Babylon 5: The Complete Seasons 1-5
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Actor: Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Peter Jurasik, Richard BiggsBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 4818 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Babylon 5: The Complete Seasons 1-5
DVD Review: What series did -I- watch?
Summary: 1 Stars
I am the sort of science fiction viewer who liked the original Star Trek, but recognized that plenty of its episodes were dumb, dull, or pointless filler. I disliked The Next Generation era, which aside from several stellar episodes (like "The Inner Light", "Tapestry", "Best of Both Worlds", etcetera) was largely more of the same, with a heaping dose of insufferable smugness for the first two seasons. I believe Deep Space Nine was the best overall Star Trek series, and that Voyager was atrocious on virtually every level, and that while the first two seasons of Enterprise matched Voyager's worst moments, the last two seasons were phenomenal, given the caliber that had just preceded it in the first two seasons.
I am also the sort of science fiction viewer who has fallen in love with Battlestar Galactica, the reimagined series.
I initially had no interest in Babylon 5, but I've heard things about it. Great things. I've heard compliments about the writing, the storyarcs, and the fact that it was largely all pre-written before even the TV pilot began.
In my review for the TV movie pilot, I said that it was a failure on virtually every level; the dialogue was stale and cliche, the writing plodding and incoherent, the characterization virtually nonexistant, the CGI atrocious even for the early 90s, and the acting as bad as a 50s B Sci-Fi movie.
Unfortunately as I am half-way through season 4 (with there being 5 seasons), very little has improved. The acting varies, with people like Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari) and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) putting on stellar and dependable performances all the time.
The others, though, simply get worse with age. Susan Ivanova is insufferably horrible, trashy cliche lines matched with middle-school level projection and acting. Mira Furlan gets a lot better from the TV Pilot, but she's still a one-note, one-dimensional mopey softheart. Sheridan, Doctor Franklin, Marcus Cole, Michael Garibaldi, virtually all the human characters are one-dimensional, less characters than archetypes.
In fact, I'm reminded of Ronald D. Moore's "manifesto" written that was published with the scripts of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries:
"We take as a given the idea that the traditional space opera, with its stock characters, techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required."
This was written far after Babylon 5 ended, but every time I notice that the aliens are well-rounded, fleshed out characters and the humans remain one-note archetypes, I'm reminded of something relating to the above mentioned in a documentary or a commentary for Battlestar Galactica---something about how it was commonplace in science fiction for the aliens to essentially steal the show, becoming the well-rounded, beloved breakout characters, and the humans being the stale, boring, yet necessary straight characters.
That is exactly how Babylon 5 is. The aliens in the form of Londo Mollari, G'Kar, Vir Cotto, even dorkhead Lennier, constitute the greatest and most fun parts of the series, and the humans constitute the exact opposite, sucking all the fun and interest out of the series. The worst, by far, being Marcus Cole, a "ranger" added in season 3 who has thus far served no purpose beyond being an insufferable nuisance.
For the vast majority of season 1, I sat through filler episode after filler episode, wondering when the story arcs began. Then towards the end of the season, the story picked up and I was introduced to highly intriguing bits, including a possible explanation for the mysterious surrender by the Minbari in the Earth-Minbari War, which they were winning.
Then season 2 began, and it was back to filler episodes and mediocrity.
I noticed this was a trend, as season 3 and season 4 often began with loads of filler episodes, or else episodes that contributed little or nothing to the overall storyarcs. It seems rather clear that the big story that had been written couldn't fill more than 2 full seasons in a taut manner, and so it was spread over five, and stuffed full of filler and nonstop bad writing and even worse dialogue.
As for the stories themselves, they don't come anywhere close to being in any way innovative or original or even particularly compelling. I was told that the aliens were going to seem at times truly ALIEN compared to humans, and yet again and again I see aliens behaving like humans. In fact, given the horribly cliche and cartoonish way the humans behave, its actually hte ALIENS who are very human, and the humans who are alien to us real people.
But the absolute lowest point in the series regarding aliens came when Commander Ivanova was sent to find some of the First Ones, an ancient alien species that had lived for billions of years before, and is supposedly advanced in all ways and unbelievably complicated beings, and when she finds one, and it refuses to help her because she's working for the Vorlons.... she successfully converts it by using CHILDISH reverse psychology and prodding at its machismo. She claims "The Vorlons knew you'd never help them. After all, they helped you in the last war and you took all the credit" etcetera. It was unbelievable that so childish and cliche a gesture would work perfectly.
The Shadow storyline overall is a colossal letdown. Mass Effect's Reapers this ain't, as the Babylon 5 crew and the Vorlons and the Minbari and all their allies prepare to battle this race that is EVIL. EVIL EVIL EVIL. Straight and simple. They're given no motivation or characterization beyond "BLATANTLY EVIL". Given that the strict dichotomy of explicit good and explicit evil is already cliche (as well as virtually nonexistant in reality), it takes some skillful writing and storytelling to pull off the story of "Good versus Evil", and that is writing caliber that Babylon 5 has none of.
At some point, the motivation of the Shadows is revealed... and it's rather nonsensical. They try to tempt Sheridan to join them, with the promise of... unending violence and war and death. NICE PITCH, LOSERS!
Then it just ends. The entire huge, epic war between LIGHT and SHADOW, that was A THOUSAND YEARS IN THE MAKING... ends because Sheridan tells them to GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR GALAXY.
