DVD Review: Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales

Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of this one do well enough for WB to go along with the idea).  The “Lost Tales” are meant to be stories sandwiched between the end (proper) of the series and “Sleeping in the Light” decades in the future.  The stories in this volume are set in 2271, several years after the series end,  

(No spoilers below, but I can’t promise anything in the links.)

Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales (2007)

Overall		Story
Production		Acting

Story:  There are two stories on this volume (subtitled “Voices in the Dark”).  The first is an oddly supernatural tale centered on Elizabeth Lochley; it’s a fun story, but, honestly, didn’t feel like a B5 tale as much as a Twilight Zone episode.  The second, longer episode involves Sheridan, Galen the Techno-Mage, a young prince of Centauri, a terrible prophecy, and an awful decision to be made.  This story is much more B5-ish — a done-in-one, but with potential for future ramifications in the B5 universe.

It’s a nice 72 minutes, worth watching and the second ep is a decent addition to the B5 canon.

The disc also has a good set of special features — most of them with JMS talking with the actors, answering questions, showing the production.  There are also two nice memorials to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs.

Production:  The CG is very, very nice.  For a show that introduced extensive use of CG for SF, B5 continues to do some cutting edge work.  There are great cityscapes, Starfury close-ups, space wars, and, of course, some very nice B5 shots.

Part of the CG innovation was also extensive use of green screen and virtual sets.  They are impressive and flashy and even useful — but the combination of restricted movement within the sets, limited foreground interaction, and the very limited cast, adds a strange element of visible budget limits. 

It also meant that the stories tend to be a bit wordy and talking-heads — though the dialog is, as usual, interesting and entertaining (the talking-headedness was probably not helped by JMS himself directing the eps).  Future productions will need to figure out how to balance the whiz-bang CG and virtual sets with something more than people standing around, talking with each other.

Acting:  The acting is all competent and up to B5’s normal standards, especially the three “regulars” (Scoggins, Boxleitner, Woodward); Scoggins remains a bit of a lightweight (and she doesn’t solidly carry the episode she’s the focus of), but by the time the disc is over, it’s all good. 

I just wish there had been more actors — there are maybe six others besides those folks, despite being on large starships and the B5 station itself.  It makes for an oddly empty (if nicely rendered) universe.

Overall:  Good stuff — not spectacular or anywhere near B5’s best, but that was always a build-up of multiple episodes, “whams!” and epic arcs.  These eps are definitely in the middle of the bell curve for B5’s history, and were worth the wait.  I just  hope the disc does well enough (and Joe’s schedule is free enough) to get more, better editions of the “Lost Tales.”

(Wikipedia – IMDB – Lurker’s Guide – Official WB site)