Rating: 
Summary: Best TV Sci-Fi
Review: Babylon 5 represented some of the best television science fiction ever available. At it's worst, it was merely mediocre. At it's best, it was absolutely amazing. On the average, it was excellent.I think this DVD represents some of the best of Babylon 5, and some of the... well, not the best. The pilot episode, while much improved with it's "special edition" release, is still less than a perfect example of what the series was able to do. But it's still better than any Star Trek series pilot ever did :) It wraps the feel and background of the series in a murder mystery that sets the pace for the action and political intrigue that was to continue for the run of the series. "In the Beginning" is something of a spoiler for first-time B5 viewers, so beware. Many of the surprises of the series are re-revealed here, along with many new discoveries. However, it also represents Babylon 5 at its best. It's a thrilling re-telling of the backstory of the Babylon 5 universe, as told by a dying emperor, full of regrets, many years later. One of the axioms of the TV series was that "nobody is ever exactly who they seem," and in this made-for-TV movie, this hits home very squarely. It's an action-packed two hours that remains fun after repeated viewings.
Rating: 
Summary: A Less-Than-Promising Beginning on DVD...
Review: The odds are good that if you're reading this review, you're probably already familiar with the series. I won't waste your time (or mine) explaining "Babylon 5" to you - you can check out any of the other reviews here or the thousands of web sites devoted to the series if you're not familiar with the premise. Instead, I'll discuss the DVD itself: containing "In The Beginning" and "The Gathering", it covers, chronologically, the first two "Babylon 5" stories: the 1993 TV movie/pilot and the prequel made before the start of the final season of the series. They provide a good background for the series, although "In The Beginning" was really made more for those who had watched the series for years and wanted all the pieces of the past that J. Michael Stracyzinski laid out over four years assembled into one hundred-minute puzzle. It's very well done, it just removes a lot of the mystery and exposition for those that have not seen the series. Technically, though, the DVD is quite a disappointment. The transfer is decent, if not spectuacular, and it's nice seeing "In The Beginning" in widescreen format, but there's nothing else really to recommend it. Like "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who", the selling point of once again shelling out money for the series in a professionally recorded format is getting all the neat bells and whistles that come with most DVDs today. This has none of those: no behind-the scenes footage, no deleted scenes, no trailers or ads and (perhaps saddest of all) no commentary track. Straczynski's "Babylon 5" is the most fully realized science fiction setting on TV today outside the "Star Trek" universe and it would have been wonderful to hear him talk about what went into creating his world in either of the two made-for-TV movies. Perhaps in a future DVD release... I will have to hope that Warner Bros. - the rights-holders of "Babylon 5" - and the producers of this DVD are simply trying to gauge the waters with this release and will do far better with subsequent ones. If you're a big enough fan of "Babylon 5" or if you simply want to support the franchise then, by all means, get the disc. If you're waiting for a new spin on the series and some neat DVD features, though, you'll have to keep waiting.
Rating: 
Summary: One great movie... Ignore the other!
Review: The fan consensus on this two-feature DVD is that it represents the Worst and Best of Babylon 5. To be fair, "The Gathering" as a pilot episode is merely mediocre. Pilot episodes are seldom the strongest of a series. The launching of Babylon 5 had a heavy burden to carry. When Deep Space Nine appeared - or Voyager for that matter - the Star Trek universe was pretty well known. Only the characters and specific situation required introduction. Yet, in "Gathering," the entire Babylon 5 universe required introduction. On this DVD, "The Gathering" is a Director's Version. Scenes have been added or clipped, and the sound score has been re-mixed, making a superior overall product. My main complaint with "The Gathering" is that it's quite unnecessary. One can never watch the pilot, and still understand the series perfectly. It's almost better to NOT watch it. There were so many cast changes between the pilot and the series, so many costume, prop, and make-up alterations... watching "The Gathering" can be a little unsettling. Perhaps it may be heresy, but I would suggest "In The Beginning" as a better introduction to the series. Filmed during the last season of Babylon 5, this tele-movie recreates the events leading up to the Babylon 5 program. Humans encounter an alien first-contact situation that goes horribly wrong. A war breaks out between the humans and the highly advanced Minbari, a war the humans cannot win. "In The Beginning" is arguably the best of Babylon 5 in a capsule. The plot flows naturally, the passion can be felt, and the special effects... all come together in the best sci-fi that came out of television. While the episode lets out some secrets, primarily from the first season, they are minor in the overall scheme of the series. In some respects, "Beginning" was a new pilot episode, financed by TNT, which had taken over broadcasting rights in the last season of Babylon 5. Eager to bring in new viewers, TNT encouraged the production of "In The Beginning." Wayne Gralian
Wayne's World of Books / Krakow RPGs
WaynesBooks.com
Rating:
Summary: BEST SHOW EVER. 2 Movies: Both lousy & great at same time
Review: Yes, Babylon 5 is the best sci-fi show ever produced, and I *highly* recommend you go buy seasons 2/3/4, but like most shows it had a rocky start. "The Gathering" was the pilot, and although somewhat entertaining, I never watched it more than twice. It's just too...boring.
