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Captain Sheridan and Commander Ivanova discover an ancient
spatial gateway that could threaten life as we know it; Captain
Lochley and Michael Garibaldi meet an archaeologist who has
stolen an alien relic that the sinister Soul Hunters want
back; and Sheridan and Garibaldi must defend the Earth when
the Drakh, former allies of the Shadows, launch a genocidal
attack against the planet...
You
might expect a product with a title like The Movie Collection
to comprise a complete set, but the previous TV movies The
Gathering and In
the Beginning are not present here. Fair enough,
those two have previously been released in Region 2 as individual
products, but they will now look rather odd on the shelf,
in their cheap-looking Warner-style cardboard covers, alongside
this box set, which contains conventional plastic DVD cases.
This box set contains the latter three telemovies, Thirdspace,
The River of Souls and A Call to Arms.
Set
between the wars of the fourth
season, Thirdspace is arguably the strongest
of the movies, boasting a powerful alien menace that dates
back to the days when the mysterious Vorlons governed the
galaxy. Cue lots of strange behaviour from telepath Lyta Alexander
(Patricia Tallman), as she experiences Vorlon race memories,
and plenty of excellent special effects.
The
production team seem keen to emulate the awe-inspiring qualities
of Star
Trek: The Motion Picture in their realisation
of the gateway and its interior. The visualisation of one
particular scene is especially reminiscent of TMP,
as a spacesuited Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) enters the device,
just as Spock entered V'Ger. Composer Christopher Franke also
takes a leaf out of Star Trek's book, imitating the
musical style of Jerry Goldsmith.
All
in all, Thirdspace is a spectacular production, though
more could have been made of the final countdown.
By
contrast, The River of Souls is the weakest of the
bunch. Though it reintroduces the fascinating Soul Hunters
from Season
One, Martin Sheen's "alien" performance as their
spokesman doesn't really come off, and the pace of the piece
is rather slow. However, fans of Lovejoy may appreciate
Ian McShane's appearance as an authority on alien antiques!
Something
that both Thirdspace and The River of Souls
have got against them is the fact that they lack one of the
weekly series' most engaging aspects: the ongoing intrigue
of the show's unfolding plot arcs. However, the final movie,
A Call to Arms, does possess this elusive quality. Set
several years after the main Babylon 5 series, it deals
with a legacy of the Shadow War and puts pieces into place
for the (ill-fated as it turned out) successor show, Crusade.
It introduces the spaceship Excalibur and the characters
of Technomage Galen (Peter Woodward) and thief Dureena Nafeel
(Carrie Dobro).
The
production values, acting and plotting are all very good,
though Christopher Franke's music is sorely missed. Here the
compositional chores are handled by Evan H. Chen, who would
go on to score Crusade.
What
all three of these movies lack are ambassadors. The alien
ambassadors, particularly Peter Jurasik's Londo Mollari and
Andreas Katsulas' G'Kar, are among my favourite B5
characters, but the only ones we get to meet here are Londo's
assistant Vir (Stephen Furst) and Delenn (Mira Furlan), and
they only appear in Thirdspace. This means that the
product packaging is very misleading, since it depicts Londo
and G'Kar on the outer pack and other irrelevant characters
on the discs themselves!
The main features are complemented by a handful of featurettes
and an audio commentary for each movie. Director Jesus Treviño
and cast members Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Conway, Stephen Furst
and Pat Tallman provide the commentary for Thirdspace;
writer/creator J. Michael Straczynski, director Janet Greek
and actor Tracy Scoggins discuss The River of Souls;
while the final commentary comes courtesy of Straczynski and
director Michael Vejar.
This
box set does not represent Babylon 5 at its best. However,
even substandard B5 is better than the best moments
of many sci-fi shows I could mention.
Richard
McGinlay
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