Video - Babylon 5: No Surrender, No Retreat DVD Extra

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Babylon 5 fan. I don't just consider it the best science fiction show ever made, I consider it the best television show of any kind ever made. It was the first show that was constructed with single overarching plot that ran from beginning to end. As far as I know, it remains the only out and out television series that was designed as a complete whole from the beginning - even though more recent shows such as Lost and the revamped Battlestar Galactica, which had ongoing story lines, those story lines were stitched together as the shows progressed. (And their ongoing story lines suffered as a result of their improved nature, resulting in half-assed executions of the concept).

This video is a montage of scenes from season four that was included with the season four DVD set No Surrender, No Retreat. Even though it is visually quite enjoyable, much of what makes this particular video particularly amazing will likely be lost on anyone who is unfamiliar with the show, but I simply cannot watch this without every scene bringing back memories of just how thrilling, touching, poignant, or momentous each one of them is. Plus it has a stellar backing track composed by Christopher Franke. The fourth season of Babylon 5 is quite possibly the best twenty-two episodes of television ever strung together, and the other four seasons are almost as good. Seeing the show through to the end of its planned five year run was an epic achievement in itself, and the fact that J. Michael Straczynski was able to turn out such an incredible moving show at the same time is simply amazing.

In addition to putting up a video of amazing eye candy (and before anyone says anything snide about the special effects, I'll point out that they were done on a freakin' Amiga computer), I'm also using this post to let everyone know that starting this week I'll be working my way through the Babylon 5 series, starting with The Gathering (read review) and continuing on through the entire series, every movie, and eventually the sadly short-lived spin-off Crusade and The Lost Tales. I've also got all of the Babylon 5 script books, a pile of licensed fiction, and well, anything else that I can get my hands on related to the series. And I'm going to go through it all and put up posts about it all on the blog. If you've seen the series before, I invite you to join me in a rewatching the show. If you haven't, I invite you to follow along and discover one of the most brilliant and  monumental achievements in televised science fiction.

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