Babylon 5: Season 4
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Tony Dow |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Season 4 |
| Distributor | Warner Home Video |
| Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows in “Into the Fire.” If this colossal narrative was resolved a little too easily and the ultimate aim of the Shadows turned out to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one… | |
Reviews
Amazon.com
Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows in “Into the Fire.” If this colossal narrative was resolved a little too easily and the ultimate aim of the Shadows turned out to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one relentless cycle of conspiracy, betrayal and conflict, Babylon 5 siding with the rebel Mars colony against the totalitarian Earth.
Meanwhile Delenn came increasingly into conflict with her own people and, paralleling her relationship with Sheridan, Garibaldi became involved with his ex-fiancée Lise Hampton (Denise Gentile), while an intense platonic love grew between Ivanova and Marcus Cole. On an unstoppable wave fuelled by roller-coaster plot twists and spectacular action shows from “No Surrender, No Retreat”—when Sheridan avows to overthrow EarthGov—to “Rising Star”—when the aim is realized—Babylon 5 achieved a consistent excellence rare in television. Yet within that run “Intersections in Real Time” stood out as a bold experiment; essentially a two-hand drama taking place entirely within one dimly lit room. Beyond this a major character died and Sheridan and Delenn married before the season finale again broke with expectation. In “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,” a future descendant of humanity one million years hence reviews excerpts from the history of Babylon 5. In one sequence set in 2762, a Brother is devoted to the preserving of history some time after the “Big Burn.” A homage to Walter M. Miller’s classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, Sheridan and Delenn have themselves become the stuff of legend. —Gary S. Dalkin
Barnes and Noble
The undisputed apex of this five-year series is reached with the 22 superb episodes of Season 4. There’s not a weak hour in the group, thanks to the superb writing of series creator J. Michael Straczynski and the uniformly fine performances of a talented cast. The season begins with sadistic emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) in command of Centauri Prime and proceeds with a six-episode arc that brings the memorable Shadow War to a dramatic conclusion. This hardly ends the travails of Babylon 5, though: Earth has become dominated by the totalitarian regime of paranoid president Clark (Gary McGurk), and space station commander John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) is determined to wrest control of his home planet from the power-mad dictator. Various subplots—including, most prominently, the romance of Sheridan and Minbari ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan)—come to a head during this season, which blends space opera of truly epic scope with introspective, character-driven drama of a high order. Among the most notable episodes are “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,” a fan favorite in which a visitor from a million years in the future reflects on the 23rd-century conflicts; “Intersection in Real Time,” a two-character piece set entirely in one room; and “No Surrender, No Retreat,” in which a defiant Sheridan flings down the gauntlet and vows to overthrow Clark. All-new digital wide-screen transfers and remastered Dolby Digital sound, an introduction by Straczynski, and commentaries on several key episodes help make this six-disc box set the clear standout of the group. Ed Hulse
