DESCRIPTION:
The epic sci-fi series Babylon 5 was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was
effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear
beginning, middle, and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year
by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry
Doyle), and familiarizes the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space
station in the year 2257.
This six DVD set will include:
- All new digital widescreen transfers
- Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
- Introduction and audio commentary on two key episodes by JMS
- "Behind Babylon 5" dossier of documentaries: "The Making of Babylon 5" and "Back to
Babylon"
- Enter the "World of Babylon 5": Take a station tour and explore the humans, aliens,
political situations, scientific data, tech files, weaponry and hardware of this unique
futuristic era
- Interactive menus
- Episodes shown in
broadcast
order
- Audio Tracks in English (Dolby Digital 5.1) and French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) -- R1
- Subtitles in English, French and Spanish -- R1
- Audio Tracks in German, English, and French -- R2
- Subtitles in German, English, French, Turkish, Arabic, Dutch and Swedish -- R2
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Check out the nifty little flash
site that is promoting this product.
Also, a kind gentleman at Warner Brothers Online has sent us some promotional material that
we were allowed to share on our site. Visit our S1 DVD Boxed
Promos page for lots of goodies including links to some promotional clips of the extras
as well as some episode screenshots.
MONICA'S REVIEW:
These DVDs are on their way to my mailbox and I will hopefully have something more substantial
here soon. In the meantime, it was pointed out that while the DVD set has the episodes in
broadcast
order, people should try to view the episodes from the
master list.
This is the order that JMS has apparently given his blessing on but it makes you wonder why
it isn't currently being shown in that order since one would think enough time has passed to
fix it. In any case, unless you are a real fanatic, watching them as presented in the boxed
set should work out just fine.
RELATED PRODUCTS:
There is the The Gathering/In the Beginning on DVD which was released
at the end of 2001. It was the first DVD release for the Bablyon series so go ahead and pick it
up if you haven't already. There is also a two pack set that
includes the first two seasons, a three pack set that includes the
first three seasons or a four pack set that includes the first
four seasons of Bablyon 5!
JMS AT RASTB5M:
MAR.31.2003
"Getting O'Hare involved would make most fans I know very happy
indeed. For a guy who was only the lead in one season his popularity has endured."
He was asked if he wanted to participate in the DVDs in general, not just for season one, and
declined. WB isn't going to keep bugging him if he doesn't want to do it.
NOV.24.2002
"In regards to why there are no bloopers on the DVDs..."
I think there has to be some arrangement made between WB and the Screen Actors Guild for that
to be done, since it involves material not originally intended for broadcast. So that has
been a sticking point to date.
NOV.9.2002
"In regards to the DVD sales..."
All I'll say is that Warners is, apparently, stunned.
AUG.13.2002
The disk has an on-camera introduction by me (despite my warnings
that this would undoubtedly drive down sales), a letter of introduction each by me and Doug
Netter, and the half-hour piece features new interviews with Rick Biggs, Stephen Furst, me,
Doug, efx maven Mitch Suskin, makeup whiz John Vulich, and others.
JUL.3.2002
Finally, I'm writing an intro for the B5 DVDs, which are proceeding
along well and this should prove to be a very nice little package.
JUN.26.2002
One error. Apparently Claudia had agreed to do the interview, then
canceled at the last minute.
JUN.25.2002
On the DVDs, last I heard they'll be out around mid-November, with
the whole first season at about a hundred bucks. I did the commentaries on "Signs and
Portents" and "Chrysalis", and an on-camera intro and interview. They've also done new
interviews with Rick Biggs, Claudia, John Iacovelli, John Copeland, Stephen Furst, Jerry
Doyle and others. So it should be a pretty big deal overall, much better than the movie
dvd.
JUN.10.2002
The sound is being remastered to 5.1.
JUN.9.2002
"Have they decided on aspect ratio?"
Widescreen.
JUN.9.2002
Season One will be out in a boxed set this Fall, and they're going to
be including at minimum two commentaries from me, probably on "Signs and Portents" and
"Chrysalis" (it's a matter of how much time and energy I can give to it given that there's no
fees involved and I'm in the midst of Jeremiah), and if possible, "Babylon Squared", maybe
"Sky Full of Stars". They'd also like to film an on-camera intro by me (but I guess folks
will buy it anyway, even with that particular horror included).
They're pulling together a lot of stuff on this release so that there are plenty of extras
this time around, now that the value of the DVDs has been shown by the first release...
