BABYLON 5- THE COMPLETE
FOURTH SEASON:
NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT
As
a fan, it is easy for me to say that BABYLON 5 is one of the best
science fiction television series to ever grace the airwaves. Thanks to
series creator and chief writer J. Michael Stracznski, BABYLON 5
was a unique show with a grand vision that told a large, evolving story
across its five year run on television. Stracznski had a five-year story
arc mapped out in his head, which was rather bold for a show that aired in
first run syndication and could have been canceled at any time.
Fortunately, BABYLON 5 developed a devoted and vocal core audience
that helped keep it on the air throughout the irregular broadcast schedule
that constituted its first four seasons. Although the fourth season was
arguably the best for BABYLON 5, the quirky nature of first run
syndication brought the show close to cancellation when it reached its
storytelling zenith. Fortunately, the TNT cable network stepped up to the
plate for the show’s final season, which allowed Stracznski to fulfill
his vision. As for BABYLON 5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER,
NO RETREAT ($100), it comes to DVD via Warner Home Video in a six disc
set containing all twenty-two year four episodes.
Disc
one contains the episodes The Hour Of The Wolf,
Whatever Happened To Mr. Garibaldi?, The
Summoning and Falling Toward Apotheosis. The
Hour Of The Wolf finds the crew of Babylon 5 having to deal with
the aftermath of Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) going to the Shadows’
home world of Z'ha'dum. Whatever Happened To Mr.
Garibaldi? has Citizen G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) leave the
sanctuary of Babylon 5 and go in search of missing Security Chief
Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and winds up captured by the Centauri for his
troubles. The Summoning is a busy episode in which Garibaldi
is rescued; Sheridan makes a miraculous return to the station, plus a
startling discovery is made about the Vorlons. Falling Toward
Apotheosis has the crew of B5 taking a stand against the new
Vorlon Ambassador after his race begins a series of merciless attacks
against any world siding with The Shadows.
Disc
two contains the episodes The Long Night, Into The
Fire, Epiphanies and The Illusion Of Truth.
The Long Night is a standout episode in Sheridan prepares
the younger races for a final face off against The Shadows and the
Vorlons, while at the same time Londo (Peter Jurasik) and Vir (Stephen
Furst) undertake a plot to rid the Centauri home world of all Shadow
influences, including their own insane Emperor. Into The Fire
brings the Shadow War to a conclusion in an epic battle the forces the
Vorlons and Shadows to confront one another directly. Epiphanies
cuts the end of war celebrations short, when PSI-Cop Bester (Walter
Koenig) arrives on the station with information that Earth President Clark
has initiated covert operations to discredit Babylon 5; there is an ill
advised reconnaissance mission to Z'ha'dum, and finally, Garibaldi makes a
surprising announcement that he is resigning as security chief. The
Illusion Of Truth features an ISN new report on Babylon 5 that
grossly twists the truth to fit President Clark’s political agenda.
Disc
three contains the episodes Atonement, Racing Mars,
Lines Of Communication and Conflicts Of Interest. In
Atonement, Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) returns to Minbar
to answer to her people over her decision to marry Sheridan, while Dr.
Franklin (Richard Biggs) and Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) undertake a secret
mission to make contact with the Mars resistance, which also opposes the
corrupt government of President Clark. Racing Mars finds
Commander Ivanova (Claudia Christian) making deals with smugglers to keep
the supply lines to Babylon 5 open, while Garibaldi and Sheridan have a
very public disagreement. Lines Of Communication marks
retaliation in the propaganda war, with Ivanova becoming the voice of B5;
Franklin making inroads with the Mars resistance and Delenn comes face to
face with a race that was allied with The Shadows. Conflicts Of
Interest finds Garibaldi hired as a bodyguard for his former
fiancée, while Ivanova goes down to Epsilon III seeking additional power
to beam her Voice of the Resistance broadcasts all the way back home.
Disc
four contains the episodes Rumors, Bargains And Lies,
Moments Of Transition, No Surrender, No Retreat and
The Exercise Of Vital Powers. In Rumors, Bargains And Lies,
civil war between the religious and warrior castes breaks out on Minbar,
forcing Delenn and Lennier (Bill Mumy) to return home. Moments Of
Transition finds Delenn risking her life to put an end to the
conflict at home, while a lacks of funds forces Lyta Alexander (Patricia
Tallman) to make a deal with the devil, or in this case, PSI-Cop Bester.
In No Surrender, No Retreat, Earth forces assaults on
civilian targets, which leads Sheridan to muster his forces to free a
repressed Earth colony from the control of the corrupt Earth government. The
Exercise Of Vital Powers reveals what Mr. Garibaldi’s new
employer has been up to on Mars.
