“Babylon 5: The Road Home” opens a new door to a familiar world A review of the 4KUHD release

By now, everyone knows how huge a fan of Babylon 5 I am. I’m even a defender of the spinoff series Crusade (but Legend of the Rangers, not so much).

When the news broke that a new Babylon 5 series was in planning, plus something new but still being kept secret, I could not fully express my joy at the thought of having new stories from J. Michael Straczynski in the universe he created 30 years ago by revisiting an old story and building a new one from there.

The secret project turns out to be this new animated feature, “Babylon 5: The Road Home”. And for me it is a delight, as an exploration of alternate versions the story I already know so well.

No spoilers here (we’ll leave that for the discussion of the film over at The Babylon Podcast), but to get into the story, Sheridan becomes unstuck in time after being present for the opening of a new power plant in Tuzinor on Minbar, one that uses a new tachyon-based power system. That increase in tachyon production affects his body, which had already been altered from the events in the original series 2-part episode “War Without End”.

The movie goes through various scenarios in the past, including alternate ones. First, we get to see what Franklin and Garibaldi are doing on Earth long after the Alliance has been established; visiting his father’s farm and the feelings of home; what might have happened on Z’ha’dum when the Icarus landed; a greatly altered version of “War Without End” where the battle hinted at with Ivanova at the helm and Garibaldi in battle is played out; a trip to Epsilon 3 in his present past where Zathras tells Sheridan how to find his way home; what happens to Earth in a timeline where the Shadows won the Great War and the Vorlons behave like petty losers; a talk out on the Rim with a version of G’Kar about the nature of quantum physics and realities; and ending with quite possibly an alternate “present” from the Babylon 5 we are familiar with (specifically Seasons 2 and 3) prior to the Shadow War.

Recreating several scenes from the original series with different dialogue and outcomes for some of these scenarios is fun, and should also be intriguing for the old fans. Having these alternate versions of familiar scenes and scenarios opens up a lot of speculation about what might be planned for the new series (at least for the fans of the original series).

I do think it’s a little bit sneaky (and a little bit of a tease) to not show us what happens once Sheridan figures out how to get back to his timeline, that is foreshadowed a bit in other scenarios where we see what’s going on after Sheridan has slid into another timeline. Ultimately, that feeling is overridden a bit by the nostalgia brought on by staying with the slightly changed situation in the “present day” Babylon 5 that we remember from the series.

While we have lost so many of the original cast members over the years, the voice cast members chosen to portray those characters in a new way really do a great job. The voices of Zathras and Delenn sound so good, and the levels of emotion and particulars of inflections are spot on.

I think this is a good example of a 4KUHD release, and I’m happy with the clarity of audio in this one. The colors are bright and some of the scenes look softer than others, but I’m curious if that’s one way of showing how altered or what levels of altered or parallel realties we’re in at the time.

The commentary track featuring supervising producer Rick Morales (animation), JMS and Bruce Boxleitner is fun, and highlights many of the Easter eggs dropped throughout the feature, and for me, is more revealing than the feature itself. Hearing how much love and respect there is for the original story and wanting to make sure this new story and the characters stay true to that history is heartwarming.

I do wonder why the featurette “Babylon 5 Forever”, about the making of “The Road Home”, is only available on the Blu-ray, and not also included on the 4K disc, but I suppose there is a technical reason (one I hope someone more familiar with the data and compression involved and how differences between the types of disc affect this can someday explain to me).

Either way, I am looking forward seeing more the new series when it gets started.

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

* Babylon 5 Forever (New Featurette) – join the cast and filmmakers as they reveal the process behind creating the first state-of-the-art, animated adaption of Babylon 5 (Blu-ray only)

* Audio Commentary with creator/writer/executive producer J. Michael Straczynski, actor Bruce Boxleitner and supervising producer Rick Morales.

Return to Babylon 5 as the epic interstellar saga continues with The Road Home. Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.

Voice cast: Bruce Boxleitner as John Sheridan, Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova, Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari, Bill Mumy as Lennier, Tracy Scoggins as Elizabeth Lochley, and Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander, with Paul Guyet as Zathras and Jeffery Sinclair, Anthony Hansen as Michael Garibaldi, Mara Junot as Reporter and Computer Voice, Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, Piotr Michael as David Sheridan, Andrew Morgado as G’Kar, and Rebecca Riedy as Delenn
Directed by: Matt Peters
Written by: series creator J. Michael Straczynski