Rating: 
Summary: Bad discs
Review: Enjoyed the program, hated the bad copies. I returned the discs twice and got bad copies both times. Seems the makers of the discs aren't very careful about how they are made. The disc would stop in mid-episode and not continue. I still haven't gotten a good copy yet.
Rating:
Summary: A good fourth season
Review: I don't think everything about it works and I cringe at some of the acting (no point in naming names!), but when all is said and done, BABYLON 5 was a mostly-sucessful attempt to strike a balance between the action-adventure aspects that people expect from TV science-fiction and having some good, intelligent STORYTELLING with meat on the bones. J. Michael Straczynski managed to convincingly wrap up both of the conflicts that had been brewing for the previous 3 seasons and with all of the "wham and bam" that had been expected. If I had one gripe with the story, it's that Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and Ranger Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) are severely under-utilized in this season, which might not have been such a drawback were it not for the way things play out for both characters towards the end (If you already know, fine; if you don't, I won't give it away). Perhaps the three regular cast members that shine the brightest are the consistantly excellent Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar, Peter Jurasik as G'kar's sworn enemy Londo and, surprisingly, Steven Furst as Londo's adjutant Vir. Furst is particularly moving as his character is forced more and more to cope with the distressing changes that are happening around him. The guest actors are by and large quite good, with Wortham Krimmer as the mad Emperor Cartagia and Ed Wasser as Mr. Morden standing out. Unfortunately, and I'm sorry for breaking my promise not to name names, Walter Koenig as Psi Corp heavy Bester continues to be less of a menace and more of a major annoyance as he has been in past seasons of BABYLON 5. If they had to get a TREK vet to do the role, couldn't Brent Spiner or George Takei have been approached? Either would've been better than Koenig. Caveats notwithstanding, BABYLON 5 continued to flourishin it's fourth season---and it's given full flower here on DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Good series, but disks arrive scratched
Review: I enjoyed the series of Babylon 5 very much, so I was anticipating my new boxed set of season 4 with all the extras. When I opened the box two disks were loose, and their movement inside the box had badly scrathced them. This had to have happened at the manufacturers, as the packaging is tight enough that if the disks had been properly placed on their center posts they would never have become loose through shipping. Now I have to send them back, wait to see if they refund it, and buy another set elsewhere (so I can hear if the package rattles. Beware of rattling disks, it is the sound disks being damaged)
Rating:
Summary: just love to peeve the B5 fans
Review: I gave B5 Season One zero-stars because it is horrible, and for some reason watched season II hoping for a little entertainment (to no avail) but there is a dedicated fan following, so I tried again with the 4'th and got a little entertainment. The show is still peppered with a few bad actors that make you cringe when they say their three lines. And there is STILL something terribly wrong with those graphics, yet SOME are really good. It's so puzzling, and weird that they would spend so much on set-design and then have that horrible CGI mixed in. Almost everything did improve on my scale (writing, acting, money-shots, etc.) but it's hard to see this show ever being more three stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Haven't really seen it yet
Review: I have not yet seen S4 per se, as I didn't watch the series with devotion back when it was on TNT. I do have "The Illusion of Truth" on tape, though, which I love. I can't wait for this to come out...I have been waiting two months to see what happens when John jumps into the pit. I had to stop reading Evoking Darkness for risk of spoilers. And yes, Crusade is out next year on DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor DVD Quality
Review: I have purchased all 4 seasons that were available. Every one of them have discs that are faulty. They "freeze" or skip scenes. Those scenes will not play. Pretty poor. I have even tried these on other DVD players...same results. Oh yes, and ever try to get someone to acknowledge this problem and correct it? Not happening.
