Babylon 5-In the Beginning (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	90:27
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Michael Vejar
Studio Distributor	TNT Warner Home Video	Starring	Bruce Boxleitner Mira Furlan Richard Biggs Andreas Katsulas Peter Jurasik Theodore Bikel Reiner Schöne Michael O'Hare Robin Atkin Downes J. Patrick McCormack Tricia O'Neil Robin Sachs James Patrick Stuart
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Christopher Franke

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Dutch Swedish Danish Finnish Polish Greek English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Between its second and third seasons, the TV network carrying Babylon 5 was somewhat concerned that viewers would not be able to follow the complex plotting of the show. Accordingly, this TV movie (In The Beginning) was commissioned to bridge the gap for anybody who had not been following the show closely to this point.

    Understanding that this was necessary in order to keep the funding coming, creator J. Michael Straczynski decided that the best method to use was an ‘envelope’ within which the pivotal events of the first three seasons could effectively be encapsulated. The chosen envelope involves an aged Emperor Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) talking to a group of children in the Centauri Palace as the city burns around them, talking to them about his role in the downfall of their empire and his role in it.

    If you haven’t seen the first three seasons of B5, The Gathering really spoils a lot of good moments and slow revelations that made it all so watchable. Really, leave this one until you need to watch it, or if you want something to tie all those threads together for you. This movie also had a large contribution to the series as a whole, enabling the creator to revisit a lot of the old scenes that were not properly done and have them redone to be reinserted in the DVD re-release of the first season.

    As a story on its own, this one also holds up pretty well, and I like to watch it as a little interlude between seasons. It’s like a strange bedtime story, particularly when you know the full extent of what is going on. Well worth having in the collection.

Video

    Transferred in its original 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, aspect ratio, this PAL transfer is much clearer than the original NTSC R4 release, and from what I can tell identical to the PAL R4 re-release.

    The image is still a bit grainy, but the colour saturation is getting progressively better. Definition is good, but not exceptional.

    There is a fair bit in the way of transfer artefacts, noticeably some rather irritating aliasing and background moire. The SFX overlay scenes are noticeably worse for wear in this regard.

    There are no overt MPEG artefacts.

    There is still a fair bit of dirt and debris floating around on this print, but I think this is on the whole a little better than the pilot. The first few seasons of Babylon 5 were noticeably worse than the last couple in terms of dirt, and as this movie is from that era, it is hardly surprising.

    Subtitles are available in an array of languages. They are white with a black border, easy to read, and the English track is fairly accurate.

    This is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Sadly, again we only have the original 2.0 Dolby Surround soundtrack. This is a real disappointment as this is one of the more intense of the B5 movies, and a 5.1 Dolby Digital remix would have been appreciated.

    This is, again, identical to the original R4 PAL re-release. Dialogue is loud and clear, there are no atrocious sync issues, the range is good and dynamic, and there is a decent amount of surround information.

    Christophe Franke' amazing score for this is given good treatment, but I would have preferred a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix of it.

    I got some subwoofer kick with my system, but when I turned the crossover to normal there was no life in the lower registers.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. They are static with the score from the film playing in 2.0 Dolby Surround.

Cast & Crew

    A still containing a list of principal cast and crew.

    The R1 release of this disc in this set is the same, although it has NTSC colour formatting and R1 encoding. There is also available a dual-sided disc containing both The Gathering and In The Beginning.

    In The Beginning is one of the best in this movie series, with its prequel setting that nevertheless sets out a few surprises for later in the series. Oddly compelling, but must be watched after the first three seasons.

    Video is grainy, but acceptable.

    The sound is only available in 2.0 Dolby Surround.

    There are no real extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall