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Science fiction is the only place where you'll find an avowed atheist like Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski exploring life after death. That's the nice thing about fiction you can dive into things, stir things up and see what happens. Season 4 of B5 begins with an ending. Our main character John Sheridan is dead having died on the enemy world of Z'Ha'Dum. If there's any doubt, we're reminded by a glimpse of the jump Sheridan made when he had his ship the White Star crash into the city of the damned. Sheridan jumped off a balcony of a building into the jaws of a pit two miles deep. That's about as dead as it gets. So clearly resurrection is the only option for Straczynsky and, not surprisingly, Sheridan does the only other known resurrection since Christ. All isn't as it appears, though and if B5 referenced a popular religious figure, it wasn't in an attempt to convert others to the cause against the Shadows. Sheridan destroyed Z'Ha'Dum, killed a large amount of human Shadow collaborators (including his wife Anna Sheridan but...well she wasn't his wife any longer but something else entirely). So if the Shadow War appears to end a bit prematurely forgive JMS; he got the feeling that B5 might not be renewed and, unlike some series creators, he wanted to conclude his epic even if it was premature. Straczynski brings his savior back to the nasty war being fought against the evil Shadows. He manages to reunite a splintering alliance and convert those characters still sitting on the fence about the war itself. ***

That meant that season 5 acted more as an extended coda for the war demonstrating the aftermath. Unfortunately, the dramatic conflict of a war is difficult to compete against and season 5 also had 4 previous well received seasons to work against. Nevertheless, season 5 is worth picking up for a number of outstanding episodes as well. ***

The highlights are many during season 4 which is probably the best season for the show. Highlights include "The Big Burn", "No Surrender, No Retreat" in which Sheridan takes on the corrupt Earth government which is continued in the arc episode "Rising Star" and "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars". The entire cast continued to give strong performances during season 4. One of Babylon 5's strengths is writer/producer/creator Straczynski. Although his writing can occasionally be hackneyed during some of the more routine episodes he is, on the whole, the best writer/creator since Rod Serling working in the television medium. The storyline he mapped out for the 5 seasons of the series showed considerable daring during a time when the only science fiction television series considered successful and worthwhile was Star Trek: The Next Generation and its successor Deep Space Nine. The cast assembled for the show continued to improve and gel with him. Once Bruce Boxleitner stepped onboard the station, the series gained a dynamic focal point.

I hate to say it but the transfer here actually looks worse in spots than during season 3. There's numerous digital artifacts, edge enhancement and the grainy, dark images only highlight the weaknesses of this transfer. The opening episode is among the worst with lots of grain problems evident in just about every scene. The image quality improves periodically throughout the disc. Although there is always some element of compression grain problems. On the other hand, B5: Season 4 is matted correctly (unlike season 3 where the tops of heads were lopped off and titles at the bottom of the screen were cut in half). Clearly more care went into the creation of season 4. ***

On the plus side, the analog artifacts have been reduced but it's not much of a trade off. It's a pity as it's unlikely that Warner will do another transfer of the series in the immediate future. Reportedly, the discs were mastered from new widescreen transfers Although some of the materials for this set claim it's being presented in anamorphic widescreen, it's unlikely based on the aspect ratio. Usually anamorphic refers to the image being "squeezed" stretching it out to maximize the width of the image at the expense of the height. The closer to a standard aspect ratio a film is, the less likely it was shot using anamorphic lenses to alter the image. I could be mistaken although the usual tell tale signs of anamorphic film aren't here. Although the set doesn't say what the aspect ratio is for these episodes, they appear to be 1.78:1. On the whole, the series looks good but it could have looked exceptional. Unfortunately, we're still experiencing many sets like this that, due to budget limitations, bump their head on the ceiling of compression limitations. An artful transfer would have been able to bypass many of the flaws here but it's clear that the home video division of Warner Brothers allocated a limited amount of funding for the clean up, digital transfer and encoding for the entire series. Still, one should be thankful that the series is available and with commentaries and other interesting features. ****

