Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales
by J. Michael Straczynski

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DVD details

Actor: Bruce Boxleitner, Peter Woodward, Tracy Scoggins
Director: J. Michael Straczynski
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Bros.

DVD Reviews of Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

DVD Review: Don't waste your time
Summary: 1 Stars

Without a doubt the WORST Babylon 5 production ever!

This low budget straight-to-DVD movie was such a disappointment that I almost didn't even watch it all the way to the end. The noisy, densely populated (remember 250,000 humans and aliens?) Babylon 5 space station now seems eerily silent. You never see more than three people in a room and most of those people don't have any speaking parts.

There's no real action in this movie and we have far more monologue than we do dialog. The sets are minimalist as is the cast. There are only three characters that you'll recognize from the show, and the rest of the cast comes to five or six people.

The first part of the movie is a preachy, heavily religious piece of script that was pointless and a waste of time. It was painful to watch and it was easily the worst script Tracy Scoggins has ever been forced to read.

Bruce Boxleitner doesn't show up until almost halfway into the movie and his lines aren't much better.

The movie is only an hour and twelve minutes long, however the story unwinds so slowly and is so painful to watch it seems more like three hours and twelve minutes.

The ending is extremely anti-climactic and even as the ending credits are rolling down the screen, you find yourself asking, "is that it? They call that an ending?"

If you're desperate for a Babylon 5 fix, go and re-watch some of the old episodes. "The Lost Tales" should have remained lost!

DVD Review: Theists vs. atheists!
Summary: 5 Stars

I have to admit that I was never a fan of the TV series. I might have watched a few episodes when there was nothing else interesting on TV, but I never watched a complete season or felt the urge to buy or rent a complete season.

Since I love watching sci-fi, I decided to buy this movie. Wow!!!!!! I loved it.

This movie is really two different stories, and reminded me a little bit of the twilight zone. The first story deals with a demon, and was just amazing in its spiritual and religious message. The second story revolved around the ethical question of whether killing a person who might grow up to be a monster is ethical. If we knew that baby Hitler and baby Genghis Khan will grow up to be monsters, would it have been justified to kill them while they were still young and innocent? Can the future really be changed? Is hope always lean and on a diet?

Though the second story was good but nothing really special, it is the first story of the demon that wins a five star rating. I have recently been reading a lot about religion, especially books by atheists. I am not an atheist, but I was very interested in how atheists think. Some of their arguments are pretty convincing. For example, why does God allow so much pain? The question of pain and suffering is what sways most people towards atheism. This movie tackles this problem wonderfully.

The plot of the first story is as follows: Since man has journeyed deep in space, and found no angels and no God, his faith diminished to the point that priests became rare. However, a priest is called upon when a man is suspected of being possessed by a demonic spirit while aboard Babylon 5. The dialogue between the priest and the commander of Babylon 5 about God and atheism is just inspiring. It pretty much sums up everything I have been reading about atheism. But as you will see in the movie, the story takes a sharp twist. Is the demon really a demon? Do demons live in space, or were they cast away somewhere else by God? What's God's divine plan in creating demons in the first place?

This movie will tackle many theological questions, and this makes it quite unique by sci-fi standards. This is a movie I'm sure I'll watch many times.

DVD Review: Well done science fiction
Summary: 5 Stars

This release is one of the better Babylon films, it embodies much to think about, as well as great acting, and a provocative plot, with enough memorabilia to satiate the taste of Babylon 5 fans, as well as new viewers. I was thoroughly satisfied with both the content, script, writing and settings, I believe this will satisfy most, if not all science fiction fans.

DVD Review: Still Great Babylon 5!
Summary: 5 Stars

True, it's "bare bones" Babylon 5, but the writing is great, the stories compelling and it satisfied my hunger for more after the last Babylon 5 episodes. Also included are some fun, silly clips of Straczynski, the actors and crew. The memorials to the actors Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs were meaningful to me. Glad I bought "The Lost Tales" to complete my Babylon 5 Collection.

DVD Review: A GREAT SHADOW OF ITS FORMER SELF
Summary: 5 Stars

Even on a tight budget, B5 never fails to impress. These are two great stories--yes, real stories with substance and grit. Watching the vid made me long for the glory days, but thank God JMS had the guts to do this one. Sci-fi will never be the same since this series premiered. I only hope I live to see more adventures in this universe. I had a chance to talk to Tracy Scoggins at a Star Trek convention in 07. She has such a good time with the original and with this film. She was laughing and rather proud that she had been promoted to Commander. Thanks JMS for keeping us thinking, all the while we are enjoying the experience.

Description of Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Times change. Dangers remain. 10 years after he became President of the Interstellar Alliance, Sheridan prepares for a fateful Babylon 5 reunion that could prevent Earth's impending doom...if he will also compromise his core principles. Meanwhile, commander Lochley confronts an unexpected interloper on the way station - a being whose presence makes the B5 freeport the crossroads between heaven and hell. In Voices in the Dark, Series creator J. Michael Straczynski reunites with stars Bruce Boxleitner and Tracy Scoggins in two richly imagined stories set after the events of the original series. Richly imagined, too, is Straczynski's vision of the 23rd century (including a dazzling New York City) - a vision made more spectacular via filmmaking technology unavailable during the original series.

It'd be hard for any Babylon 5 fan not to feel a surge of emotion when President Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) returns to the space station that was the setting of one of the monumental series in television history. The Lost Tales is a new direct-to-DVD series in an anthology format, the first installment of which, subtitled "Voices in the Dark," includes two stories centering on the return of Sheridan. The first involves Colonel Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) and a crewman (Bruce Ramsay) who appears to be possessed by a demon, to the bewilderment of the priest attempting an exorcism (Alan Scarfe). The second involves Sheridan himself, who upon returning to B5 is asked to pick up a delegate from the Centauri, prince Regent Vintari (Keegan MacIntosh), who's attending the 10th anniversary celebration of the Interstellar Alliance in the place of old Centauri friend Londo Molari. What Sheridan doesn't expect is a psychic visit by techno-mage Galen (Peter Woodward) urging him to kill the boy before he becomes a dictator.

It's a treat to see Sheridan, Lochley, and Galen return from the original series (Woodward was also in the spin-off, Crusade), but The Lost Tales focuses on character-driven stories, and as such there's not a lot of action. The CGI effects are good, but sets are very limited and there are hardly any other cast members. (Sheridan even spends most of his time away from B5.) Creator-writer J. Michael Straczynski has said that if The Lost Tales succeeds, future stories might focus on Delenn or Garbibaldi. While that would be welcome, it might be even better to get a feature film (a la Serenity) that would presumably be on more of the epic scale that Babylon 5 deserves. Bonus features are 17 minutes of off-the-cuff interviews held on the set with Boxleitner and Straczynski, Scoggins and the crew, and Straczynski with Woodward; memorials to late cast members Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs; and Straczynski's diaries and fireside chats, in which he recounts the show's production and answers fan questions. --David Horiuchi

DVD features

Interviews with J. Michael Straczynski, Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, and Peter Woodward
Memorials: Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs
The Straczynski Diaries: a multi-part series of vignettes as filmed by J. Michael Straczynski as he documents every phase of pre-production, production and post
Fireside Chats: profiling the people of the B5 universe

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