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Summary: Its finally here
Review: First off this is season 1. Ivonova and Franklin were both in season 1 so don't listen to the review saying this is season 2. Season one is not the strongest but it sets up everything that will happen later and once you see the rest of the series you will be amazed at how everything ties together. This series is one of the greatest ever made and is enjoyable for anybody, not just scifi fans. The only problem is once you see this DVD you will not be able to rest until you see the rest of the series. So be ware!
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Summary: Excellent rendering on DVD
Review: I have waited ten (10) years for this release on DVD. I was not dissappointed.
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Summary: Finally, B5 on DVD!!
Review: It took a long time to arrive, but it is well worth. Not only B5 was one of the best series I've ever watched, but had also a nice message to everyone - about how life and friendship change and how to deal with it. Well written, interesting characters and a story that hold everybody until the end.
Year one was a little bit slow, but important for the whole plot and full with misteries. A warning to the region 1 customers, this box is being sold in Europe for 30 Euros (check at Amazon.de), less than half of the US [dollars] for the North America version. And the European comes with more languages, showing how the studios like to rip money from fans.
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Summary: AND SO IT BEGINS...
Review: Well, it's been a long time coming, but the DVD set we've been waiting for is finally here. The first season of Babylon 5 has been released and it is definitely worth the wait. From the viewpoint of a B5 fan, the DVD set is exquisite, with beautiful widescreen transfers and bone-shaking Dolby 5.1 sound. Even the case for the 6 DVD set is great looking. If you're a B5 fan, this is set will only whet your appetite for the rest of the series. But what if you're not already a B5 fan? In that case, I envy you. You have yet to discover what a fantastic show you have been missing. B5 is about as far above and beyond your typical TV SF (think Star Trek in any incarnation) as the original Star Trek was beyond the original Lost in Space. It's a show about humanity and the human condition, in spite of its alien characters. If you want to see what TV can be at its absolute best, this is your chance.
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Summary: Thinking persons Sci Fi
Review: B5 is not Star Trek. The future is much like the present, full of the good, the bad and the indifferent. This gritty reality is what makes the show so believable and so appealing. It is not an idealized future, it is also not a picture of a future where there is nothing but evil. B5 if our own history playing itself out on what seems like a far grander scale. The first season was a little rough around the edges, some of the actors weren't quite comfortable yet. But even so this is a very enjoyable season! The ground work is laid here. Giving you setting, characters and background and then a few tantilizing peaks into the future racing toward us in seasons 2 through 5. The special features are a bit lacking. But I never buy these things for special features anyway. The transfer to wide screen edition thrilled me. The sweep and epic story of B5 lends itself quite well to the movie feel and I found it quite natural and rewarding to see the show in full wide screen granduer!
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Summary: Good show terrible video transfer
Review: The producers of this must not have looked at the finished product on a large screen TV. There are compression artifacts everywhere, and interlace artifacts in most motion scenes. I have never seen a video transfer this poor in a DVD produced by a major studio. I am a big fan of Babylon 5, and it is great to watch the episodes in order without commercials, but the production quality is very disappointing.
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Summary: Life-changing television
Review: It is by chance when I was 13 I was flipping thru the channels on TV one day, and I saw the Making of B5 featurette with Walter Koenig, being a fan of Star Trek and other space-based sci-fi, I decided based on that featurette that this show could be interesting. Having an interest in television production, in particular computer graphics, hearing that this show is the first to use CG exclusively, I just had to watch. I haven't regretted it since. The other reviews posted here, I can relate entirely with the almost religious and fanatical devotion to this series. I agree that this is the benchmark for all science fiction television, pre- or post-B5. Even if you can't stand sci-fi, this series offers more than just space battles and technobabble. Space is merely the setting for this story, it serves the story, but it is not the focus of the story. The story is the people, how their lives are changed, how the world around them is changed because of them. The creator, J. Michael Straczynski, sums it up to this: This story is about change. We have to create our future, or someone will do it for us. Babylon 5 is a story about the people in a vast 5 mile long tin can, it is rich and multifaceted, and multilayered. It offers intrigue, mystery, suspense, and will keep you on the edge of your seat begging for more. This story is masterfully executed and presented, with astonishing acting work to bring a rich experience, that for me, as a teenager, altered my outlook on humanity. It shows deep personal stories that everyone, at some point in their life, can relate to, and thru that, this will make anybody cry when you view the final episode ("Sleeping in Light"). This was a grand experiment in modern American television, there were naysayers that said the success of "Star Trek" could never be replicated, this show, flipped that perception on its axis. It is filled with stories that any person could appreciate. I am proud to have been there for the series' first-run. If you choose to buy one DVD a year, I highly recommend this one be it. Faith manages. Now the faithful have been granted their wish, Babylon 5, in rich anamorphic widescreen glory, and 5.1 Dolby Digital to boot. ;-)
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Summary: Why should those not already hooked by B5 buy this DVD?
