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Babylon 5 - The Complete Fifth Season

Babylon 5 - The Complete Fifth Season

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $74.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Aborted 5th season
Review: Season 5 starts off well, even though Ivanova is sorely missed, with 2 main story arcs beginning (Centauri/Drakh/Emperor Londo, and the preludes to the Telepath War). However, Sci-Fi Networks cancelled the 6th and subsequent seasons about half-way through season 5, and the last half of season 5 is turned into one long leave-taking. The new arcs are abruptly forgotten and there is a mad dash to tie up what loose ends are remaining and finish the series.

There are a number of really good episodes, such as Day of the Dead, but the aborted storyline rally makes the whole thing pointless to me. Better they should have ended at Season 4, as they had originally planned, than add this postscript season.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: for us, the ones who truly wanted more
Review: Since the beginning the show was never expected to go so far. It was suppose to be over, but the show was that good it had another go. JMS must be very proud and happy and same with us the fans that we all brought it this far. In this season we get to enduldge in more of the Babylon 5 universe and set a closer to the story along with the mysteries of more stories.

There are pleanty of what my friends and I call "stand alones". Season 4 was connected episode by episode on war battles, some of the political action some fans love more over character stories. The Stand Alones are epeisodes that alost anyone can watch without needing an overwhelming amount of background knowledge. They are alost like long short films that tell a story. Some good examples are Day of The Dead and The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father. The other beautiful side to this season is the characters in their final stages from the story of the Babylon 5 station. By the end of season 4, the characters have all gone through hell and some good times together that they each come to another level of who they are. Sheridan arrives at the wise level Sinclair had come to himself and the same with G'kar.

If you plan on getting into Babylon 5 and go through the seasons and have come here, you just may be completely satisfied with the whole of the story. If you love the characters and their accomplishments in the universe, this season will be a comfortable pleasing treat. If all that mattered to you were the battles of epic proportions and people shouting out phrases such as "Alright hit them with everything we've got! Give them hell!" then you 'expected excitement' will not be satisfied. By the way someone wrote saying that Year 5 was too much of a soap operah probably said that because their were no big wars and has forgotten episodes of the past such as The Parliament of Dreams, Believers, Soul Mates, Gropos, Confessions and Lamentations, Passing Through The Gethsemane, Ship Of Tears, Z'ha'dum, scenes of Sheridan & Delenn, and scenes of Garibaldi & Lise all have romantic elements just to name a few. Babylon 5 is both about the great battles and wars but also equally important is the people and their lives in those times.

I have watched Babylon 5 since season 1 ever since it has aired and I got em all. Season 5 and 1 are my absolute favorites and I love everything else. Now the wait begins for the movies and the other goodies from B5. (its time I get rid of the other VHS TV recordings, too many comercials)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow!
Review: Some people regard season 5 as the weakest of the seasons, but having watched it again for the first time since it's original TV airing, I would have to strongly disagree. In fact, season 5 connected with me at a very emotional level---in ways far beyond the other seasons. This is a season of big ideas; accepting the consequences of actions, making choices, redemption, forgiveness, starting over, the nature of power, nonviolence, and more. A few months after the original airing of season 5, I got rid of my TV and haven't watched much since (going on 6 years). Now, I know why---it doesn't get any better than this! Thank you Michael Straczynski!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All Good Things Must End!
Review: The best sci-fi show ever finally at its end. Everybory who likes an intelligent TV show must watch all five seasons.The fifth season wasnÂ't the best season but it is a good and emotional ending for a great show.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All Good Things Must End!
Review: The best sci-fi show ever finally at its end. Everybory who likes an intelligent TV show must watch all five seasons.The fifth season wasnÂ't the best season but it is a good and emotional ending for a great show.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The only real disappointing season
Review: The end of Season Four was rushed since JMS wanted to make sure his story was told. The series finale on the last disc of Season Five was shot a year earlier since they thought the series had wrapped. This fact makes Season Five seem more disjointed than the others. The Telepath Colony/Byron storyline that dominated much of the first half of the season was never very engaging. A few setup episodes leads to The Fall of Centauri Prime which could have saved the season, but it came too late to do it justice.

All in all, an adequate wrap-up to a great series, but not the excellence that it could have been if network politics had not intervened.

