Babylon 5, the fifth space station designed to bring humans and aliens together to promote peace in the galaxy, is the setting for this wonderfully complex TV show. Taking a page from British TV, creator J. Michael Straczynski decided his show would have a complex 5 year story arc. If you talk to any fan of Babylon 5 they'll tell you this is the best sci-fi show ever, and don't bother arguing with them either!
This DVD release is one that fans fought long and hard for. The story I've heard goes like this...
Warner Bros. Home Video used to sell Babylon 5 on VHS, and the fans were eager to buy their beloved show but sales dropped off when it was thought the show would come to DVD. Once sales dropped off, Warner Bros. was hesitant to release a show with waning sales on DVD because they didn't feel there was demand for it. On 12/04/2001 the two-TV movie disc "The Gathering/ In The Beginning" was released to test the market for releasing more B5 DVDs. If the disc sold well the fans could expect the first season, but if it sold poorly then that would be it for the show on DVD. Obviously the disc sold well enough or I wouldn't be writing a review for the first season set, but I must say, this set really disappointed me.
The Menus
The menus for the 6 discs are exactly the same. The cast is placed around a planet and fades from one to another while music plays. I found it a little odd that the space station isn't even displayed on the main menu, but a fiery planet is. "Play", "Episodes", "Special Features" and "Languages" are the selections off the main menu. There are only special features on discs 1, 4 and 6, but the option is still there on discs 2, 3 and 5. I would have preferred menus that changed between discs, but that costs money and after watching the DVD set I don't think Warner was looking to spend much on this set.
Video
While the show was originally broadcast in 1.33:1, the video on these DVDs is 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Choosing to go with widescreen, they have introduced numerous video problems which I'll go over in great detail in this review.
When the first (live-action) scene of the first episode came on my TV, I knew I was in for a rough ride. I was watching as a ton of dust jumped around the screen. This show is less than 10 years old, but the prints are so dirty! I would expect this level of dust and dirt from a show in the 60s, but not the mid 90s. While the image is usually sharp and the colors are reproduced well, many scenes suffer from grain or noise and I was rarely left thinking I was watching a good quality image. The episodes on discs 4-6 look a lot better, but there are still problems with them.
Babylon 5 was the first TV show to extensively use 3D animation. After seeing some of the wonderful 3D movies that have been released on DVD, one would expect the 3D shots to look great on this DVD. Because it was decided to go with the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and the shots were rendered in 1.33:1, this creates some problems. The 3D shots are blown up to fill the screen while the tops and bottoms must be cut off. The image looks jagged and is filled with aliasing and shimmering. What should be a highlight in terms of video quality, looks unpolished and poor. That's not to say that this is the downfall of the video however...
No, the 3D scenes aren't the worst by a longshot. While watching these 22 episodes (yes, I watched every minute of this set...one of the reasons the review is coming so late) I saw every flaw in the transfer, but there was one type that stood out. In almost every episode there were one or two scenes that looked extremely poor. I'm talking worse than VHS here, and they stand out like a sore thumb. I started paying attention to these scenes, and came to this conclusion: the prints for some scenes must have been damaged so badly that they couldn't be used, so they were forced to use footage from a tape source. Since the tape would have a 1.33:1 image, it must be blown up and cropped for the 1.78 aspect ratio. Starting with an footage from a tape is going to result in a poor image, but blowing it up is going to make it worse. Of course, this was just an educated guess and I had no proof this was actually happening, that is until I watched the "A Voice in the Wilderness" parts one and two. The start of part 2 contained the usual "Last time on..." piece which summarized the previous episode, but the video for this was poor quality, exactly like the scenes I had been noticing throughout the episodes. I popped the disc in my computer and snapped a shot from one of these scenes, then found the scene in the previous episode (which was good quality) and compared the two. Here is a picture of both screenshots (these are of exactly the same frame). Sure enough, this backed up my belief that these poor quality scenes were indeed cropped as these two scenes varied in composition. I brought both images into Photoshop and placed the cropped version over the "normal" shot to illustrate how much information is being lost (I have outlined the cropped shot and placed it on the normal one). There's also this shot which is a 4:3 image stretched to the side; probably just one they forgot to crop the tops and bottoms off. While looking at the image, compare the shapes of the people's heads for the best example of the stretching. While you may think that my explanation of these problems, and the lengths I went to to prove them, are a little extreme, I feel that if I am going to give a DVD a poor mark for video I should back those statements up with some proof.
Audio
Although we have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track for this release, it's very plain, and could have been better. When I'm watching a sci-fi show or movie I expect to hear the ships fly past me and lots of rear speaker use. There were a few instances of this, but not as much as I was expecting. There's also a French mono track, and English, Spanish and French subtitles.
Intro by J. Michael Straczynski (0:57)
A short intro to the show from the creator.
Executive Producer Douglas Netter
Two text screens on Douglas Netter
Executive Producer-Creator J. Michael Straczynski
Two text screens on J. Michael Straczynski
Commentary on "Signs and Portents" and "Chrysalis" by J. Michael Straczynski
JMS shares some insight into the show and production in these two commentary tracks.
The Making of Babylon 5 (18:52)
Hosted by Walter Koenig (Chekov from "Star Trek") this was a behind-the-scenes look at Babylon 5 that was used to promote the show when it first came out.
Back to Babylon 5 (12:50)
A new documentary looking back at the production of Babylon 5.
The Universe of Babylon 5
Data Files
Video bits on: Grey Council (0:34), PSI Corps (0:35), Soul Hunters (0:43), Home Guard (0:37), Mutai (0:42), Battle of the Line (0:31), Babylon 1-4 (0:41), Epsilon 3 (0:37), Alien Races (0:37), Shadows (0:39) Easter Egg on this screen (press right from any lower choices) Promo for B5 (0:32)
Personal Files
Video bits on: Jeffrey Sinclair (0:37), Susan Ivanova (0:35), Michael Garibaldi (0:36), Dr. Stephen Franklin (0:36), Talia Winters (0:34), Delenn (0:31), G'Kar (0:32), Londo Mollari (0:33), Kosh Naranek (0:36)
Tech Files
Video bits on: Starfury (0:39), Jumpgate (0:30), Earth Alliance Vessels (0:32), Alien Vessels (0:30), Raiders (0:36)
Station Tour
Video bits on: General Information (0:38), Brown Sector (0:35), Red Sector (0:30), Yellow/Grey Sectors (0:30), Blue Sector (0:32), Green Sector (0:30)
Summary
This DVD set was one I had been eagerly anticipating. I watched the pilot movie and the first season when it first aired, but the show shifted to a different time and I didn't catch the second season. I was saddened by the video quality because I felt it shows yet again that Warner Bros. didn't believe this would sell and didn't want to spend the money on the set. People have sent me usenet posting from JMS in which he said the set sold better than was hoped and the second season release may be pushed up. I can only hope that the second season looks a lot better than this set does.
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