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Babylon 5 - The Complete Universe


RRP: £203.99
Our Price: £249.99 (subject to change)

Best SciFi of all time
Review date: 2008-06-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

Everything concerning B5 has been said here somewhere. However, for me it is without doubt the best SciFi series of all time despite some other excellent competition. Series 1 starts off really well but by the time you get to the end of Series 5 you're in another league altogether and have undergone the most amazing set of experiences. The plot and the twists get unbelievably clever and it is fantastic to see how certain key events years beforehand had a critical role to play in the present episode. Do not attempt to start B5 anywhere other than the beginning and make sure you watch every episode in sequence as there are very few in which there is not some event that plays a role later. J Michael Straczynski must be congratulated on a fabulous vision.

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Reviews


Ambitious and infuriating... usually at the same time.
Review date: 2007-11-26 Rating: 6 out of 10

Babylon 5, the greatest sci-fi show (as many reviewers on here would have you believe) ever?

Nope, that title's claimed by Kirk era Startrek and Farscape, with Firefly hot on their heels. What's infuriating about Babylon 5 is that it COULD have been the best ever but proved equally as adept at plumbing the depths as scaling the heights. Every outstanding episode could be guaranteed to be followed by an absolute clunker ('Get the hell off my spaceship!') with flashes of inspiration that any Star Trek series would have killed for being immediately swamped by a character's clunkily written story arc. A classic example of this is an episode where Babylon 5 is embroiled in an enormous life or death battle in space... but instead we spend most of the episode following the drug addled doctor as he pulls himself up from the depths of despair. Literally. Just in case any viewer is too stupid to realise what's going on - despite the fact that one of the characters spells out exactly what is happening to the Dr. in no uncertain terms - he spends the entire episode climbing up an enormous ladder not just metaphorically but actually. Yes, the writers gave him an enormous ladder to climb all the way up to the command centre while he works out his issues. And my god does he take his time climbing it! Shakespeare it ain't.

It's clunky exposition like that that makes B5 so infuriating to watch. A series that created the Shadows - a terrifying, unstoppable alien race that are everything the Borg should have been but weren't - is just as capable of churning out filler episodes that would have embarrassed Andromeda.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And don't even get me started on the truly dire (and hastily cancelled) spin-off, Crusade, which is also included here...

Brilliant series, brilliant value
Review date: 2007-11-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

I purchased this boxset a few weeks ago and completely immersed myself in the B5 universe, I'd forgotten how good it was and now watching all 5 seasons & associated TV movies one after another you can appreciate the fact that it is in fact one long story over 5 years, which really makes this stand head and shoulders above the rest.

However, you have to take the rough with the smooth. The brilliant B5 main series and some of the movies (Gathering, In The Beginning, Thirdpace) are counterpointed by some real stinkers (Call To Arms, Crusade, Legend of the Rangers). I tried to watch everything in the boxset but I couldn't get into Crusade (just like when it was on telly) - the acting is clunky, the soul has gone from the story, the music is awful, the battle sequences send me to sleep and the special effects seem worse than when B5 first came on air.

I've made it a point to give this five stars for what I enjoyed in the boxset and just forget about all hours of rubbish in there that I feel is wasted opportunity to tell more of the story from the B5 universe.

Awe-inspiring
Review date: 2007-11-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

Ok, first of all...the DVD's are present here exactly as if you had bought them separately (in large box-set format). The advantage to buying them as a complete set is obvious once you're in possession of it- not only do you get everything that `Babylon 5' has to offer on DVD (excluding the most recent addition- 'The Lost Tales'), but you also get a beautiful and durable presentation box in which to store this massive compilation. The disadvantages to this set are (1) that you don't get the new 'Lost Tales' DVD with `The Complete Universe' and (2) that this set is somewhat larger than it's rival (and not to be confused with) `The Complete Collection', but with more Lost Tales likely to be released in the near future, it's probable that the smaller version will become obsolete at some point in the future as well, so out of the two it would be this set that I would personally recommend.

It may be that you, like me, already own most of the B5 DVD's that are available, but I would definitely recommend this set even if you're already in possession of most of the season sets within it. I myself re-sold all my old DVD's and made back almost half of what this set cost me to buy brand new, which just goes to show you how good value this set is. Still...it's expensive. But for me it was definitely worth the money and in my opinion, I doubt this set will become much cheaper in the future. More likely it will only increase in value and then become rare and difficult to obtain, which was a risk I wasn't willing to take.

To write separate reviews for the entire content of this set that could do justice to this universe created by J Michael Straczynski would take more page-space than Amazon would be willing to allow me, but suffice is to say- the Universe of Babylon 5 is an epic story and one that will forever haunt my imagination and my heart.

phenomenal value
Review date: 2007-09-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is the best money i have ever spent.
This product is not available to buy in stores in Australia so the internet was the way to get what i can't buy here.

excellent value for money. 87 english pounds = approx $240 australian

you get--- all 5 series (22 or 23 episodes in each)
6 Movies -- The Gathering / In The Beginning / Thirdspace
The River Of Souls / A Call To Arms
The Legend of The Rangers (this movie never been shown on Australian TV)
And also -- The Crusades complete series (never been on stralian TV and is also not abailable for sale here either).

To all those who love science fiction and especially this show i
recommend this product to be bought as you will not be disappointed.

enjoy.........


Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Bruce Boxleitner
Mira Furlan
Jerry Doyle
Claudia Christian
Michael O'Hare

Creators:
Bruce Boxleitner (Primary Contributor)
Michael O'Hare (Primary Contributor)

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900751872
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 41
Format: Subtitled, PAL,
Release date: 2005-10-24
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 101 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)

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