Customer Reviews

Babylon 5: The Complete Fourth Season

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, it's time for the final showdown between the Vorlons, Shawdows -- and everybody else. When I saw the fourth season on television for the first time, I felt that the story arc regarding the intergalactic armageddon was a bit of a let down. I was expecting the Vorlons and Shadows to go down in a blaze of hatred for each other, that they couldn't get past their mind sets about how the younger races of the galaxy should evolve. In addition, I expected to see that the other races, led by Sheridan and D'Lenn, would come to appreciate that the same thing would happen to them when the Vorlons and Shadows wiped each other out. This would be the basis for their peaceful co-existence, I felt. Finally, while I appreciated the second story arc in which Sheridan brings President Clark down, that story arc also felt anti-climactic -- you knew what was going to happen.

However, my views definitely changed once I saw the context in which JMS was working with for the fourth season. It was definitely wiser to make Sheridan and D'Lenn offer a "crucible" to bring out the truth, that the Vorlons and Shadows wanted the younger races to choose which side was "correct" in its method of "helping" them to evolve. Lorien's role as a father figure also helps to make all the parties realize that war and conflict are in nobody's interest. Seeing him fly off with the Vorlons and Shadows at the end of "Into the Fire" gives this element of the Babylon 5 storyline a proper sense of finality.

It also made sense to have Sheridan's conflict with President Clark end in the way it did. Clark is a tyrant who has to be stopped -- even if that means a civil war. Sheridan is a reluctant hero. He doesn't want to use military force that could result in the deaths of fellow officers and soldiers, not to mention the deaths of civilians. But he knows what he must do -- make sacrifices and accept the consequences for his actions. He has to do this so that humans don't have to live under a tyrant, and to be able to live in peace and prosperity with the other races. In essence, Sheridan is sacrificing himself for the sins of others, and this makes him an even more compelling character in season four.

That said, the fourth season of Babylon 5 on DVD is the best yet, although I feel there are some minor flaws with the content. First of all, I think JMS's first commentary track should have been about "Into the Fire," and not "Following Toward Apotheosis." It would have been more interesting to hear his thoughts about how the final battle between the Vorlons, Shadows and other races should have unfolded, versus what he might have originally envisioned for it.

However, I did enjoy his commentary about "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars." It was surprising to hear that there were only going to be four seasons of B5, and that this episode had to be put in place of "Sleeping in Light," which was the final episode of Season 5, and of the whole series. Nonetheless, I enjoyed "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" because of its documentary feel and that the human race would one day evolve to the level of the Vorlons.

I think one of the other good episodes in Season 4 was "The Illusion of Truth." I don't think Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minster, could have done a better job of trashing Sheridan's reputation.

I also enjoyed the story arc about D'Lenn being forced to bring the Grey Council back together for the survival of her people. I also liked her twist -- having more Worker Caste members on the council than either the Warrior or Religious Castes. "They do not wish to conquer or convert -- only to build the future. War and religion must work in the service of the people, not the other way around." This is as liberal-democratic as you can get, as far as I'm concerned.

The other supplemental materials JMS provided for the fourth season DVD package of B5 are pretty much standard fare. I don't know if this is good or bad, but the supplemental materials in the other DVD packages are very similar to those found in the fourth season.

However, if there is thing that really stands out in the fourth season DVD package, it's the audio. If you have a surround sound system, you will come to appreciate the Dolby 5.1 audio found with this package. The explosions, the engines' humming and screaming, and other sound elements really come through in my speakers. There are hints of the Dolby 5.1 audio in the other DVD sets, but they don't come close to the fourth season.

All in all, the fourth season of Babylon 5 on DVD is worth every penny! While I feel that the third season of B5 is the best of all the seasons, the fourth season is comparable for the way it resolves many of the story threads that were weaved in the first three seasons.

The fourth season of Babylon 5 is titled "No Surrender, No Retreat" and boy o boy does it meet that title head on wear it proudly. Simply put, this fourth chapter in the five chapters (seasons) that ingenious creator J.M. Straczynski wrote entirely on his own is one of the most incredible and entertaining seasons of television ever produced. From the very beginning of the series J.M. Straczynski had been tailoring this extraordinary space "opera" to an ultimate conclusion through a multiple faceted series of plots, sub plots, twists and turns and all of that is paid off in immeasurable quality through this fourth season which is a collection heartrending, enlightening and ultimately supremely satisfying episodes that are, to say the least, unforgettable.