The DVDs themselves and extras were good, but the video transfers do not seem as good as previous sets.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finished what it wanted to, but still ended too soon.
Review: The fifth and final season of Babylon 5 managed to do what very few television series ever manage; it ended where it wanted to end and with an episode amongst the most potent in the entire series, not to mention television history. While just about the entire last quarter of this season is about saying goodbye as all the characters we've come to know and love through the preceding five years as they move off towards their own fate, the final episode with Sheriden's death is the most moving all of them.

The technical aspects of this season are naturally the best of the five. While season 4 contained space battles that still manage to spank pretty much everything out there, in this season everything looks its best. The detail paid by the graphic artists to all the ships and stations is outstanding and indicative of the mind set that went into all aspects of creating Babylon 5. (ie, to do amazing things with almost nothing.)

Story wise, season five is darker than those before it. The consequences of their choices come back to haunt characters like Mollari and Garibaldi. Here, Babylon 5 reminds us that it is not a show that wraps up such things quickly and easily, and that we have to live with whatever we've done. It's a shame that season 4 had to be so compressed, because the whole arc about the first stages of the telepath wars that results in this series is not Babylon 5's greatest moment. On the plus side, it gives the excuse to use Walter Koenig's fascinatingly evil character of Bester just as much as they did in the previous season (4 episodes, ep 6, 10, 11, 13). Considering his strength in this role, it's a true shame he's not been able to break away from the Chekov character and find roles in other works.

But, for every good thing there must be a bad. While Bester is back in full use, we are sorely lacking for Ivanova. It's a true shame she was unable to return. Tracy Scoggins does an admirable job as Capt. Lochley, but she just wasn't around long enough for us to really get to know her well enough.

The extras on the DVD are what fans have come to expect of the set. All of them are quite fascinating. The easter egg this time is a small featurette on the fate of Marcus Cole, whether he was left for dead or frozen in hopes of revival. It even incorporates fan opinions on the issue. Though if anyone has paid really close attention (and has a large enough TV) they'll be able to see the final outcome during the credits of the final episode. Beyond Babylon is probably the most interesting segment of the featurettes this time, as it details Joe's vision of the universe and the fans that supported it through its run.

Unlike the previous season, the cast commentary is great. While dominated by Boxleitner and Scoggins, everyone gets their fare share at voicing an opinion. Like the ones from previous seasons, it's extremely funny and will leave you wishing they had put more of them into other episodes. It also makes you realize just how perfect everything worked behind the scenes (with the exception of the managers at WB, but they were always problems for this series). Joe's two segments are interesting as always, and the one he gives during the final episode is very revealing as he talks about his own direction of the end of his series.

Ultimately, Babylon 5 endured and conquered its opposition. It lasted for the five years that Joe had originally planned and, according to him, ~95% of everything he wanted to do with it made it to the screen. And unlike a majority of television, the story of Babylon 5 truly ended, though the characters and their world would go on. While not the best of the series, it was an excellent ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Somewhat Anti-climatic
Review: The fifth season of Babylon 5 was excellent, and wrapped up the series, concluding the longest mini-series in television history. Unfortunately, it ends up being rather anti-climactic. With the Shadow War and the Earth Civil War both concluded in the fourth season, it just has no place to go here. The character pieces with Londo trapped as the new Emperor of the Centauri Republic and Garibaldi falling back into alchoholism are powerful and interesting, but can't match the action of the Earth civil war. In the final analysis, a good series with good stories, but not up to the standards of previous seasons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Somewhat Anti-climatic
Review: The fifth season of Babylon 5 was excellent, and wrapped up the series, concluding the longest mini-series in television history. Unfortunately, it ends up being rather anti-climactic. With the Shadow War and the Earth Civil War both concluded in the fourth season, it just has no place to go here. The character pieces with Londo trapped as the new Emperor of the Centauri Republic and Garibaldi falling back into alchoholism are powerful and interesting, but can't match the action of the Earth civil war. In the final analysis, a good series with good stories, but not up to the standards of previous seasons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Denouemout
Review: The fifth season of Babylon 5, while still stellar, is not quite up to par with the third and fourth seasons. This is because it's telling the end of the story--it starts later in the arc that originally intended (S4 was originally supposed to end with Intersections in Real Time), and because of the loss of the key character Ivanova.

That said, it is still excellently made and it is a wonderful conclusion to the story that is Babylon 5. Be on the lookout for a movie to be released in theatres soon. :)


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