Too much of everything

The acting in this movie is really good.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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?

I paid $24.98 for the DVD, which is what I think they spent on sets for this movie. The production values of this left a lot to be desired. I think they had all of five sets, and everything else was green-screened. I know that the old sets from 10 years ago have long since been disbanded and they moved production to Canada to save money, but some elements looked like they were done on the cheap.In the area of story, however, JMS delivered. The first story about Lochley and Father Cassidy was top-notch, exploring issues of what will become of religion in an era of space travel, and a priest with doubts about his own role. They encounter a man who claims to be possessed by a demon, and consider the implications if this is true. The B story is equally good, with Sheridan struggling with an issue to kill someone who might become a genocidal madman. Prince Regent Vitari, son of the Former Emperor Cartagia (never actually said but clearly implied) is to launch a war against Earth in 30 years, according to the technomage Galen, unless Sheridan kills him now. Sheridan instead finds a better course.An interesting touch was that the characters of G'Kar and Stephen Franklin were said to be "exploring beyond the rim". Of course, the actors who played them passed away, and this was a nice tribute to them. (There is also a tribute sequence in the extras).Still, I found this far more enjoyable than the last 60 million dollar Trek bomb.

I would recommend everybody who really like B5 to buy this DVD and watch everything including all the supplementary materials which are real fun. This movie doesn't have fancy stuff inside like the Shadow War, but has a nice plot and interesting ideas, I really enjoyed it much more than the everything else that was made after the original B5(I mean the Crusade, legend of the rangers etc). There are two short stories none of the two have much action, the first one is very much in the style of the short stories in the old B5, like the those episodes that goes far from the main plot line of the series. This one is really good, I liked it. The second film I liked less, but it has more visual effects than the first one and is more like the Crusade, but unlike the Crusade it has some deep and complicated psychology inside, which to my opinion was really lacking in the Crusade. The only bad thing that it comes to an end very fast and then you start thinking of watching the whole B5 again :) Then DO watch the Extras, they are really good!!!! Enjoy!

Babylon 5 was an excellent series from start to finish. The Lost Tales continues that trend with morally and intellectually baffling story lines, even better special effects and exceptional acting. Woodward's performance of Galen is just as brilliantly mysterious and powerful as ever.The first episode, which is very much a stand-alone story as it does have nothing to do with the rest of the series from what I can tell, is a brilliant religion-themed story with some very good writing that gets underway very quickly and keeps the viewer gripped all the way through.The second story is, in my opinion, quite a bit better than the first, even considering how good that was. It gives us a little more insight into the character of Galen, as well as a nice mention of G'Kar and Franklin, in memory of the two late actors who played them (Katsulas and Biggs).The only shortcoming of these two stories is their lack of length; they did seem a bit crammed into 35 minutes and would have benefited from more time. I can't wait to see more additions to the series!