Mania Grade: A
Disc Grade: B+
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Peter Jurasik, Andrea Thompson, Stephen Furst, Bill Mumy, Jason Carter
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Directors: various
Distributor: Warner Home Video
Original Years of Release: 1995 - 1996
Retail Price: $99.98
Extras: six-disc set; all-new digital widescreen anamorphic transfers with remastered soundtracks; introduction; commentaries; documentaries; interactive database, featuring personnel, tech files, and the "Shadow Dossier" with newly recorded narration by Jerry Doyle; episode previews; Easter egg (blooper reel); English, French, and Spanish subtitles

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BABYLON 5: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON

In the year of the Shadow War also known as the third season - BABYLON 5 became something greater. While the first season had a whole load of teething problems to deal with and the second season had the surprise of a new lead actor to contend with, the third season is almost totally solid. There are few bad episodes in the lot, and even most of the stinkers have ties to the greater plot arc. Suddenly, BABYLON 5 is no longer just another science fiction TV series - it's a science fiction epic.

From the very first episode, this season carries itself with the confidence of its convictions, helped in great part by the imposition of a single narrative voice on the series - that of creator/producer J. Michael Straczynski. While executive producer Doug Netter's claim (in the intro segment on this set) that Straczynski's unbroken run of writing 22 episodes has never been done before in TV history is a tad inaccurate, that run is still an achievement by anyone's standards. Granted, we do get such stultifying fare as "Grey 17 is Missing"; the comic elements, such as Harlan Ellison's guest appearance as Sparky the Computer Voice in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark," are sometimes overdone; and episodes such as "A Day in the Strife" still feel more like STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE episodes than B5 ones. But a vast majority of the series' finest episodes take place in this year, including the Hugo Award-winning "Severed Dreams," the two-part "War Without End" (which answers all the unanswered questions from the first season episode "Babylon Squared" and which brings the Sinclair story arc to completion), and the chilling "Messages From Earth." And, of course, there's "Point of No Return," after which the entire season is named. A more apt name could not have been chosen - from this point on, B5 will never be the same again.

The regular characters also change significantly, allowing the cast to stretch their acting muscles even further than they had in the previous year. Bruce Boxleitner in particular gets to play a very different Sheridan, one who is faced with the choice of serving Earth by serving it blindly or serving Earth by questioning his leaders - the choice he makes defines the rest of the series. Delenn gets to take out the Grey Council, come riding to the rescue of the entire station, fall in love, and lose the man she loves, all in one season. Ivanova gets an admirer, even as she comes to grips with her feelings about the late, lamented Talia Winters. Stephen gets a serious drug problem. Londo gets further and further away from the light, even as G'Kar grows closer and closer to it. Garibaldi gets... well, more Garibaldi-ish, admittedly, but his time is just around the corner. And Kosh gets... a tad less together than usual, shall we say. Even minor characters like Vir and Lennier become major players at this point, and the whole series feels more important as a result. Plus it has the absolute best opening sequence of all five seasons.

The amount of extras in these sets appears to be diminishing slightly, in sheer bulk if not in quality - the material we do get is far more focused, but that stronger focus means that less time is spent with the actors involved. The six-minute "Introduction to Season Three" on the first disc, for example, concentrates on the many key developments in the Shadow War story arc (and thus should not be watched by someone who has not seen the season before), but it includes only a few new interviews, including an extremely brief one with actor Ed Wasser. Given Wasser's importance in the Shadows storyline, one would think he'd get a bit more screen time, perhaps his own little featurette about how he went from series extra in the pilot episode to principal spin doctor for the bad guys. And while his presence during the cast commentary for "Interludes and Examinations" is a welcome one, it's hard to get sufficient attention when Jerry Doyle is also in the room. There's equally very little with new series regular Jason Carter he gets his own brief interview during the intro segment, but that's it. Not even a commentary. It's also surprising that the features "Behind the Mask: Creating the Aliens of Babylon 5" and "Designing a Better Narn" don't feature more interviews with the actors who actually had to wear the makeup, although makeup effects artist John Vulich makes a good host for both segments. The absence of Andreas Katsulas from the latter of the two is particularly sad. Marshall Teague is a fairly good replacement, of course, but hearing from Katsulas, who wore something like three different versions of the make-up, would be most instructive here.

The ten-minute "Designing Tomorrow: The Look of Babylon 5" is perhaps the least interesting of the extras, even though John Iacovelli's exploration of the process involved in making the station believable does reveal some cool tidbits of info (I never noticed that there are no primary colors on the station except for the wall stripes, for example). Additionally, "The Universe of Babylon 5" database is significantly pared down for this set, including only a few new personnel files (Marcus Cole, Zack Allen, David Corwin, for instance) and a few new technical entries (for example, the White Stars). Of course, this is where you need to go to access the Easter egg, which can be found by going to the tech files section and clicking down until you highlight a B5 symbol this takes you to an abbreviated blooper reel for this season, which only disappoints in that many fans (including myself) have poor quality tapes of the full blooper reels and thus know how much we're not getting here. This is also where you can find the "Shadow Dossier," a set of clips of (who else?) the Shadows, with a new narration by Jerry Doyle. He may sound just a tad bit older, but if he were to start filming as Garibaldi again tomorrow, there'd be no indication he'd ever been away.

As usual, the commentaries are the jewels of this set. JMS's two turns at bat are just what you'd expect from a man looking back at two of the episodes that define a series that has finally become his in the greatest possible way, one of those episodes winning the second of the series' two Hugo awards. They don't quite provide any new information, unfortunately, but even JMS' admission that he'd have chopped all that exposition in "Z'Ha'Dum" down is worth the listening. The commentary on "Interludes and Examinations," by contrast, is just a load of fun, which is surprising given how serious the plot of that particular episode is. (Boxleitner has his own admission to make in this commentary, and it's both funny and endearing.) But even if there were no extras at all, the strength of this season would be more than enough to make it worth the asking price - BABYLON 5 would never quite be this good again.