Rating: 
Summary: Newbies to B5 - Beware JMS Commentary!
Review: I don't have much to add to the numerious comments already made. My copy also arrived with a couple of the DVDs loose, although that did not in any way impede their video quality.This review is to warn anybody new to the Babylon 5 universe NOT to listen to JMS's commentary until after you have watched the entire series. Joe assumes that anybody listening, has already seen the series and drops some pretty good spoilers. As for the first season itself, the work that Michael O'Hare does as Commander Sinclair is sometimes downplayed by those that didn't start watching until the 2nd or 3rd season. His characterization of Sinclair is exceptional and, besides the dynamics between G'Kar and Molari, is the most interesing part of the whole first season. The first season is almost a even mix of "stand-alone" shows and major plot development shows. Between "The Gathering" and the first season, every major player in the B5 Universe is introduced. Except one... Stay tuned for Season 2, and The One who will be. Along with many important minor players.
Rating:
Summary: Aw yeah.. just fell in love all over again :)
Review: Just picked it up last night, and am very impressed. I am in B5 heaven, after putting up with poor quality video and audio from the broadcasts, now we are treated to a digital widescreen transfer, and remixed 5.1 digital sound. Faith manages! One negative note... whoever edited the included booklet should be fired.. I counted 3 glaring spelling errors on a quick skim through... If you want to hook someone on the series, show them Chrysalis, the season 1 finale. It's head and shoulders above the rest from first season, no question. Do NOT show them Infection or TKO. The best episodes from season 1 are: Mind War, And The Sky Full Of Stars, Signs and Portents (this one still gives me shivers... "I want us to reach out and command the stars!"), A Voice In The Wilderness I/II, Babylon Squared, and Chrysalis. Parliament of Dreams and Survivors are pretty good too. This season is easily the weakest of the series, but that doesn't mean it's bad.. just that there are a few lame episodes, probably born out of early studio pressure to make the series more "mass-appealing" and "Star Trekky". (ie, disposable, recycled plots, and cheesy action) But it's a crucial chapter of the overall Babylon saga, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters.. the sly, vengeful patriot G'Kar, the disheveled outcast politician Londo Mollari, the cynical and tough Lt. Susan Ivanova, the questionable past Security Chief Garibaldi, the guarded but resourceful Delenn, the ruthless Psi-Cop Bester, the impenetrable and enigmatic Kosh.. and so many more. It's so incredible to see the characters grow, change, and even die over the five year span. Season 1 is good. Season 2 is great. Seasons 3 & 4 are pure solid gold.. absolutely breathtaking. Season 5 doesn't quite capture the highs of 3 & 4, but it's right up there, a worthy conclusion, and the most powerfully moving final episode I've ever seen. ARGH! I want Season 2 NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: Not much point in writing a Babylon 5 review
Review: There isn't much point in writing a Babylon 5 review. The show developed a rabid fan base over the years, the members of which will buy the box sets regardless of any amateur or professional reviews. Others never quite saw what all the fuss was about. For people with any interest in science fiction television who haven't yet seen the show, it's definitely something to check out. Some of the actors really give standout performances, Jerry Doyle in particular. The Babylon 5 mythology is interesting, even if it does take a painfully long time for the overall story to advance. Babylon 5 broke ground in using CGI effects in science fiction television, blazing a trail many would follow later. However, the individual episodes are hit and miss. Throughout the series, there is perhaps one good episode for every six. The dialogue tends toward stilted, with occasional ventures into the awful. And while a story arc is a nice thing to have, the series often drags in order to fit individual episodes into an artificially-long overarching plan. Those new to Babylon 5 may wish to rent this before buying it.
Rating: 
Summary: This is one of the worst shows I've ever seen
Review: I am a big fan of Science Fiction and I had heard that Babylon 5 was the "Best Science Fiction Show ever made", but I do not understand what all the fuss is about. After having watched the 1st season, I have to say that this is one of the worst shows I've ever seen. The acting is horrible and the dialogue doesn't even come up to B-movie standards. The special effects are interesting, but a show needs a lot more than special effects to be good. I am going to rent the 2nd Season, as I've heard it's better than the 1st, but it needs to be a lot better for this show to keep me interested. It's not even bad enough to be amusing. If you're thinking of buying this show, save your money, it's not worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Creating the Universe
Review: The year is 2258. Ambassadors from all 5 of the major races are finally on board Babylon 5, a space station designed to create peace in the universe. But trouble is brewing just below the surface. The Narn and Centauri have not forgotten their old hatred. Delenn is hiding something. And a secret from Sinclair's past that he doesn't even know is coming back to the foreground. Things will be anything but smooth sailing as the year progresses. I am a diehard fan of the show, and I'm thrilled to see it finally coming to DVD. Having said that, this is my least favorite season. Fun, important, episodes like "Parliament of Dreams," "And the Sky Full of Stars," "Signs and Portents," and "Chrysalis" are off-set by clunkers like "TKO," "Infection," and "Survivors." Still, every episode is important because it sets up the characters, races, and situations that we will be dealing with for the rest of the series. The DVD set itself is wonderful. Though originally shown in full frame, it's presented here in wide screen. The sound is great, but the picture, while good over all, could have been cleaned up a little in spots. Fans will love the extra features. JMS's audio commentaries are informative and entertaining. The original behind the scenes features is very informative and I loved seeing some of the actors without make-up. The new documentary seemed rather short for what it was. Personally, I liked the station tour, but other parts of the encyclopedia would only be of interest to new fans. The one thing I most wished they'd included? A blooper reel. While not the best this series has to offer, it's important background that makes the rest of the series so much better. Fans will be thrilled, and new comers will be hooked. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to own a piece of television history.
