Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (2007)

Babylon 5 was a wonderful television series in the 1990's. Created by J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5 was called a book for television and it really was, taking five seasons to complete the entire storyline. The time involved in such story arcs left for deep and wonderfully realistic character developments and surprising plot points. As far as science fiction television goes, Babylon 5 deserves to be up there with Star Trek (the original series), Firefly and Battlestar Gallactica (new series) as one of the best sci-fi shows in TV history.

The fan base for B5 has not waned very much over the years and Warner Bros., who own the rights to series, wanted more material to fill the fans' hunger for the subject matter, so Straczynski has fashioned The Lost Tales, small short films that bring some of the actors and characters back into the B5 universe.

The Lost Tales DVD contains two stories, Voices in the Dark: Over Here and Voices in the Dark: Over There. Over Here is a very intriguing story about a maintenance worker on the Babylon 5 space station that appears to be possessed by the Devil. A priest is brought on board to determine the validity and the meaning behind the apparent possession. The story was especially intruiging to me as I believe Straczynski is an athiest... or at least he was. After watching Over Here, I wonder.

Over There involves President Sheridan, played by the under-appreciated Bruce Boxleitner, who is returning to Babylon 5 for a 10th anniversary gathering. On his journey back he is approached by a mysterious person in his dreams that pushes him to make a very tough decision in order to save billions of lives on earth.

Watching a few, and I mean just a few, of the original B5 characters back on the screen made me yearn for the original series. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the show and, upon revisiting the B5 universe, want to sit down and watch the original series all over again.

The budget for this DVD was obviously very limited. The sets are small and minimal, the locations few and the green screen effects are far less than one expects from the technology today. There are some good special effects when it takes place completely in space, but when you put an actor in front of the computer graphic work, well, the budget, or lack thereof, shows.

Another disappointment to me was the short and very quick storylines. Granted, the goal of the DVD is to only tell short stories, but when compared to the immense five-year story arcs of the original series, these two stories come to conclusion very, very quickly... too quickly. The solutions are conveniently easy to determine and just when you're getting your feet wet in the B5 universe, the stories are over.

All that being said, it was nice to relive a bit of the Babylon 5 experience. Though, not perfect, for fans of Babylon 5, The Lost Tales will be a fun, albeit fast detour into a sci-fi favorite.

High School - Week 1

Well, my daughter has survived her first few days of high school. After a schedule mix up and a locker issue, all seems calm now. DC is comfortable there and has four auditions coming up for the theater department. Hopefully she'll get cast in one of those four.

Now, every morning, I drive her to school and we get some really nice time between us, discussing school, movies, church, friendship, etc... and that's just since Tuesday! :) Should be a fun year.

Bill Gates Goes to College Video

I stumbled across this very funny video via another blog that pairs Bill Gates with Napoleon Dynamite for a 2005 conference. It's very funny and can be found at:

Bill Gates Goes to College

The Microsoft bigwig teamed up with Napoleon Dynamite in this spoof video from PDC 2005. The camera's a little shaky, but you get the idea.

Enjoy

High School Starts Tomorrow

My daughter enters high school tomorrow. She's nervous. My wife is a wreck. We're going out to dinner tonight as a calm-before-the-storm celebration.

I doubt my daughter gets a good nights sleep. I'm certain my wife won't. I'm not as worried as those two, but I'm not sure if I'll sleep well either... their nervousness and anxiety is making me nervous.

So, we'll see how it goes...

The Moment After (1999) and The Moment After 2 (2007)

In 1999, among the rampant pre-millennium apocalyptic end times, ChristianCinema.com released The Moment After.

In this original low-budget Christian flick, two FBI agents are directed to figure out why so many Christians in the world suddenly disappeared. The agents, played by two of the films producers, Kevin Downes and David A.R. White, investigate the Rapture, each ending up on opposite sides of the faith scale. White gets arrested for harboring a Christian leader wanted by the new global enforcement agency and is thrown in prison.

The Moment After 2 continues the story eight years later, as White, now on death row, escapes while being transported to the location of his eventual death. He hides in the desert and comes across a band of other Christians-in-hiding. Downes, who quit the FBI years earlier, is forced back into service by the global police to hunt down White and bring him back in custody.

The production value and quality of both films is very good, but especially so with the sequel. The relationship between Downes and White plays very real and the positive Christian messages are seamlessly interwoven into the storyline, never feeling preachy. Both films are directed by Wes Llewellyn, who manages the story and the action sequences quite nicely.

What I like about these films most of all is that they tackle the massive scope of the Rapture successfully within their budgetary limitations. Instead of trying to capture the immensity of the End Times on a minuscule budget like the Omega Code films or focusing on blow-by-blow fundamentalist interpretation of Revelations, such as in the Left Behind trilogy, the film shrinks the scale of the story without losing the impact of the message. The end result are believable, satisfying and intriguing films.

Plus, both films affirm a personal belief of mine when it comes to low-budget films, in that it is more important to find the right actors than hire known actors. Films with actors such as Eric Roberts or Stephen Baldwin or Lorenzo Lamas are immediately assumed to be B-movies because of the celebrity baggage they bring with them. Relatively unknown, yet competent actors such as White and Downes are far more successful at relaying the story because they fit the role and can pull off the performances, but don't weigh down the film negatively with any audience-driven preconceived notions. Granted, it may be a little easier to get a movie sold overseas if Roberts or Baldwin are in them, but there's a price to pay in creditability if the actors are miscast, which often happens.

In any event, for fans of End Times story lines, The Moment After and The Moment After 2 are excellent Christian film fare.