Disc
five contains the episodes The Face Of The Enemy,
Intersections In Real Time, Between The Darkness And The
Light and Endgame. The Face Of The Enemy
finds Sheridan facing a betrayal by an old friend, just as more and more
of Earth’s military begin switching sides in the rebellion against
President Clark’s government. Intersections In Real Time
has the recently captured Sheridan undergoing interrogation and
psychological torture in an effort to break him. Between The
Darkness And The Light finds that Garibaldi is free from the
outside forces that have been pulling his strings, thus allowing him to
lead a rescue mission to retrieve Sheridan, who in turn, leads his
assembled fleet against President Clark’s forces at Mars. In Endgame,
Sheridan is able to bring off a plan to disable to the Earth warships
without destroying them, which ends the battle and allows Sheridan’s
forces to advance towards Earth.
Disc
six contains the episodes Rising Star and The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars. Rising Star ties up
the loose ends of the war, with Sheridan being named President of a new
Interstellar Alliance; Ivanova is promoted to captain and reassigned to a
new ship; Londo is asked to return to Centauri Prime, where he will be
named the next Emperor, and finally, Sheridan and Delenn marry. The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars was designed as an episode to tie
up the loose ends of the series, if the show had not been renewed for its
fifth and final season- thus depicting various historic events concerning
Babylon 5 and the key figures in the history of the station and in
humankind in the generations after its demise.
Warner
Home Video has made all twenty two episodes from BABYLON 5- THE
COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT available on DVD in a
1.78:1 wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement
for 16:9 displays. For the most part, the episodes look pretty darn good,
although they suffer from the same problem that plagued the first three
seasons. Since the CGI and other postproduction shots had to be
reformatted from the 4:3 video masters, things do appear soft and
occasionally murky in these instances. Sequences newly transferred from
the show’s original film elements usually appear very crisp and rather
nicely defined. The film elements themselves are in rather good shape,
displaying very few blemishes or other anomalies. Colors usually appear
nicely saturated, although sequences reformatted from the 4:3 masters are
somewhat less vivid. Blacks are usually accurate, as are the whites.
Contrast and shadow detail are generally at the episodic television level,
but are otherwise fine. The six dual layered DVDs don’t display any
appreciable signs of digital compression artifacts, even with four
episodes encoded onto a disc.
As
with the three preceding seasons all of the episodes that comprise BABYLON
5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT have been
upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks. As one might expect,
the sound is derived from the pre-matrixed surround elements, therefore
they maintain the character of the original television broadcasts.
However, the sound mixes would seem a little stronger in the fourth
season, than they were in the past, which is probably the result of this
being a rather action oriented season of BABYLON 5- with more than
a few space battles. While the forward soundstage does tend to dominate
the sound mix of each episode, the surround channels are well implemented,
when called upon, and overall the sound design is quite engaging. Fidelity
proves to be quite good for a television production, with the music
producing a strong presence and sound effects coming across in a
convincing manner. Dialogue is cleanly reproduced and is always completely
understandable. The bass channel is solid and surprisingly effective for a
television production. No other language tracks are provided for the
episodes, although subtitles are offered in English, French and Spanish.
Animation
and sound serve to enhance the DVD's interactive menus. Through the menus,
one has access to standard scene selection and set up features, as well as
a number of fine supplemental features. Disc one features a six-minute
introduction by series creator/writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski.
Actors Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Patricia Tallman, and Peter Jurasik
are on hand to provide a running audio commentary for the episode Falling
Toward Apotheosis. J. Michael Straczynski and director Mike Vejar
provide a running commentary for The Face Of The Enemy,
while Straczynski is again on hand to share his comments on The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars.
On
disc six one will find two new programs. Celestial Sounds
runs nearly six minutes and looks at the contributions of composer
Christopher Franke to BABYLON 5. No Surrender, No Retreat DVD
Suite runs nearly seven minutes and features Franke’s musical
compositions from the episode, with accompanying visuals. The
Universe Of Babylon 5 contains a number of text and video files on
various aspects of the plotlines and characters. A blooper reel is also
featured in this section of supplements. Biographies for J. Michael
Straczynski and Douglas Netter close out the supplemental materials.
As
I’ve mentioned previously, BABYLON 5 is indeed one of the best
science fiction television series to ever grace the airwaves- with its
forth season arguably being the show’s best. If you’ve been collection
the sets since the beginning, you will definitely want to add BABYLON
5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT to your
collection. If you have never experienced BABYLON 5, don’t
hesitate to pick up season four, but you better pick up seasons one, two
and three as well, so that you can understand and enjoy this marvelous
science fiction series from the beginning. Highly recommended.