This wide sweeping season imparts a great many details that are incredible in the breadth and scope of the entire series. In past reviews for Babylon 5, I've highlight episodes that stood out among the rest. In the case of this fourth season, I find that to be impossible as every single episode of the season is incredible; so, what follows is a synopsis of the season which I hope gives everyone a good idea of how the season goes without breaking it down into to much detail.

The fourth season:

At the conclusion of the third season, Sheridan had "sacrificed" himself in the hopes of destroying the Shadows at Z'Ha'Dum. The fourth season leads in with Sheridan still missing which also leads into a search for Mr. Garibaldi who went missing at about the same time as Sheridan.

This incredible fourth season coalesces into several universe shattering events such as; Sheridan's return from Z'Ha'Dum despite no one ever doing so before and he's brought with him "a" First One in Lorien; G'Kar leaves B5 to search for Mr. Garibaldi as he is his only non Narn friend which leads him to a doom "and" enlightenment he could never have imagined; Sheridan and Delenn organizes the League Worlds into an alliance against the Shadows; Garibaldi returns but he is not quite who he used to be; Mollari determines that Emperor Cartagia must go before Centauri Prime is wiped out as the Vorlons begin eradicating any planet that is under Shadow influence; Sheridan finds he must remove the Vorlon ambassador from B5. The Shadow War comes to an extremely exciting battle involving Sheridan's forces which includes the League Worlds, the White Star fleet and several of the First Ones against both the Vorlons and the Shadows all ending in a somewhat melodramatic but highly intriguing conclusion to the Shadow War... Beyond the wonderfully scripted Shadow War in this first part of the season there are the wonderfully crafted scenes in which Mollari goes to Centauri Prime and removes Emperor Cartagia, resulting in a great surprise for him but one in which he had previously envisioned.

With the Shadow War now concluded, Sheridan now begins to look at the untenable situation at home with President Clark; Delenn is called home as her relationship with Sheridan is in question and in doing so she discovers a truth about Minbari racial purity that is quite telling; Garibaldi involves himself in a scheme to remove Sheridan; Franklin and Marcus embark on a plan to assist the Mars Resistance; due to the Grey Council having been disbanded by Delenn during the Shadow War a civil war breaks out on Minbar between the religious and warrior castes resulting in an amazing scene on Minbar between Delenn and Neroon.

Sheridan, no longer able to stand by and watch President Clark kill innocent civilians launches his fleet towards Earth via Proxima 3 and Mars, hoping to free those worlds of the Earth Force fleets blockading them; Garibaldi expends the ultimate betrayal upon Sheridan only to find that he wasn't exactly in his right mind in doing so; Sheridan must endure torture at the hands of Earth Force interrogators; Ivanova leads an incredible battle against Earth Force ships enhanced with Shadow technology which results in the ultimate sacrifice of two characters down the road; Garibaldi, now free of the influence he was under, leads a mission to free Sheridan.

In one of the most incredible hours of episodic television ever created, "Endgame" brings the entire series to the ultimate moment of decisions as Sheridan's forces free Mars and head for Earth to remove President Clark. Few series has ever created such a dramatic episode through years of setup such as this one; this episode is a true treat for the fans! What follows in "Rising Star" is fairly incredible as well as Sheridan is forced to resign but he and Delenn made plans for that eventuality as well.

I highly recommend not only this incredible fourth season of Babylon 5 but the preceding three and the fifth season to any and all fans of great Science Fiction that includes extraordinary writing, acting and visual eye candy. Simply put, this is an incredible and extraordinary season and series! {ssintrepid}

Episode List:

The Hour of the Wolf
Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
The Summoning
Falling Toward Apotheosis
The Long Night
Into the Fire
Epiphanies
The Illusion of Truth
Atonement
Racing Mars
Lines of Communication
Conflicts of Interest
Rumors, Bargains and Lies
Moments of Transition
No Surrender, No Retreat
The Exercise of Vital Powers
The Face of the Enemy
Intersections in Real Time
Between the Darkness and the Light
Endgame
Rising Star
The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

Special Features:

-All new digital widescreen transfers
-Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
-All new Introduction by Series Creator J. Michael Straczynski
-Audio commentary on 3 key episodes
-Episode Previews
-Celestial Sounds
-No Surrender, No Retreat DVD Suite
-The Universe of Babylon 5
*Data Files: Voice of the Resistance, Edgars Industries, Mars Resistance, Battle for Earth, Proxima 3
*Personnel Files: Lyta Alexander, Kosh II, Cartagia, Lorien, Neroon
Gag Reel

I liked this season best and feel that it is a great addition to any and all collections.

