To recap what fellow SF nerds already know: Babylon 5 was a fairly successful TV series about a huge space station built to serve as neutral ground in a very politicized universe. Intended as a five-year story arc, circumstances dictated series creator & chief scribe J. Michael Straczynski pare the epic down to a mere four years - at which time the series was picked up for a fifth season. There were several threads left hanging from the somewhat sloppy Season 5, and if fans were hoping any of them would be resolved by this direct-to-DVD offering, they are in for a disappointment the size of...well, okay, the size of a big space station.

One can see the reasoning behind this disc: Warner Video discovered they had a cash cow ready to be milked in the person of the series, first issuing a flipper disc to see if there was, indeed, a market; then came some of the first boxed TV season sets on the market, then a box of TV movies, a season of an unsuccessful follow-up, even an unsold pilot for another series. Past terribly transparent ploys like the Star Trek Klingon and Time Travel sets, there was not much milk left. A small stretch, then, to put out a pilot offering for a series of low budgeted direct-to-disc movies. The fact that the disc ranked high in Amazon sales - and not just in the science fiction market - seems to indicate more will be on the way.

Straczynski himself directs the two tales, presented under the very-JMS heading of Voices in the Dark, split into "Over Here" and "Over There". The stories themselves, alas, are nothing special, employing hoary cliches ancient in this century . In the first, B5 Commander Lochley (Tracey Scoggins) must deal with what appears to be a genuine case of demonic posession; and in the second, Alliance President Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) is given an opportunity by the smugly bellicose Technomage Galen (Peter Woodward) to prevent a genocidal war against Earth by killing the Centauri prince who will lead that war - thirty years before the fact.

In a lesser writer's hands, these stories would be risible at best, but Straczynski manages to make them engaging, at least the equal of some of the one-off episodes of the original series. Sadly, the low budget does show through - only the aforementioned three of the original cast are in evidence, and the corridors of B5 are not as crowded as they once were. A few of the greenscreen effects are fairly dismal, and a couple of the scenes filmed on physical sets are so poorly lit and shot, they look like bad greenscreen shots.

Those drawbacks are at least saved by the other CGI effects - which have come a long way in the years since the last episode aired - and some uncommonly good performances from the supporting actors: Alan Scarfe, Bruce Ramsay, Keegan MacIntosh, and rather too briefly, Teryl Rothery.

Ah, me. Computer generated effects, and doubtless shot on digital video and edited in a computer - the word "film" has a multiplicity of meanings these days. The image is clear as can be (too good in a few cases, see above), and the audio is... low budget, but does get a few chances to shine.

75 minutes does seem a bit light for "An Original Movie", so let's see what we have in the way of extras...

To start off, you'll have a teaser for the animated Superman: Doomsday movie, also direct-to-DVD. Then you'll find the extras divided into four sections:

Interviews are just what it says, Straczynski and Boxleitner, Straczynski and Woodward, and, oddly, Tracy Scoggins all on her own, squiring us around the set.

Memorials is more interviews, stories and photos of two of the original series' actors who have since gone to their rewards: Andreas Katsulas, who played G'Kar, one of the most compellingly complex characters in any genre, and Richard Biggs, who was Steven Butler, B5's Head Doctor. These are simple, heartfelt, and moving.

The Straczynski Diaries are short videos done on-set, which seem to always return to the "original concept" of The Lost Tales performed by sock puppets. Straczynski is very good at deadpanning, "But I'm not bitter."

Fireside Chats is unvarnished video of Straczynski giving answers to questions submitted over the years.

Look, I knew I was going to buy this disc. Warner Video knew I was going to buy this disc. And I strongly suspect Straczynski knew I was going to buy this disc. The difference there is I don't think Straczynski was relying on me buying the disc, so it was nice it was made with as much care as was possible. I wanted more, but overall I'm okay with what I got... as long as somewhere along the way, my buying this disc eventually gets those questions answered that still bug me.

Fanboy signing off.

Dr. Freex, 9/14/2007