IN THE BEGINNING IS GREAT. Completely opposite of the Gathering, in the Beginning is probably the best "episode" Babylon 5 ever produced. Great scripting, great story, great ending. As my English professor remarked, "It felt like something Shakespeare would create." Absolutely. Series creator J.Michael Straczynski wrote: "In the Beginning is the best thing we've ever done. On every level: acting, writing, the directing, sets, costumes...everything. It's a very moving and emotional movie in a lot of places, which was the goal. If it doesn't touch you, there ain't much point to doing it."
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for more than one reason.
Review: First, let me say that Babylon 5 is, in my opinion, one of the greatest television shows of all time. That said, I have to agree with the majority of the reviews here that complain about the lack of attention to detail and lack of interest in special features that make DVDs so great. This is, however, the hallmark of Warner Brothers DVDs. WB doesn't seem to care about its DVD releases. They're poorly authored and packaged in the worst cases in the industry. My biggest problem, however, is the artificial "widescreen" presentation of "In the Beginning". Just like the Sci-Fi channel reruns, this DVD has placed black bars across the top and bottom of the frame in order to simulate widescreen. I'm a big fan of widescreen, but only if the footage was filmed in that format. If you have 4:3 footage and trim it to 16:9, you lose nearly half of the picture. I have compared the DVD to my VHS copy scene-for-scene, and if you do the same, you will see that the frame has been chopped. My fear is that any future B5 DVDs will be presented in this faux widescreen. Another question I'm left with is why did the-powers-that-be at WB decide to mutilate "In the Beginning" yet leave "The Gathering" in its correct aspect ratio? This is just the opinion of one video editor and B5 & DVD fan.
Rating:
Summary: Babylon 5 Geek
Review: The pilot, and the movie are great. They are both action packed, and include a great story. I own it and all five seasons.
Rating:
Summary: A Less-Than-Promising Beginning on DVD...
Review: The odds are good that if you're reading this review, you're probably already familiar with the series. I won't waste your time (or mine) explaining "Babylon 5" to you - you can check out any of the other reviews here or the thousands of web sites devoted to the series if you're not familiar with the premise. Instead, I'll discuss the DVD itself: containing "In The Beginning" and "The Gathering", it covers, chronologically, the first two "Babylon 5" stories: the 1993 TV movie/pilot and the prequel made before the start of the final season of the series. They provide a good background for the series, although "In The Beginning" was really made more for those who had watched the series for years and wanted all the pieces of the past that J. Michael Stracyzinski laid out over four years assembled into one hundred-minute puzzle. It's very well done, it just removes a lot of the mystery and exposition for those that have not seen the series. Technically, though, the DVD is quite a disappointment. The transfer is decent, if not spectuacular, and it's nice seeing "In The Beginning" in widescreen format, but there's nothing else really to recommend it. Like "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who", the selling point of once again shelling out money for the series in a professionally recorded format is getting all the neat bells and whistles that come with most DVDs today. This has none of those: no behind-the scenes footage, no deleted scenes, no trailers or ads and (perhaps saddest of all) no commentary track. Straczynski's "Babylon 5" is the most fully realized science fiction setting on TV today outside the "Star Trek" universe and it would have been wonderful to hear him talk about what went into creating his world in either of the two made-for-TV movies. Perhaps in a future DVD release... I will have to hope that Warner Bros. - the rights-holders of "Babylon 5" - and the producers of this DVD are simply trying to gauge the waters with this release and will do far better with subsequent ones. If you're a big enough fan of "Babylon 5" or if you simply want to support the franchise then, by all means, get the disc. If you're waiting for a new spin on the series and some neat DVD features, though, you'll have to keep waiting.
