After watching the first of the Babylon 5 television movies, I'm not sure what I think of it. Having more back story and more of the characters I love is a good thing, but exactly what they did with it wasn't exactly perfect.
So what did I like? I liked seeing more of Londo as the Emperor, especially as it was tied in to War Without End and the bit where Sheridan and Delenn are his prisoners. I like how the story was being told by him to the two Centauri kids. Seeing more of the fallen Centauri empire was great. I also liked seeing the younger Sheridan, and seeing more of Delenn as a full Minbari getting in with the Grey Council. Duhkat was also a great character to see more of, and it was interesting to see that the Vorlons were involved even back then, before the Earth-Minbari War. And one of them was Kosh! I really missed Kosh in the later series. Also enjoyed seeing what stage the Rangers were at 10 years before the main story begins.
And what didn't I like? It didn't feel like it was planned with the rest of the series. It felt like there was a lot of retconning going on. There was no indication whatsoever that Sheridan had met Franklin and G'Kar before he got to Babylon 5, let alone gone on a top secret mission to meet a Ranger with them. We knew that Sheridan had served with Ivanova before, which was a decent way of letting the audience know that we could trust the character when he first arrived, but there was nothing between him and Franklin. There was no indication at all that G'Kar had had much to do with Earth and the humans, let alone Sheridan. None of that seemed quite believable. I was even less keen on Sheridan and Delenn's first meeting though. I understand why he wouldn't have remembered here, because she was covered by her cloak and didn't look at him directly. I cannot understand at all why she wouldn't have remembered the encounter though. She must have known that the guy they had on the ship was Sheridan Starkiller, the only human commander to defeat a Minbari warship. Why didn't she ever mention that they'd met before, if she did remember? It was just a bit too strange to be believable.
Back to Sheridan again, and his defeat of the Black Star wasn't as cool as it'd been told. I assumed he'd been the captain at the time, not a first officer taking a long shot in order to escape. It was still cool and still fits in with the story, but I'm not sure I needed to see it.
And on to Sinclair. Michael O'Hare didn't film any new scenes because it wasn't cost effective to fly him over for the few short scenes they wanted. I think they should have splashed out and made him a bit more central. I got the feeling that he would have been more important during the Earth-Minbari war than Sheridan was, and yet because Bruce Boxleitner was the lead role in the main series at that time, Sheridan got all the focus.
Overall I enjoyed the film, but I just feel like it could have been so much better if it didn't feel like the retconned in bits of story so all the main players could be involved. I like backstory, and I very much like the way it was told by Londo at the very end of his life, but I just wanted it to be...better.
So what did I like? I liked seeing more of Londo as the Emperor, especially as it was tied in to War Without End and the bit where Sheridan and Delenn are his prisoners. I like how the story was being told by him to the two Centauri kids. Seeing more of the fallen Centauri empire was great. I also liked seeing the younger Sheridan, and seeing more of Delenn as a full Minbari getting in with the Grey Council. Duhkat was also a great character to see more of, and it was interesting to see that the Vorlons were involved even back then, before the Earth-Minbari War. And one of them was Kosh! I really missed Kosh in the later series. Also enjoyed seeing what stage the Rangers were at 10 years before the main story begins.
And what didn't I like? It didn't feel like it was planned with the rest of the series. It felt like there was a lot of retconning going on. There was no indication whatsoever that Sheridan had met Franklin and G'Kar before he got to Babylon 5, let alone gone on a top secret mission to meet a Ranger with them. We knew that Sheridan had served with Ivanova before, which was a decent way of letting the audience know that we could trust the character when he first arrived, but there was nothing between him and Franklin. There was no indication at all that G'Kar had had much to do with Earth and the humans, let alone Sheridan. None of that seemed quite believable. I was even less keen on Sheridan and Delenn's first meeting though. I understand why he wouldn't have remembered here, because she was covered by her cloak and didn't look at him directly. I cannot understand at all why she wouldn't have remembered the encounter though. She must have known that the guy they had on the ship was Sheridan Starkiller, the only human commander to defeat a Minbari warship. Why didn't she ever mention that they'd met before, if she did remember? It was just a bit too strange to be believable.
Back to Sheridan again, and his defeat of the Black Star wasn't as cool as it'd been told. I assumed he'd been the captain at the time, not a first officer taking a long shot in order to escape. It was still cool and still fits in with the story, but I'm not sure I needed to see it.
And on to Sinclair. Michael O'Hare didn't film any new scenes because it wasn't cost effective to fly him over for the few short scenes they wanted. I think they should have splashed out and made him a bit more central. I got the feeling that he would have been more important during the Earth-Minbari war than Sheridan was, and yet because Bruce Boxleitner was the lead role in the main series at that time, Sheridan got all the focus.
Overall I enjoyed the film, but I just feel like it could have been so much better if it didn't feel like the retconned in bits of story so all the main players could be involved. I like backstory, and I very much like the way it was told by Londo at the very end of his life, but I just wanted it to be...better.
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