Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Voices in the Dark (2007)

Pretty Good

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The Lost Tales could never have really lived up to fan expectation. Two major actors have since passed on and no network or studio would be intelligent enough to fund such a scifi fan favorite.Understandably, the effects and budget were minimal. However, the writing was also minimalist. Not a good thing. It felt as if the whole idea could have been better produced, directed and written by the fans. It's a shame that JMS and company couldn't have showcased their obvious talent better.I was a huge fan of B5 and now am NOT of Lost Tales. There was just so much that could have been done better. I can't recommend this one to any fan of the franchise.

This DVD consists of two new episodes of the Babylon 5 series--both set a decade after the final episode of the series. The first stars Tracy Scoggins and is a strange but decent segment about demonic possession. While it's far from great, it was interesting and is worth a look. The second is a much better episode which reunites Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) with Galen (Peter Woodward). The theme of this one is the morality of committing a murder in order to save countless lives--sort of like if you could time travel back to kill Hitler as a child. Unlike the first episode, this one was a bit more exciting and offered an interesting moral dilemma.When this straight to DVD release came out, I knew it had some major strikes against it since almost all the original characters from Babylon 5 were not in this two episode release. Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas had to be absent (this is alluded to, obtusely, in the film) since they recently died--a very valid excuse indeed and something I couldn't blame the production staff for occurring. But the rest of the cast were no where to be seen and this was a great pity. I assume that years after the last episode it just must have been a logistical nightmare to try. I also read that most of the props and uniforms from the series had been lost and stolen, so making the film was a major chore and logistical nightmare. Despite all these shortcomings, the overall product is surprisingly good and very watchable to fans of the series.

I was truly hoping that this direct-to-DVD would breathe new life into a great series, and perhaps begin its road to recovery. Unfortunately, it does quite the opposite.Babylon 5's strongest points were the extended plot, the supporting drama and the credible-to-excellent effects. By design, none of those are part of this release, which focuses on dialog and acting. Those were never especially strong, and here they are at their worst.Yes, the series had great moments of dialog. Straczynski can be a good writer. But the dialog could be very predictable and often stilted and clichéd. (e.g. how characters tend to repeat "done, and done.") Now take that predictability and transport it into what is effectively a set of monologues. It doesn't stand up.Apparently for budget reasons, most of the entire set of vignettes are talking heads. The story explained in interviews. Boxleitner isn't too bad, but he certainly isn't great. Tracy Scoggins's halting presentation, like she's reading from a sticky teleprompter, was annoying in the series; here, it's unbearable. There's no drama, just long scenes of exposition.In the only real character-driven moments of all, Galen attempts to be manipulative, but comes off as unpleasant and potentially psychopathic, which certainly isn't the Galen we respected and found fascinating in the main series and Crusade.Basically, this collection focuses on Babylon 5's weakest points, and doesn't do them well. As stories, they're uninteresting. As a potential continuation of the series, it is catastrophic, and the possibility of anything growing in the Babylon 5 universe at this point has sadly fizzled.

If you're a B5 fan, you will really enjoy this! It's obvious that JMS had a budget, but I think he did a great job with it. Lochley's story was really great new territory for the series and brought up some great points about religion in this world and even had a really cool revelation about it. Sheridan's story set up a potentially great new character in Prince Vintari and set up a dilemma for Sheridan that was very well done. It was also cool to see Sheridan and Galen interact. If I had any complaints it was the music. I couldn't believe it was Christopher Franke. I loved the work he did in the B5 series but it just didn't seem as good here. Regardless, it was a great start to what I hope turns into bigger and better future B5 productions!