As
a fan, it is easy for me to say that BABYLON 5 is one of the best
science fiction television series to ever grace the airwaves. Thanks to
series creator and chief writer J. Michael Stracznski, BABYLON 5
was a unique show with a grand vision that told a large, evolving story
across its five year run on television. Stracznski had a five-year story
arc mapped out in his head, which was rather bold for a show that aired in
first run syndication and could have been canceled at any time.
Fortunately, BABYLON 5 developed a devoted and vocal core audience
that helped keep it on the air throughout the irregular broadcast schedule
that constituted its first four seasons. Although the fourth season was
arguably the best for BABYLON 5, the quirky nature of first run
syndication brought the show close to cancellation when it reached its
storytelling zenith. Fortunately, the TNT cable network stepped up to the
plate for the show’s final season, which allowed Stracznski to fulfill
his vision. As for BABYLON 5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER,
NO RETREAT ($100), it comes to DVD via Warner Home Video in a six disc
set containing all twenty-two year four episodes.
Disc
one contains the episodes The Hour Of The Wolf,
Whatever Happened To Mr. Garibaldi?, The
Summoning and Falling Toward Apotheosis. The
Hour Of The Wolf finds the crew of Babylon 5 having to deal with
the aftermath of Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) going to the Shadows’
home world of Z'ha'dum. Whatever Happened To Mr.
Garibaldi? has Citizen G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) leave the
sanctuary of Babylon 5 and go in search of missing Security Chief
Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and winds up captured by the Centauri for his
troubles. The Summoning is a busy episode in which Garibaldi
is rescued; Sheridan makes a miraculous return to the station, plus a
startling discovery is made about the Vorlons. Falling Toward
Apotheosis has the crew of B5 taking a stand against the new
Vorlon Ambassador after his race begins a series of merciless attacks
against any world siding with The Shadows.
Disc
two contains the episodes The Long Night, Into The
Fire, Epiphanies and The Illusion Of Truth.
The Long Night is a standout episode in Sheridan prepares
the younger races for a final face off against The Shadows and the
Vorlons, while at the same time Londo (Peter Jurasik) and Vir (Stephen
Furst) undertake a plot to rid the Centauri home world of all Shadow
influences, including their own insane Emperor. Into The Fire
brings the Shadow War to a conclusion in an epic battle the forces the
Vorlons and Shadows to confront one another directly. Epiphanies
cuts the end of war celebrations short, when PSI-Cop Bester (Walter
Koenig) arrives on the station with information that Earth President Clark
has initiated covert operations to discredit Babylon 5; there is an ill
advised reconnaissance mission to Z'ha'dum, and finally, Garibaldi makes a
surprising announcement that he is resigning as security chief. The
Illusion Of Truth features an ISN new report on Babylon 5 that
grossly twists the truth to fit President Clark’s political agenda.
Disc
three contains the episodes Atonement, Racing Mars,
Lines Of Communication and Conflicts Of Interest. In
Atonement, Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) returns to Minbar
to answer to her people over her decision to marry Sheridan, while Dr.
Franklin (Richard Biggs) and Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) undertake a secret
mission to make contact with the Mars resistance, which also opposes the
corrupt government of President Clark. Racing Mars finds
Commander Ivanova (Claudia Christian) making deals with smugglers to keep
the supply lines to Babylon 5 open, while Garibaldi and Sheridan have a
very public disagreement. Lines Of Communication marks
retaliation in the propaganda war, with Ivanova becoming the voice of B5;
Franklin making inroads with the Mars resistance and Delenn comes face to
face with a race that was allied with The Shadows. Conflicts Of
Interest finds Garibaldi hired as a bodyguard for his former
fiancée, while Ivanova goes down to Epsilon III seeking additional power
to beam her Voice of the Resistance broadcasts all the way back home.
Disc
four contains the episodes Rumors, Bargains And Lies,
Moments Of Transition, No Surrender, No Retreat and
The Exercise Of Vital Powers. In Rumors, Bargains And Lies,
civil war between the religious and warrior castes breaks out on Minbar,
forcing Delenn and Lennier (Bill Mumy) to return home. Moments Of
Transition finds Delenn risking her life to put an end to the
conflict at home, while a lacks of funds forces Lyta Alexander (Patricia
Tallman) to make a deal with the devil, or in this case, PSI-Cop Bester.
In No Surrender, No Retreat, Earth forces assaults on
civilian targets, which leads Sheridan to muster his forces to free a
repressed Earth colony from the control of the corrupt Earth government. The
Exercise Of Vital Powers reveals what Mr. Garibaldi’s new
employer has been up to on Mars.
