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Just when you thought the universe was safe assassins, wars, creepy crawlies, soul collectors and nasty viruses rear their ugly heads. “Babylon 5: The Movie Collection” is comprised of a series of spin-off movies that occur prior to, during and after the time frame of the popular TV series. Creator J. Michael Straczynski compares these to side stories that might have been overlooked because of the epic story arc of the series. In actuality, many of these movies are alluded to during the series or a continuation of themes established during the show. The rich production values and CGI effects used during the series made “B5” an exception to the rule in TV; it’s an intelligent, powerful and emotional series that focuses as much on the technology and threats as it does to the increasingly realistic characters from the show. ***

“The Gathering” is a revised version of the two hour pilot that ran in syndication in 1994. It’s the stiffest of the bunch with characters that have less depth than a sheet of cardboard and a brisk pace that keeps you on your toes. This movie was designed to prove the show would have an audience and also provide background for the series. Since it introduces the show’s concepts, there’s little time to develop the characters the way they need to be. Some of the casting for various roles were actually questionable. Luckily, by the time the series took flight, the major question marks were replaced with other actors that brought a considerable amount of their own personalities to the roles. ***

In “The Gathering” we’re introduced to space station Babylon 5 an intergalactic United Nations where various races try to settle their differences peacefully. An alien race called the Vorlons are coming to Babylon 5 for the first time. They’ve never been seen by humanity. As Commander Sinclair (O’Hare) is on his way to meet the Vorlon ambassador Kosh, he’s mysteriously stranded in an elevator. Someone tries to kill Kosh and that someone looks exactly like Sinclair. Now Sinclair and his Security Chief Garibaldi (Doyle) must find out who or what tried to kill Kosh before the Vorlons come to the station looking for revenge. ***

“In the Beginning” covers material referenced in the series. It’s actually adds a bit more depth to the characters from the series and was produced while the series was still in production. The visual effects are the show’s saving grace as like most television there isn’t much in the way of stylish direction to spiff things up. “In the Beginning” recounts the events that lead up to the Earth-Minbar War. Both John Sheridan (Boxleitner) and Sinclair were heroes in the war fighting on different fronts. We discover why the Minbar hate Sheridan so much and how Sinclair unwittingly stopped the war. ***

“Thirdspace” takes a page out of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft’s book. More of a horror film than some of the other “B5” movies, “Thirdspace” begins with the discover of an ancient artifact that may be a doorway to travel instantaneously from one world to another. The only problem is that there may be something on the other side of the door that wants to get out as much as humanity wants to get in. “Thirdspace” mixes suspense, science fiction and horror in a heady soup making it one of the more effective “B5” movies. **

“The River of Souls” features guest star Martin Sheen as a soul hunter. Soul hunters go through the galaxy collecting the unique souls of poets and artists at the time of death. A scientist (Ian McShane) discovers their well of souls and plans on using this discovery to help him in his search for the key to eternal life. Sheen gives an odd performance and McShane is, as always, riveting. ***

“A Call to Arms” acts as a bridge between “B5” and the subsequent series Straczynski developed for Sci Fi Channel called “Crusade”. A deadly virus by the Drahk (who are minions of the defeated alien race the Shadows) has been unleashed on Earth and the crew of the Excalibur have 5 years to discover a cure before all life on Earth perishes. It’s an affecting and powerful TV movie that acts well as a coda for “B5” and an introduction to “Crusade”. Unfortunately, the 5 year mission of “Crusade” wasn’t completed; the show was cancelled after 13 episodes. ---

All the movies look pretty good on DVD but there are numerous compression problems on the first two movies. It is less of a problem with from “Thirdspace” on but it’s still quite noticeable. The darker sequences suffer from digital blemishes that probably could have been cleaned up but that also might have altered the look of these sequences substantially. Sequences involving optical effects and live action are sometimes noticeably blurry. This is because the images were not recomposited for the unforgiving medium of DVD. As a result, they look soft and out of focus. It’s not a huge distraction but would have been a relatively simple (but expensive) problem to fix. On the whole, “B5: The Movie Collection” looks solid but could have been transferred with a bit more care. ***

The sound for all three movies is fairly rich using the 5.1 medium with increasing sophistication with each movie in the series. The synthesizer heavy score of Christopher Franke (of Tangerine Dream fame) sounds very good overall. I did notice that the dialogue sequences are mixed a bit low for 5.1 and for the 2.0 channels.

Although there aren’t a lot of extras, this 5 disc set has some nice ones. The introductions to each movie provides not only background on how it came to be but sound bites from cast, crew and production staff. Each one sets up both the background for the movie and also feedback from the various performers as to their take on the movie how they felt about their expanded role vs. the series and other comments. The single featurette focuses on the impact science had on “B5” including the fact that a well known scientist contributed the rotation factor, i.e. how quickly “B5” had to rotate to maintain gravity throughout the ship. Since many scientists were fans of the show they also indirectly or directly contributed tidbits that made the series that much more convincing. Since “B5” is fiction some of the concepts introduced on the show also had an impact on how science looks at what is possible and imposible. Just as “Star Trek” and its anti-matter drive warp engine redirected the thinking about possible fuel sources for spaceships, “B5” also had a similar impact on possible applications for fiction in the world of science. There’s also a booklet similar to the other “B5” boxed sets. It includes the chapter stops, full credits for the production of the movie (in movie poster format) ---