8.20.03
BABYLON 5 Movie Collection
DVD Boxed Set Review

Suggested Retail Price: $59.98 
Online Price: $41.99 
Costco:  $36.99

DETAILS: 
* Region 1 
* 5 Discs
* 5 Telefilms  
* Widescreen
* English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish 
* Studio: Warner Home Video 
* Unrated 

TELEFILMS 
1.  The Gathering 
2.  In The Beginning 
3.  Thirdspace 
4.  The River of Souls 
5.  A Call to Arms

Stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Michael O'Hare, Tamyln Tomita, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Peter Jurasik, Claudia Christian, Shari Belafonte, Tracy Scoggins, Jeff Conaway, Carrie Dobro, Peter Woodward, Tony Todd,  Ian McShane, and Martin Sheen.

I looked forward to Babylon 5 every week in syndication and when it moved to TNT (though it wasn't as good). The telefilms were awesome. These TV films were done with feature film quality. They were excellent compliments to a stellar series. 

When Babylon 5's pilot hit the airwaves I was concerned about it being so much like Star Trek's Deep Space Nine. Star Trek's best series. The only thing these shows had in common was being based on space stations. Babylon began as a gritty series with a five year story arc that was full of smaller stories contained within the big picture. This was something DS9 producers copied later in the Trek franchise.  

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski had created characters there were fleshed out into people you could believe existed. They were heroes with human faults and frailties. Characters you could enjoy and hate at the same time. People you looked forward to bringing into your home every week. A wonderful mix of characters, story and special effects. 

Babylon 5 is a must have for any Sci-Fi fan. It's hard to imagine a real science fiction fan who could not enjoy this series. Farscape is the only other television series which could tell a more interesting story.

VIDEO 

Like previous B5 boxed sets some of the shows effects suffer a slight quality drop from time to time. The transfer from the series effects were done originally to tape and then enlarged and cropped for widescreen. This is causing some quality issues with some portions of the video. Only the gathering is presented in the Pan & Scan format. The remaining four films are presented in a matted Widescreen.  The color is excellent. Blacks are dark and sharp with no color bleeding. 

AUDIO 

The audio transfer is in Dolby Digital 5.0 and sounds great on the stereo television. But it could have been a better transfer for the surround sound. The real potential for surround was not used. But it does sound good. 

EXTRAS 

The disc set contains limited extras. There are new introductions for each telefilm as well as commentary on each from JMS and various cast members. 

Once you've seen the extras once or twice they are generally forgotten. Basically fans just want the series uncut. 

SUMMARY 

You've got to give kudos to Warner Home Video with the way they finished off Babylon 5. The movie boxed set meets the standards of the seasonal boxed sets. For a series that Warner Bros. was reluctant to release on DVD it's the first series they have completed. If the other material on their DVD to do list gets this treatment fans are in for a real treat. 

The fans get the biggest pat on the back. With the single disc release, the sales were good enough for Warner to increase the schedule. 

I am extremely happy to have the entire Babylon 5 series on disc. It's one of my three favorite sci-fi series. 

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