There hasn’t been anything new on TV for Babylon 5 since the rather mediocre The Legend of the Rangers pilot from 2002. Now comes this direct-to-video release of B5: The Lost Tales. It rings of great promise because it has President Sheridan, Captain Lochley and the Technomage Galen coming together, 10 years after the formation of the Interstellar Alliance (2271 AD) to face new challenges.
After watching it, the new challenges have turned out to be complete and utter boredom along with better franchises that are readily available on cable.
The first act involves Lochley dealing with something supernatural coming aboard the station. If the threat could be defeated through long, dull conversations, I’d say she succeeded. The remaining two-thirds has Sheridan being stuck in a moral dilemma involving the Centauri Prince Dius, who is third in line for the throne. According to the Technomage Galen, when Dius becomes emperor, there might be a war between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri Republic. Sheridan must either kill the young prince which may prevent the conflict and save billions of lives or he can do nothing. There is no guarantee his actions may cause the desired result. He can’t count on any further guidance because the technomages are not allowed to intervene and Galen has probably told him more than what’s allowed. Only time will tell if Sheridan makes the right decision when you see it.
Lost Tales does have some impressive CG sequences: what NYC looks like in the 23rd century, the battle between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri Republic. Even the station and the ships seen on the Nineties series are rendered better (on par with Enterprise). The level of detail is tighter, the lighting, the shadows on the hulls and so on. There just isn’t enough of it to rationalize buying this DVD and spending the 72 minutes to watch the equivalent of a play. If this were a throwaway episode in a larger series, it would be forgivable. Instead it’s a low-budget, crappy attempt to perpetuate a franchise through the direct-to-video route. Short of a miracle or fuzzy accounting, I doubt Warner Brothers will finance another one of these.