Babylon 5 - The Complete Fifth Season (1994)

Babylon 5 - The Complete Fifth Season

This is an alright set but I though it was a disapointing and unsatisfying end to a great scfi series. July 9, 2008

A fitting end to a great series

The great things about BABYLON 5 were that, 1) Joe Straczynski stayed true to his intentions throughout of having a story arc with a beginning, middle and end, with few deviations (and those deviations that were there were interesting!) and, 2)the quality factor of the series remained high to the end. This was as true of the last season of BABYLON 5 as of the four that preceeded it. Sure, there were some episodes that were not up to snuff, but that's par for the course on any series, and every episode, even the lesser ones, had something of interest. For me, the tragic fate of Londo Mollari and the culmination of his complex relationship with G'kar are the guts of the most effective dramatic moments in this season, but every aspect of the end of this saga has substance, not something you can always say about science fiction and fantasy on television.

I don't watch a lot of television and I almost never collect series TV shows on DVD or download, but the five original seasons of BABYLON 5 are the exception. From start to finish, it was a terrific show. June 20, 2008

B5 after five years manages to go gently into that good night

The final season of BABYLON 5 is an odd one. Until the end of the season, when the events focus on the decline and fall of Centauri Prime, much of the action is focused on an arc concerning renegade telepaths. The story never really takes off and never becomes particularly compelling, and it does really result in anything definitive in the way that the conclusions of the Shadow Wars and the Civil War against President Clark and his minions changed the landscape of the show. I enjoyed Lyta Alexander as a character, but I hated to see her involved in such a relatively dull storyline.

For the most part, the first two-thirds of the final season was pretty lackluster, with the one glittering exception being the marvelous standalone episode by guest writer Neil Gaiman, "Day of the Dead." I appreciate the amazing achievement of J. Michael Straczynski in writing virtually ever episode of the show. Only David E. Kelly can claim to top him in prolificacy of writing (while Straczynski wrote nearly all of B5, Kelly wrote the majority of a half dozen major series, surely an accomplishment that will never be equaled again). Personally, however, I think B5 lost something in having Straczynski write nearly everything. I personally believe that B5 lacked a little in diversity and in scope of vision other series like BUFFY or BSG. And part of the reason is that the main writers on both of those shows -- Joss Whedon and Ron Moore respectively -- took a different approach from Straczynski. They broke the main storylines and wrote key episodes themselves, but for the most part they served more as executive story editors, hiring a staff of some of the best writers in the business to flesh out their story ideas and then polishing the scripts as they were being prepared for production. There is no question that B5 is from first to last the product of the imagination of J. Michael Straczynski, but I think it is less rich than if others had been involved in the writing process. The wonderful Neil Gaiman episode is a brilliant illustration of that. Also, the show over time showed some of Straczynski's vices as well as virtues. He is, for instance, pretty weak at comedy, though he does recognize the value of comic sequences. He also tends to be an incredibly verbose writer. Given the choice of saying or showing, he'll choose saying every time. On the other hand, I really enjoyed his ability to visualize storylines over long periods of time. He is an incredibly patient writer, willing to throw out a detail that won't really get dealt with for a couple of years. B5 would have been impossible without J. Michael Straczynski. I just think he would have been a richer show if he had brought in other writers to help out and broaden the texture of the show.

As I mentioned, the long telepath arc never really caught fire like the President Clark or Shadows arcs did. Furthermore, some of the main characters on the show seemed to play a lessened role in the first part of Season 5. Bruce Boxleitner had considerably less screen time, as did Mira Furlan. Claudia Christian unfortunately left the show after Season Four and her absence was palpable. Steven Furst also played a much smaller role, though he contributed more off-screen by directing some episodes. I liked Tracy Scoggins a lot as Captain Lochley. I knew her primarily from Season One of THE ADVENTURES OF LOIS AND CLARK, where she played the office sexpot (and got booted off the show by network prudes who felt she was too sexy for it to be the family show they envisioned it should be) and was surprised that she could be convincing in a role that didn't depend on her being sexy.

The last third of the season was, however, a thing of beauty. These episodes were dramatic, exciting, thrilling, and basically everything B5 could be at its best. Londo ends the series as one of the most tragic characters in the history of TV, as he has finally come to realize what matters and what doesn't, but is put into an utterly impossible position. The last couple of episodes are devoted to goodbyes. Various characters leave B5 for the last time as nearly everyone we've known on the show leaves the station for new adventures elsewhere. The series finale is one of the most emotionally satisfying ends to a series ever. Knowing that the twenty year extension on his life is about to expire, Sheridan assembles all his friends from B5 for a final goodbye, and then leaves without telling them. On the way he stops at B5, on the very day it is about to be decommissioned and destroyed. The last person we see on B5 is a technician who is played by J. Michael Straczynski, who literally turns the lights out. A few seconds later we see a series of explosions ripple from one end of the station to another, as Babylon 5 the station comes to an end only a few minutes before BABYLON 5 the series. The series ends on a grand slam home run. (BTW, the destruction of B5 shows how far the CGI on the show came during its five-year run -- in the first seasons the CGI was clumsy, ugly, and frankly just not very impressive, but by the end of the series new software packages had come out to produce some truly lovely shots.)

I've always been honest to anyone I've talked to about this show that I've had a love-hate relationship with B5. It did so many things right but also so many things wrong. Dramatically it was slower to get off the ground than any series I know, but in the end delivered some of the better, more compelling storylines that I've seen. I detested the appalling hair of Londo as well as his improbable accent, but came to like the grand tragedy connected to his character. In the end, the good definitely outweighed the bad. I'm also immensely grateful that the network was patient enough with the show to let it develop all its main stories to the very end. Just think how horrid it would have been had B5 been cancelled after Season 3. In the end it got to go out on its own terms. All series should be so lucky. March 11, 2008

Bought a DVD collection that was in original packaging for a practically used DVD price

I thought my "New" DVD collection would be a used one with new shrink wrap on it. I was completely pleased when it truly turned out to be new. The price was great and it arrived more quickly than a book I had ordered the day before I placed this order (both places in the same state as where I live). I was psyched. Great Job!!! I definitely would use this site again. March 10, 2008

Two for one special

At the beginning of the fourth season, JMS was told he would only be able to do four seasons, instead of his planned five.

So all the action and plans he had scheduled for the last two seasons are jam packed into one season, and it will leave you breathless as the Ancient Argument and Earth War are shown to their conclusion.

Of course, at the end of season four, he was told there would be five seasons. What his response was, we'll never know, though it would probably be censored. February 13, 2008

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