However all B-5 sets are only $35.00 - $45.00 at CD warehouse. Why shop amazon when their competition is so much cheaper?

Babylon 5 is unusual for american television and television in general because it is great science fiction. You are presented with characters you can like, characters you can hate, and characters that will disappoint you. The characters are not one dimensional, and the show keeps you rivetted all the way through.Most shows have a kind of villian of the week mentality, and what happened the week before has little relevance to what happens this week. Babylon 5 doesn't, and in fact there are things characters do in season one that don't make sense till season 3 and beyond.

At the start of the season after the "cliffhanger"(Oh, I know this is a terrible pun) ending of season 3 we watch as the characters have try to figure out what to do next. Sheridan is most likely dead on Z'ha'dum, and Garabaldi has disappeared. The Shadows have paused as they try to recover from the large hole the whitestar made in there homeworld as it made its final attack with two powerful nuclear devices. Londo is on Centauri Prime and has one of his nightmares confirmed as the Emperor gives the shadows a small island to use as a base. G'kar has decided to go looking for Garabaldi. From here everything starts getting worse as the Shadows and Vorlons begin using massive planet killers to destroy anyone supporting the other. The Alliance Sheridan struggled to put together is falling apart, G'kar is captured by the Centauri, and when they find Garabaldi he is not the same.

Then when all seems darkest Sheridan returns with one of the best lines ever. (Drazi Ambassador) "Captain...we thought you were dead." (Capt. Sheridan)"I was. I'm better now."

Sheridan revitalizes the alliance and gathers together the largest fleet the younger races have ever put together, and prepares to launch a last desperate battle against the Vorlons and Shadows. Meanwhile Londo strikes a deal with G'kar that if he helps Londo get rid of the Emperor, Londo with free the Narn. The stage is set for one of the most climatic two episodes of the entire series, and of television as the fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of Londo/G'kar and John Sheridan.
And like all great heroes they accomplish their victories, but at a terrible price. John's attack on Z'ha'dum has left him with only twenty years left to live, and G'kar has lost an eye. This is only the begin of this great season which by then end will give up a Minbari civil war, and a human civil war. We will learn what has happened to Garabaldi, and find new reasons to hate Alfred Bester.

Then in the final episode of the season we are treated to with the exception of Joss Whedon's dream episode in season four of Buffy, the most original episode of any American Scifi show. An episode that gives us a look at the future of humanity, and how our characters actions will live through time. This is the best season of Babylon 5 as all the characters are stretched, and must pay a price for each victory they achieve. Heroes are boring if they win without some sacrifice and not just a physical one. Emotionally this is the most powerful of the five seasons.

Fascinating, sometimes maddening mix of wonderful and silly,
intelligent and dumb, insightful and obvious.

At it's best it's the 'Wire' of science fiction, challenging
'Battlestar Galactica' for intelligence and emotional depth.

The weakest element of the show year to year is the numbers of episodes or
sections that felt like they got away from the core issues.
If this show could have been 12 episodes
a year instead of 22, as is the case with most current serialized series,
there would be a lot fewer episodes feeling lacking
in substance, as if the show were just marking time.

Season 4 pulled off the neat trick of having the series feel like it
answered it's whole core question that gave it a reason for being, only
to replace it with new story lines just as rich and strong. Again, it
was episode to episode how interesting and germane the stories were.

I wish the series was even more consistently great, but - in the end - it was
more than good enough.

P.S. To echo what others have written here, be careful with the special
features. They sometimes have a nasty habit of acting as spoilers and
giving away plot twists to come.

I don't think everything about it works and I cringe at some of the acting (no point in naming names!), but when all is said and done, BABYLON 5 was a mostly-sucessful attempt to strike a balance between the action-adventure aspects that people expect from TV science-fiction and having some good, intelligent STORYTELLING with meat on the bones. J. Michael Straczynski managed to convincingly wrap up both of the conflicts that had been brewing for the previous 3 seasons and with all of the "wham and bam" that had been expected. If I had one gripe with the story, it's that Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and Ranger Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) are severely under-utilized in this season, which might not have been such a drawback were it not for the way things play out for both characters towards the end (If you already know, fine; if you don't, I won't give it away).

