Most of you know I'm a big fan of Babylon 5. It was a cutting edge TV series whose formula of storytelling is now being aped by pretty much everyone. The show ran its course and served its purpose. But it was a shaky road in getting to the end (all of which series creator J. Michael Straczynski chronicles in a book series entitled The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski).
But with the main story told we leave behind a rich legacy of characters and worlds that would be great places to visit from time to time. Since the show left the air in 1998 we've had a few attempts at a resurrection. A companion series Crusade was misunderstood by the network that ordered it and cancelled before it could even air (though the 13 episodes produced did eventually air and are now on DVD). A TV Movie Legend of the Rangers was interesting, but didn't have enough of the characters and stories we loved most.
Now we get a very noble attempt at changing the distribution formula. A direct to DVD production entitled Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. Designed to continue the stories of the characters we have come to know, this new release is good when it could have been great.
Essentially a "longer" episode of the series (clocking in at 72 minutes), we get two stories that are barely linked. Interstellar Alliance President Sheridan (Bruce Boxlitner) is returning to Babylon 5 for the 10th Anniversary of the creation of the IA. In preparation, Colonel Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) has to deal with a crew member who may be possessed by a demon. Meanwhile, Sheridan is visited by Galen the Technomage (Peter Woodward) who wants him to kill the Centauri Regent Prince who is travelling with him.
While the connection is Sheridan's return to the station, the stories don't really intertwine and can be watched separately. The Lochley story is rather thin and is representative of a rather pedestrian episode of the series. The Sheridan/Galen story is much more interesting. The production looks magnificent when it comes to most of the CGI. In fact, the CGI looks much better than it did on the series. Of course, the trade off here is that since the production was done on the "cheap" as a "test" (if its successful there will be more), the one thing that doesn't look as good as it did is the inside of the station itself. During the series Babylon 5 was a bustling and busy station. Here, it seems empty. A shell of its former self. We get to see mostly empty corridors and small rooms since all the money was spent on a new CGI docking bay. A bit of a shame.
Luckily, Straczynski's writing remains sharp and we get mentions of everyone from the series, including a touching reference to Doctor Franklin and G'Kar (both Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas have passed away). And maybe that's part of the larger issue. While it may be nice to see these "lost tales", knowing that two of the characters can never actually return to the screen (even thought they are still alive in the B5 universe) makes watching something like this even more heartbreaking.
For such a short program, the DVD is rounded out by some nice extras including a tribute to each of the late actors, a look at the making of the show and a few other interviews with the actors on display here and the show's creator.
While I hope this does well enough for at least one more (Straczynski stated he originally had three stories for the first one, but the Garibaldi story got too large for the budget of this release), I also hope there's more money and a bit more ambition behind the next one.
I'll be back over the weekend with the savior of the universe.
Be seeing you.
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