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Summary: The Best Sci Fi Series Ever Made
Review: This DVD set is a must for all B5 fans. I'm now going to pre-order the second season. The picture quality on the first-season DVDs is better than it was in the broadcast, cable, and satellite versions of the show, although there are a few tiny specks here and there from the film transfer that might have been cleaned up had the studio known how popular this DVD set would become. The sound track has been re-mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is outstanding. And, of course, it's commercial-free. For those of you who are not yet B5 fans, or who only watched a few episodes here and there on TV, you should know that all the episodes must be viewed in chronological order. Otherwise, you won't understand most of what happens in any given episode. The first season might seem a bit slow to newbies, but a gigantic overall plot gradually begins to develop. This super-plot accelerates in the 2nd season and becomes really intense in the 3rd and 4th seasons. With 110 episodes in all, it's like a 73-hour movie. Once you've seen it all the way through, you'll want to watch it again to pick up all the stuff that went over your head the first time around. I'm still picking up new stuff the sixth time around.
Rating:
Summary: The day has finally arrived!
Review: I have always been a sci fi fan growing up. I was a little kid enamored with Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. When ST:TNG came out I watched it with wonder. When Babylon 5 came out I initially didn't pay much attention to it. It debuted with a batch of other titles like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and a couple other scifi programs that caught my initial interest more.
However, after watching B5 casually at first, it soon turned into an admiration for the series. The story lines blew away all the other scifi competition! Initially, I didn't see the big picture but as the series went on I was amazed at how episodes and storylines from seasons 3, 4, and 5 reflected back to events in season 1! I'd never seen that done so well before, especially in a scifi series! A lot of scifi series tend to have episodal amnesia in that one episode is totally seperate from the rest without having any lasting effects on future episodes. But Babylon 5 plays like one long epic!
When B5 was picked up by TBS and they played all the episodes in order starting with the first, I tried my hardest to record every single episode. If, for no other reason, then to share them with my kids later in life. Thankfully, now that the seasons are coming out on DVDs, I won't have to keep a mountain of VHS tapes around anymore.
J. Michael is a superb storyteller and visionary! His comic book series "Rising Stars" is one of the best I've ever read, and Babylon 5 is easily the best scifi story ever told!
Just like the original Star Wars revolutionized the scifi/space fantasy genre with it's special effects, scope, and vision; Babylon 5 will be looked back upon as the model for future science fiction tales in regards to story, characters, and epic quality.
Just like later Greek and Roman writers learned from Homer on how to pen an epic, so future scifi writers need to look at Babylon 5 as their model and vanguard.
If you've never seen an episode, check it out!!!
Rating:
Summary: Problem with USA packaging
Review: I bought the 1st Season DVD set in a major distributor's store, and found that the packaging did not hold the disks securely in place - when I got home and removed the shrink-wrap covering, I found that half of the disks were loose in the package (a hard-plastic book setup; the center posts were not tight enough to hold the disks), and had sustained severe scratches as a result. Clearly they had been loose for some time and had bounced against the center posts. I tried playing one of them and it not only skipped, but stopped entirely at several points and would not continue, even with FF or REV. I returned the set to the store and got a replacement, which they opened on-site and verified as good. The Babylon 5 series itself, packaging aside, starts out slow and cheesy. I never really liked the first commander; he was about as animated as Al Gore on the campaign trail. The rest of the characters were overacted. It took time for the series to get into its groove. But, that is the case with any series. No classic series looks as good during its first half dozen episodes as it does after two seasons. It's like starting a new job - you take a while to feel truly comfortable. I can't wait for the rest of the series, and I hope they do a proper QA on the packaging in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Barely redeems itself toward the end...
Review: Let me start by affirming that I am an avid sci-fi fan with a very high tolerance for the genre's quirks and foibles. This boxed set, however, tested my patience to its very limit. In fact, it was an extreme act of discipline and loyalty to keep watching...until the last 3 episodes that is, which represented a marked improvement over their predecessors. The most irritating problem with the show is the writing itself. The dialogue is so stiff and clicheed that I physically winced on several occasions. (example: "Let's get this show on the road!") Dialog is used to spoonfeed the viewer ("As you already know, Commander...") which ads to the sense of 12-year-old-superhero-comic-book. The intro is a weak attempt to duplicate the power of "To boldly go where no man has gone before." Alas, "The name of the place is Babylon 5!!!" doesn't exactly give one cold chills. The lame attempts at humor usually fall quite flat and the characters never really mesh. The effects are distracting rather than special--it's tough to concentrate on the storyline when one is busy noticing how obviously superimposed the actors are against an animated background. The frequent explosions resemble hand-held sparklers that kids waive around on the 4th of July. Having said all that, I did find some redemption in the final episodes, during which time the promised story arc begins to appear, some characters begin to come alive, and the writing improves significantly. In fact, it was towards the end that I realized that several of the actors are actually quite talented. In particular, Peter Jurasik (Londo) does an outstanding job of presenting a character that is all at once brash and subtle. Poor Peter was initially handicapped by the aforementioned inferior writing and an unconvincing costume complete with sideways mohawk (someone should tell S.E.T.I. that in order to find alien life, all they need is a bottle of Elmer's glue) but he is the one who is ultimately most convincing in his role. Also, the story absolutely succeeds in establishing a complex and interesting socio-political environment as well as a humdinger of a finale upon which to base future episodes. All in all, the show was mournfully lacking. But, just perhaps, the show had to suffer some growing pains. Enough of interest occured in the final hours to give me hope, and I actually (*deep breath, fingers crossed*) ordered the second season! We shall see...
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Story Arc
Review: When it first came out, I was put off by the cheesy early episodes. But this series has wonderful character actors and a long story arc that builds and unfolds and interconnects. The best science fiction on television.
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