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!

There is a customer review in here (entitled "Excellent series, flawed presentation") which complains that the widescreen presentation of Babylon 5 - First Season DVD will be just the "orginal full screen version" with black bars superimposed over the top and bottom.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

The original series WAS shot in widescreen format, and modified for television. This was in anticipation of being shown on HDTV. This is what we will be getting on the DVDs.. the full, original widescreen.

The US Sci-Fi channel DID superimpose black bars on the top and bottom, to try and "fake" widescreen. This was a horrible idea and probably butchered the composition even more than pan and scan. But this is NOT what we will be getting on the DVD.

Just wanted to clear that up. Now that that's out of the way, let me gush a bit about the series. I used to be a big Star Trek fan. I can barely STAND Star Trek now, and it's all because of Babylon 5. It showed me what epic space adventure REALLY is. After you have been thoroughly saturated with Babylon 5, every single Star Trek episode (from every series) starts to look bland, pointless, and predictably formulaic in comparison. Trek realized this, and that's why the last season or two of Deep Space 9 started to (attempt to) copy Babylon 5's style.

The writing is superb, the acting is fresh and complex, every single character is deep and interesting, and the overall storyline dwarfs anything else you've ever seen on television. The show centres around the characters and the events, not endless, vapid technobabble like Trek.

First season is definitely the weakest of the five seasons, as the actors are finding their characters, and there's some real groaner episodes, such as "TKO" (Mortal Kombat in space), and "Infection" (ancient alien artifact possesses someone and cheesy B-movie havoc ensues.. YAWN), but also some real gems, like "Midnight on the Firing Line", "The Parliament of Dreams", "Signs and Portents", "A Voice in the Wilderness" (two parter), the brilliant time travel tale "Babylon Squared" (you won't realize just HOW brilliant until late season 3), and the astonishingly masterful finale, "Chrysalis".