Babylon 5: The Gathering/In the Beginning

Babylon 5: The Gathering/In the Beginning
by Michael Vejar, Richard Compton

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DVD details

• The long-running, Emmy-winning TV series launches onto DVD with two feature-length adventures about an outer-space way station.

DVD Reviews of Babylon 5: The Gathering/In the Beginning

DVD Review: Preview / Review While We Wait
Summary: 5 Stars

Although I cannot yet speak for the quality of the DVD or any special features that WB may deem to add, I can offer a synopsis of the two movies included on this first disk, and comment on what special features Babylon 5 fans would WANT to see included on this and future disks.

BABYLON 5: THE GATHERING:

When it was originally aired in 1993, "Babylon 5: The Gathering" was simply titled "Babylon 5". It was a movie that served as a pilot for a new science fiction series. It was also the culmination of a dream for writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski to create an epic science fiction "novel for television". The movie had the daunting task of introducing viewers to the large cast of humans and aliens populating the station, exposing their personal motivations and the political machinations of their respective worlds, planting the seeds of some of B5's trademark mysteries, and perhaps above all else, differentiating itself from that other science fiction series - Star Trek. It accomplishes this while in the midst of a fairly standard "whodunit".

The movie begins with the fifth and last Babylon station becoming fully operational. It is a port of call, located in neutral space - an orbiting cross between Casablanca and the United Nations. The five major space faring worlds have all sent their Ambassadors here to better understand each other and "create the peace". These races are the Minbari, the Narn, the Centauri, the Humans, and finally, the most mysterious and powerful of all known races, the Vorlons.

The Babylon Project was co-sponsored by the Minbari government. Several years earlier, the Minbari were at war with Earth. At the end, their forces advanced all the way to Earth itself, then on the eve of Earth's total annihilation, the Minbari surrendered and the war was over. Babylon 5 is commanded by Jeffrey Sinclair, a decorated war hero who was there at that fateful battle, known as "The Battle of the Line". He is plagued by survivor's guilt and a 24 hour gap in his memory......

The drama begins in earnest with the arrival of Kosh, the Vorlon Ambassador. But when the command staff arrives to greet him, Kosh is found to have been poisoned and near death. Soon after, the primary suspect turns out to be Commander Sinclair himself!

This version of the movie is actually the "Producer's Cut", completed in 1998. Several changes were made from the film that first aired. Some effects scenes were redone due to rapid improvements in the CGI effects technology that Babylon 5 pioneered. Some scenes were removed completely, others restored in their place, and overall the film was edited to improve the pacing. Finally, Babylon 5 series composer Christopher Franke was brought in to score the new version so it would have a more consistent feel with the series (Stewart Copeland scored the movie originally). All of these changes worked to great effect, making the special edition of "The Gathering" a vast improvement over the original. The movie is still a little clunky from time to time, the acting a tad rough in spots (some actors were replaced before the start of the series), but the potential was undeniably there. The story had begun.

BABYLON 5: IN THE BEGINNING: This a glorious film filled with all the drama, joy, pain, and sorrow that fans of Babylon 5 have come to know and love. If you could take the entire series and distill it, put it into a bottle, this movie would be it. Like The Gathering, this movie first aired in 1998, when Babylon 5 had been purchased by cable channel TNT. In addition to buying the rights to run the series, they commissioned two new 2 hour tele-movies. The first to run was "Babylon 5: In the Beginning".

It is a prequel of sorts, although portions of the movie take place 17 years *after* the principle events of Babylon 5. It was designed in such a way as to bring new viewers into the show quickly, as well as giving long-time fans what they wanted to see; the events at The Battle of the Line. It begins with the aged Centauri Londo Mollari telling the story of the Earth/Minbari War. Clearly things are not well on his world, but I won't spoil the story by telling why. He goes on to tell the story of how the war began, the attempts to stop it, some of the major battles, and the reason for the Minbari surrender. Then in a strange twist, an element is introduced at the end of the film to let you know that the story is not yet over.

This film is damn near perfect. The music, the special effects, and story are all spectacular. Peter Jurasik gives another great performance as Londo Mollari. Almost all the characters from the show make some sort of appearance in the film. Of course, it's not without a few flaws. First and foremost, this movie *blatantly* provides spoilers to mysteries that were not resolved in the series until Season 3. Also, the movie focuses heavily on the character of John Sheridan, played by Bruce Boxleitner, who took over the lead role after the departure of Michael O'Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair) in 1995. O'Hare was not brought back to film any additional scenes due to budgetary concerns and as a result, his pivotal appearance at The Battle of the Line, using previously filmed scenes from the series, has a rather "tacked on" feeling. New viewers would be likely to say, "Who's HE?"

So all in all, two good fun movies that will hopefully inspire folks out there to buy those Babylon 5: The Series DVD BOX SETS (hint hint). It should be noted too that some of the best story elements of Babylon 5 the series are not even hinted at in these two movies. So there's plenty more out there to see.

As for special features: What would B5 fans like?

1. Audio commentaries from cast and crew. 2. Behind the scenes documentaries, effects vignettes. 3. Bloopers, outtakes, deleted scenes. 4. Anamorphic widescreen, surround sound, and captions.

Thanks to Warner Bros Home Video and DVD for finally bringing this product to the fans.

Description of Babylon 5: The Gathering/In the Beginning