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The Movie:
I find it interesting that, while sci-fi continues to thrive on the big-screen, a legion of television shows gained cult followings on the fringes of network television. "Stargate: SG-I", "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Babylon 5" aired in syndication and, while they didn't have the kind of backing that major networks could provide, still managed to collect an audience each week, largely putting their efforts into writing solid stories, as expensive effects weren't always an option for a low-budget series.
Where "Stargate" and especially "Star Trek: Next Generation" had built-in audiences from prior movies/shows, "Babylon 5" managed to gain an audience for a four year run via word-of-mouth and strong critical reception. The plot, for those who aren't familiar with the show (count me among those ranks until recently), is quite fascinating. The show revolves around Babylon 5, a space station that is one of the last hopes for keeping peace in the galaxy. On this station, different races - both human and alien, try and work out their differences. However, the mixture - both politicans and criminals - keep the population from achieving balance. I can certainly appreciate why fans valued this show so much. The stories are complex and interesting, the CG work, while not theatrical level, is certainly high-quality and the acting is uniformly solid.
"Babylon 5" enters the TV-to-DVD marketplace after a brief entry last year, as Warner Brothers released a DVD with a couple of episodes in an attempt to test the waters for interest in the series. With the success of that release (I believe it consistently remained in the top 100 at amazon.com for quite a while), Warner has released a full season set of the show, with a fair amount of trimmings (a couple of commentaries, some other promotional/documentary material).
The DVD includes the episodes: Midnight on the Firing Line, Soul Hunter, Born to the People, Infection, The Parliament Of Dreams, Mind War, The War Prayer, And the Sky Full of Stars, Deathwalker, Believers, Survivors, By Any Means Necessary, Signs and Portents, TKO, Grail, Eyes, Legacies, A Voice in the Wilderness (Part 1 & 2), Babylon Squared, The Quality of Mercy and Chrysalis. The DVD package comes in a sleeve. The disc case is a "book-like" case like the one that the "Ken Burns' Civil War" box set came in.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Babylon 5" is presented through this entire set in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Although most of the show was apparently originally filmed in widescreen, the CGI sequences seem to be either rendered in full-frame or taken from full-frame elements. The result, with the completely anamorphic widescreen presentation, is that some of these CGI sequences look worse than they should, as they have seemingly not been transfered properly. Essentially, there's quite a bit of shimmering and other concerns in these sequences that don't turn up in the other scenes. The level of shimmering in these sequences varies, but it's always very noticable and often annoying.
The remaining sequences appear generally pretty good, although there are some that look a bit more mixed. Some scenes can look crisp and well-defined, while other (especially some more dimly-lit scenes) can look noticably softer in comparison. Grain can also occasionally be an issue during the presentation, as are some instances of dirt and specks on the elements used. However, on a positive note, there are at least no instances of edge enhancement or pixelation. While colors can also look a little inconsistent, they mainly appeared vivid and nicely saturated.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are essentially on the level of the soundtracks that were presented with the pair of episodes on the prior DVD release. There's really little or no power behind these remastered soundtracks and while some surround use is present, the rear speakers are hardly ever used. The score sounds a little buried in the mix, while dialogue is generally presented with passable clarity. These are okay presentations.
EXTRAS: Disc 1 includes an introduction from J. Michael Straczynski and exec producer Douglas Netter. J. Michael Straczynski also provides audio commentaries for two important episodes in this set, "Signs and Portents" and "Chysalis". The commentaries are quite informative, but not too over-the-top into the elements of the series. The grounded and often fascinating discussions do not focus only on what's currently happening in the "B5" tale, but provide a really enjoyable mixture of technical and production details/obstacles and breaking down story structure and character development. Good stuff, both for casual viewers and, I'd imagine, hardcore fans.
Also on disc 6 are two documentaries, the 18-minute "The Making of Babylon 5" and the 12 1/2 minute "Back to Babylon 5". Both documentaries provide good general overviews of the making of the series and a look back at its creation. They're fairly short, though, and I'd think that most fans of the show will be familiar with this material. Last, but not least, there's "The Universe of Babylon 5", a section that provides text bios and an interactive tour of the ship.
Final Thoughts: "Babylon 5" fans finally have the first set of (hopefully) all of the film's seasons. Problems with the image quality aside, this is a nice effort that will hopefully be smoothed out and added to for the next release.
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