Babylon 5: Lost Tales...
I've just picked up Babylon 5: The Lost Tales...
There's the Minbari starship interior that consists of an empty room and two chairs and a corridor. The Babylon 5 station itself isn't much better. All the sets look virtually abandoned due to the almost total lack of extras. There are even fake people in the vast Babylon 5 docking bay and there's the sound of a huge crowd scene that takes place entirely off-screen.
This incarnation of the Babylon 5 franchise consists of two stories. The first centers around a retelling of the Exorcist while the other has Galen presenting Sheridan with a moral dilemma to solve. The stories are weak at best and the tantalizing glimpses of stunning CG effects are simply too few and too short to support the immense weight of this poorly executed production. While it was nice to revisit the Babylon 5 universe, I don't believe that this incarnation represents their best work.
I'll continue to support Babylon 5, but, if there is to be a second release of Lost Tales, I would hope that the next release is more promising.
To start with, thanks to advances in technology, the CG effects are much better. But, aside from a fresh coat of paint, there's not much to disguise the poor quality of this low budget direct-to-DVD release. First, there's the general lack of a cast. With the actors that played G'Kar and Dr. Franklin having passed away, the producers had no choice but to work around their absence. Delenn, Londo, Garibaldi, Vir and even Zack are all missing in action. We're left with Lockley, Sheridan and Galen.Times change. Dangers remain. 10 years after he became President of the Interstellar Alliance, Sheridan prepares for a fateful Babylon 5 reunion that could prevent Earth's impending doom...if he will also compromise his core principles. Meanwhile, commander Lochley confronts an unexpected interloper on the way station - a being whose presence makes the B5 freeport the crossroads between heaven and hell. In Voices in the Dark, Series creator J. Michael Straczynski reunites with stars Bruce Boxleitner and Tracy Scoggins in two richly imagined stories set after the events of the original series. Richly imagined, too, is Straczynski's vision of the 23rd century (including a dazzling New York City) - a vision made more spectacular via filmmaking technology unavailable during the original series.
There's the Minbari starship interior that consists of an empty room and two chairs and a corridor. The Babylon 5 station itself isn't much better. All the sets look virtually abandoned due to the almost total lack of extras. There are even fake people in the vast Babylon 5 docking bay and there's the sound of a huge crowd scene that takes place entirely off-screen.
This incarnation of the Babylon 5 franchise consists of two stories. The first centers around a retelling of the Exorcist while the other has Galen presenting Sheridan with a moral dilemma to solve. The stories are weak at best and the tantalizing glimpses of stunning CG effects are simply too few and too short to support the immense weight of this poorly executed production. While it was nice to revisit the Babylon 5 universe, I don't believe that this incarnation represents their best work.
I'll continue to support Babylon 5, but, if there is to be a second release of Lost Tales, I would hope that the next release is more promising.
