Babylon 5: The Complete Collection + The Lost Tales (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk)

Customer Reviews:

2008 just got better!!!.......2008-02-20

babylon 5 is supreme sci fi stuff the very best so far of any star whatever series, and i love stargate etc. do not delay buy this total boxset without delay, the cosmos is changing all the time ha ha ha ...

Excellent Value.......2008-02-13

I ordered this set after reading other customer reviews and I wasn't disapointed. I own all the Babylon 5 series' on VHS having collected them as they were issued originally, and now have a whole cupboard full of videos I no longer even have a player for. I am very impressed with the quality of this set. The box is nice and study and looks good (and takes up not alot of space!) I am also very impressed with the value, I didn't buy the original Complete Collection due to the price. Overall this is a bargain for an excellent product and a must buy for anyone who loves Babylon 5.

A must Buy.......2008-01-27

What an absolute bargain, 5 series of B5, the pilot (feature length) and 4 films including Crusade and lost tales. I paid over £300 for the lot seperately a few years ago, i wish i'd waited. Put Quite simply Babylon 5 was the best and most logically consistant science fiction to grace our screens. I was brought up on written sf and star trek which i loved. It has depth, lots of it and is texturally woven with massive references to its inspirations and influences in the sf genre. JMS the main writer of the show has a very deep knowledge of the SF genre and his love of this genre comes across. Its 5 year arc (overall story)quietly set a trend for shows like "24", "lost" and more recently "battlestar galactica" for an unfolding storyline and character development within a dramatic context. OK there are a few bad episodes in here ie "grey 17 is missing" & "infection" but the sub plots give a lot of valuable background information. There are only half a dozen below par episodes out of over a 100 so that's not bad going is it? Later seasons Deep space 9 were influenced a great deal by the story arc of B5 and DS9 gained more popularity while doing it very poorly. This is not the naive world of trek, but a metaphor for our dark political times, power hungry individuals and patriotic races, ideaologies and alliances set against a galactic background. This is not just about the great macro background of political events, but filtered through the micro world of the individuals taking part. There is some astonishing acting and script writing in here especially from actors andreas katsulas, peter jurasik and mira furlan. Set against this darkness is the light of Humanism which is at its core. This is a rich and well realised tapestry with hidden subtexts which begs repeated watching and analysis. The main characters are developed throughout the arc sensibly and coherently and this is B5's main strength- its wonderful characters, you have to follow them through to their personal conclusions. This was a pioneering show in the use of CGI and the effects stand up very well indeed even compared to todays standards. This was done on a really tight budget too. The ships and designs used on the show were highly individual and distinctive with amazing ship designs by Ron Thornton, inspired by veteran SF illustrator Chris Foss. The CGI underpins the beautiful storylines and does not detract from them like much bad SF nowadays. I cannot do B5 justice in this paltry review. Do yourself a favor buy the whole set- you will be hooked from beginning to end - and at this price you can't go wrong.

The New Look Amazon set..........2007-11-09

As the Babylon 5 subject matter itself has been discussed at length in the other reviews, I shall concentrate this review only on the differences between this new box-set and the previous set, 'Babylon 5: The Complete Universe'.

'Babylon 5: The Complete Collection + Lost Tales' is largely the same as The Complete Universe, although now it includes 'The Lost Tales' for good measure. Only this new set (which is exclusive to Amazon UK) is now in *much* smaller form. Inside the new compact box are slimmer versions of the seasons 1-5 box-sets - utilizing the new super-slim DVD cases that are a fraction of the width of normal DVD cases. If there were ever any little booklets containing episode summaries in the big set's season boxes, as I've been led to believe, they're now gone. The summaries are now written on the boxes themselves. Anyway, you get the exact same discs/extras etc that you got with the bigger/older set, and that's the most important thing. The same is true for the box of the 'Crusade' spin-off series, and the 'Movie Collection' box (containing 'Thirdspace', 'River of Souls' and 'A Call to Arms') - both of these boxes contain the super-slim cases and are ultimately much smaller for it. This all saved LOTS of space, so they have included the original sized individual DVD cases for the remaining movies - 'In the Beginning', 'The Gathering' and 'Legend Of The Rangers'. Also now included within the new look box-set is the 'Lost Tales' DVD - and YES, it IS the one containing the exclusive Art Cards, in case you were wondering. The main box itself is just as sturdy and strong as its big brother - it's just SO much smaller.

This reduction in packaging has brought the price down somewhat - and for those of us with little more shelf space left for our huge and ever-growing DVD collections, the storage space saved is indeed very welcome. Some people may prefer the older/bigger box, but for those who don't, well, I just hope that they notice the Amazon exclusive set, with the Lost Tales and the cheaper price, before they go adding the larger and less complete set to their cart (only less complete due to the recent addition of The Lost Tales DVD to the B5 'canon'). Whatever set you end up owning though, they're both to be considered a bargain.

a great set.......2007-11-07

This Amazon exclusive release is slimmer than the previous Complete Universe set, despite including the Lost Tales. It's an excellent box; compact and complete, and at an absolute bargain price.

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