The Year The Great War Came Upon Us All (also known as Babylon 5: The Complete Second Season) is now available for pre-ordering, to be shipped at the end of April. So for those of you that’d like to see Soul Mates and There All The Honor Lies (written, of course, by your host, Mr. David) in widescreen, extra crispy, and with Dolby sound… click through!
• 
Babylon 5 is one of the best sci fi series out there. I cannot recommend it enough.
Bobby
Bobby Nash
Writer @ Large
Indeed. But what’s “pre-ordering”? Whatever happened to just walking into a store, handing over cash, and walking out with what you wanted? Too simple, I guess. Oh, I know, shops stopped stocking things. That’s what happened. At least stopped stocking anything I figure might be interesting. ALIENS – try to find the DVD in this accursed city [Ottawa]. Oh, they DO have the BOX SET … whereby you also pay to get the awful #3 and not much better #4. I just want #2. [“We ordered some for Christmas but have not re-ordered since. If you don’t mind waiting six-eight weeks, we can special order it for you…”]
As for B5, I’d settle for finding the FIRST season set. Here, we have BARETTA, ONCE AND AGAIN, and other such tripe. But B5? Hah!
Isn’t pre-ordering the stuff they do with comics? Ya know, when they want you to order stuff that isn’t going to come out for months? (Duh, et cetera)
Personally, I get most of my DVD’s through the internet (though rarely through Amazon), since it’s often a good deal cheaper than buying them in stores that overcharge you. It’s how I got the first season of the Simpsons for less than half the price if I’d bought it in an old-fashioned non-virtual store.
Anyway, if I’m going to be buying this, I’ll wait for it to hit the regular stores first. Well, one specific store. It sells them at just under internet-prices. Go figure! 🙂
Of course, they’re not consistent, so it’s still a challenge to get the most out of your buck. Or Euro as is the case with me.
Good thing my DVD-player’s region-free…
StarWolf,
I almost always use the internet for my DVD purchases, especially the boxed sets. Check out DVDPriceSearch.com. It checks more than a dozen different online merchants and gives you the best prices including s&h. North American DVD (which is located in Canada) has both seasons 1 & 2 of Bab5 for $59.60 which is $15-$20 cheaper than any other site or any stores that I know of.
Fazhoul
Babylon 5 was really good the first 3 seasons, rushed in the 4 season, and had a great amount of sucking the last season. Where as DS9 had a great about of sucking the first 3 seasons and were pretty good the rest of the series. Gop figure…
Seasons 2-4 of Babylon 5 are, bar none, the best sci-fi ever done on television. The intelligence and wit is some of the best TV has ever offered. Season 1 was soley to set things up and Season 5 felt tacked on just to get enough episodes for syndication. The meat of the story begins in season 2.
I think i will wait for all 5 seasons to be released I was still screwed over when I was buying the B5 vidoes from the store and suddenly they stopped producing them and I was stuck with season 1 & 5 and bits of 2 and 4.
What was the station about?
I thought that was a funny line and was delivered well. I did wonder what the station personifies in relation to a station like DS9. Just looking for fan and professional opinions.
Starwolf: you can order the first season of B5 here. Pre-ordering is because the item has yet to appear on store shelves at all, and well, if you can’t wait…
(Why Amazon? Because they give us a kickback. Why did we hype second season and not first? Because Peter wrote two episodes.)
Alan: I will defer to the writer of the line in question. Oh, Peter…
Posted by KC:
Season 1 was soley to set things up and Season 5 felt tacked on just to get enough episodes for syndication.
An ironic observation, since, IIRC, the first 4 seasons of Babylon 5 basically aired in syndication (or whatever that loose affiliation of syndicate stations PTEN was.)
Still, I don’t think any reasonable person would dispute that the behind-the-scenes fretting over whether or not B5 would actually be renewed for a fifth season did affect the pacing and tone of Season 5 (and the last part of Season 4.) Regardless, Babylon 5 is a great achievement in U.S. TV Science Fiction, and it’s definitely nice to see the episodes becoming available on DVD.
Season five was weaker than the others, but not because of a desire to get enough episodes for syndication (note that, to the best of my knowledge, since it finished B5 has only appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel and not in syndication).
Reasons for the weakness; since it wasn’t clear there’d be a fifth season, the liberation of Earth was pushed up into the fourth season, removing a key climax from season five. Losing a key character due to behind the scenes stuff with the actor, both costing the show a popular character and requiring that a new one be introed and developed…even though the show only had that one more season to go (i.e. Lochley wasn’t someone people were already caring about, and time devoted to her took away from characters people did already care a lot about. And since she was known to be a plug-in for Ivanova and the series would be ending shortly, her character felt less attached to the show/arc than others). There was likely something of a fatigue element from Joe having written two seasons straight and now doing a third. And, as I recently learned, TNT only gave the show six days production per episode, down from the previous eight at PTEN.
