Babylon 5 is one of the best science fiction shows ever made. Sure, it’s not Star Trek or Star Wars but it’s got an incredibly loyal following, 5 outstanding seasons that tie up almost all the loose ends of the series, a spin-off show, and seven movies, the most recent of which is The Road Home (review here). It isn’t like other sci-fi shows either. Instead of being a drawn out epic, it features concise world-building that directs viewers on a roller coaster of events that are epic in proportion. On top of that, it has some incredibly creative spaceship design and spectacular alien costumes to go along with all the excellent writing. In short, it’s a masterpiece.
Babylon 5 is the brainchild of J. Michael Straczynski (often referred to as JMS). Straczynski is well known for his TV writing starting with ‘80s cartoons like He-Man and The Real Ghostbusters and later some episodes of the Twilight Zone. Babylon 5 is where he really managed to make his mark however, writing almost all of the 110 episodes of the series. Very few writers have this level of creative control of their work and it’s this control that makes Babylon 5 something truly special and now it’s here on Blu-Ray thanks to Warner Bros.
There’s no sense in explaining the politics of the show or what happens during it but suffice it to say that it’s easily one of the most interesting science fiction series ever released and while the first season runs more than a bit slow, things get going later that make it all worthwhile. Everything is tied together in the series too so little things you may not have noticed early on turn out to be major plot points later. The character development is fantastic and the acting is absolutely outstanding as well. While most of the main cast has sadly passed, they did some of their best work on Babylon 5. This is a self-contained show that tells the entire story that it sets out to and does a fantastic job of it. If you really want spoilers, you can find them, but it’s recommended that you go on cold and be patient with the first season.
If you’ve read this far without skimming, you’re getting the idea by now that this is a series worth watching (or worth watching at least 3-5 times like some of us have). But chances are you’re already a fan and you’ve just been waiting for a Blu-Ray release that you thought would never come. You weren’t alone in that, as no one really expected Babylon 5 to ever get re-released. Straczynski has dropped hints relatively recently about the potential for a remake of the series and released the animated feature The Road Home so there’s a chance for more Babylon 5 goodness, but so far nothing has materialized, making this release of Babylon 5 The Complete Series so welcome!
Let’s get all the weirdness out of the way first though, shall we? Babylon 5 is a unique series because it was filmed in a transition period just before HD content was starting to come out. The series was shot on film in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (read: widescreen). However, it was broadcast on cable television, forcing the show to be cropped to 1.33:1, a standard CRT 4:3 aspect ratio. The effects were added in after the crop, leaving them at 4:3 as well and the CGI sequences (there are a lot) were also rendered in 1.33: 1. This is where things get odd. None of the aspect ratios quite match up. That means that if you’re watching the original release, you lose some of each scene due to cropping to 1.33:1. If you’re watching the DVD release, the 1.78: 1 aspect ratio is restored, but then the CGI is weirdly zoomed in to avoid having weird bars on the side of the screen. The same also goes for the green screen effects which are improperly shown on the DVD release. Whew.
This latest release fixes most of that. Well, mostly. Sort of. CGI scenes are zoomed back out to their original size and you can actually see the full screen during CGI sequences. However, the screen is cropped back to 1.33:1 from 1.78: 1 which means that if you were used to the DVD’s aspect ratio, everything is going to look kind of weird. The green screen effects are shown properly again as well, making for a better overall viewing experience at the cost of losing some of the background of each live action shot. If you’ve watched enough TV, it’s clear the scenes were cropped and that frames have been altered to fit things but by and large it mostly works and unless you’re doing a side-by-side with the DVD, chances are you’ll get used to the 1.33:1 aspect ratio fairly quickly.
Then there’s the matter of the CGI. It’s really quite old. Keep in mind that this is a show from the ‘90s when CGI was in its infancy but it’s still a bit painful to see some of that work untouched. This is a remaster, not a remake of course and the cost of redoing the CGI would be phenomenal but the pixellation in much of those old space cinema sequences is really starting to show its age. In comparison the sharpened text that gives locations throughout the series looks noticeably improved. The CGI itself is sharper too, which is why it actually looks a bit worse. Having every detail clearly visible is a blessing and a curse in this case.
