Rating: Summary: Poor quality DVD Review: Like many other fans, I greatly anticipated this release. My disappointment and anger are substantial. I watched "In the Beginning" on a large, wide-screen TV and at least half of the scenes were BLURRY (both, real sets and computer sets). Also, the sound skipped in at least two places.
Rating: Summary: Quite disappointing Review: While the content is the good ol' Babylon 5 we all know and love, I am very disappointed that the DVD had no commentary by JMS, lacked any notes or additional features. I especially wanted to be able to view the original Gathering as first broadcast back in 1993, and then view the revised version for syndication that more directly foreshadowed some of the key plot developments in the series.If you have this on tape already, the DVD is just duplication, not amplification of the series. This could have been so much more than what it is. Oh, and the case is cheap and classless. Unlike the series itself.
Rating: Summary: Good stories but technically a poor DVD Review: I give this DVD three stars for reasons described below. This review is divided in two parts, the stories and the technical aspects. The stories: The gethering is the best surprise for me on this DVD. I remember watching The gethering back in 1993-94 and I did'nt like it at all. The music was horrible and so was the rest of the film, and I was very surprised when I heared that Babylon 5 was going to be a series. Anyway, the Babylon 5 story is the most complete and best Science fiction story ever made. The new re-editing of the gethering works for me much much better than the original. The music score is excellent. The only thing i still find strange is that we see Kosh reaching out his hand towards commander Sinclear. In the rest of the B5 series we don't see Kosh's hands at all. For me this detail should have been cut away from the movie. In the beginning is good as it was the first time I saw it. The climax of the film is the scene were Londo Molari looks out of the window of the palace and talks about his love of Centaury Prime, notice how the music fits perfectly with this scene. Else the movie could have been much better with longer and more battle scenes. Overall two very good films which I like very much. The Technical aspect: Since this DVD is a marked test for future B5 DVDs, I expected at least to be able to see it in widescreen format and I expected the producers to do a better job on this DVD. Sound ????? poor! Extras ? Boo!!! Nothing at all, cast and crew lists only and this is not extras in my opinion. Another thing is that on my DVD the side that says "The Gethering" contains "In the beginning" and vice versa. At least they could have made the printing correct. I can't imagine that JMS has aproved this technically poor DVD. There should have been alot of extra scenes and background material on it, but minimum in widescreen format and with better sound. The sound on my VHS tape is just as good as on the DVD and that is truely bad!!!!!! If the rest of the series are being releast on DVD, i hope these mistakes will be corrected. I gave the three stars to this DVD for the two films only, where The Gethering gets one and In the beginning gets two stars. No stars is given for the technical aspects.
Rating: Summary: Gathering never was widescreen Review: The Gathering was originally shot in 4:3, not widescreen. It was shown on SciFi in letterbox by chopping off some of the image!
Rating: Summary: This is a great injustice Review: This is a great injustice and insult to all B5 fans. Bravo to WB for creating a piece of (...) DVD for the greatest Sci Fi series ever made. I won't repeat all that's been said before it will just annoy me even more. If there were separate ratings for the DVD and what's in it, I would give the DVD 1 star and the story 5 stars. The WB execs must not have their own DVDs because it looks like they don't know how to make one.
Rating: Summary: Great DVD Review: This is a great buy for any Sci-Fi fan. The visuals are great (especially on a large TV) and the story itself is like an epic piece of art.
Rating: Summary: Good Movie poor suplements Review: A very good Movie i hope the will bring out the hole B5 Series. Only one thing was really cheap the additional Information to the movie. No bios No behind movies nothing only a cheap picture with the Credits.
Rating: Summary: What's up with WB DVD's? Review: I can't believe that WB put about 3 hours of TV onto two sides of a DVD. With the only benefit being the jump to scene selection. With all the specials that have aired on B5 you'd think they would have put SOMETHING on here. I really hope that they at least fulfill minimal expectations by releasing the entire series a season at a time. If they make me buy this series 2 episodes at a time, I'll boycott the entire experience and trust in my video tapes.
Rating: Summary: First DVD of the Series. B5 enters the light! Review: It's about time Babylon 5 made it to DVD. The quality of the TV Movie "In The Beginning" is quite high, especially the effects shots. And it's widescreen. Most importantly I'm watching B5 on a DVD player! The other flick "The Gathering" (the B5 pilot) isn't widescreen and is pretty grainy. However, from what I've heard, the quality of the original material of the older B5 episodes is pretty bad so I suppose this isn't surprising. This episode sucked, really, though. So it isn't as important to me as the "In The Beginning." Oh, the effects shots are clean, it's the live action that's grainy. I don't understand why it's not widescreen though, considering the Sci-Fi channel has it in widescreen format.......... Sound is Dolby Surround I believe, which is right for the time it was made. What IS completely lacking on the DVD is ANY extras whatsoever. There aren't any trailers, no behind-the-scenes, no pretty pictures, no interviews, etc. A big letdown considering this is B5's first DVD and it's a special 2 volume at that. The price is good though! And it's Babylon 5. That's why I bought it, not for extras but for the best sci-fi series ever made.
Rating: Summary: A Dream Given Form... Review: At long last, Babylon 5, perhaps the greatest science fiction series ever created (and that's coming from a die-hard Star Trek fan) makes its debut on DVD with the made for television movies "The Gathering" and "In The Beginning". While many have slammed this DVD for it's lack of extra content, poor picture quality (which I really haven't noticed in my viewing of this DVD), whatever, I amsimply content with the fact that Warner has even taken any kind of chance with releasing anything from the series to the DVD format. After all, Bablyon 5 is hardly as well known as the various Star Trek series. Ask people what a Klingon is and they'll tell you even if they've never seen an episode of Star Trek a day in their life. They can tell you who Kirk is, who Spock is, etc. However, ask a person who's never seen Babylon 5 to tell you what a Vorlon is, or who Sheridan and Delenn, etc. are, and odds are they'll just give you a blank stare (which has actually happened to me before). So to all you naysayers out there, I recommend that you just be thankful that they gave you ANYTHING.
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