I got Season 1 for Christmas and was only bothered by 1 thing.
The Gathering (the original pilot) was not considered part of it.
I know it got collected with one of the other B5 movies but I felt shorted as this is the true start of the series.
Trouble with Internet purchases is, they expect you to have things such as credit cards. Credit cards have seen North Americans into a combined personal debt of hundreds of billions. I’m a cash sort of guy. If I can’t afford it out of pocket, I do without. It’s kept my bank balance nice and healthy.
The Gathering wasnt a part of season one. It aired almost a full year eariler as a TV movie and then was greenlighted as a regualar show. Thats one of the main reasons for so many cast changes from the gathering to the begining of season one. Even in the first eposide they mention its been a year since the station went on line.
“I’m a cash sort of guy. If I can’t afford it out of pocket, I do without.” -The StarWolf
That is the approach that should be had by all individuals. It also does not preclude you from utilizing the ‘net as a mode for shopping. Most financial institutions give you a ‘Check Card’ attached to your checking account.
Wonderful tool.
Look into it.
You will still be able to make the same statement.
In addition to the problems Tom listed above, season 5 also suffered from terribly rushed pacing (in the Telepath War storyline in particular). The need to introduce and wrap up the storyline over a fairly limited number of episodes meant that the telepath storyline felt like this:
BYRON: Although being a telepath is the most important thing in my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, I still feel that the rest of humanity owes me something. Give us our own planet.
SHERIDAN: Well, we’ll have to think about that.
BYRON: What?!? Let’s see how you feel when we’re invading the minds of the people on your station!
SHERIDAN: Um, could you please stop that?
BYRON: Fine, then we have no choice but to destroy you all!
…and so forth. Since Byron was the prime mover in that storyline, each of his responses seemed about three notches stronger than it needed to be, and he (and, therefore, his plotline) never really became credible.
Credit cards don’t have to be used for spending beyond your means. I’ve had a credit card for years and I’ve never spent beyond my ability to pay off the entire balance when the bill came. I use it for the convenience factor, since I don’t have to stop at ATMs as frequently to pick up cash.
I’m still quite fond of cash for small purchases. If I stop at McDonald’s for breakfast or the building cafeteria for lunch, I’ll pay with currency and coins. But when I get $30 of groceries, or when I buy some DVDs or books on-line, I use the card, then I make a payment on-line when the charge is posted. Quick and easy.
All it really takes is discipline. Even without a credit card, somebody could empty out their kids’ college fund, borrow from friends, and liquidate their retirement fund (severe penalty for early withdrawal!). If they are disciplined enough not to do these things, I don’t think a credit card should provide significantly more temptation for them to go crazy with the spending.
Just my thoughts on the matter.
davidh
I’m also someone who pays off his complete credit card bill every month. And I find it very financially prudent to charge every darn thing I can.
Why? Because for the last decade or so, I do that on cards that give ~1% of the price back to me in some form, whether a credit to the account or gift certificates for products I buy or the like. I *make* money off my credit cards.
I’m glad the seasons are being released on DVD, but not as glad as I would be if the extras were closed-captioned/subtitled. Maybe Season 2 will be, but I was informed that none of the bonus features on Season 1 were closed-captioned/subtitled.
It drives me nuts. Paramount has been EXCELLENT in doing that for their Special Edition Star Trek movies and TNG season sets. I definitely get my money’s worth when I buy those. Heck, the movies HAVE a commentary I can enjoy! (Okuda’s text commentaries… audio commentaries aren’t closed-captioned or subtitled.)
I wouldn’t be getting my money’s worth buying the B5 sets… *sigh*
Ah well… it’s just a big pet peeve for me as a deaf aficionado of TV shows and movies. Accessibility’s still a sore point for us in that regard.
Does anyone know what extras are planned for the Season 2 Box Set?
I’d really like to see some behind the scenes and bloopers.
Bobby
Bobby Nash
Writer @ Large
Here’s what was listed for the 2nd Season:
“The acclaimed second season of this science fiction cult favorite is now available for the first time ever as a 6-disc DVD set. All 22 episodes have been digitally remastered.Widescreen, Anamorphic16x9 Color , 5.1 Dolby Digital .Box Set , Commentary/Multi-Audi Making Of Trailer .6-Disc Set; Introduction producer/creator J. Michael Straczynski and various cast members; 2 episode commentaries by producer/creator J. Michael Straczynski; Episode commentary by cast members Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian and Jerry Doyle; Building Babylon: Blueprint of an Episode featurette; Shadows and Dreams: Honors of Babylon featurette; The Universe of Babylon 5 data/tech/personnel files; Babylon 5 Timeline; Original episode promos.”
