Babylon 5 - Series 1 Box Set (6 Discs)

I've heard that B5 is "the greatest sci-fi series ever!" from many people and so gave it a go on DVD. Gotta love play.com, a tenner for 22 episodes is good value for money. Anyway, after the pilot (The Gathering) I was not particularly impressed, but this first season is much better. Each story is pretty much self contained but its the scope and depth of characterisation that really shines through. There are faults (some wooden acting here and there, and J.Micheal Straczynski does have the occasional tin-ear for dialogue) but they are far outweighed by the strength and depth of character and ambition to do philosophical and political stories set in space.

Being the first of a planned 5 season story, there is a lot of set-up going on, and that can get fustrating at times, but most of the episodes hold up well on their own. The special effects could at best be described as 'vintage' but after a while they take on a curious charm. All in all, very watchable and I was even won over by the guy who plays Sinclair by the end (so much so I was SPOILER ALERT gutted to find out he's not in season 2 at all)

The complete series was spread over five years with year one setting the stage, storylines, and characters, years 2 to 5 should have been the rest of the story but the networks only gave the author one more year after season 3 so he compressed the two years of storylines that he had prepared into the fourth season. The networks then allowed another year so the fifth season was not "by popular demand" at all but was essentially a number of episodes that expanded on the previous work. If the networks had kept out of it there would have been more content in seasons 3 and 4 with the finale in Season 5 as the author had planned. Having said all that, Babylon 5 IS one of the best scifi stories ever made ( a lot of people would say THE best), and my advice to anyone (scifi buff/fan or just someone looking for something different, thought provoking, exciting, top acting and direction) is just start at season 1 and buy/rent/borrow/steal the lot. You won't regret it.

This was a love it or hate it sci-fi and I loved. This went head to head with star trek (which I also loved) and the trekies but who say's you can't have both. It's darker and more gritty and the CGI (for the time) is brilliant and still better then some that you get today.
You have got good stories in each series and a good story the flows through all five series.

One that every sci-fi fan should own or at lest see

this is where it all began. the start of an incredible journey FOR THE CHARACTERS of babylon 5.the pieces of the puzzle are carefully put in place in this series and you have to look carefully for the clues to the entire series.

this is a fantastic series and i completely agree with bester76's review.

no sci fi series before had done a story arc as big as this. before lost, heroes, and stargate sg-1.

so buy this and start your journey into the world of.....BABYLON 5.

This is the first of the series to be released after the movie the Begining. This edition was interesting because it explains the whole sitution about how captain sinclair lost his memory. It also is full of mystery towards the end about the shadows.

This season is fantaic to watch and to study because it shows the action pack adventure series to go. wonderful superb

Without a shadow of a doubt Babylon 5 is the best slice of science fiction since the original series of Star Trek. Equally as profound and its ramifications are still felt throughout television today. Long before the likes of Lost and Heroes were on the scene flouting their series-spanning story arcs there was B5 which laid down the template for success.

At a time when Star Trek was pretty much the yardstick by which all other science fiction was measured, and more often than not, any science fiction coming out at the same time as TNG or DS9, were crushed by the weight of Star Trek's vast universe and rich history, Babylon 5 was the first to take it on, hold its own, and ultimately beat it. The success of Babylon 5 pretty much spelled the end for modern Star Trek. Whilst Star Trek continued plodding out stories that were by and large wrapped up in a single episode, Babylon 5 was setting about crafting a story that worked both on an episodic basis, but more importantly on a much higher level, with overarching wider stories that spanned the course of the entire five year series. Basically, Babylon 5 treated viewers as adults, and credited them with having the intelligence to follow the show from one week to the next. Hence, we had consequences to actions, we had real character development, we had richly layered stories, and above all we had a story with a definite beginning, middle and end. Think Lord of the Rings on television and in space and you wouldn't be far wrong, in fact the creator, Joe Straczynski has publicly acknowledged the influence of Lord of the Rings as well as other cult genre influences such as Blake's 7.

If you want science fiction for adults, where there's no Star Trek style BIG RESET BUTTON where everything's essentially the same at the end of the episode as it was at the beginning then give Babylon 5 a try, you will not be disappointed.

This first season gets things off to somewhat of a mixed start. An important part of the first season was to establish the characters, the universe etc and to start certain story arcs. As such, there are slower episodes, often self-contained on first glance, but with undercurrents that affect the wider context of the series, which become apparent later on, and there are stories that clearly hint at what is to come.

Highlights of this season include MIND WAR, AND THE SKY FULL OF STARS, SIGNS & PORTENTS, the 2 part A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS, BABYLON SQUARED and the finale CHRYSALIS. These episodes are a very good indication of the quality and level of storytelling that's coming your way in seasons 2 and beyond.

If you've never seen Babylon 5 before, enjoy, you're in for a thrilling ride!