[.ca] Babylon 5: The Complete First Five Seasons

The BEST S/F Series Ever Aired!:
J. Michael Straczynski (jms) created the space station Babylon 5 and spent years getting it produced and on the air. It premiered about the same time ST: Deep Space Nine did, and for a while, fans compared the two. It was almost "apples & oranges" time, but it was tried. As a long-time Trek fan, I was surprised when I first saw the pilot ("The Gathering") in 1993. I was absolutely stunned. Why Babylon 5, not just Babylon Station? Well, #s 1 - 4 were sabotaged & destroyed; # 4 disappeared after going on-line. (Disappeared? It's 5 MILES LONG, for crying out loud!) Word was that this would be an on-going, progressive five year story arc, the likes of which hadn't been done before on US television. Risky. Okay, jms had my attention. I couldn't wait for the series. When it finally did air, I (being cynical of tv production in general) figured it wasn't going to stay as good. It didn't. It steadily got better. I repeat, I speak as a long time Trek fan (beginning with the original series - skip Voyager, I did). B5 is one of the best televison series ever produced. Note I did not say "science fiction series." (It is THE best s/f series ever put up to the audience.) I introduced several non s/f fans to the series, as a dramatic series and they all loved it. (So much for "only for space opera hounds.") The story arc freed Straczynski (he wrote 90% of the scripts) from having to make everything "come right" in a 45 minute time slot, and off it went. Crowd scenes were, well, crowded, with humans of all types and aliens as extras wandering through scenes. (The aliens, by the way, are much more than odd skin colours, strange noses and "hair.") The station wasn't pristeen, the population wasn't always picture perfect. We have shysters, homeless, personal problems, espionage, humour, betrayal, relationships, and deaths (being in the opening credits did not guarantee survival, and it didn't always happen at the end of a season). Opening credits and theme music changed every year. One character's very appearance even changed dramatically. The plotlines are tight, and the threads are woven into five years of shows. The special effects are believable. (Yes, you could "hear" space battles, but hey, cut them some slack - NASA asked for plans of the Starfuries for reference for future space station repair vehicles.) B5 was the first show to rely on CGI effects, born out of budget necessity. More than once, watching the show, I found myself pounding the furniture with excitement - and we won't go into (here) what I did during series finale "Sleeping in Light." Sinclair, Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, G'Kar, Londo, Lennier, Vir, Na'Toth, Talia, and Lyta came into our home as people with problems. The characters grew and changed and made choices and dealt with the consequences of those choices for good or bad. G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) put it best: no one on Babylon 5 is exactly what they appear. Keep a score card handy: this week's ally may be next month's enemy. There is no clear deliniation of good guys and bad guys - mostly it's all shades of grey. Acting (with the exception of one season five regular) is superb. Action, yes. Yet one of the most moving episodes is a one-on-one battle of wits and nerve between two characters in a single room. Wars - some with aliens, some between alien races, and some with just us humans - start & end. There are four ambassadors from alien races on board, with a League of Non-Aligned Worlds to complete the roster. Telepaths of all races (except the Narns) add more colour. Intrigue, smuggling, dealing, double-dealing, romance, all leavened with humourous touches throughout - what more could you ask! For the first four years, the hardest part of being a B5 fan was FINDING it. (Our local station played ping-pong with its time slot.) To own uncut, widescreen versions on DVD of the whole story arc was a dream we had. Thank heavens, it's one dream which became reality. If you have seen B5, welcome back. If you haven't, welcome aboard. However, Babylon 5 is a whole complete story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. View it that way. Start with the pilot ("The Gathering," not included in this set but available) and then move to Season One. Enjoy. This is a unique series.

An unforgettable cult series:
The TV series "Babylon 5"(1994 - 1999), a Warner and TNT production created by J. Michel Straczynski, was inspired in hindu-asiatics religions and explore Arcthurians legends. "The Gathering", the series pilot, was shown in 1993 and the first episode almost a year later. The series had 110 episodes during five seasons and 5 movies were produced. Babylon 5 adventures begins in the year 2258 and ends in 2263. The space station,with 8 kilometres length, has 250 thousand inhabitants of different places of the Universe and a defensive military force. The first three Space Stations were destroyed by sabotage and the fourth vanished mysteriosly on space. The Fifth Station, the only one remained, was built by Earth Aliance with the support of many alien races, including The Minbari Federation and The Centauri Republic. Babylon 5 was idealized to be a Diplomatic port where the discussions and agreements between the races could take place in a neutral zone. The first season opening summarizes very well the series essence: "It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal, to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call - home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5". An unforgettable cult series. (...)

