Babylon 5 Season 3 on DVD

I have it in hand. It is quite a pleasure to be able to see [i]Severed Dreams[/i] again without the wear on my old tape…

I naturally watched the stuff that was new first. That consists of:
1. JMS commentary on Severed Dreams, the finest episode of the series,
2. JMS commentary on Z’ha’dum, the final episode of the third sesaon
3. Commentary by Boxleitner, Doyle, Biggs (Dr. Franklin) and Wasser (Morden) on Interludes and Examinations, which was episode 315
4. 3 documentaries on the set and makeup design,
5. A “data file” with personnel and miscelleaneous topics.
6. An “easter egg” with bloopers/outtakes

The JMS description of SD was very good. He rightly liked the episode a lot (it won a ton of awards, including the Hugo) and had some interesting comments about how much they decided to blow the budget on this one. His comments on editing were especially interesting (particularly where they dealt with his complete trust in Chritsopher Franke’s music – at two points they left the sound effects from the series as shot to rely wholely on Franke’s music). The show epitomizes the series as a whole, and JMS’s comments on why he did what he did were right on. I never realized that he had cast Rance Howard (Ron Howard’s dad) as Sheridan’s father without even a casting call, based on Rance’s work in Ron’s movies. It certainly was an inspired choice (Boxlitner noted on The Lurker’s Guide that the whoe crew would stop to listen to Rance Howard’s lines).

JMS’s commentary on Z was even more interesting. He was far more critical of himself as writer, noting that today he would have used half the diologue to get the same effect in some of the longer scenes. Also wothy of note was several shortcuts they took to stay within budget, as they had pretty much used all of it in Severed Dreams and Shadow Dancing and Z was produced on the cheap. He was, however, proud of the way he balanced what the audience knew that the charactors did not with the reverse. And, of course, this was an episode more filled with “fulfilling prophecy” than most, and he was glad he was able to draw in all the strands he had strung in the whole buildup to “Z.”

The most inetresting single thing he said was at the very end of the Z commentary, when he thanked the fans for sticking with “the four years of Babylon five and the additional year.”

The only really interesting thing in the cast commentary was that every one of them really, really respected the work of Stephan Furst. Even when they made fun of them with their “he’ll always be Flounder” remarks, they also noted that “no matter what my dialogue, when he is on-screen the audience will follow him.” They have the usual kudos for Jurissic and Katsulas. I was happy to see Ed Wasser get some air time, as his was always one of the more interesting charactors. He loved playing the sleek bad guy. Nobody else said anything they hadn’t said before.

Nothing revolutionary in the documentaries or the data files.

I really, really wish they had not chosen I&E for the cast commentary. Far better would have been Boxleitner, Doyle, Biggs, and either Claudia Christian or Jason Carter doing commentary on Shadow Dancing, which for my money was the second-best episode in the whole series. Even better would have been some special effects people talking about the same, as this was a episode which used special effects very well to create emotion, while the cast was reduced in large part to acting in front of blue screens.

All in all, easily the best season of B5, but not the best DVD from the standpoint of “new information.” Of course, a lot of the new stuff was going to be released earlier anyway (how many times can you hear the cast talk about how grateful they were for not being an alien in prosthetics?) but you could have hoped for some new cast members besides Ed Wasser (and the pretty much uncommunicative Stephan Biggs). How about Furlan or Katsulas or Jurasik or Tallman or Mumy or Fuerst or…

[quote=”SadGeezer”]Excellent post Grumbler – very informative ( oh, and welcome!)

What did you think about the DVD quality (as compared with what is rapidly becoming the defacto dtandard for series DVD quality, Anegl or Buffy (or of that standard). I’ve not been very happy with navigation and graphics but the video quality was superb for the other two seasons.

Interesting comments about the interviews, can’t wait to see them myself!! :)[/quote]

Thanks for the welcome. I have lurked here for a while, but the release of Season 3 got my creative juices flowing to the point where I had to share! 😀

The DVD quality has the same problems as the other seasons, i.e. the mismatch between the filmed and CGI resolutions. Not noticeable on TV, but noticable if you watch on your computer and stop or zoom.

Sound seemed even better in this DVD than the first two, and it was pretty good even then. [i]Severed Dreams [/i]with the music cranked up is very, very moving (especially the choral bit when the Narns do their “Picket’s Charge”).

By the way, the digital version finally allowed me to solve a personal mystery: did the script and CGI on [i]Severed Dreams[/i] disagree?

They DID!

The ship the [i]Chruchill[/i] rams is the [i]Roanoke[/i]. The ship blasted by B5 and [i]Alexander[/i] was, in fact, the [i]Agrippa[/i]. Sheridan calls for a targetting solution on [i]Roanoke[/i], thinks he is firing on it, and calls for its surrender, but in the special effects, all of that happens to [i]Agrippa[/i].

Given the time constraints the show was under (and the fact that they brought in outside firms to help finish the CGI) this is understandable, but I [b]thought[/b] something didn’t fit. Nice to get a chance to prove it to myself. Bless the digital revolution! 8)