The Babylon 5 Season 2 DVD box set was supposed to be released on th 29th, but for some reason, Amazon.com and NorthAmericanDVD.com started shipping on the 21st. An early DVD release is not unheard of, but not par for the course, either.
The packaging for the set is quite nice, and is the same as the season 1 packagine, except for the updated graphics. I love the book-style DVD case. Technically, one of the ships on the cover art is upside down, but since there's really no upside down in space, I guess it's not a big deal.
After the strong sales of Season 1 stunned Warner Brothers, they decided to put a bit more effort into future season sets. Season 1 featured commentaries on two episodes by J. Michael Straczynski.
This time around, we're given three commentaries: Two by JMS (For the episodes "The Coming of Shadows" and the season finale "The Fall of Night"), and one featuring cast members Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova), Bruce Boxleitner (John Sheridan) and Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi) (for the episode "Geometry of Shadows".
JMS' commentaries are packed full of information. Even if you've scoured every page of the Lurker's Guide for trivia, JMS manages to dish out stuff you've probably never heard before (which, given the vast amount of information that's in the Lurker's Guide, is an amazing feat).
The cast commentary, on the other hand, is quite a bit different, but still entertaining. While JMS' commentary focuses on the story, effects and general progression of the production of an episode, the cast commentary is just a fun discussion between three friends. You can tell immediately that Bruce, Jerry and Claudia are very comfortable with each other, and enjoyed working on the show. As soon as the commentary starts, so do the laughs. They have a good time, while still managing to tell some good behind-the-scenes stories. And they mention more than once how lucky they were to be working on such a great show.
The episodes themselves were remastered from the original widescreen master copies, and given a new Dolby 5.1 sound mix.
You can also view the original promo video for each episode. These were often quite corny, thanks to the melodramatic voiceover, and really not that great. Still, the completist will be glad they're included.
Since the CGI scenes were never rendered in widescreen, they again had to be cropped to match the aspect ratio of the live action scenes. This really isn't a big deal, since the CGI shots were composed with widescreen in mind, and most of the action takes place center-screen. Most of what gets chopped off is empty space.
The visual quality of the episodes varies from OK to great. Since B5 was filmed on 35mm film stock, filim grain is very obvious, and something that just can't be helped. Though some scenes are grainier than others, probably because certain scenes (mostly live-action scenes that contain some CGI) were enlarged and cropped for widescreen format.
The audio is excellent. Lots of range and good use of surround sound.
Aside from the commentaries, there are a few more extras. The biggest extras are two documentaries filmed specifically for the DVDs.
The first documentary is "Building Babylon: Blueprint of an Episode". This featurette walks through the production of an average epsidoe of Babylon 5, and features interviews with producers, directors cast and crew members. It's very thorough, and contains a lot of good info.
The second documentary is more promotional in nature, but still quite informative. "Shadows and Dreams: Honors of Babylon" is a retrospective collection of interviews that focus on Babylon 5's Hugo award win and nominations.
Other features include a rather extensive sections titled "Tech Files", "Personnel Files" and "Data Files". They're well produced (The "Personnel Files" are even read by the original actress who supplied the voice for the computers on Bayblon 5), but most of the info could be found in the Lurker's Guide or elsewhere on the web. Still nice to have them on disc.
Finally, there's a nice interactive Babylon 5 timeline that covers major events in the B5 universe from the 1950's to 2259 (the date of Season 2).
Most of the product descriptions for this set (including the write-up on Amazon.com) lists a "Gag Reel" as one of the features. Unless it's a very well hidden easter egg, I have yet to find it. I'm beginning to think it was a mistake in the write-up. The only existing gag-reel I've seen for B5 was bootlegged blooper reels from all 5 seasons. I can't imagine these would be included on the DVDs, mainly because the quality of the tapes is VERY poor. Still, it would be nice to have them, as many of the outtakes are hilarious.
