Babylon 5 - Third Space/Call To Arms/River Of Souls (Box Set) (DVD)

Since I've reviewed virtually every Babylon 5 DVD release, I figured I may as well carry on going and aim for the clean sweep! So then, this time I'm reviewing the box set of three feature length Babylon 5 films. I must confess, I don't actually own this product, but from what I gleaned by searching on the web, there are no new features added to the box set beyond those that are on the individual DVDs, each of which I've seen and studied carefully ...
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WHAT IS BABYLON 5?

I apologise if this section overlaps or is near identical to the corresponding section in my earlier reviews (which I've not read since I wrote them, so I've no idea how similar this bit will turn out to anything that I've written previously), but there are only so many way to say essentially the same thing!

Anyway, Babylon 5, a.k.a. Bab 5 or B5, is a sci-fi series set in the mid-23rd ... more

Since I've reviewed virtually every Babylon 5 DVD release, I figured I may as well carry on going and aim for the clean sweep! So then, this time I'm reviewing the box set of three feature length Babylon 5 films. I must confess, I don't actually own this product, but from what I gleaned by searching on the web, there are no new features added to the box set beyond those that are on the individual DVDs, each of which I've seen and studied carefully just so as to be able to write this review; I mean, why else would I have watched them - it's not like I'm an addict or anything! ;-)

Since I'll basically be reviewing three DVDs here, I'll try to give a relatively brief overview of each, rather than going into lots of detail and ending up with an over-long review.

WHAT IS BABYLON 5?

I apologise if this section overlaps or is near identical to the corresponding section in my earlier reviews (which I've not read since I wrote them, so I've no idea how similar this bit will turn out to anything that I've written previously), but there are only so many way to say essentially the same thing!

Anyway, Babylon 5, a.k.a. Bab 5 or B5, is a sci-fi series set in the mid-23rd century and centring on the eponymous space station. B5 is a diplomatic station, created to allow the myriad races of the galaxy to meet, learn about each others cultures, settle diplomatic differences peacefully and facilitate trade. As such, the station is populated by the largely human crew, ambassadors of many alien civilisations, large and small (the civilisations that is, the ambassadors are of much the same size), along with their aides, and a large number of merchants, tourists and more besides. The storylines are based around these characters and their relationships, set against a backdrop of political and military conflict throughout the galaxy.

The series ran for 5 seasons, starting in the early 90s, before the later release of the rather less successful spin off Babylon 5: Crusade. The three films in this box set fit in at different points in the timeline, but can probably still be enjoyed in isolation without losing too much from the lack of context.

THIRD SPACE

This one is set, somewhat confusingly, right in the middle of series 4, since we're told at the beginning that the Shadow War is over but President Clark is still in power back on Earth. This outing is an attempt by creator and writer Joe Michael Straczynski at a "really scary film" (that's a direct quote), drawing the inspiration for much of it, including the new alien race, from the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft - of whom I'm a big fan. At the same time, director Jesus Salvador Trevino attempts to make this seem like a film, rather than simply a longer version of a regular B5 episode. Do they succeed? Weeeeell, kinda.

As a horror fan, an H.P. Lovecraft fan and a B5 fan, surely this must score highly with me, right? Well, surprisingly, not really! The problem with Lovecraft/Cthulhu inspired works is that unless your very careful or absolutely brilliant, they can end up a bit tired, formulaic and clichéd - I speak here from experience, having penned a Lovecraft inspired short story myself!

So, what's the plot? Well, an artefact turns up in hyperspace (the dimension used for rapid space transport and accessed via 'jump-gates'), which looks basically like a giant, very ornate letter T. Closer inspection reveals markings that suggest Vorlon (an ancient and advanced race) origin and, once it's transport route brings it close to B5, it begins leaching power from the station. As this goes on, numerous people on board B5 begin having visions and dreams and are somehow drawn to the artefact... Later we discover that the artefact actually functions as a gate to a dimension termed 'Third Space' which is the home to an uber-evil alien race, who view all life other than theirs as inferior and thus not deserving of existence. In short, these guys are less than ideal neighbours, the more so as their ships look like they'd be a bit tasty in a fight! So, our heroes must try to stop the gate from opening, or at very least destroy the artefact before the baddies can come through.

If you're anything like me, you'll probably feel that much of this storyline is familiar, although I can't really place what I'm connecting it to. Part of this feeling is probably a factor of so much sci-fi/horror being somewhat Lovecraft inspired (he really is a big name, even though you may never have heard of him), but I'm sure any sci-fi fan can identify many of the elements here with other stories in the genre.

So is this film scary? I'd say not really, but certainly more so than regular B5 episodes, so they succeeded in that to some extent at least. However, I'd suggest that they did a pretty poor job of making this seem like anything other than a feature length episode of B5, which for my money is no bad thing anyway! Many of the B5 regulars appear in this one, albeit briefly in the main (the focus is on John Sheridan, Lyta Alexander, Zack Allen and Susan Ivanova).

