Product Description
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Own all five seasons of the award-winning series about the space
station that's the tumultuous center of the 23rd century's bid
for peace among humans and aliens.
.com
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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. The first
episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line," plays at a breathless
pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and
establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as
represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and
Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). B5 hits warp speed with a run of
exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part
"Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt
against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead
world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s sci-fi classic Forbidden
Planet, the story leads to the superb time-travel-based "Babylon
Squared." Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the
usual television cliffhanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn
in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a
decision that laid the groundwork for Babylon 5's eventually
becoming a great love story.
Delenn's future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce
Boxleitner) arrived on Babylon 5 in the first episode of season
2, "Points of Departure." The show marked the handing over of
command of B5 to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor
Michael O'Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted
a bigger star in the leading role. "Revelations" explains that
Sheridan's wife, Anna, died during an archaeological survey of
the world Z'ha'dum, the name being just one of many references to
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (the bridge at Khazad-Dum). "The
Coming of Shadows" proved to be Babylon 5's finest hour to date,
and in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Sheridan learns that Morden
was on the ship on which Anna died. Three exceptional shows
conclude the season. The Narn-Centauri war escalates in "The
Long, Twilight Struggle," Sheridan faces a most unusual ordeal in
"Comes the Inquisitor," and in "The Fall of Night" all hope of
peace is shattered as a nerve-racking assassination attempt
reveals a startling secret about Ambassador Kosh.
"Matters of Honor" launched Babylon 5's third season with the
introduction of the White Star, a spacecraft added to enable more
of the action to take place away from the station. Also
introduced was Marcus Cole (Jason Carter)--in another nod to The
Lord of the Rings, a Ranger not so far removed from Tolkien's
Strider. A third of the way through the season "Messages from
Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" prove pivotal,
changing the nature of the story in a way previously unimaginable
on network TV. Earth slides into dictatorship, the fascistic
Nightwatch takes control of off-world security, and Sheridan take
decisive action by declaring Babylon 5 independent. "Interludes
and Examinations" presented the death of a major supporting
character, while the two-part "War Without End" reached
apocalyptic dimensions in a complex tale resolving the destiny of
Sinclair and the e of Babylon 4, resolving a 1,000-year-old
paradox and presenting a vision of a very dark future for
Sheridan and Delenn. All this was trumped by the monumental
"Z'ha'dum." In the preceding "Shadow Dancing" Anna Sheridan
(Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner's real-life wife) returned
from the dead, no longer entirely human. In the mythologically
resonant climax Anna invited Sheridan back to the Shadow
homeworld with no hope of survival. Just as in The Lord of the
Rings Gandalf fell into the abyss at Khazad-Dum, so Sheridan took
a comparable leap into the unknown on an alien world.
Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the
grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run
of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows
in "Into the Fire." If this colossal narrative was resolved a
little too easily and the ultimate of the Shadows turned out
to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most
powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In
the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace
never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one
relentless cycle of conspiracy, betrayal and conflict, Babylon 5
siding with the rebel Mars colony against the totalitarian Earth.
On an unstoppable wave fuelled by roller-coaster plot twists and
spectacular action shows from "No Surrender, No Retreat"--when
Sheridan avows to overthrow EarthGov--to "Rising Star"--when the
is realized--Babylon 5 achieved a consistent excellence rare
in television.
The final season found Claudia Christian departed and Ivanova
replaced by Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), who in a
soap-opera twist turned out to be Sheridan's first wife. Sheridan
was promoted to President of the Interstellar Alliance and the
action moved to a group of telepaths seeking sanctuary from the
PSI-Corp on B5. Meanwhile the aftermath of the Shadow War was
explored, and as usual the season picked up toward the end, with
a string of fine political episodes. The final episode, "ing
in Light," was directed by J. Michael Straczynski and made an
epilogue to the series. Set 20 years later, after all the sound
and fury this quiet, elegiac tale is the apotheosis of the love
story that proved the balance to the tragedy of the preceding
darkness. A personal story resolved against a background of the
epic, at once transcendent, deeply human, and profoundly
optimistic, "ing in Light" is as moving as any hour in the
history of television drama and a thoroughly satisfying
conclusion to one of the greatest series ever made. --Gary S.
Dalkin