Babylon 5-The Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	86:13
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Michael Vejar
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Dylan Neal Andreas Katsulas Alex Zahara Myriam Sirois Dean Marshall Warren Takeuchi Jennie Rebecca Hogan Mackenzie Gray David Storch Enid-Raye Adams Gus Lynch Campbell Lane Todd Sandomirsky
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Christopher Franke

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian 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 Arabic Dutch French Italian Russian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Anybody who has read my previous reviews for the Babylon 5 Movies and Crusade will be aware that I'm a bit of a fan of the Babylon 5 universe. By plotting out a 5 year series from the beginning, creator J. Michael Straczynski was able to create epic plotlines with great payoffs for long term viewers. Though the acting in B5 could sometime be a little hammy, the FX a little too “what my brother could have done on his PC in the den”, and the plotlines a tad too melodramatic at times, that was all part of the fun of the series.

    However, after Crusade was cut midway through its first season after only a handful of episodes (barely enough to establish the central characters, let alone start working on the rest), this seems to have been a bit of a hit to Straczynski's confidence. In a last ditch effort to resuscitate the franchise, Straczynski conceived of a tale about a band of misfit Rangers whose tales would fill in the gaps where B5 and Crusade could no longer go. This series would be entitled – Legend of The Rangers.

    The pilot of this series is the topic of this review – the enigmatically (and perhaps also embarrassingly) titled To Live And Die In Starlight. Given that this pilot came and went on TV with such brevity that many B5 fans weren’t even aware of it, you probably already have some idea about how well this show hung together. I sat down to this with trepidation that, it turns out, was well deserved.

    To Live And Die In Starlight tells the tale of a rag tag group of Rangers, those cloak wearing bow-staff toting spies that act as the intelligence arm of the Interstellar Alliance. Outcast for fleeing from a battle in the face of certain death, and retaining status as Rangers only by virtue of an intervention by G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas), these misfits are instead given their own ship - a barely functioning haunted rust-bucket, and sent as an escort on a secret diplomatic mission. The crew is composed of:

• human David Martell (Dylan Neal), square jawed pretty boy who looks like (and acts like) he’s straight from The Bold And The Beautiful, and also the leader of the bunch;
• Minbari commander Dulann (Alex Zahara), an enigmatic but slightly more pragmatic Minbari than usual with subtle telepathic gifts;
• human weapons specialist Sarah Cantrell (Myriam Syrois), another human with some great overacting ... but not much more;
• Narn engineer, Na’Feel (Jennie Rebecca Hogan);
• Minbari healer, Firell (Enid-Raye Adams);
• Drazi security officer, Tafeek (David Storch); and
• human intelligence officer, Sasaki (Warren T. Takeuchi).

    But when the diplomatic mission is ambushed by a new and deadly enemy, known only as The Hand, these misfits must band together in order to survive and keep the remaining delegates alive.

    Okay, after typing that plot synopisis I have to suppress an involuntary shudder.

    Urgh.

    Composure.

    Composure.

    Okay, if, somewhere out there in cyberspace, Straczynski is reading this review, I just have one question for him: "What the f***?" Some may find my query a tad impolite, even vulgar, and you're entitled to that opinion. All I can say is, that was the first phrase out of my mouth after this show had run its 90-odd minute course, followed in more detail by: "What the f*** was with the dialogue in this show, like teenagers spouting clichéd one-liners that sounded cool when they were four? What the f*** was with the acting, like a collection of cardboard cut-outs ham fisting their way through a set? What the f*** was with the haunted ship? And most of all, what the f*** was with that horrible, horrible, horrible scene where Cantrell kicks and punches and yells in her VR weapons environment like Astroboy firing laser bolts out of his arse? The whole concept of such a physically exertive weapons system makes no sense in the first place, but the yelling and kicking like an autistic child having a fit of rage was so horrendously childish I spent the whole thing cringing. Straczynski, as a long time fan, I was embarrassed for you, man. And embarrassed for poor Ms Syrois as well. Truly, truly embarrassed."

    This show is a clunker. It makes Halle Berry's attempt at Catwoman look fabulous. It makes Madonna's efforts in Swept Away look like Oscar material. For B5 fans, think of the worst, absolute worst, episode of that show and multiply it by 10 and you're coming close to the truly bad badness of this schlockfest. You will cringe. You will shudder. You will snort with the occasional chuckle of laughter at just how bad some of the dialogue is. And then you will thank the studios for never throwing another dollar this show's way.

    Though unfair to compare To Live And Die In Starlight to more modern science fiction like the new series of Battlestar Galactica and Stargate (both original and Atlantis flavour), this show isn't all that old by comparison and yet the difference in quality is truly staggering. Hell, Crusade was miles ahead of this and was its contemporary. I really just don't know what on earth Staczynski was thinking, if anything.

    I'm being harsh, I'm sure - harsher than I ordinarily would on a show of this type. But for me, this was a betrayal of the legacy of a show that was a landmark of its time, and I feel somehow stabbed in the back by Straczynski who bothered to take this to the producers after presumably at least reading his own script through once. So disappointed.

    My advice: run, don't walk, and hide from this show. Pretend it never happened. Purge it from your mind. It was all just a horrible, horrible, embarrassing nightmare...

Video

    I watched this show via front projection on a 100” screen projected by Sony VPL-HS60 upscaled to 1080i at 50Hz over HDMI, and also sampled certain scenes on a 42” Sony E-Series Rearpro scaled at 720p via HDMI.

    Presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, this is the show's original broadcast aspect ratio.

    Video is grainy and a little soft. Colour is well saturated though has a slightly brown/yellow tinge to the whole thing.

    There was little in the way of transfer artefacts other than some really minor aliasing.

    There were some film artefacts, but these were relatively minimal.

    Subtitles are available in an array of languages. The English for the Hearing Impaired titles were reasonably good and did not deviate too far from the source.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Audio is available in English, French and Italian in 2.0 Dolby Surround only.

    This is a clear, concise and unremarkable track with no obvious sync faults or glitches.

    There was a little bit of life from the surrounds during a couple of the "action" (suppress further involuntary shudders) sequences.

    No subwoofer use here.

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, static and silent. In other words, nothing.

    The R1 release only has audio in English and subtitles in English, French and Italian. We clearly get the better deal so far as multiculturalism and language barriers go. I’m giving this to R4.

    Babylon 5: Legend Of The Rangers - To Live And Die In Starlight is the embarrassing nail in the coffin of the Babylon 5 franchise. It’s only for completists, though I would recommend that die hard fans pretend this one doesn’t exist and just go watch the old series on DVD again.

    This DVD transfer is reasonably good, but that does not compensate for its contents.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall