The third season of the acclaimed Sci-Fi series Babylon 5 begins somewhat grim. The beginning narration opens with
"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed.
In the Year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope... for victory."
Such dramatic loss for hope always makes for good Sci-Fi and this third season was no different. Season Three also opened with the introduction of the White Star, a spacecraft much like Deep Space Nine's Defiant, that aimed to help with more stories away from the Space Station itself. Great Sci-Fi is about continually reinventing yourself and Babylon 5's third season certainly accomplished this.
There were many great episodes in the season with the opener's "Matters of Honor" which as mentioned above started things off with a bang. Other episodes which really captured the essence of the series include "Interludes and Examinations" which brought fans to tears as it dealth with the death of a major supporting character [watch the show to find out who!]. Not all were great but this season really got the wide breadth of SciFi including an extremely interesting Time Travel paradox in the two-part "War Without End".
The complete season list includes 22 episodes spread over six discs. These can be found at http://www2.warnerbros.com/babylon5/chronicles.html
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The Disc:
As we mentioned before there has been much discussion about how the series was filmed for television. Overall, this season looks a lot better than the first two season's episodes. This isn't really because of the mastering of the discs, but is most likely the result of a better filming process that was used for season 3. The effects shots, reformatted from full-screen CGI, show occasional pixilation, but the new compositions are more dynamic than the old 4:3.
Unlike the first two seasons of the show, this sets' Dolby Digital 5.1 track matches better what I had expected for such a grand Sci-Fi show. While the sounds still aren't quite as impressive as say Paramount's Star Trek The Next Generation discs, I am happy to report a vast improvement for Season 3.
As for the extras I am also happy to report a bigger offering than the first two seasons. Extras begin with another new Introduction from series creator J. Michael Straczynski. This is followed by with commentary tracks from J. Michael Straczynski on 'Severed Dreams' and 'Z'Ha'Dum' and by Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs, and Ed Wagner on 'Interludes and Examinations'. While not across the board ala something like Futurama, these few commentaries are pretty interesting as far as commentary goes.
"Behind the Mask: Creating the Aliens of Babylon 5" documentary presents a rather interesting look at how they dealt with trying to be original with the Alien designs in a world full of competition. The set also offers "Designing a Better Narn" and "Designing Tomorrow: The Look of Babylon 5" documentaries. As if Narn wasn't already cool enough! Finally we have the standard Personnel and Data files for each of the characters.
bottom line:
The best set offering yet for the underappreciated Sci-Fi series. Warner has expanded the offerings here with plenty of extras and a better soundtrack. Definitely worth the cheaper price that places like Amazon is selling for as compared to the first two seasons.
By - Brian "Shroom" Gray
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