Review: All the reviews have been written by B5 fans, mostly FOR B5 fans. But there's a much wider audience. I've been "into" SF for 40 years now, so my interest is understandable, but my wife has a Masters in literature, is a published poet, and has taught those subjects for many years. She's read and seen some SF, but most of the genre is beneath her standards. She'd watch SF shows like Star Trek with me, but only to be polite. Then came Babylon 5. At first, we'd watch only if something else didn't interest us. Seemed a little slow. Then we noticed the arc, the character development, little things that seemed to be out of place when we first saw them that turned out to be more significant in a later episode, clues hidden in plain sight. Hey, there's more here than we thought. So many times, a commercial would come up, we'd say "That was a good episode" ... when the episode was only one third through. So much was packed into each installment. She and I were hooked. When it went to cable, we bought DirecTV solely to see it. We've watched it together three or four times now. I think she's even more a fan than I am, partly because she recognises more of the literary references. This isn't a series. It's one story that spans 110 episodes and some movies, a rich tapestry that can only show a hint of the full story in the beginning. Season 1 is the foundation. I don't think there are any throw-away episodes. All contribute to the whole in some form.
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Summary: At long last,, the start of a truly great story...
Review: I probably can't say much, beyond what has already been written, about how great a television show Babylon 5 was. Nor of how long its fans have waited for it to appear on DVD. Many consider it not only the best SF show ever made for television, but perhaps the very best, or among the very best, television shows period. If you like epics, if _Lord of the Rings_ or the King Arthur myths or _Dune_ are works of literature you have enjoyed, get ready for the start of another, no less for having been a TV show. Although the full story is not, obviously, told in the first season, there are plenty of good chapters and complete shorter stories to enjoy, and enough of the central mystery is laid out for anyone to determine if he / she will enjoy the show down the line. The first season sets the stage for the epic to follow, introducing most of the major characters and conflicts which will be developed more fully in seasons 2 - 5. Here we first see the tragic struggle between the Centauri and the Narn, learn of the lost 24 hours in Commander Sinclair's mind, discover that the Minbari surrendered in their war with Earth rather than destroy our world, and watch Londo Mollari give a fateful answer when asked "What do you want?" We see a dark force that can wipde out an outpost and leave no trace, and we watch events which are no less dark unfold on Earth. If it sounds complicated and intriguing, it is, but then Babylon 5 does not play down to its audience. It expects its viewers to think, not only about human and alien struggles on a fictional space station, but about moral questions in their own lives. And it offers no easy answers, merely poses questions that perhaps we all should consider. In this sense, it is unique among the television shows I have watched. If I could sum the story and characters up in one phrase, I could do no better than to paraphrase Joe Strazcynski, the series creator, executive producer, and writer for most of the 110 episodes : one person can make a difference in the universe, but we have to choose to, because if we don't the future will be chosen for us. You reading this review could do far worse than to spend some time with the story of Babylon 5. If you are like many others, you will laugh, cry, be moved deeply, and end up thinking profoundly about what you have seen. In summary, I can't recommend this DVD set, and indeed the entire series, highly enough.
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Summary: The Best Ever
Review: Some say that this is the best science fiction show ever. That is selling this show way too short. This is the best TV show ever - regardless of genre - in every regard. Even that may be selling it short - limiting the comparison to only TV. It could easily be compared to the best movies. This was a vision of a 5-year story arc by the producer, JMS. Any shortcomings one might find would be with the last (5th) year. And that would be due to the lack of support from the studios and TV stations. The fear of cancellation before the arc was finished was a big concern the last 2 years. JMS squeezed much of what was supposed to be in season 5 into season 4 just in case there was no season 5. Then when they were actually able to have a season 5, they had to stretch the story. However, my first statement still stands. This is the best ever.
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