On the whole Third Space is certainly watchable and entertaining, without ever being in danger of being particularly good. The uber-evil, all conquering race seems a bit clichéd, especially as it's not the first such alien race to have been encountered even if we limit our comparisons solely to B5!

The other thing that stands out is the CGI (computer generated images) which are used extensively in every B5 outing, usually quite effectively. However, I've mentioned in previous reviews that the CGI can be a bit hit and miss and in this case there seem to be rather more misses than usual, perhaps just because there is so much being asked of it. However, since the effects are 5-10 years old now, with these films benig of late 90's vintage, I should probably cut them a bit of slack, but you can't help compare them to today's stuff and find them lacking.

Overall I'd say this is reasonably entertaining, throw-away action fare, which I can't really recommend to none-B5 fans. That said, my friend, who is a big B5 fan, really enjoyed it, as most B5 fans will tend to.

Running time 94 mins.

A CALL TO ARMS

Set some time after the final series of Bab 5, this 'film' is in fact the pilot for the Bab 5 spin-off series - Crusade. As such, we see some familiar faces from the Bab 5 crew, namely Sheridan, Garibaldi and Lochley, alongside some of the new characters around whose exploits the forthcoming series would be based. The aim is really just to bring existing Bab 5 fans to the start point of the spin-off series, using a few existing characters to make the transition more gentle than the sudden appearance of a whole new cast of characters. In theory that's a good idea, in theory...

In brief, Call to Arms sees Sheridan and two new characters test fly a pair of spectacular new ships, based on a hybrid of Human and Vorlon technology. After a warning from a Technomage (a race of humanoids whose mastery of science is so advanced as to appear magical), our heroes set out to stop the Drakh (a race formerly featured in Bab 5 as evil, easy-to hate baddies) intent on destroying Earth itself. You may have thought the Drakh threat was all but dealt with but no, they were holding back a sizeable fleet until the network was ready to finance a spin-off series! I don't think I'll be spoiling things too much by telling you that Sheridan and co. succeed, but the Drakh have one last trick up their sleeve - a virus of some kind which will wipe out humanity within 5 years, unless of course a group of specially chosen individuals can find a cure within that time; cue spin-off…

As a die-hard Bab 5 fan, I ought to have loved this, but I didn't. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly watchable and entertaining, but I just felt like the whole thing was a bit contrived and, dare I use the word again in this review, clichéd. It may seem like I've spoilt the end by telling you about the plague etc. but in fact the plague thing is just tacked on the end and has no bearing whatsoever on the story! So what of the story itself, well, it's OK but certainly not great. I've come to expect good things from writer Joe Straczynski, but this time he's left me a bit disappointed.

To be fair, it's no mean feat trying to give a new audience enough info to get an idea of what's going on, whilst not boring existing fans with background they're already more than familiar with. Still, I don't think any non-Bab 5 fans would want to watch this, or would watch it and not regret the decision. Nonetheless, the attempt to appeal to a wider audience has left us with clunky chunks of exposition that are far too obvious as such. The worst example is at the very end of the film when Sheridan has to explain to us how the events we've just seen lead on to a spin-off series.

Right, that's enough slating, what about the plus points? Well, Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle and Tracy Scoggins are as good as ever, which is to say very good! Also, the new ships are very impressive and I agree with Joe Straczynski who says they're among the coolest spaceships he's ever seen. Beyond that, there's is really little to say to defend this, although the features go some way toward redeeming things - I'll come to those later.

Running time 94 mins.

RIVER OF SOULS

Well, after being as brutal as I've been thus far about a show that I love was pretty tough going, but happily there is one film in this set worthy of my praise! In River of Souls, the B5 production team have turned out the kind of work that's had me superlative my way through about a half dozen B5 reviews before this one!

The story, set around the time of series 5, harks back to an episode in series 1, namely Soul Hunter. In this episode we were introduced to a race of beings dedicated to preserving the souls of exceptional people by capturing them in handy-dandy glowing orbs as they leave their dying bodies. Now, if you're an atheist this probably sounds like a good thing, but if there is an afterlife then these guys are technically imprisoning souls and preventing them from reaching paradise! This is the sort of moral grey area that Joe Straczynski is attracted to; hence he revisited it with River of Souls. The story here is that an archaeologist, played by Ian McShane, uncovers a vast horde of soul orbs, which he brings to Bab 5 (as you do!) to study them with an eye to learning about them and maybe unlocking their secrets to provide himself with a slice of immortality (yup, that old chestnut - will these guys never learn?). I won't reveal how it all turns out, thought clearly things don't go as he planned, but the question of whether the Soul Hunters soul-hunting activities are right or wrong is not cleanly answered one way or the other - just how Joe Straczynski likes it!

