Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers is a two-hour television movie created by J. Michael Straczynski (original creator of the Babylon 5 series) for the Sci-Fi Channel. The telefilm takes place in 2264 after the wars are over and a new age of space exploration has begun. Science-fiction fans are notoriously hard to please, and few have anything good to say about
The Legend of the Rangers, produced in 2002 to introduce a spinoff of the popular
Babylon 5 TV series. The naysayers have a point. Few elements of this 90-minute pilot, subtitled "To Live and Die in Starlight," will likely be memorialized among the genre's golden moments; the dialogue is often clunky and on-the-nose, the acting is less than stellar, and the effects work, while pretty good, doesn't live up to the standard set by
Stargate,
Farscape, and others. Nevertheless, there's a reasonably compelling story here, involving the elite Rangers (made up of humans and aliens alike, including the Minbari, who sport "head bones" instead of hair and whose cute little ears are placed on the sides of their necks) and the threat posed to the universe by a mysterious new foe known as "the Hand" (these are some seriously bad dudes, a race that has lain dormant for many years but is now back with a vengeance). Front and center is human Ranger David Martell (played by Dylan Neal). Court-martialed for choosing to save his crew rather then lead them to certain death (in violation of a code mandating that "we do not retreat, whatever the reason"), he's put in command of the
Liandra, a ship that's not only funkier than Han Solo's
Millennium Falcon but haunted to boot. Of course, as events play out, Martell and his pals end up as the last line of defense against the Hand, not only pitted against these implacable enemies but also dealing with a traitor among the good guys. The themes (honor vs. expediency, dark forces arrayed against peace-seekers, human impetuousness tangling with ancient alien wisdom) are familiar, and the outcome is far from unpredictable. Still, there are a lot less entertaining ways to spend 90 minutes than with
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers.
--Sam Graham
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Michael Vejar |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 19 January, 2002 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Warner Home Video |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers is a two-hour television movie created by J. |
| TYPE: | Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Movie, Science Fiction, TV Shows, Television |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| MPN: | 75725 |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 012569757257 |
Customer Reviews of
Babylon 5 - The Legend of the Rangers
Not so great, but watchable Very slow start and weak acting, also a fairly inconclusive ending. Improves significantly about halfway through. I'm a great fan of B5, particularly of the Rangers, and this was somewhat disappointing. A little like a methadone session for a heroin addict.
Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I'm a huge fan of the series and popped this into my cart to get free shipping for the first Lost Tales DVD. What a mistake!
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>Lets just say that no-where near the full potential of the rangers was realised in this one. Don't go here!
Rangers Need More time
The Babylon 5 spin-off Legend of the Rangers is a worthy successor to the popular sci-fi series.
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>Unfortunately, the one episode needs to go further and does not.
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>Fortunately, it is a better B5 tale that the ill-fated B5 successor series, The Crusade.
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>If you are a Babylon 5 fan buy this and you will enjoy the universe once again.
