Springer
Regular
Amazon came through and sent me The Road Home three days early! And now I've had the pleasure of watching the first new Babylon 5 in 16 years, if my maths is correct. What did I think of it? Well, I'm still not entirely sure what I think of it!
[Beware some spoilers in my comments below, but I've tried to be vague regarding the specifics of the storyline, and most of what I talk about can be gleaned from the trailers anyway.]
It's good, and it does feel like Babylon 5, but at times I thought the comedy was a little too intrusive, and it felt like some things were glossed over. This might just be the mechanics of animation – talking heads in a cartoon can get real dull, so the story has to be propulsive and always moving forwards, but this results in some of the depth of narrative that we're used to on the show being absent. Case in point, in the scene where Sheridan jumps to Z'Ha'Dum and the Icarus encountering the Shadows, there's no mention of Anna or Morden, probably because it would just take too long to explain who they are for new viewers and it would bog the story down in exposition. It works for animation, but it feels a bit alien for B5.
Bruce Boxleitner is excellent in this and holds the whole thing together. He steps right back into the role of Sheridan without missing a beat, like he'd never been away. Particularly impressive is when he meets the younger Sheridan who took command of the station. It's subtle but he portrays the two versions of Sheridan differently, the younger Sheridan coming off a little more militaristic, but with that wide-eyed optimism that early season 2 Sheridan had. It's something they mention in the documentary too. All the other old cast slip back into their roles easily and they all seem to be having fun (wish there'd been more Lennier though). All the new actors are really good, especially Rebecca Riedy as Delenn. Paul Guyet is mostly good in his double role as Sinclair and Zathras, though at times his Zathras comes across as though he's channeling William Shatner playing Zathras, with all those abrupt pauses.
I really wish that Starfury pilot doing the heroics in the battle with the Shadows had been Keffer. We don't learn his name, so I'll just pretend that it is.
Perhaps the biggest talking point – somehow Sheridan's socks last five years. Mine barely last five months before getting holes in them!
The animation is really good, most of the character and ship designs really evoke the original show. The station looks fantastic. Not too keen on the slight re-design of the White Star or the Shadow ships (but the Shadow ships are from an alternate reality, so we can just say they were different in that universe). The music I could take or leave.
Storywise, it was fun seeing all those other realities, though as I mentioned it's hampered somewhat by the comedy and the glossing over of details so the story can rush to the action, meaning that some of the more dramatic or dark moments lack the pathos we'd have got in the original show. I wasn't overly keen on the saccharine 'love conquers all' theme, the original show was never that simple or sentimental. I also noticed a couple of mistakes – Franklin pronouncing Pakma'ra incorrectly, and Sheridan saying he took command of B5 in 2258.
The In Memory, Still Bright list at the end was incredibly sad, as well all know.
I really liked the end – a view of B5 when there was no Shadow War, it felt like a return to the dynamics of season 1 – G'Kar and Londo bickering, Garibaldi bemused by the aliens, Delenn before her metamorphosis, only this time with added Sheridan and Lochley, and with Sinclair still on the station. Reading between the lines, and what JMS says in the Babylon 5 Forever documentary, I get the sense that future animated movies might be set in this new timeline, with the same set-up and characters as the original show, but without the baggage of the Shadow War. On the one hand that would be terrifically exciting, returning to the style of season 1 and early season 2, but on the other hand it makes me sad that it would mean we've seen the end of the original show's timeline. If that is to be the case, then The Road Home is a fitting, if not perfect, goodbye.
I rate it a B, which might change on subsequent re-watches.
[Beware some spoilers in my comments below, but I've tried to be vague regarding the specifics of the storyline, and most of what I talk about can be gleaned from the trailers anyway.]
It's good, and it does feel like Babylon 5, but at times I thought the comedy was a little too intrusive, and it felt like some things were glossed over. This might just be the mechanics of animation – talking heads in a cartoon can get real dull, so the story has to be propulsive and always moving forwards, but this results in some of the depth of narrative that we're used to on the show being absent. Case in point, in the scene where Sheridan jumps to Z'Ha'Dum and the Icarus encountering the Shadows, there's no mention of Anna or Morden, probably because it would just take too long to explain who they are for new viewers and it would bog the story down in exposition. It works for animation, but it feels a bit alien for B5.
Bruce Boxleitner is excellent in this and holds the whole thing together. He steps right back into the role of Sheridan without missing a beat, like he'd never been away. Particularly impressive is when he meets the younger Sheridan who took command of the station. It's subtle but he portrays the two versions of Sheridan differently, the younger Sheridan coming off a little more militaristic, but with that wide-eyed optimism that early season 2 Sheridan had. It's something they mention in the documentary too. All the other old cast slip back into their roles easily and they all seem to be having fun (wish there'd been more Lennier though). All the new actors are really good, especially Rebecca Riedy as Delenn. Paul Guyet is mostly good in his double role as Sinclair and Zathras, though at times his Zathras comes across as though he's channeling William Shatner playing Zathras, with all those abrupt pauses.
I really wish that Starfury pilot doing the heroics in the battle with the Shadows had been Keffer. We don't learn his name, so I'll just pretend that it is.
Perhaps the biggest talking point – somehow Sheridan's socks last five years. Mine barely last five months before getting holes in them!
The animation is really good, most of the character and ship designs really evoke the original show. The station looks fantastic. Not too keen on the slight re-design of the White Star or the Shadow ships (but the Shadow ships are from an alternate reality, so we can just say they were different in that universe). The music I could take or leave.
Storywise, it was fun seeing all those other realities, though as I mentioned it's hampered somewhat by the comedy and the glossing over of details so the story can rush to the action, meaning that some of the more dramatic or dark moments lack the pathos we'd have got in the original show. I wasn't overly keen on the saccharine 'love conquers all' theme, the original show was never that simple or sentimental. I also noticed a couple of mistakes – Franklin pronouncing Pakma'ra incorrectly, and Sheridan saying he took command of B5 in 2258.
The In Memory, Still Bright list at the end was incredibly sad, as well all know.
I really liked the end – a view of B5 when there was no Shadow War, it felt like a return to the dynamics of season 1 – G'Kar and Londo bickering, Garibaldi bemused by the aliens, Delenn before her metamorphosis, only this time with added Sheridan and Lochley, and with Sinclair still on the station. Reading between the lines, and what JMS says in the Babylon 5 Forever documentary, I get the sense that future animated movies might be set in this new timeline, with the same set-up and characters as the original show, but without the baggage of the Shadow War. On the one hand that would be terrifically exciting, returning to the style of season 1 and early season 2, but on the other hand it makes me sad that it would mean we've seen the end of the original show's timeline. If that is to be the case, then The Road Home is a fitting, if not perfect, goodbye.
I rate it a B, which might change on subsequent re-watches.
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