Babylon 5

Babylon 5: Season One: The DVD Set: The Jeffreview

I watched the extras this weekend, so here’s sort of a mini review of the Babylon 5 season 1 DVD set:

If any TV series would benefit from full season sets, Babylon 5 would. This is, of course, because the series was mostly structured from conception with a greater, overarching story arc which was intended to span 5 years, divided into five season-long movements. First broadcast back in 1994, the show’s creator, J. Michael Straczynski, had a good deal of genre savvy and an eye toward the future. The show was the first to make broad use of CGI for its space exteriors and spaceships, matte paintings, and even some virtual sets and alien creatures. They also used digital telecommunications technology to have the show’s music created by an orchestra in Germany, while the composer worked in the US. In addition, Straczynski had the show shot in a widescreen aspect ratio, foreseeing the advent of widescreen TVs and the release of the show on a high-quality home video format (the dominant high-end home video medium of the day was laserdisc), and in surround sound.

And so, I am told, the episodes are now available in widescreen, as intended. Reviews I have read have criticized the quality of the transfer compared to the ultra-clean Star Trek: The Next Generation DVDs. But this is still the best this series has ever looked. (Though admittedly, the Next Gen DVDs are amazingly clear, almost like watching the show for the first time.) The soundtrack is remastered. The episodes come four to a disc, 22 episodes in all, with commentary on two of the episodes and other extras on disc 6.

When Babylon 5 came out, sci-fi TV was dominated by the Star Trek franchise. Next Gen was at the top of its game, and had a loyal following. Babylon 5 was not just Straczynski’s take on the genre, it was also his comment on it. He took staples of the genre and played with them. He took a vast, grand epic about the rise and fall of empires, and a bottle show about a crew stuck onboard a space station, and crammed them together in a way that worked. And when it came to getting the word out about the show, Straczynski made himself broadly available on the internet.

The first season of Babylon 5 starts off a bit shaky. It’s always tough when a new show has to find its legs, and characters have to discover who they are, even when there is a voice as strong and distinctive as Straczynski’s behind it. When the show begins, it seems episodic, much as Star Trek was. We are getting to know the characters and the universe. Straczynski gives us character archetypes, recognizable sci-fi standards. We have the intelligent, compassionate commander, the ballsy second-in-command, the doctor who can cure anything, the fierce warrior race of aliens, the silly comic-relief aliens, the wise enigmaliens. We have the ship (or station) in crisis, the guest aliens of the week.

But where we think we are getting the same old fare with slight variations on the technobabble, Straczynski is instead setting us up for the ol’ one-two. To paraphrase Straczynski, in season 1 we meet the cast, in season 2 we find out that everything we thought we knew about them was wrong, in season 3 everything goes to hell.... By later in the first season we see things begin to move along, or accelerate as it were, since a look back reveals that even as early as the pilot, seeds of seeds were beginning to be sown. Straczynski knows the hardcore genre viewers well enough to know that even the smallest plot seeds can be noticed, and their eventual payoff appreciated. And in the collected season set format, where you can see many episodes in a sitting, these little things become even more relevant.

Bit by bit the universe is fleshed out for us. Themes are established that will take on greater significance as the show continues. In episode 6, Bester and the Psi Corps appear. In episode 7, it’s the xenophobic Homeguard organization. In episode 8 we get the first glimpse into the “hole in [Commander Sinclair’s] mind.” In episode 11, Garibaldi’s struggle with alcoholism surfaces. One of those “issue of the week” shows like the gay episode of Next Gen or the hippy episode of classic Trek? Maybe. But Garibaldi’s weaknesses of character play no small part in future movements. In episode 13, Morden and his shadowy friends arrive on the station, making their first of many increasingly pivotal appearances. By episode 15 we see significant movement in the subplots, erupting into a two-parter about Mars colony politics, and by the end of the season, well, we’re in for some changes.

In contrast to the relatively bare-bones DVD release of the Babylon 5 pilot (The Gathering), the season 1 set has attractive, animated menus and a few extras. Nothing to win big prizes, but better than nothing. In addition to the commentary on two of the episodes, there are three extras in this set: two video featurettes, and a set of information files on various elements of the Babylon 5 universe. The nice thing about the information files is that they are not simply text-filled stills, as with some DVD sets. They are short, narrated video clips that introduce a couple dozen different elements of the show. There are a set of clips on each of the major characters. There’s a handful of clips on some of the aliens who appear in season 1, such as episode 2's Soul Hunters. They do reappear later, but they’re not a major race, and all the info in the video clip could also be gleaned from the episode itself. There are also video clips on some of the technology, like the x-winged fighter ships. Most useful, I found, was the handful of video clips describing the parts of the Babylon 5 station. While it’s possible to figure out what Brown Sector is and how it differs from Green Sector, or why you’d go to Blue Sector from watching the show, I like having it explained clearly in this section.

The two featurettes are titled “The Making of Babylon 5” and “Back to Babylon 5.” “Making” is the original promotional featurette made back during season 1. It’s narrated by Walter “Chekov/Bester” Koenig, and contains some looks behind the scenes, along with the standard-issue “gee-whiz, they’re using computers, folks!” bits and the usual “this’ll be the best show ever, kids!” hype. “Back” is the featurette that interested me the most. It is a look back at the series with Straczynski and a couple of the producers, as well as cast members like the doctor and Garibaldi and others from behind the scenes. They briefly discuss some of the difficulties of making the show, and are able now to reflect on it as a body of work. This seems much more frank than the earlier, hype-oriented “Making” featurette. For example, the alien make-up guy mentions how they wanted to create aliens who were fully formed, with complete heads, not just a bit on the forehead. Unstated but clear is the fact that Trek: Next Gen was perceived to be both their main competition and their progenitor, and as a little, upstart, indy production, they wanted to distinguish themselves by being better and going further than the standard against which they were being measured. So of course, they wanted aliens who looked truly alien, not just like bumpy-headed humans. But in the realities of a television production schedule, when they found themselves with four days to design, create, and manufacture numerous guest aliens for bit roles, they found themselves resorting to forehead appliances, and with new, greater respect for their Trek counterparts. This featurette clocks in at around twelve minutes, which is disappointingly short, as it left me wanting more. Hopefully, they’re saving more footage for the other DVD sets. The extras are not in widescreen format. But really, they’re not the main reason for buying the set, are they?

One thing I want to say is that I like the packaging. Granted, the cardboard feels a little thin and the foil printing is unnecessary but pretty. But it’s not as though I’m going to carry this thing around with me, all it has to do is stand up on my bookshelf and not fall apart the few times I open it.

There are six DVDs in the package, and thus far all the four+ DVD sets (except for Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy”) have been in those annoying, super-extendo fold-out packages that take up your entire tabletop as you open them to find the disc you want. (“Red Curtain” has individually packaged DVDs, since they are also available separately, so I guess it doesn’t really count.) But the Babylon 5 DVD set has three thick, plastic “pages” which are bound to one spine, like a children’s book. Each “page” has a DVD on either side. So when browsing through the set to find a disc, you can hold it in your hand and leaf through it like a book, instead of unfolding it on the floor like the Playmate of the Millennium centerfold.

And I like that.