Rating:
Summary: Finally watched the prequel and pilot for "Babylon 5"
Review: One of the great things about DVDs is that I finally get to catch up on all the science fiction series from cable that, for various reasons, I missed out on the first time around. Today I watched the double-origin of "Babylon 5," although since I finished watched the two made for television movies I discovered that my introduction to the series is decidedly different today than it was when the pilot first aired on February 22, 1993. Now that I know they were made four years apart I can understand why the first one is in widescreen while the second is in full frame and why the idea of a prequel was a good thing for fleshing out the back story of the Earth-Minbari War. "In the Beginning" starts off on Centauri Prime, where the Emperor Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik), is telling the story of the start of the Third Age. This would be the year 2243, when a young Londo Mollari arrived at the Earth Dome as liaison to the Centauri delegation. Earth had recently won the Dilgar War and the government of Earth is now expanding its sphere of influence. Earth is having some success in its attempt to make treaties with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and now Earth is sending an expedition to make contact with the mysterious Minbari. Londo advises General Lefcourt to send only one ship and to be wary of the Minbari, but, of course, the military of Earth is nothing if not arrogant. Before the Earth ships reach Mindari space we learn something about the warrior caste of these people and Lenonn, the leader of the Anla'shok (the Rangers). Lenonn is worried about the prophecies of Balen, which indicate that a time of crisis is coming during which the Anla'shok will play an important role. Then Captain Jankowski shows up and despite having been warned not to make first contact (which begs all sorts of questions about why this particular captain was sent with a fleet on an intelligence gathering mission) gets close enough for the Mindari to engage their senses. This begins a chain of events with tragic consequences, as both Jankowski and the Mindari prove equally adept at having no understanding of cross- cultural communication. The importance of this exchange is that this little encounter is the spark that ignites the Earth-Mindari war, and the importance of that war is that the forces of Earth are no match for the Mindari. It is ironic to watch "In the Beginning" today, a year after the war with Iraq, because it is hard not to see strong parallels between the one sided wars. The great strength of this story is the idea that there is nothing Earth can do to stop the Mindari from destroying the Earth and ending the human race, a far cry from the superiority of the species that is a constant in the vast majority of science fiction. Just as the cause for the war was a bit far fetched, so is the end of the war, where a convenient bit of information pretty much pops out of nowhere. But what matters most is the idea that humanity is occupying one of the lower rungs on the intergalactic totem pole, which is a decidedly different premise from what we are used to. When I flipped the DVD over and watched "The Gathering" I was immediately confronted with the giant hole that exists between the end of "In the Beginning" and this pilot episode. The station is being run by Michael O'Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair), with Laurel Takashima (Tamlyn Tomita) and Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) making up the other two sides of the power triad. Sinclair is the important character because of the role he played in the end of the Earth-Mindari war in the prequel. However, we learn nothing more about that aspect of this character, although there are some veiled references made to it by some Mindari characters. The movie basically focuses on a mystery in that the Vorlon ambassador arrives and almost immediately collapses on the point of death. There are all sorts of delicacies involved in not opening up his environment suit, but that becomes secondary when Commander Sinclair becomes the prime suspect. The point of the pilot is to introduce the cast of characters and the politics of this particular science fiction universe, but doing it in the context of a mystery is rather strange. The scene that carries most of this weight is the hearing where G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) makes a motion to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon homeworld for a trial. The vote, not only in terms of how it was put together but how it is justified after the fact, is what provides the best insights we have into the "Babylon 5" universe. One running bit is why "Babylon 5" is the fifth and last Babylon ship. Sinclair says it has something to be with human stubbornness, but my question was why the name "Babylon" was used. I understand the appropriateness given all the species that come together on the vessel, but you would think that one of those species would get their hands on the book of Genesis at some point and figure out that even if this is not a veiled insult it is at least a joke at their expense. Both the prequel and the pilot for "Babylon 5" show potential for the series. The less than stellar plot line for "The Gathering" does not matter given what is being established as a foundation for future episodes. Between the two movies there are a lot of characters and apparently more to. So at the end of these two tales I do not have a real feel for what "Babylon 5" is going to be about, but I do have a sense that it is moving in an interesting direction, especially since the aliens are so much more interesting than the humans at this point.
Rating:
Summary: BEST SHOW EVER. 2 Movies: Both lousy & great at same time
Review: Yes, Babylon 5 is the best sci-fi show ever produced, and I *highly* recommend you go buy seasons 2/3/4, but like most shows it had a rocky start. "The Gathering" was the pilot, and although somewhat entertaining, I never watched it more than twice. It's just too...boring.
IN THE BEGINNING IS GREAT. Completely opposite of the Gathering, in the Beginning is probably the best "episode" Babylon 5 ever produced. Great scripting, great story, great ending. As my English professor remarked, "It felt like something Shakespeare would create." Absolutely. Series creator J.Michael Straczynski wrote: "In the Beginning is the best thing we've ever done. On every level: acting, writing, the directing, sets, costumes...everything. It's a very moving and emotional movie in a lot of places, which was the goal. If it doesn't touch you, there ain't much point to doing it."
Rating:
Summary: If you love B5, you'l like it
Review: I would have liked both the TNT and original versions, but I guess it's better than nothing. Not much for special features either. But I loved watching this series when it was new and I'm glad it finally came out on DVD (I don't do VHS anymore)
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