abylon 5 started as the little show that could. When it first began eight years ago, few knew what to expect from creator J. Michael Straczynski's series about life on a space station at the crossroads of the galaxy. But the show, with its fully formed universe of characters and cogent five-year story arc, quickly set a new benchmark by which future science-fiction television would be judged. And in many ways, Babylon 5: The Complete First Season box set raises the bar for DVDs as well, in spite of a limited number of extras.
It's by no coincidence that master raconteur Straczynski titled the first season of his five year odyssey "Signs and Portents" and notes in one of his audio commentaries that this year is all about consequences and change. By the end of the season, a sequence of events is set into motion that will dramatically alter the path of each of these characters, and seeds will have been planted for the storylines that will be relevant in the second season.
As with all new shows, season one was all about establishing a new universe populated with fresh characters and heretofore unknown races. But this season—which is best appreciated in hindsight, with an eye to its role in the five-year saga—also marks the start of a journey that viewers will find themselves pulled into, in spite of the at-times uneven storytelling and the slow pace at which the intricate story arc initially unfolds. The uneven, more one-off stories aside, season one had its fair share of dramatic punch, in episodes like "Midnight on the Firing Line," "And the Sky Full of Stars," "Signs and Portents," "Babylon Squared" and the season cliffhanger, "Chrysalis."
Straczynski's words are well worth hearing
If there were an award for such things—which there isn't as yet—Straczynski would walk away with the prize for best DVD audio commentary. All too often, the DVD audio commentaries that accompany films and television shows are rambling narratives that can be painful to listen to, as the creative talent (director, writer, producer, actor) stumbles about to find something intelligent to say (or to say something quite interesting, only in an intelligent manner). Straczynski's skills as an orator are evident in his audio tracks for "Signs and Portents" and "Chrysalis"; his comments are well articulated, entertaining and informative, with a natural flow that only someone who'd had the foresight to detail his universe in magnificent and meticulous detail could have.
Beyond those two audio tracks, Straczynski recorded a 60-second welcome message for disc one and participated in the 13-minute interview montage "Back to Babylon 5." Filmed this year especially for the DVD, this piece features soundbite reflections on the series from the producers; actors Doyle, Biggs and Furst; production designer John Iacovelli; and makeup effects artist John Vulich. Unfortunately, it's also produced somewhat amateurishly, with melodramatic music, quick cuts and an awkward LCD monitor displaying the B5 logo next to many interviewees.
Of greater interest, actually, is the 20-minute promotional reel, "The Making of Babylon 5." Hosted by Walter Koenig, this special was tied to the debut of the first season in 1994—which is why this snapshot in time is so fascinating to watch. The piece includes interviews with most cast and crew and takes viewers behind the scenes of the series. For more detail on the Babylon 5 universe, though, you'll want to click on The Universe of Babylon 5, an interactive area that lets you choose what part of the station or B5 you wish to know more about (e.g., to tell the difference between Red Sector and Blue Sector, or to understand what the Grey Council is); the explanations are delivered either by text, graphics or short video clips narrated by the B5 computer.
Also worth noting is Warner's terrific "bound" box set packaging. Warner opted to bind the six disc holders together, so you can easily flip between discs as you would if you were flipping pages in a book. This clever design is much easier to handle than the convoluted and awkward fold-out sets of other DVD TV season sets. Thoughtful design can be found on the discs as well, where the menus are cleanly designed and generally easy to navigate.
For all of our enthusiasm at seeing Babylon 5 come to DVD, there is one criticism: The set we had exhibited several imperfections in the video transfer (pops, scratches or other odd marks). Considering this is billed as an "all-new digital widescreen transfer," we would have expected that such imperfections would have been cleaned up. Of course, even with those occasional imperfections, the image quality beats what you probably videotaped off of television eight years ago using an ordinary antenna.