Oh that's right. It turns out that the Vorlons are just as evil as the Shadows, and that the entire reason they're fighting is... well, I don't quite remember, but it had something to do with trying to get lesser races to join their causes. The analogy given is that of two angry parents squabbling with each other and trying to force their children to side with one of them against the other. HOW "ALIEN" OF THEM!
In another overarching storyline, Earth takes a hideous turn for the "1984"-ish, with the vice president working with these Shadows to have the president murdered, then he becomes president, and begins enacting all the stereotypical signs of oppressive, brutal, tyrannic dictatorship. Cue Hitler, cue Stalin, cue Castro, cue Pol Pot, cue whoever you want, it's exactly the same.
But it's not treated the same. It's treated almost COMICALLY by the people on Babylon 5 at first. When the B5 equivalent of the SS, NKVD, Spartan Krypteia, any secret police starts to exert itself, cracking down and oppressing merchants and civilians, arresting people who criticize the government or ask questions, it's given a token "Baahhh those dang Night Watchers!" response by the Captain and Commander and others, as if they were Scooby Doo villains.
None of this changes until VERY late in the story, when finally they break away from Earth. After the Shadow War just sort of ends, they turn to dealing with Earth more seriously.
I suffered through Star Trek Voyager, I can suffer through the rest of this, but as to the totality of this series, I summarize:
-Atrocious, cliche-ridden, painful, childish dialogue
-Stale, mediocre writing
-Overall below average acting
-Hideous visual effects, even as far in as 1997, season 4
-Tons of boring filler episodes
-One-dimensional, unlikeable human characters
-Ridiculous individual episode stories
-Unbelievable, unrealistic behavior and responses from characters in certain situations
Description of Babylon 5: The Complete Seasons 1-5
Own all five seasons of the award-winning series about the space station that's the tumultuous center of the 23rd century's bid for peace among humans and aliens.The epic sci-fi series Babylon 5 was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and familiarizes the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. The first episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line," plays at a breathless pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). B5 hits warp speed with a run of exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part "Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, the story leads to the superb time-travel-based "Babylon Squared." Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the usual television cliffhanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a decision that laid the groundwork for Babylon 5's eventually becoming a great love story.
Delenn's future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) arrived on Babylon 5 in the first episode of season 2, "Points of Departure." The show marked the handing over of command of B5 to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor Michael O'Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted a bigger star in the leading role. "Revelations" explains that Sheridan's wife, Anna, died during an archaeological survey of the world Z'ha'dum, the name being just one of many references to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (the bridge at Khazad-Dum). "The Coming of Shadows" proved to be Babylon 5's finest hour to date, and in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Sheridan learns that Morden was on the ship on which Anna died. Three exceptional shows conclude the season. The Narn-Centauri war escalates in "The Long, Twilight Struggle," Sheridan faces a most unusual ordeal in "Comes the Inquisitor," and in "The Fall of Night" all hope of peace is shattered as a nerve-racking assassination attempt reveals a startling secret about Ambassador Kosh.
"Matters of Honor" launched Babylon 5's third season with the introduction of the White Star, a spacecraft added to enable more of the action to take place away from the station. Also introduced was Marcus Cole (Jason Carter)--in another nod to The Lord of the Rings, a Ranger not so far removed from Tolkien's Strider. A third of the way through the season "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" prove pivotal, changing the nature of the story in a way previously unimaginable on network TV. Earth slides into dictatorship, the fascistic Nightwatch takes control of off-world security, and Sheridan take decisive action by declaring Babylon 5 independent. "Interludes and Examinations" presented the death of a major supporting character, while the two-part "War Without End" reached apocalyptic dimensions in a complex tale resolving the destiny of Sinclair and the fate of Babylon 4, resolving a 1,000-year-old paradox and presenting a vision of a very dark future for Sheridan and Delenn. All this was trumped by the monumental "Z'ha'dum." In the preceding "Shadow Dancing" Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner's real-life wife) returned from the dead, no longer entirely human. In the mythologically resonant climax Anna invited Sheridan back to the Shadow homeworld with no hope of survival. Just as in The Lord of the Rings Gandalf fell into the abyss at Khazad-Dum, so Sheridan took a comparable leap into the unknown on an alien world.
Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows in "Into the Fire." If this colossal narrative was resolved a little too easily and the ultimate aim of the Shadows turned out to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one relentless cycle of conspiracy, betrayal and conflict, Babylon 5 siding with the rebel Mars colony against the totalitarian Earth. On an unstoppable wave fuelled by roller-coaster plot twists and spectacular action shows from "No Surrender, No Retreat"--when Sheridan avows to overthrow EarthGov--to "Rising Star"--when the aim is realized--Babylon 5 achieved a consistent excellence rare in television.
The final season found Claudia Christian departed and Ivanova replaced by Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), who in a soap-opera twist turned out to be Sheridan's first wife. Sheridan was promoted to President of the Interstellar Alliance and the action moved to a group of telepaths seeking sanctuary from the PSI-Corp on B5. Meanwhile the aftermath of the Shadow War was explored, and as usual the season picked up toward the end, with a string of fine political episodes. The final episode, "Sleeping in Light," was directed by J. Michael Straczynski and made an epilogue to the series. Set 20 years later, after all the sound and fury this quiet, elegiac tale is the apotheosis of the love story that proved the balance to the tragedy of the preceding darkness. A personal story resolved against a background of the epic, at once transcendent, deeply human, and profoundly optimistic, "Sleeping in Light" is as moving as any hour in the history of television drama and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to one of the greatest series ever made. --Gary S. Dalkin
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