understand that until recent years, Babylon 5 had been my favorite sci-fi series of all time. Now with an explosion of television shows like Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes, it has fallen to #4 on my list but it is still easily one of my favorites. (I do think Heroes is eventually going to drop but right now I am really liking the show).
I am very excited to see the show making a return in some format, even if it is straight to DVD. It gives me hope for other shows which have had similar fates like Firefly (whom only the main star has been able to maintain acting and only in really bad movies so I think even he could come back).
So my review of it… First I was happy to see that they were able to round up some of the former actors, including two of the captains and one of my personal favorites… Galen. Unfortunately, one of the captains was the third one who really wasn’t worth even having in the show in the first place. I think they mostly needed her for the fact that Sheridan was becoming president of the alliance, but she was awful and really should have stayed buried.
The DVD featured what essentially was two episodes. The first featured the third captain, with a priest dealing with a demon. Literally, a demon. I really didn’t like this episode. It reminded me of a crap filler episode of the show, especially one of the early ones. And when you got two episodes, I really would wish that they provided something a little more substantial. The second thing about it was that while there were religious undertones throughout the show previously, they weren’t as blatant as this. In fact, the show had previously always interpreted angels as being Vorlans and demons as being Shadows so I don’t understand why they came out in this fashion. I always appreciated the undertones. That being said, the actor who played the demon was brilliant, the other two actors that were in the episode were forgettable.
The second episode was longer, and really made the purchase worth the while. Sheridan is worth bringing back, and Galen was amazing as usual. I also appreciated the Centauri Prince that they brought into the show, I thought he did a fine job on the part, and hope to see him in future releases. The story was good and felt like a potential starting point for a new series of plot lines, which if this one makes money I imagine Warner Bros. will continue to make them. I am hopeful they do cause this one was good.
Other thoughts… the special features were fairly weak. They consisted of short interviews with the three main actors (mostly Lockley and Sheridan) and JMS. There were tributes to the two actors who have passed away since the show ended, these tributes while a nice thought turned out a little disappointing. The Sheridan interview for this was actually pretty good, and the JMS part was decent but I was hoping for behind the scenes clips with those actors, and even if they just got phone interviews with the other B5 actors it would have been nice to go beyond just the actors who appeared in the show. The new spruced up graphics were great, you can really tell how far technology has moved since the show originally aired, however I felt they relied on blue screens a little too much, often when they didn’t even need to (many hallways were completely blue screened). I realize this is a cost saver, but it also makes it feel less organic. But I suppose I can’t complain when the show is on, even if there are these minor complaints.
Overall, a decent disc. I think it was worth the money solely for seeing some new episodes. Although, I hope in future DVDs that they give out a few more features, and don’t have the junk episodes like they did here.