Babylon 5 - The Complete Fourth Season (1994)

Babylon 5 4

Season four resolves several issues regarding the Vorlans and Shadows, then starts a new series of conflicts. October 2, 2008

Babylon 5 - fourth season

This season is pretty hardcore sci-fi with lots of battle scenes. It may not have quite the level of humor as that of the other seasons, but it has its moments. The final episode is particularly interesting because of its overview of the whole Babylon5 universe. July 30, 2008

Babylon 5 Fifth Season

Shipment was very fast. The box was sealed and the DVDs are in great shape. July 21, 2008

About the set...

Okay, so, yeah, I'm a big fan of B5, blah blah blah. I'm not going to write a content review because if you're getting the fourth season, you probably know a thing or two about one of the best SF series of all time.

No, I want to praise the collection itself. The CDs in each set are beautiful. Each set is color coded to the box it comes in. Each season comes in 6 disks, all clearly numbered and illustrated.

The disks themselves play on every DVD player I've ever put them in. No funny tricks or anything beyond the basic DVD format, and work like a charm in the crappiest of DVD players.

Enormous attention was given to the crafting of the disks: no commercials, production ads, or other time-sensitive garbage. Even the FBI warning is tacked onto the end of the last episode of each disk. The disk can be played without a remote. By default, subtitles are turned off, the title track is played and the disk automatically cues up to a "play all episodes" choice; just hit play and enjoy.

But, of course you can delve in, change settings, even skip straight to a specific scene, yadda...

The only down side is the small number of episodes with commentaries or additional info. I really enjoy getting into the heads of the people who make entertainment, listen to in-jokes, bloopers, etc. But this series has, usually, 3 episodes a season for which they've elected to create a commentary track, and no more. Sure the final disk has a couple of other extras (making of clips, etc) but very skimpy on the second audio track.

All in all, my favorite season, of my favorite show, on my the best disks in my collection. March 12, 2008

Another strong season

My favorite season of BABYLON 5 is Season Three, where the war against the shadows dominates. Season Four focuses more on the war to unseat President Bush . . . uh, I mean Clark, who has made a mockery of civil liberties, engaged in a propagandistic war of redefining such concepts of loyalty and treachery, and pretty much brought about the kind of world that many believe our current president probably fantasizes about. Indeed, B5 boards are full of threads about the prescience of B5 in not only reading the nature of the far right in the US in the nineties, but anticipating the nature of their ascendance to power in the first decade of the new century. From its very beginning B5 was an intensely political show. If it was slightly less topical than BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, it nonetheless was far more specifically critical of trends in American politics. If BSG's main purpose is to make the current political situation less black and white but considerably grayer, B5 is out to condemn certain trends in our political situation. I will hasten to add, however, that apart from President Clark, who is an almost pure embodiment of the fondest hopes and desires of many in the far right of today (if you read the writings of many of the Dominionists, who have had considerable influence on many leaders in the GOP -- including James Dobson, Mike Huckabee, and Pat Robertson -- they insist on using the power of government to enforce ideological agreement).

For a number of reasons, however, I didn't find Season Four as compelling as Season Three. A good deal of that lies in arc that involves Garibaldi becoming a sleeper agent for the Psy Corps. At no point did this seem quite right. Nonetheless, overall this is a very fascinating season. Looking at BABYLON 5 as a whole, I have a number of beefs with it. I detest the look of the aliens, especially Londo's utterly ludicrous hairstyle, which is only slightly more appalling than his accent. If I eventually got used to it, I never came to like either Londo's look or voice. Nor, really, the look of any of the aliens on the show. I also had trouble imagining a human falling in love with a half-alien with a gigantic bony protuberance encircling her head. But the show also did a number of things that I very much liked. Let me enumerate those.

First, B5 is not afraid to shake things up. Although I am suspicious of the claim that creator J. Michael Straczynski had all five seasons meticulously planned out as many claim (if he had, the series would have peaked in Season Five, not Season Three, nor would the final two seasons be somewhat anticlimactic to the Third), there definitely is a lot of forethought put into the stories that Straczynski wants to tell. The best was the Shadow War, but there were also thrown out there the story of a totalitarian right-wing Earth president and the problem of what to do with the telepaths. All these elements were put out there in Season One and gradually resolved in the subsequent four seasons. But along the way Straczynski showed a willingness to shake up the cast. There are very few characters who started off in the TV movie that began B5 who are there at the very end. Even some major characters are either gained or lost along the way, trading Sheridan for Sinclair after Season Two, keeping Marcus Cole for only two seasons, and loving Ivanova after the fourth. I like shows that show no fear in changing everything around from time to time. More shows need to try this.

So, all in all, another good season for B5. In fact, Seasons 3 and 4 combined are easily the highpoint of the series. Season 5 would be a bit of a let down both in terms of story and in cast, as many characters either leave entirely or play a more subdued role. February 26, 2008

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