Revisiting the Babylon 5 movies...

[FalTorPan]

I like The Lost Tales.

 

[Kegg]

A Call to Arms is really a prologue for Crusade rather than a pilot.

At least River of Souls didn't have that weird floating in space virtual combat machine, that was hands down one of the silliest and worst executed concepts I have seen in B5.

It's definitely up there on the low points (mixed metaphors much?). But at least Legend of the Rangers had G'Kar.

 

[shivkala]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that the station was pretty empty during River of Souls. I'm not sure if that was on purpose, seeing as how Sheriden, Delenn, et. al. had left or if it was a decision to cut costs by not paying extras, or what.

I think it had good intentions. The Soul Hunters were an interesting concept and like so much in the Babylon 5 universe, they weren't really fleshed out, but I think part of the charm of Babylon 5 is how much of it is left for us to ponder about. I also liked the focus on Lochley, an interesting character who kind of got lost in the shuffle of season 5. And I really liked Zack, so I was happy to see him get some attention, as well as Corwin (I guess I have a soft spot for the minor characters in the B5 universe, part of the reason I was happy to see Zack "graduate" in season 4). Sadly, though, I think the combination of everything didn't amount to much.

And while visually, I enjoyed seeing Tracy Scroggins (who I had a crush on since her role as Cat Grant in Lois and Clark) in lingerie, it felt like more of TNT's influence and didn't do much to serve the plot.

 

[Warped9]

Both The River Of Souls and Thirdspace have something of a deserted feel to them which I think stems from budgetary concerns. In The Beginning and A Call To Arms do a better job of making places seem more populated.

 

[BolianAuthor]

No Legend of the Rangers or The Lost Tales, eh?

In the Beginning is really the only Babylon 5 movie I'd go out and defend. But candidly it is simply one of the best things the franchise ever did, and on my rewatch of the franchise it still held up surprisingly well; though I had my issues with it as well (mostly, the new details added to the Earth-Minbari war in the film often seem a trifle extraneous, it's at its best when covering ground we already know).

That it has one of Londo Mollari's best speeches doesn't hurt. That's one of my very favourite Babylon 5 moments.

Stuff like this makes the whole series worth it.

I pretty much echo all of the above. Lost Tales had a few great moments... most notably the opening segment with G'Kar's narration, and the space battle with the Warlock-Class destroyers, but other than that, it was forgettable, although it was the first time we ever saw a "high-poly" B5 universe. In the Beginning is pretty much the only B5 movie I really like.

 

[shivkala]

The thing about the Ranger ship's weapons system is that it does make some sense in regards to what we know about the Minbari. I can see them creating a weapon's system to make the battle more personal, but at the same time, the way it was filmed was horrible.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Seen Thirdspace now and I rather liked it. It perhaps suffers a bit from lacking the character focus you find in the series and It's more about action and atmosphere than plot, but as a straight-up horror/adventure story I thought it was fun and exciting. I definitely enjoyed getting one more glimpse of the Vorlons and I think it added to the mythology aspects of the show nicely.

 

[Warped9]

I'd have liked to have seen more of those Thirdspace aliens. That would have been creepy having the crew going up against those things close and personnel as opposed to just another large space battle.

 

[Unicron]

The thing about the Ranger ship's weapons system is that it does make some sense in regards to what we know about the Minbari. I can see them creating a weapon's system to make the battle more personal, but at the same time, the way it was filmed was horrible.

Agreed. It would have been cool to see a holographic interface for the system in keeping with how the Minbari communications system was shown, but the execution was really poor and silly looking.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Wouldn't the officer using that system get tired out pretty quick from the constant kicking and punching? It's one thing to fight like that "person to person", but against a ship? Or a fleet of ships? They'd burn themselves out lickety-split.

 

[shivkala]

The way it was designed? Absolutely? But I still think they could have created a system to make it more personal, less strenuous, and overall, less silly looking.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I've been meaning to re-watch The Gathering for ages, but I've only just got around to doing so.

Considering I didn't have great memories of it, I actually found it surprisingly enjoyable. There's a lot of stuff that seems weird in retrospect: those flying recorder things, "invoking privacy", G'Kar being married, the gorilla barman. However, I think it did a good job of establishing B5 as an interesting environment and, although there are some flaws in the writing, I found the story quite engaging. I also liked the music more than I remembered. It can be a bit cheesy, but I'd certainly take it over most Trek music.

Some of the characters aren't quite there yet, especially Delenn and G'Kar, but I was impressed by how quickly they got Garibaldi and Londo established as the people we would come to know.

I guess if feels like a sort of prototype for the series, kind of like Trek's Where No Man Has Gone Before, rather than shows like DS9 Emissary or VOY Caretaker where everything was already pretty much as it would go on to be.

Overall, though this had its shaky aspects and the series proper was significantly better, I can see why the show got picked up.

 

[Warped9]

The flying recorder devices would show up again in at least two episodes I can immediately recall and both involved journalist/reporters. Actually I can now recall a third episode near the beginning of season 3 in a scene where they're investigating a part of the station that had been bombed if I recall correctly.

 

[Kegg]

Flying recorders also appear in season four. I remember this because one kept prodding Lennier.