Great show, poor DVDS:
I looked into buying an import version of B5 but decided to buy a real set from Amazon because I wanted the best quality possible with no problems. Sadly, the effort put into putting this amazing show onto DVD was lacking. Firstly, throughout the first season, there are lots of dust marks that appear throughout the show. Also, the layout of the special features under "Universe of Babylon 5" are interesting but hard to navigate. Lastly, part of the cases of two separate seasons broke off the first time I opened them. I had to crazy glue them back together. Despite these problems, I am very happy with my purchase. Despite some early first season episodes, B5 is one of my favourite shows of all time. Check out Disk 6 of season 4 for an amazing special feature about the music of B5 along with a full 6 minute musical piece.

magnificent teleserie:
All I can say is that I saw it all, I lend the DVDs to my friends and that watched it all themselves. This is definitely giong to be a classic.

Babylon 5-one of the best TV shows ever;Sci-Fi or otherwise:
Babylon 5 is like that proverbial "good book";the latter you cannot put down and the former you cannot wait until you see the next episode. This is definitely one of the best shows ever aired and one of the best of its' kind. It's operatic,Iliadic,Shakespearean...in fact it draws on every piece of classic literature ever written to weave its' own wonderful and original 110 epsiode story arc.Its' themes are universal ones;struggle,resistance,life,death,good,evil,love,hate,war,peace,patience,intolerance, frustration,and on and on.The stories engage us at every turn.You find yourself scrambling for answers to some of the tough questions and situations that the characters ask of themselves and are forced to endure. Furthermore the Babylon 5 universes' perspective is always in flux.That is we are not just given a one sided view of things but several,frequently at the same time.In the fifth season ep "A view from the gallery",for example,while there are multiple story lines both major and minor playing themselves out we get a dominant view of things from two lowly maintenance workers:They a)are ordinary folks like you and me(immediate audience empathy),b)we get their perspective on station operations,c)they become involved in station "situations"(invasion by alien race) d)they interact with Delenn and Pres. Sheridan briefly which gives us further confirmation of the "righteousness" of the whole cause and of the leading characters themselves and d)you realize that big or small in the grand scheme of B-5 ops,that these guys are as every bit as important as the command staff is. These are things that are not touched upon too often in many shows today nor in the past and it is just one of the many facets of the show I admire.It is just one example of a multitude of the quality of the writing of Mr.Straczynski. Babylon 5 was certainly a big gamble and we can all be grateful that Mr.Straczynski and friends had the persistence and guts to push as hard as they could to get this series not only put on the air but to find an audience,maintain the high quality it did and endure for five seasons.And as you breeze through the special features on these discs you realize just how fragile its' hold on being aired at all was. And speaking of special features these discs contain many such items throughout each season.There are many looks at the series from its' prop department to its' creation of music.Seasons four and five contain some gag reels which I found to be really welcome additions.It is just too bad reels for the previous seasons could not have been included.Also there are just too few interviews with the cast members;most are just short question/responses on a few of the featurettes(which are far too short in length in and of themselves).I would have liked more lengthy one on ones. Barring these "issues" I still have to rate this series as high as I do.The quality of work that these seasons embody demand no less. Mr.Straczynski has said on more than one occasion that while at a speaking engagement at the illustrious M.I.T. that some there considered B-5 along with "The Twilight Zone" and "Star Trek"(both the original series) to be the best Sci-Fi series ever put on TV.A high honour indeed.All broke new ground in their day and all still stand the test of time in writing and originality. Another side angle I always get a kick out of(when viewing the series) is the connection of the shows' actors and the writing(in jokes),to past shows like Star Trek,The Prisoner,Nightmare on Elm Street,among others, along with the original actors from these same shows/movies.I always go back and find more that I have previously missed.A pleasant little diversion you might want to try. In conclusion I highly recommend this series to everyone,but I know it will find a special place in the hearts of fans of good Sci-Fi.The series was intelligently written(MS)and ably executed by the marvellous acting staff.This series(the cake)coupled with "Babylon-5-The Movie Collection"(the icing-see my review of that) is all you'll ever need to appreciate the depth and scope of this classic TV series.