Babylon 5 The Complete Series is a new digital transfer that’s direct from the film negatives and while it’s cleaner than the DVD release, it’s not the nicest transfer ever. Warner Bros. didn’t spend the cash to fully clean every episode up (it would have cost a fortune) and it shows in the fine detail where everything just looks a hair less crisp than it should all the time. It’s almost as if there’s a fine grain filter overlaying the entire show, like digital muslin or something. That’s fairly surprising but at the same time, there’s a limited market for Babylon 5 so getting any sort of fixed and sharper copy is a win. With the upscaled CGI, some visuals look noticeably more crisp only highlighting the lack of similar treatment to the live action portions of the show. That’s not to say they don’t look better though. A comparison with the DVD set shows a noticeable enhancement of detail which allows fans to clearly see a number of things that were fuzzy before. It’s just that it could have been a bit better overall and if you’re a fan, that’s a slight disappointment.
Babylon 5 originally had fancier disc intros for the last release as well. Those are gone here, replaced with a simple shot of the station and that’s excellent because the video clips on the DVD were unskippable and got tiresome fast. The extensive extras however were entirely canned for this release leaving you with the episodes themselves and the first movie, The Gathering. Left on the floor were the other five live action movies, which is a bit disappointing but not surprising. What is surprising however is the single audio and subtitle track, both in English. Don’t expect any French or Spanish here because you won’t be seeing them. That might be a disappointment for other Region 1 fans, so be prepared.
The sound mixing is serviceable on this release of Babylon 5 The Complete Series as well. It’s not the best sound ever, which is a shame because the soundtrack itself is powerful and moving with iconic tracks that bounce around in viewers’ skulls long after the show has been turned off. The single audio track is in DTS-HD MA 5.1 like most Blu-Ray releases these days but it sounds just a hair too tinny. The levels seemed a bit too low as well, requiring a bit of extra volume out of sound equipment to sound as immersive as you would typically expect. Voices are clear and crisp though and the sound effects are awesome with good centering on the majority of the audio.
The physical presentation of Babylon 5 is a bit different as well. If you’ve seen some of the other Warner Bros. complete series releases, you won’t be surprised. We’re looking at the exact same case design as the Supergirl The Complete Series (review here) with an oversized clamshell case in a slipcover and a single huge disc container with 21 discs. The episode list is printed on the inside cover of the clamshell and there are no additional extras here. This is our second experience with the Epik-Pak disc holders and it’s not the best so far. Supergirl arrived with several tabs snapped out and had to be reassembled but Babylon 5 The Complete Series arrived with several of the discholder tabs entirely broken, leaving the internal structure of the disc holders compromised. There was no exterior damage either, implying that this is a factory defect.
Additionally, the tabs that hold the center of the discs are incredibly tight and you are forced to pry them in with a fingernail while carefully lifting the disc out to extract it. You’ll have to take the top disc out to get to the bottom one too. The whole package is designed to save space and plastic, which it absolutely does. Unfortunately there’s a quality cost to that design decision and the internal disc holder is not likely to survive long-term repeated removals very well. That’s a shame as many people are upgrading their copies of Babylon 5 with this new collection both to safe space and shift to HD.
Babylon 5 – The Complete Series is a Blu-Ray release that we never expected to get. It’s an amazing series with incredible acting and plot structure and the entire show runs like a well-oiled machine even if it has a few flaws in its own age. Sure, you’re getting a bare-bones version of the show and its first movie but at least you’re getting it in 1080p HD and 5.1 DTS. Hopefully this release brings new life to the franchise as well because there’s a whole generation or two of people out there who have missed out on the glorious experience that is Babylon 5. At $135 retail, it isn’t cheap, but that’s less than $30 a season and that isn’t bad for one of the best science fiction shows ever filmed. Whether you’re new to the series or a long-time fan, Babylon 5 – The Complete Series is a must-own Blu-Ray set regardless of any flaws and you’re going to get a lot of viewing out of it!
This review is based on a physical copy of Babylon 5 – The Complete Series provided by the publisher. It was played on a Sony Blu-Ray player using a 55” 1080p Sony TV. Babylon 5 – The Complete Series is available from a variety of fine retailers including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target and is available digitally on Apple, Google, Amazon, Vudu and more. All screenshots are captured directly from the Blu-Rays.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