The optical effects vary in quality and this is where the resolution and transfer problems are more acutely evident. In some scenes they look stunning while in others they are fuzzy looking.. This is particularly noticeable in scenes where there's live action integrated with effects shots. I'm not really clear if this is due more to the higher frames per second "speed" for television or what was considered acceptable resolution when the series was produced. I had hoped that Warner Home Video might have solved this problem but I'm sure they probably had fairly tight budgets for revamping the series for DVD. No doubt sacrifices had to be made and it appears improving the resolution and sharpness of the optical effects was one of them. It's not a huge distraction just a bit annoying at times. ***

The sound varies from fair to exceptional. I noticed a considerable amount of compression during some episodes which made the dialog difficult to hear particularly if you listen to it in Surround Stereo. The remix is flat and static sounding dominant feature is dialogue. The sound quality varies from episode to episode with a lack of regularity. Most of the bad stretches of dialogue occurs during the third and fourth episode. The sound is average for the most part.

The extras are just as nice as the previous boxed sets We're treated to the season ending gag reel. I wish more boxed sets had these. It gives the viewer an inside peak into the fun and games that occur during the production of a series. We also get Data and Personal Files similar to previous seasons. They provide a bit of background on the characters and situations in the series. There's also a "suite" of the themes from season four (the entire season was entitled No Surrender, No Retreat as it linked thematically to the war that began during season 3 and concludes here). There's two feaurettes included focusing on the music of Christopher Franke. Celestial Sounds looks at the process that Franke goes through in creating a score and has interesting insights from various crew and production members. The No Surrender, No Retreat DVD Suite collects the more powerful musical moments from the series all in one spot. Curiously, it doesn't sound like this particular feaurette was remixed for surround or, if it was, it wasn't remixed very well. ***

Straczynsi's introduction assumes you've watched the previous seasons. He also provides a good summary of important plot developments and what he was trying to achieve within the series framework. Although Conceptual Consultant and writer Harlan Ellison doesn't appear in any of the extras, I would have loved to hear an interview as to what his input was on the series. Ellison's an unrelenting critic and one of the best critical thinkers working in the field. His comments would have provided a complimentary/contrasting view to Straczynski's. ***

A big plus is the inclusion of a booklet with credits for each episode. The guest cast is listed and there's a brief written introduction by Straczynski. I I realize that the trend has been towards eliminating these booklets but I find them informative and it's much easier to look something up than putting on the episode. ***

Let's not forget the famous easter egg hunt. On disc six, when you use your remote to highlight the number 5, you get to see a special effects comparison between the final rendered product and the incomplete optical fly by from the opening sequence. It's a nice treat.

There's two episodes with commentary tracks provided by series creator J. Michael Straczynski and one with most of the regular cast. The former commentaries are interesting but be warned that Straczynski mentions a number of spoilers on future episodes and the fifth season. The cast clearly are having a ball ribbing each other and their fun is infectious. The cast commentaries aren't very informative but it does provider the feeling that you're an insider on the series. ***

I'd recommend watching the episodes without commentary the first time (particularly the ones with Straczynski commenting). Curiously, there's never been an episode with commentary by the directors until this set. Director Mike Vejar and Straczynski riff on the making of The Face of The Enemy. It's interesting as Vejar and Straczynski focus more on the technical challenge of making the episode than the story elements. It also provides a rare insight from a regular director on the series. It would probably be quite difficult to get the series directors to comment (they were just hired guns for each episode of the series although I would have loved to hear Tony "Leave it to Beaver" Dow's comments on directing and acting) which may be why it hasn't occurred until now.

Hidden inside this nicely packaged set is one of B5's finest seasons. The image and sound quality varies from fair to good. I'm a bit surprised given the fact that these are new digital transfers that the picture quality wasn't cleaned up a bit more. While there's less analog artifacts, the digital artifacts dominate much of the set. The sound quality varies from muddy and flat to very good. I'm curious if there were alternate scenes shot for European and Asian markets. If so, it might have been interesting to include these. ***

The B5 extras have always been excellent despite the budget limitations that constrain sets like this. I would have liked to see more features on optical effects and commentaries/interviews with the various crew directors that worked on the series. . The commentaries by Straczynski and the cast are enlightening and fun which makes going back to these episodes more than once a joy.