Two stories are presented in this made-for-TV (or, to be precise, DVD) movie.
The first offers possibly the most bewildering turn for Babylon 5 yet in which a station staff member is possessed by a demon. Now this is not your typical telepathic parasitic alien feeding on the fears of the station residents by pretending to be a satanic apparition. No, it's played out as an actual real demonic possession, fire and brimstone and all. This is made clear by constant references to supposed Catholic dogma. Thus all suspension of disbelief goes out the airlock by the end of the mini-story as it slides from science fiction to unabashed occult.
Apart from two or three extras doing their best to make the station look populated (it is hard to *mill generally about* with such low numbers, believe me), the only 'series' character to appear here is Lochley (Tracy Scoggins). She's joined by a possessed gentleman (Bruce Ramsay hooked up to a voice synthesiser that invites weak quips about his voice finally dropping) and Father Cassidy (Alan Scarfe acting well in the face of extreme silliness), a Catholic priest who, as tradition dictates, has his faith and values tested.
There is a logical conundrum to provide the suspense but unfortunately said conundrum is solved by a leap of logic that defies believability. Worse, Lochley talks us through it in a clumsy 'Light Bulb Moment' monologue that is embarrassingly unconvincing.
Speaking of monologues, although JMS was famous for giving Sheridan lengthy speeches at the drop of a hat, nearly all the dialogue in this first story is via horribly over-extended uninterrupted slabs of wordage. The result is stilted, unnatural and, frankly, boring. It almost gets to the point of being funny (but, sadly, not quite).
At the conclusion the demon is vanquished back to earth (to, we assume, be safely exorcised by Father Cassidy) and Lochley re-finds her religion (we are told this in another epically long monologue cum epilogue), presumably becoming a good church going Christian.
The second story leaves the realms of The Exorcist and reintroduces Galen (Peter Woodward), a Technomage who has a habit of talking in vague platitudes. We find the earth is about to be blasted into picturesque ruins (some very nice CG effects here). As if the aborted Minbari invasion, president Clarke's scorched-earth stunt, the Shadow planet killer and the Drakh plague weren't enough trouble for one world. Anyway, what follows is basically Galen trying to persuade President Sheridan to kill someone to save the planet. The twist on the story is highly improbable and Galen could have achieved his aims more simply and reliably by just being direct. Peter Woodward is a good actor and his character is still fun even if his motivations and actions don't make a lot of sense here. Bruce Boxleitner plays Sheridan very well and in the same slightly quirky way he did in Call To Arms. Of note: the accent on the young Centari Prince (Keegan MacIntosh) is a painful mimicry of Londo's. Peter Jurassic did Londo's unique pseudo-European accent with aplomb (he invented it after all) but Keegan sounds like a high-school production of The Merchant of Venice gone horribly wrong. All in all it's a silly by-the-numbers story but still much better than the first.
Lost Tales is a little better than B5 in the special effects department. Considering the huge leap forward in CG rendering technology over the last ten years, this is to be taken for granted. There's a very good city scene but the new cruiser version of the White Star looks stylistically... well... awful. Pet gripe: the background nebula of the TV series, actually touched up Hubble space telescope images, are now generic looking swirls that look much worse.
Quantum-space is a new and improved version of Hyperspace that is both faster and, err, a different colour but otherwise an identical plot device which allows characters to move from one location to another... which makes you wonder why JMS bothered. Superfluous, at odds with the established universe and it has a silly name too! Surely this is an example of typical B-movie making where irrelevant details get extensive coverage while large plot holes are left unattended?
A new telemovie could have explored any number of very interesting loose ends that were left at the end of Babylon 5 season 5, so why produce a couple of second (third, fourth...) rate stories that are weaker than 95% of the original TV series?
The first offers possibly the most bewildering turn for Babylon 5 yet in which a station staff member is possessed by a demon. Now this is not your typical telepathic parasitic alien feeding on the fears of the station residents by pretending to be a satanic apparition. No, it's played out as an actual real demonic possession, fire and brimstone and all. This is made clear by constant references to supposed Catholic dogma. Thus all suspension of disbelief goes out the airlock by the end of the mini-story as it slides from science fiction to unabashed occult.
Apart from two or three extras doing their best to make the station look populated (it is hard to *mill generally about* with such low numbers, believe me), the only 'series' character to appear here is Lochley (Tracy Scoggins). She's joined by a possessed gentleman (Bruce Ramsay hooked up to a voice synthesiser that invites weak quips about his voice finally dropping) and Father Cassidy (Alan Scarfe acting well in the face of extreme silliness), a Catholic priest who, as tradition dictates, has his faith and values tested.
There is a logical conundrum to provide the suspense but unfortunately said conundrum is solved by a leap of logic that defies believability. Worse, Lochley talks us through it in a clumsy 'Light Bulb Moment' monologue that is embarrassingly unconvincing.
Speaking of monologues, although JMS was famous for giving Sheridan lengthy speeches at the drop of a hat, nearly all the dialogue in this first story is via horribly over-extended uninterrupted slabs of wordage. The result is stilted, unnatural and, frankly, boring. It almost gets to the point of being funny (but, sadly, not quite).
At the conclusion the demon is vanquished back to earth (to, we assume, be safely exorcised by Father Cassidy) and Lochley re-finds her religion (we are told this in another epically long monologue cum epilogue), presumably becoming a good church going Christian.
The second story leaves the realms of The Exorcist and reintroduces Galen (Peter Woodward), a Technomage who has a habit of talking in vague platitudes. We find the earth is about to be blasted into picturesque ruins (some very nice CG effects here). As if the aborted Minbari invasion, president Clarke's scorched-earth stunt, the Shadow planet killer and the Drakh plague weren't enough trouble for one world. Anyway, what follows is basically Galen trying to persuade President Sheridan to kill someone to save the planet. The twist on the story is highly improbable and Galen could have achieved his aims more simply and reliably by just being direct. Peter Woodward is a good actor and his character is still fun even if his motivations and actions don't make a lot of sense here. Bruce Boxleitner plays Sheridan very well and in the same slightly quirky way he did in Call To Arms. Of note: the accent on the young Centari Prince (Keegan MacIntosh) is a painful mimicry of Londo's. Peter Jurassic did Londo's unique pseudo-European accent with aplomb (he invented it after all) but Keegan sounds like a high-school production of The Merchant of Venice gone horribly wrong. All in all it's a silly by-the-numbers story but still much better than the first.
Lost Tales is a little better than B5 in the special effects department. Considering the huge leap forward in CG rendering technology over the last ten years, this is to be taken for granted. There's a very good city scene but the new cruiser version of the White Star looks stylistically... well... awful. Pet gripe: the background nebula of the TV series, actually touched up Hubble space telescope images, are now generic looking swirls that look much worse.
Quantum-space is a new and improved version of Hyperspace that is both faster and, err, a different colour but otherwise an identical plot device which allows characters to move from one location to another... which makes you wonder why JMS bothered. Superfluous, at odds with the established universe and it has a silly name too! Surely this is an example of typical B-movie making where irrelevant details get extensive coverage while large plot holes are left unattended?
A new telemovie could have explored any number of very interesting loose ends that were left at the end of Babylon 5 season 5, so why produce a couple of second (third, fourth...) rate stories that are weaker than 95% of the original TV series?