Disc
five contains the episodes The Face Of The Enemy,
Intersections In Real Time, Between The Darkness And The
Light and Endgame. The Face Of The Enemy
finds Sheridan facing a betrayal by an old friend, just as more and more
of Earth’s military begin switching sides in the rebellion against
President Clark’s government. Intersections In Real Time
has the recently captured Sheridan undergoing interrogation and
psychological torture in an effort to break him. Between The
Darkness And The Light finds that Garibaldi is free from the
outside forces that have been pulling his strings, thus allowing him to
lead a rescue mission to retrieve Sheridan, who in turn, leads his
assembled fleet against President Clark’s forces at Mars. In Endgame,
Sheridan is able to bring off a plan to disable to the Earth warships
without destroying them, which ends the battle and allows Sheridan’s
forces to advance towards Earth.
Disc
six contains the episodes Rising Star and The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars. Rising Star ties up
the loose ends of the war, with Sheridan being named President of a new
Interstellar Alliance; Ivanova is promoted to captain and reassigned to a
new ship; Londo is asked to return to Centauri Prime, where he will be
named the next Emperor, and finally, Sheridan and Delenn marry. The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars was designed as an episode to tie
up the loose ends of the series, if the show had not been renewed for its
fifth and final season- thus depicting various historic events concerning
Babylon 5 and the key figures in the history of the station and in
humankind in the generations after its demise.
Warner
Home Video has made all twenty two episodes from BABYLON 5- THE
COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT available on DVD in a
1.78:1 wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement
for 16:9 displays. For the most part, the episodes look pretty darn good,
although they suffer from the same problem that plagued the first three
seasons. Since the CGI and other postproduction shots had to be
reformatted from the 4:3 video masters, things do appear soft and
occasionally murky in these instances. Sequences newly transferred from
the show’s original film elements usually appear very crisp and rather
nicely defined. The film elements themselves are in rather good shape,
displaying very few blemishes or other anomalies. Colors usually appear
nicely saturated, although sequences reformatted from the 4:3 masters are
somewhat less vivid. Blacks are usually accurate, as are the whites.
Contrast and shadow detail are generally at the episodic television level,
but are otherwise fine. The six dual layered DVDs don’t display any
appreciable signs of digital compression artifacts, even with four
episodes encoded onto a disc.
As
with the three preceding seasons all of the episodes that comprise BABYLON
5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT have been
upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks. As one might expect,
the sound is derived from the pre-matrixed surround elements, therefore
they maintain the character of the original television broadcasts.
However, the sound mixes would seem a little stronger in the fourth
season, than they were in the past, which is probably the result of this
being a rather action oriented season of BABYLON 5- with more than
a few space battles. While the forward soundstage does tend to dominate
the sound mix of each episode, the surround channels are well implemented,
when called upon, and overall the sound design is quite engaging. Fidelity
proves to be quite good for a television production, with the music
producing a strong presence and sound effects coming across in a
convincing manner. Dialogue is cleanly reproduced and is always completely
understandable. The bass channel is solid and surprisingly effective for a
television production. No other language tracks are provided for the
episodes, although subtitles are offered in English, French and Spanish.
Animation
and sound serve to enhance the DVD's interactive menus. Through the menus,
one has access to standard scene selection and set up features, as well as
a number of fine supplemental features. Disc one features a six-minute
introduction by series creator/writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski.
Actors Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Patricia Tallman, and Peter Jurasik
are on hand to provide a running audio commentary for the episode Falling
Toward Apotheosis. J. Michael Straczynski and director Mike Vejar
provide a running commentary for The Face Of The Enemy,
while Straczynski is again on hand to share his comments on The
Deconstruction Of Falling Stars.
On
disc six one will find two new programs. Celestial Sounds
runs nearly six minutes and looks at the contributions of composer
Christopher Franke to BABYLON 5. No Surrender, No Retreat DVD
Suite runs nearly seven minutes and features Franke’s musical
compositions from the episode, with accompanying visuals. The
Universe Of Babylon 5 contains a number of text and video files on
various aspects of the plotlines and characters. A blooper reel is also
featured in this section of supplements. Biographies for J. Michael
Straczynski and Douglas Netter close out the supplemental materials.
As
I’ve mentioned previously, BABYLON 5 is indeed one of the best
science fiction television series to ever grace the airwaves- with its
forth season arguably being the show’s best. If you’ve been collection
the sets since the beginning, you will definitely want to add BABYLON
5- THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON: NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT to your
collection. If you have never experienced BABYLON 5, don’t
hesitate to pick up season four, but you better pick up seasons one, two
and three as well, so that you can understand and enjoy this marvelous
science fiction series from the beginning. Highly recommended.