This is a great set, and one can only hope that the remaining three seasons are as good or better than the first two. In a perfect world, we would be watching B5 in letterbox format without all the film grain and occasional scratches. But it ain't a perfect world. I'm ok with that.
The packaging for the set is quite nice, and is the same as the season 1 packagine, except for the updated graphics. I love the book-style DVD case. Technically, one of the ships on the cover art is upside down, but since there's really no upside down in space, I guess it's not a big deal.
After the strong sales of Season 1 stunned Warner Brothers, they decided to put a bit more effort into future season sets. Season 1 featured commentaries on two episodes by J. Michael Straczynski.
This time around, we're given three commentaries: Two by JMS (For the episodes "The Coming of Shadows" and the season finale "The Fall of Night"), and one featuring cast members Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova), Bruce Boxleitner (John Sheridan) and Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi) (for the episode "Geometry of Shadows".
JMS' commentaries are packed full of information. Even if you've scoured every page of the Lurker's Guide for trivia, JMS manages to dish out stuff you've probably never heard before (which, given the vast amount of information that's in the Lurker's Guide, is an amazing feat).
The cast commentary, on the other hand, is quite a bit different, but still entertaining. While JMS' commentary focuses on the story, effects and general progression of the production of an episode, the cast commentary is just a fun discussion between three friends. You can tell immediately that Bruce, Jerry and Claudia are very comfortable with each other, and enjoyed working on the show. As soon as the commentary starts, so do the laughs. They have a good time, while still managing to tell some good behind-the-scenes stories. And they mention more than once how lucky they were to be working on such a great show.
The episodes themselves were remastered from the original widescreen master copies, and given a new Dolby 5.1 sound mix.
You can also view the original promo video for each episode. These were often quite corny, thanks to the melodramatic voiceover, and really not that great. Still, the completist will be glad they're included.
Since the CGI scenes were never rendered in widescreen, they again had to be cropped to match the aspect ratio of the live action scenes. This really isn't a big deal, since the CGI shots were composed with widescreen in mind, and most of the action takes place center-screen. Most of what gets chopped off is empty space.
The visual quality of the episodes varies from OK to great. Since B5 was filmed on 35mm film stock, filim grain is very obvious, and something that just can't be helped. Though some scenes are grainier than others, probably because certain scenes (mostly live-action scenes that contain some CGI) were enlarged and cropped for widescreen format.
The audio is excellent. Lots of range and good use of surround sound.
Aside from the commentaries, there are a few more extras. The biggest extras are two documentaries filmed specifically for the DVDs.
The first documentary is "Building Babylon: Blueprint of an Episode". This featurette walks through the production of an average epsidoe of Babylon 5, and features interviews with producers, directors cast and crew members. It's very thorough, and contains a lot of good info.
The second documentary is more promotional in nature, but still quite informative. "Shadows and Dreams: Honors of Babylon" is a retrospective collection of interviews that focus on Babylon 5's Hugo award win and nominations.
Other features include a rather extensive sections titled "Tech Files", "Personnel Files" and "Data Files". They're well produced (The "Personnel Files" are even read by the original actress who supplied the voice for the computers on Bayblon 5), but most of the info could be found in the Lurker's Guide or elsewhere on the web. Still nice to have them on disc.
Finally, there's a nice interactive Babylon 5 timeline that covers major events in the B5 universe from the 1950's to 2259 (the date of Season 2).
Most of the product descriptions for this set (including the write-up on Amazon.com) lists a "Gag Reel" as one of the features. Unless it's a very well hidden easter egg, I have yet to find it. I'm beginning to think it was a mistake in the write-up. The only existing gag-reel I've seen for B5 was bootlegged blooper reels from all 5 seasons. I can't imagine these would be included on the DVDs, mainly because the quality of the tapes is VERY poor. Still, it would be nice to have them, as many of the outtakes are hilarious.
This is a great set, and one can only hope that the remaining three seasons are as good or better than the first two. In a perfect world, we would be watching B5 in letterbox format without all the film grain and occasional scratches. But it ain't a perfect world. I'm ok with that.