Rating:
Summary: Got the DVD
Review: I just got the S4 set today in the mail from Amazon (and it was only shipped yesterday free via USPS - I am impressed!) I naturally set out to watch all the original stuff first - the commentary, specials, and bloopers. I must say that the commentaries were subpar compared to the rest of the DVD sets. There were two main problems. First, the cast commentary had too many people: Boxleitner, Doyle, Jurasik, and Tallman. When they were on, they were very, very funny. Through most of the episode ("Falling toward Apotheosis"), though, they seemed afraid of stepping on one another and so kept silent. They were also (bar Jurasik and especially Tallman) woefully ignorant of the episode, and so kept stating clunkers like "why did I do this?" The least they could have done was watch the episode ahead of time so as not to sound like boobs. When Doyle said "Maybe I should have watched this series" in the season 2 commnetaries it was funny. The joke has worn thin by now. Second, JMS shares one of the commentaries with director Mike Vejar, and selects the mosy unlikely episode of them all for his own commentary. The co-Vejar ep, "Faces of the Enemy" is an excellent episode to show the directorial side of things, and Vejar should have been left to himself for that one. The solo JMS episode, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" wasn't worth a commentary. It was obviously quickly written, filmed, and edited to make the schedule to be shown at the end of season four (because it wasn't started until the beginning of season five, so it could replace the original season-four-ending "Sleeping in Light") and quite frankly was a clunker of an episode. JMS's commentary seems an attempt to lift up its rep but the show and his defense of it just demonstrate the severe (and understandable) shortcomings under which it was filmed. I think JMS commentaries on "The Long Night" and "Epiphanies" would have been more appropriate (or maybe "Endgame" instead of one of the above). As for the specials, to be totally picky, I loved the original Christopher Franke orchestral score done for the DVD, but have to ask why it couldn't have been done as a accompaniment to a chronological video representation of the series? As it is, the video messes with series sequence quite badly. In chrono order, it would have been more powerful and maybe could have been released to the music video channels as an ad for the DVD. Even better would have been the chrono vidoe with the music PLUS SOUNDS that made CF's work so striking. The purely musical element left out half of CF's repertroire. What we get is beautiful, moving, and interesting, but also expectations that are never met. The special on the musical scoring effects is the best special of the DVD seies to date, beating out (barely) season three's "Making a Better Narn." Though mostly an understadable lovefest (for it is Franke's scoring which makes JMS's writing so emotionally moving) it still allows us to see the thinking behind how the scoring is accomplished. I have only seen two actual eps, but they seem much superior in CGI to the earlier efforts. This is the most action-packed of the B5 seasons, with both the Shadow War and the Earth War being resolved (prematurely in the latter case, as JMS thought that he wouldn't get a season 5), and I am looking forward to watching each episode, especialy because my VHS copies from on-air weren't all that hot to start with and have suffered from repeated viewings. Any B5 fan has to have these DVDs. Non-B5 fans need to get the earlier ones (especially seasons 2 and 3) to get up to speed. You will not be disappointed - the only people who are not B5 fans are those who don't know the series. In summary, the overall emotional quality of this set seems a touch below that of the incomparable season 3 - which for my money was the best TV season ever in any genre. Technically, it it superior. Musically (espcially the incredibly moving intro score, which may be worth the series price in and of itself) it is also superior. I'm gonna give it five stars because my complaints are so minor relative to the overall quality of the show. As a side note to the goobers like me, JMS promises at the end of this DVD set that he will tells us "lots of cools stuff" in his commentary on season 5. I for one cannot wait!
Rating:
Summary: A good fourth season
Review: I liked this season best and feel that it is a great addition to any and all collections. However all B-5 sets are only $35.00 - $45.00 at CD warehouse. Why shop amazon when their competition is so much cheaper?
Rating:
Summary: best season
Review: I liked this season best and feel that it is a great addition to any and all collections. However all B-5 sets are only $35.00 - $45.00 at CD warehouse. Why shop amazon when their competition is so much cheaper?
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, what terrible audio quality!
Review: I love the B5 series, and I usually never write a review, but this time I simply felt that I had to: VIDEO: B (It's about the same as the other sets, so so depending on the episodes, but OK overall) AUDIO: D- (Actually, my VHS tapes of the show that I recorded years ago sound MUCH better than these dvds do. Shoot, these dvd's sound mono, not even close to being remastered in 5.1 audio. So far, I have watched the first 7 episodes in the set and the sound on each is horrible. There's some bad distortion in the center channel at times, as well.) EXTRAS:C (Pretty light on the features here, not as rich as seasons 1 & 2. Also, that 6 minute music suite by Franke...get this, not even 5.1 audio, stereo only... just like the background music that plays during the main menus. Duh!) Overall, this is a great season of TV made bad by the audio presentation. Warner Brothers, what happened with this set, the other's were great? Please do better with Season 5.
| 
