Babylon 5 - The Complete First Season (1994)

A fine, if faltering, beginning to the epic

By 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation was a smash-hit, the biggest and most successful space-based SF show in history pulling in over ten million viewers weekly. It was unsurprising that other studios would start looking for a piece of Paramount's space opera pie. Warner Brothers chose to go with a proposal by J. Michael Straczynski, a respected scriptwriter with a huge output and a solid background working in animation and on live-action shows such as Captain Power and Murder She Wrote. JMS, as he prefers to be known, had created an ambitious five-year plan. Unlike other series, Babylon 5 would have an unifying 'story arc' that would progress throughout the series. Characters would die, empires would fall and others would rise to replace them, but these epic events would be told through a relatively small number of characters located on a single space station.

Season 1's role in the narrative is to introduce the races, concepts and underlying themes of the series. There is a huge amount going on, and it's impossible to deny that JMS has created a fantastically rich universe. In many ways it is the antithesis of Star Trek. Earth is riven by corruption and political dissent, and ranks only somewhere around the middle on the technological scale, centuries behind races like the Minbari, and they don't even have artificial gravity (B5 and the larger Earth warships have to spin to simulate gravity; most ships are weightless environments). There's also a concentration on the 'little man', with several episodes focusing on the homeless and working class of the station, and one even heavily featuring labour and union relations of the 23rd Century. However, there are also several major space battles and some very impressive early CGI, most of which still stands up well today (aside from the slight problem that the CGI shots were not rendered at full film quality, meaning they look a little fuzzy on DVD, but not enough to impair enjoyment of the show).

Season 1 mostly consists of stand-alone episodes, but each episode usually has something to add to the overall tapestry of the story, and the late-season episodes Eyes and Chrysalis do an excellent job of showing what role those apparently unrelated tales in the grander narrative. The quality of the episodes and performances also varies tremendously. A key problem is Michael O'Hare as Sinclair, whose performance is a little too stoic and stiff. When he is forced to come to life, he overacts somewhat badly. Notably his better performances come when he strikes the right note between the two, but these moments are rare throughout the first season. Elsewhere the cast is first-rate, particularly the late Andreas Katsulas as Narn Ambassador G'Kar and Peter Jurasik as Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari. Both have comic elements to them and the actors pull them off, but it is the dramatic tension between them as their races squabble for power that impresses the most. Jerry Doyle also makes an impression as Garibaldi. Not a trained actor (he was a stockbroker before taking on the role), he lacks confidence at the start of the season but improves throughout.

Of the episodes, the highlights are And the Sky Full of Stars, in which Sinclair starts uncovering why the Minbari gave up on the brink of their victory; Signs and Portents, in which Londo inadvertantly strikes a bargain with an enigmatic faction; Babylon Squared, a time travel story in which we get some clues as to what is going to happen several years down the line; and the magnificent Chrysalis, one of the best episodes of TV SF ever, which gives the viewer the feeling that the writer has gone completely insane, torn up the show's bible and now anything can happen. However, to balance this out are episodes which are simply dire, such as Infection, Mind War (despite a heroic performance by former Star Trek alumni Walter Koenig as Psi Cop Bester), TKO and Grail.

Season 1 of Babylon 5 (***½) successfully intrigues the viewer in this vivid and fascinating world. It is well worth a look, even if it fails to match the dizzying heights of the successive two seasons. September 30, 2008

the magic of babylone 5

Love the adventures of Babylon 5! Will watch it over and over again...It came within a week and was factory sealed....Kudos for a job well done..thanks...roxanne September 6, 2008

Stick with it! It does get good ... eventually

This was my first taste of Babylon 5. After the first episode, I thought 'Why did I buy this?' Only the prospect of real quality sci-fi to come kept me watching. Looking back, I'm glad I did. About the first third of this is dreck: the special effects were very dated, the acting was forced, and the storylines were not cohesive, making it difficult to care about what was happening or the characters' plight. However, everything about the show improves drastically closer to the end of the season: the storylines tie together, the characters are better portrayed, the dramatic moments become actually dramatic, and even the special effects seem to look more sleek. The season ends with a bang, and I can't wait until Season 2 arrives in the mail! I give the first season only three stars because, as I mentioned, the first few episodes really are bad. July 7, 2008

Not Great

I'm a big fan of the series, but you have to look at it like a book. This season is the preface, then the middle three are great, the final is an epilogue. I picked up the middle three, but not the first or last. Purely my opinion, and if you didn't see this season by all means watch it, but it's not on par with the later ones. April 21, 2008

Quality of a fan film

I finally got around to watching Babylon 5 (found the entire 5 seasons at a local wharehouse store for $100). It's been one I've wanted to see for some time, but before now, it has always been too expensive to justify purchasing.

Now to the review. Note, this review is for season 1 only. In fact, with the exception of the first few episodes of season 2 now, it is the only complete season I have yet seen.

My first impression was, I admit, embarressment. I could not believe that I had spent money on this as I watched the first episode and the only thing that kept me plodding along was the fact the friends who are fans of the series always told me it improved as the series went on.

Fortunately, they appear to be right. Season 1 itself improved, but is far from being the best of Sci-fi (my current impression of this series is that of a poor man's DS9).

The human characters in this season seem far too wooden, especially the commander himself, though he enventually developes into a likable character (still wooden throughout the series, though). The rest of the human characters don't feel real. I don't know if it's that they are simply miscast or given poor lines/direction, but they do not convince me that they are the characters they are portraying.

The alien characters, however, are a different story and they are what makes the first season most enjoyable. They are much more convincing then their "human" counterparts. Unfortunately, most often they are minor characters.

The special effects are only OK. They remind me of some I've seen on some of the better SW fan films on TFN, or perhaps on a video game. The ships look good, but lack a feeling of substance.

Overall, not a bad effort and enjoyable enough to watch the whole season in a little under a month. The first few episodes were a bit difficult to get through, but once the story started falling into place, it no longer became a struggle to watch. April 9, 2008

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