Babylon 5: Season 1 (6 Discs)

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!

Although the writing is a bit stiffer here than on future episodes (Michael O'Hare gets the bulk of the awkward dialog as his character isn't clearly defined early on), there are a number of episodes that sparkle with the quality of writing seen later in the series. The appearence of the shadows by episode 16 sets the stage for the major conflict during the third and fourth season when the Shadow war breaks out.

All the cast dose a great job with the strongest performances by Andreas Katsulas, Peter Jurasik, Andrea Thompson and Jerry Doyle. Why Thompson gave up her acting for television news reporting is beyond me (maybe she saw something in her future she didn't like for example NYPD Blue) Perhaps it's because the line between truth and fiction was finally crossed.

The DVD features commentary by J. Michael Straczynski on three of the key episodes during the first season (something that should have been done with the Star Trek box sets). Alternately funny and informative, Straczynski's comments provide an interesting backdrop to the action unfolding in the respective episodes. There's also two documentaries with the first made during the first season and the second a look back with interviews with Straczynski, producer Copeland and Jerry Doyle (among others)providing a candid assessment of the obstacles they can into bringing the show to the screen.

The packaging is less awkward than the Trek accordian fold out box set with a 12 page booklet giving a credits for individual episodes and a brief synopsis of the plot. Warner has done a great job of packaging Babylon 5 season one. The DVD, on the other hand, is a mixed bag.

The good stuff first. The sound is terrific and has been remixed for Dolby Digital 5.1. The mix is crisp, clear and sounds really really good. The live action portion of the show has numerous analog artifacts including scratches and imperfections in the print. While it isn't horrible, it can be a bit distracting given the quality of progressive scan DVD players and a big screen television. This could have been cleaned up more in digital post-production during the transfer (look at the marvelous job done with the last three Star Trek: TNG box sets for an example of how it should be done). There isn't much in the way of problems due to digital compression despite the fact that these are all on single layer discs. The optical effects look sharp and the fact that they are digitally created is a bit more obivious 8 years on. There's occasional picture crawl when you see ships in the distance or an interior show with any sort of grating. Again, it's not a problem just a distraction.

All in all, I'm happy to have Babylon 5 finally available on DVD. I just hope that Warner takes a bit more care with the next set of transfers. Again, the picture quality is quite good--it's just noticable that these are digital transfers from an imperfect analog source. While some folks claim that season one isn't their fav, without it the ground work for the remaining four seasons wouldn't have been possible. Looked at in retrospect, it's amazing at the quality of the writing given that this was the first season. It's also amazing that from the very first episode there is a reference to episodes in seasons 2, 3, 4 & 5. I'd highly recommend this box set.