Fazhoul
THE GATHERING was an integral part of the series, and there are references to events from it in season 1. Leaving it out of the season 1 set (which I FINALLY managed to acquire last night) makes no sense. I thought better of JMS & Co than to allow a blunder such as this.
As for “making money off credit cards”, I find I can make even more … by not spending in the first place. That B5 set is a rare purchase for me. I’ve managed to resist much of the consumer society’s “spend-spend-apend” lure.
What “blunder?” It’s not like “The Gathering” wasn’t available; it was already released along with “In The Beginning” as a separate product (think of it as the “B5: Season Zero” set). Including the movies in the Season 1 set would have added 1 or 2 more discs to the set, and probably $15-20 to an already expensive package.
Short of releasing the entire series in one enormous package, the material has to be divided up somehow, and I for one would prefer it to be in smaller chunks.
And just because it’s referred to doesn’t make it part of Season 1. Would you expect the “Buffy” movie to be in the “Buffy Season 1” set?
“Including the movies in the Season 1 set would have added 1 or 2 more discs to the set, and probably $15-20 to an already expensive package.”
Uh, and buying them separately is different, how, in the long run? Still the same if not more money being dished out. Difference being, if it HAD been included with Season 1, it would have made one less item to have to run around hunting up. More convenient for the customer.
Posted by The StarWolf:
Difference being, if it HAD been included with Season 1, it would have made one less item to have to run around hunting up. More convenient for the customer.
Speaking as someone who had already bought The Gathering/ITB DVD when it first came out, I would have found it more inconvenient–and annoyingly extra-expensive!–had they decided to include The Gathering in the Season 1 DVD set.
For every customer that would have liked to see the pilot included in the Season 1 set, there’s probably another who would not have. Perils of marketing, I suppose; you just can’t please everyone…
Actually, the more discs you put in a set, the more space it takes up on a shelf, meaning that stores stock fewer copies and it becomes less convenient for customers, not more…
Jesus. Babylon 5 sucked. It had the worst acting this side of All My Children, and dialogue as contrived as in any of J. Michael’s He-Man scripts. I’m not speaking for Peter David’s eps, because I’ve never seen them. But man, I can’t believe how many people actually liked this show and can speak about it in the same breath as Star Trek. The best space operas ever were Star Trek, Farscape, and Firefly. Period. Babylon 5 was so…humorless. I was just never nerdy to enough to aprecciate it for more than bottom of the barrel syndicated TV- comfortable alongside the likes of Hercules and Xena. This is not meant as an insult to the fine likes of people like Billy Mumy, Peter David, Harlan Ellison, and even Mr. J. Michael Strazinski himself.
‘Cause I loved He-man.
Whoa there Dental! Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I was never able to get into B5, but you need to be careful invoking the name of the Star Trek franchise as an example of quality. For every TNG or DS9, there’s a Voyager, and for every Wrath of Khan, there’s a Final Frontier. *shudder*
As a minor digression, I wonder if there’s any chance of Mr. David penning any Farscape tales, since novels are all that is going to be left to us after a few weeks for the foreseeable future. I would LOVE to read his take on THAT universe.
dámņ straight. i’ll miss farscape. and in a strange way, Firefly even more so. that show had so much heart…
and after much consideration and repeated viewing I have decided that The Undiscovered Country is far and away the best Trek flick. a brilliant Flash Gordon type of adventure. they totally need to get Nicholas Meyer back. he did as much for the series as Roddenberry in my opinion-rejuvenating what was, at the time, a pretty stale series with his outings on both 2 and 6. these (and First Contact) are the crown jewels in the Star Trek saga. when they blatantly stole from Khan to make Nemesis, that’s when I wanted to strangle somebody. especially the ending…sheesh. they basically admitted that Data is a Spock substitute, a suspicion I had all along. Not that I don’t love Data…and oddly, I even liked Nemesis depite its flaws. It was a great story, just not an original one. And it had all the balls that Insurrection lacked. but why, why, why did they have to steal from that beautiful heartfelt ending of The Wrath of Khan, the one that makes me cry every time I see it? if Shatner is such a šhìŧŧÿ actor, then why does he make me cry every time I watch that movie? these questions will never be answered.
“Bring me the head of Rick Berman!”
I’d say that Nemesis was one of the “Good” Trek films, with II, VI and First Contact being the “Great” ones. I’m hoping that they release a director’s cut. I read somewhere that they ended up cutting out something on the order of 50 minutes or so of finished footage. It’s no wonder the whole thing felt rushed.