It was certainly interesting to see Ian McShane and Martin Sheen (as an unnamed Soul Hunter) appear in B5 and although their roles were probably not too taxing, especially in the case of Sheen, they did a nice job. Unlike the other two films in this set, in this case I didn't notice any clunky scenes of exposition and nor did I feel like I'd seen this before elsewhere. The only thing that detracted was the laughably bad suits that were used in the holo-brothel to allow punters to 'feel' the touch of the holograms they're…ahem… interacting with. The suits were basically shiny looking material with ludicrous neon 'wiring' flashing what I can only assume was supposed to be traceries of electricity across the surface - the props people should have been rounded up and summarily executed for that!

Overall though, an interesting storyline, a good dose of comedy, reasonable effects and a strong cast, plus Tracy Scoggins in a saucy basque and stockings - ding dong! What more can any B5 fan ask for?

Running time 94 mins - I'm a little suspicious that all the running times are 94 mins, but I got the info from www.imbd.com so they ought to be fairly reliable.

CAST

Here's a list of the main characters, in alphabetical order, with the film they appear in indicated where the characters are non-B5 regulars:

Lyta Alexander - Patricia Tallman
Zack Allen - Jeff Conaway
Leonard Anderson - Tony Todd (Call to Arms)
Dr. Robert Bryson - Ian McShane (River of Souls)
David Corwin - Joshua Cox
Vir Cotto - Stephen Furst
Delenn - Mira Furlan
Dr. Stephen Franklin - Richard Biggs
Galen - Peter Woodward (Call to Arms)
Michael Garibaldi - Jerry Doyle
Susan Ivanova - Claudia Christian
Captain Elizabeth Lochley - Tracy Scoggins
Dureena Nafeel - Carrie Dobro (Call to Arms)
John Sheridan - Bruce Boxleitner
Soul Hunter - Martin Sheen (River of Souls)

FEATURES

The features are actually not too shabby, especially given that featurettes about virtually every design aspect have already been covered in the various series box sets, limiting the fodder somewhat.

Third Space:
- Introduction; Joe Straczynski and some of the production team and cast tell us about the film. (4 mins 04)
- Commentary by Jesus Salvador Trevino (director), Bruce Boxleitner, Pat Tallman, Stephen Furst and Jeff Conaway. I'd have assumed that with 5 people each wanting to say their piece, this would be a little chaotic but, aside of a spot of talking over one another, it goes pretty smoothly. You'll not likely be blown away by this commentary, but there are enough anecdotes, gags and nuggets of trivia to make this well worth watching if you're a fan, though casual watchers may not want to bother.

A Call To Arms:
- Introduction; again, Joe Straczynski, the cast and crew tell us about the film. (3 mins 40)
- Creating the Future; basically a condensed version of the design featurettes from the various series box sets, included for the benefit of the uninitiated, but nothing new for existing B5 fans. (8 mins 38)
- Commentary by Joe Straczynski and Mike Vejar (director); this is by far the best feature on this DVD. Fans will be interested to learn more about B5 from the highest authorities, whilst non-fans will probably be interested by the insight into the world of film making. In fact, I'd recommend this DVD to would-be film makers for this aspect alone! I learnt quite a bit about what goes into constructing a scene, though considering how little I knew beforehand that's not saying so much! Still, I shall certainly appreciate the technicalities of film making more for seeing this.

River of Souls:
- Introduction; once again, Joe Straczynski and members of the cast and production crew tell us about the film. (4 mins 13)
- Commentary by Joe Straczynski, Tracy Scoggins and Janet Greek (director). I find that the commentaries on B5 DVDs are pretty much always worth watching and this is no exception. Once again we get a mixture of anecdotes, B5 trivia and behind-the-camera insight.

PRICING

The RRP is a rather steep £34.99 but, as ever, the good folk at amazon will sell it for a more reasonable price - £22.97, which will bag you free delivery and thus probably beats the best amazon trader offer of £19.99 + postage. If the three films were all of the quality of River of Souls then that would be pretty good value for money, but since they're not, you may be better off buying River of Souls alone, although that could be easier said than done as Amazon don't list it any more. I dare say you still pick it up on ebay though.

VERDICT

I've just been trying to pinpoint why exactly I found Third Space and River of Souls a lot less satisfying than the series that spawned them and I've come up with two points. Firstly, the series gathered together a great cast of characters, played by some fine actors. However, the cast list in these films is limited to largely just Sheridan plus one or two of the major characters with limited appearances by a few of the other regular cast members. For me this is a big negative point by simple virtue of removing one of the major plus points of the show - including my two favourite characters Londo Molari and G'Kar.

The second reason I feel these films are less enjoyable than the series is the depth of storyline. Along with the cast, the deep tangled plot was a real plus for the series, which is, of necessity, removed from the films in order to make them accessible to a wider audience. In taking away these things the makers take away much of what is B5 and thus diminish the end product.

I've decided to recommend this to potential buyers, but only because I'd assume existing B5 fans will almost certainly be the only people tempted and this set is much better value than the individual films. Also, if I'm honest, it would just be too painful to not recommend a B5 product! Non-B5 fans should probably give it a miss.

John 

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