Review Detail
9.6 2 10
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
10.0
This is a great Babylon 5 double episode! The break from Part 1 to Part 2 is so perfect that it looks like JMS intended this as a double episode but repurposed it when he needed several movies in a hurry for TNT before they started broadcasting Season 5. Another clear improvement is that the opening and closing narration are gone. They're another example that feels like JMS padded out a double-episode story to reach the requested runtime for a movie.
I had to rewatch the original to find when Vir talks to Ivanova in the elevator. I didn't miss it in the edit. It was a superfluous scene anyway: Ivanova didn't need Vir's talk to figure out that the artifact is causing trouble on the station.
I did miss Bill's breakfast where the possessed crowd tells him to work faster. But that's because I'm a fan of Clyde Kusatsu! Cutting this scene does change one detail: when Trent kills him, it now looks more her motivation and less obviously the artifact's motivation. That's not better or worse, just less obvious it's the artifact pushing her to do this.
The only transitions that caught my ear were Part 1's transitions into the Opening and Closing Credits. But these transitions aren't perfect in all the original episodes either. So this imperfection is unfortunate but consistent with the series.
I did not notice the other trims. Seamless work! Go. Watch this. You'll find yourself wanting to watch more B5 afterwards.
One qualifier: My '8' for the AV Quality is the fault of the source material, not the edit.
I had to rewatch the original to find when Vir talks to Ivanova in the elevator. I didn't miss it in the edit. It was a superfluous scene anyway: Ivanova didn't need Vir's talk to figure out that the artifact is causing trouble on the station.
I did miss Bill's breakfast where the possessed crowd tells him to work faster. But that's because I'm a fan of Clyde Kusatsu! Cutting this scene does change one detail: when Trent kills him, it now looks more her motivation and less obviously the artifact's motivation. That's not better or worse, just less obvious it's the artifact pushing her to do this.
The only transitions that caught my ear were Part 1's transitions into the Opening and Closing Credits. But these transitions aren't perfect in all the original episodes either. So this imperfection is unfortunate but consistent with the series.
I did not notice the other trims. Seamless work! Go. Watch this. You'll find yourself wanting to watch more B5 afterwards.
One qualifier: My '8' for the AV Quality is the fault of the source material, not the edit.
L