Perhaps the three regular cast members that shine the brightest are the consistantly excellent Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar, Peter Jurasik as G'kar's sworn enemy Londo and, surprisingly, Steven Furst as Londo's adjutant Vir. Furst is particularly moving as his character is forced more and more to cope with the distressing changes that are happening around him. The guest actors are by and large quite good, with Wortham Krimmer as the mad Emperor Cartagia and Ed Wasser as Mr. Morden standing out. Unfortunately, and I'm sorry for breaking my promise not to name names, Walter Koenig as Psi Corp heavy Bester continues to be less of a menace and more of a major annoyance as he has been in past seasons of BABYLON 5. If they had to get a TREK vet to do the role, couldn't Brent Spiner or George Takei have been approached? Either would've been better than Koenig.

Caveats notwithstanding, BABYLON 5 continued to flourishin it's fourth season---and it's given full flower here on DVD.

This season of B5 is bittersweet for fans, because it was both the best of seasons and the worst of seasons. The best, because it had some of the most moving moments in the whole B5 canon (the scene where the Liberation Fleet jumps out of hyperspace to Earthspace, with the music reaching it's height, is indelible).

The worst because both the shadow war AND the earth war each their conclusion, prematurely, in this season. It is one slam-bang episode after another, as JMS fought was he thought was the fight to tell the last two seaons in one season - it left the cupboard bare for season five, but it left us with a powerful season of TV!

I won't bother with a show-by-show description of what happens. Others, better qualified than I, will surely do so. But I will share what i think were the highlights of the season:

1. Sheridan's speech when arriving at earth was extremely well-written and delivered. Though Boxleitner has been called "wooden" in his style, this speech was a vindication for him.

2. The whole thread having to do with Sheridan's sacrifice on Zha'ha'dum was well-done. Not overplayed by anyone, it still cast a delicious pall over the season, making all choices seemingly minor in comparison.

3. The end of the Shadow War was well-handled. It showed that the enemy was not the one most alien in body, but the one most alien in mind, that was the foe. In the end, we understood the Shadows and Vorlons but never understood Bester or Clark. The former were beaten by reason, the latter only by force.

4. Tactics, especially those at Proxima Three, were interesting and important. It is a rare show that show more than just shooting until one side figures out a dodge to win against imposible odds. Sheridan's forces and tactics had this one won from the start - the cost was the only variable.

There are some poorly-done elements. The Shadows and Vorlons are pathetic at the end. Lorien was a bit TOO deus ex machina for my tastes. Jerry Doyle is a bit too much overtaxed by the script, as is Patricia Tallman (both needed a couple of more episodes to make charactor changes believable).

However, the season as a whole is magnificent. The intro sequence alone is worth the price of admission. This is must-get for B5 fans and TV sci-fi fans alike.

After reading reviews of all the box sets and some of the problems some people have had,I just wanted to add my experiences.
I too had a few occasions where the picture would break up and even freeze as someone else has mentioned.
I removed the dvd from the player and cleaned it useing a cd/dvd spray cleaner.When I reinserted the dvd and played it again I had no further problems.
I have encountered this on one or two other brand new dvds of other shows and in each instance a good cleaning solved the problem.
The discs never look dirty or scratched and are always played fresh out of the case which leads me to believe it may be a coating of something that cant be seen by the naked eye but is detectable by the players laser.
It may not solve everyones problem but its worth trying before returning the discs for an exchange and then encountering the same problem.
I hope this helps as the series itself is great and nothing is more frustrating then having a problem in the middle of watching it.

I have purchased all 4 seasons that were available. Every one of them have discs that are faulty. They "freeze" or skip scenes. Those scenes will not play. Pretty poor.

I have even tried these on other DVD players...same results.

Oh yes, and ever try to get someone to acknowledge this problem and correct it? Not happening.

Babylon 5 is my favorite Sci. Fi. series, and Season 4 stands equal to Season 3 as THE best in the series. I am extremely frustrated, however, with the poor quality of the Season 4 DVD collection, and would dissuade people from purchasing (rent if you're able!). I've had both sound and video issues with Season 4, and despite my love of this series, I'll probably not purchase Season 5 ... it's just too maddening to tolerate the poor/intermittent sound quality and annoying video problems. Extremely irritating that a company would do such a substandard job in a DVD release.