Babylon 5-Thirdspace (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Introduction-J. Michael Straczynski And Various Cast And Crew Audio Commentary-Director And Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	90:20
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Jesús Salvador Treviño
Studio Distributor	TNT Warner Home Video	Starring	Bruce Boxleitner Claudia Christian Mira Furlan Richard Biggs Jeff Conaway Stephen Furst Patricia Tallman Clyde Kusatsu Shari Belafonte William Sanderson Kip King Floyd Levine Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Christopher Franke

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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 German French Dutch Finnish Swedish Czech Greek Turkish Arabic Croatian Slovenian Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    At the end of the final series of Babylon 5, now retitled in its entirety as The Wheel Of Fire, creator J. Michael Straczynski found that he still had several stories to tell in the Babylon 5 universe, particularly as a means of bridging this series with his newly conceived follow-on series Crusade.

    The first of this trilogy is the film, Thirdspace. Set between the third season, Point Of No Return, and the fourth season, No Surrender, No Retreat, Thirdspace revolves around an alien artefact that a group of B5 Star-Furies finds in deep hyperspace and bring back to the station.

    Thirdspace really gives the chance for the ensemble cast to display some fine work, and I really like this particular TV movie. It has a lot going for it, even if it is a largely stand-alone episode. Patricia Tallman also gets to play a really good role as a telepath going out of her mind, which is great fun to watch.

    While certainly nothing special in terms of its addition to the saga, Thirdspace is a lot of fun, and makes for great late-night science fiction. A worthy addition to the Babylon 5 magnum opus.

Video

    Transferred in its original 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced aspect ratio, this is a very nice transfer.

    There is considerably less grain and less film artefacts in this transfer than there are in the earlier movies. There is good definition at work here, and the colour saturation is better, although still not perfect in my opinion.

    There is still a bit of aliasing and moire at work here, but nothing too bad. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There is not much dirt at play here by comparison to the previous movies, but it’s still noticeable if you go looking for it.

    There are, however, plenty of subtitles at work here in white with a black border. They are clear and easy to read, and follow the dialogue pretty closely.

    There is apparently a dual-layer pause here, but I can’t find it on my new set up. If anyone comes across it, let me know.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is a fantastic 5.1 Dolby digital soundtrack at play here, as well as an accompanying German soundtrack in 5.1 Dolby Digital and French in 2.0 Dolby Surround.

    The English track has excellent dialogue reproduction, no audio sync problems that I saw, and a great and dynamic range.

    There is plenty of surround information here as you would expect of a 5.1 Dolby Digital track, but still not the kind of cinematic scores that we have become used to.

    The subwoofer gets a good pounding in this one, with some impressive rumble that’s not just due to my new set up.

    The foreign language soundtracks are noticeably thinner but adequate.

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, with the score in 2.0 Dolby Surround.

Introduction (4:04)

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Surround, this is an introduction to the movie with the cast and crew, predominantly Straczynski.

Audio Commentary

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround, this commentary is by Jesus Salvador Trevino, Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Conway, Stephen Furst and Patricia Tallman. This is a great commentary and the cast are clearly having a lot of fun doing it. There is rarely a quiet moment, and I was overall entertained.

    The R1 release of this movie in this set looks to be identical to the R4 release, barring NTSC coding and region coding. Without a copy I cannot give you an exact comparison.

    Thirdspace is a great fun standalone movie addition to the Babylon 5 saga. Well worth watching, as it makes an effective little horror story.

    Video is good, but still limited by its source.

    The sound is only available in a great 5.1 Dolby Digital remix that really adds to the enjoyment of the movie.

    The extras are brief but good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall