Babylon 5: The Road Home
Aka the animated movie which has now been released and is available in my part of the world via (paid for) streaming, for example on Amazon Prime. My unspoilery above cut verdict is that it's clearly a labour of love and a nice return to the B5 verse, but also due to its Sheridan-centric nature (which I knew from the trailer it would have) not something i'll be passionate about the way I am about episodes of the show focused on characters nearer to my heart. As to the other thing evident from the trailer, the fact this is a timetravel/multiverse type of story, this makes for some poignant scenes and two alt!verses which could be good set ups for fanfiction (one of them, I suspect, might also be the B5 remix JMS originally intended to do for the CW).
Other on-spoilery thoughts about the film:
Voice acting: since so many of our crew are no longer with us, I absolutely understand and support JMS using the characters with other actors voicing them when the alternative would have been to lose the characters as well. IMO, the most successful voice acting is by the actor speaking G'Kar. The actress for Delenn tries (Mira Furlan's accent included) but doesn't really do it for me. Garibaldi's voice actor is okay, Sinclair's and Stephen Franklin's are good. No Vir in the story, alas. No Zack (with lines, we do see him in ensemble scenes), either.
Animation style: takes some getting used to but evoked some nostalgic fuzziness in me by reminding me of the late 80s and 90s animation, which I suspect was probably intentional. The biggest benefit is of course that you can show the characters at different points in their lives without the inevitable drawback of rl human aging.
Music: Here's it's a thumbs down for me because the three composers while doing a passable job just didn't manage an equivalent to Christopher Franke's epic scores, and not having those (aside from a few quick musical allusions to the B5 theme(s) made me aware of how much the music contributed to the "feel" of B5.
Script: It's pure JMS, meaning there are touching and poignant scenes that feel just right (see above) and those who (imo) overdo it, corny jokes, actually witty lines, philosophical thoughts that land and those which don't, but never, ever, the sense of this being anything but something the writer is deeply passionate about and put his all into. I'd rather have an imperfect passion project than something that feels like an AI wrote it to continue a cash machine (looking at you, Secret Invasion).
I've gone soft in some regards, because younger me would have rolled her eyes at yet another example of how Sheridan's love for Delenn is his anchor that allows him to return (and vice vesa) (we've done this twice before), whereas current me hears JMS' unabashed "love is the most powerful force of the universe" declarations, thinks of all the rl awfulness and darkness and feels strangely cheered and encouraged by him still standing by this.
Anyway, it's not actually the Sheridan/Delenn stuff (which is the grand climax near the end) that I was thinking of mainly when talking about "poignant" and "touching" scenes. The first one that really hit me was when Sheridan ended up on Z'ha'dum just when the Icarus had landed and was waking up the Shadows, he realized this, and tried to get Anna and the rest of rest of the team to stop their below the surface exploration and call them back in time. (We do not see Anna, or Morden, for that matter, we only hear her voice over coms.) I can believe that "preserving the time line" is absolutely the last thing on Sheridan's mind in such a moment, he's going to try (in vain) to stop this.
Visiting the alt!timeline we saw flashforwards to in s1 of Babylon 5 and again at the start of War without End in s3 - i.e. the future where Garbaldi dies trying to buy the people getting evacuated from B5 time and where Ivanova makes her desperate call - was also affecting, with bonus Sinclair, as well as G'Kar and Lyta in an alt!team-up to the one from the primary timeline. (Patricia Tallmann's voice acting felt a bit stiff at the start here, but not in later scenes. BTW, it was interesting that all the versions of Lyta we saw in this movie were ones which did not get modified by the Vorlons and hence were still a P5.)
Then we got to the treat for me, aka the alt!timeline where the Shadows won the big battle and the Vorlons were busy torching every planet with Shadow associations (i.e. both Centauri Prime and Earth) in retaliation, that timeline's Sheridan was already dead having in vain attempted to stop the Vorlons (meaning main Sheridan was the only one around) and Londo and Ivanova were getting drunk together while the world ended. Londo and Ivanova hardly had any scenes in 5 years (well, they were in the same scene a couple of times, but along with several other characters), and I can so see them in a scenario where they were trapped in a situation where death was iminent and they really could not save either anyone else or themselves deciding to go "screw this, let's get drunk and await the end with style and cynical wit". It wasn't clear whether or not Londo made his deal with Morden in this timeline as well, but I assume so (he's dressed in his s2 onwards black wardrobe; the reason why he got stuck on Earth is that he tried to organize some last minute team up to save both Centauri Prime and Earth from the Vorlons). No mention of Vir, which I choose to believe means he's in safety somewhere else.
In between time travelling into increasingly alt verses, Sheridan makes it back briefly into his own time and to B5, which together with the start of the film (essentially a repeat of Sheridan's leaving of B5 in Objects at Rest) gives JMS the opportunity to provide us with Sheridan and Lochley interaction where they actually do sound like old friends and exes. (She calls him John.) (cahn, my little story for you is still canon, I feel smug.) The Zathras scenes were a bit too much for me but mileage may vary, and I can understand the need for comic relief before it gets philosophical again. The Sheridan and the conscious universe as embodied by G'Kar at the edge of the Rim scene is why I give the new voice actor for G'Kar the highest marks of all the new actors, because it's the kind of JMS scene that either feels profound and incredibly moving if the acting is up to it (i.e. any speeches by G'Kar in the original show, because Andreas Katsulas) or makes your skin itch (most scenes when Byron is doing the speech making, sorry, Robin D.). If the new actor hadn't been up to the task, it would have fallen flat, which would have been a shame, because in many ways it's the core of the entire movie. As it is, I loved it, it made me feel and think, and I want to rewatch it soon.
Now, the last alt!universe where time travelling Sheridan ends up in before he and his version of Delenn reunite by the power of their love is one where the Shadows weren't woken up yet because IPX went broke a decade earlier and thus never sent the Icarus expedition. Sheridan still took command of B5. (This is thus the only scenario where there are two Sheridans present.) There's no mention of Anna in this one, and since the sequence heavily hints that alt!Sheridan is destined to fall in love with alt!Delenn as well, I wonder whether Anna even exists in this 'verse. Delenn is still fully Minbari, which makes sense. (No imminent Shadow return danger might lessen her urge at prophecy-fulfilling by turning herself half human.) And she lies to Sheridan in the one scene she has (when alt!Sheridan asks whether she has any idea about what Prime!Sheridan was talking about when he name-dropped Z'ha'dum), which cracks me up because let's face it, Delenn lying to Sheridan is one of the constants of the universe. No Icarus also means no Morden-as-Shadow-Agent, and so Londo and G'Kar are shown squabbling s1 style. I take this as confirmation that in this 'verse their main arc will still be with each other, which is good to know, because as mentioned before I suspect this scenario is the remix B5 one JMS was working on, and any B5 I am meant to deeply care about has to have Londo/G'Kar as its central arc. What's a bit weird is that Lochley and Sinclair are also around on B5 at this time, but as I like both characters, I'd take it in any future installment.
Lastly: in case you're wondering, Lennier shows up as well, once in the opening sequence (during the great departure from B5 scene, i.e. before the deed that gets a part of fandom so upset) and once in the last alt!verse (where of course he hasn't had the chance yet to do or not do the thing). Both scenes are on the light, comical side. On the one hand, it's a bit of a let down because an alt!Lennier could have been a way to explore him dealing with the Unfortunate Event and/or show maybe a version of Lennier who was never mentored by Delenn, something like that, or even let him and Sheridan have a conversation about what happened. Otoh, I can understand why none of that happened, because the movie did try to appeal to new watchers as well as old ones (at the start, we get a brief ISN exposition dumping on what the Shadow War was about and what role Sheridan played for that reason), and you need to have watched several seasons to understand why Lennier did what he did. Also I admit I had to grin when alt!Lennier after Prime!Sheridan broke down in his arms after arriving in this timeline insisted he didn't do anything to him.
In conclusion: I enjoyed it, and I want fanfiction both for the timeline where the Vorlons went scorched Earth (literally) and Ivanova & Londo teamed up for the Apocalypse, and for the timeline where the Shadows are still snoozing on Z'ha'dum. I would also happily watch more of the B5verse of the last alt!timeline, but would hope something can be done re: the music, and that Delenn gets scenes again which are in no way whatsoever about John Sheridan. (They can still fall in love, because that's inevitable for as long as B5 is written by JMS. Just show Delenn again in her other facets as well, please.)
Other on-spoilery thoughts about the film:
Voice acting: since so many of our crew are no longer with us, I absolutely understand and support JMS using the characters with other actors voicing them when the alternative would have been to lose the characters as well. IMO, the most successful voice acting is by the actor speaking G'Kar. The actress for Delenn tries (Mira Furlan's accent included) but doesn't really do it for me. Garibaldi's voice actor is okay, Sinclair's and Stephen Franklin's are good. No Vir in the story, alas. No Zack (with lines, we do see him in ensemble scenes), either.
Animation style: takes some getting used to but evoked some nostalgic fuzziness in me by reminding me of the late 80s and 90s animation, which I suspect was probably intentional. The biggest benefit is of course that you can show the characters at different points in their lives without the inevitable drawback of rl human aging.
Music: Here's it's a thumbs down for me because the three composers while doing a passable job just didn't manage an equivalent to Christopher Franke's epic scores, and not having those (aside from a few quick musical allusions to the B5 theme(s) made me aware of how much the music contributed to the "feel" of B5.
Script: It's pure JMS, meaning there are touching and poignant scenes that feel just right (see above) and those who (imo) overdo it, corny jokes, actually witty lines, philosophical thoughts that land and those which don't, but never, ever, the sense of this being anything but something the writer is deeply passionate about and put his all into. I'd rather have an imperfect passion project than something that feels like an AI wrote it to continue a cash machine (looking at you, Secret Invasion).
I've gone soft in some regards, because younger me would have rolled her eyes at yet another example of how Sheridan's love for Delenn is his anchor that allows him to return (and vice vesa) (we've done this twice before), whereas current me hears JMS' unabashed "love is the most powerful force of the universe" declarations, thinks of all the rl awfulness and darkness and feels strangely cheered and encouraged by him still standing by this.
Anyway, it's not actually the Sheridan/Delenn stuff (which is the grand climax near the end) that I was thinking of mainly when talking about "poignant" and "touching" scenes. The first one that really hit me was when Sheridan ended up on Z'ha'dum just when the Icarus had landed and was waking up the Shadows, he realized this, and tried to get Anna and the rest of rest of the team to stop their below the surface exploration and call them back in time. (We do not see Anna, or Morden, for that matter, we only hear her voice over coms.) I can believe that "preserving the time line" is absolutely the last thing on Sheridan's mind in such a moment, he's going to try (in vain) to stop this.
Visiting the alt!timeline we saw flashforwards to in s1 of Babylon 5 and again at the start of War without End in s3 - i.e. the future where Garbaldi dies trying to buy the people getting evacuated from B5 time and where Ivanova makes her desperate call - was also affecting, with bonus Sinclair, as well as G'Kar and Lyta in an alt!team-up to the one from the primary timeline. (Patricia Tallmann's voice acting felt a bit stiff at the start here, but not in later scenes. BTW, it was interesting that all the versions of Lyta we saw in this movie were ones which did not get modified by the Vorlons and hence were still a P5.)
Then we got to the treat for me, aka the alt!timeline where the Shadows won the big battle and the Vorlons were busy torching every planet with Shadow associations (i.e. both Centauri Prime and Earth) in retaliation, that timeline's Sheridan was already dead having in vain attempted to stop the Vorlons (meaning main Sheridan was the only one around) and Londo and Ivanova were getting drunk together while the world ended. Londo and Ivanova hardly had any scenes in 5 years (well, they were in the same scene a couple of times, but along with several other characters), and I can so see them in a scenario where they were trapped in a situation where death was iminent and they really could not save either anyone else or themselves deciding to go "screw this, let's get drunk and await the end with style and cynical wit". It wasn't clear whether or not Londo made his deal with Morden in this timeline as well, but I assume so (he's dressed in his s2 onwards black wardrobe; the reason why he got stuck on Earth is that he tried to organize some last minute team up to save both Centauri Prime and Earth from the Vorlons). No mention of Vir, which I choose to believe means he's in safety somewhere else.
In between time travelling into increasingly alt verses, Sheridan makes it back briefly into his own time and to B5, which together with the start of the film (essentially a repeat of Sheridan's leaving of B5 in Objects at Rest) gives JMS the opportunity to provide us with Sheridan and Lochley interaction where they actually do sound like old friends and exes. (She calls him John.) (cahn, my little story for you is still canon, I feel smug.) The Zathras scenes were a bit too much for me but mileage may vary, and I can understand the need for comic relief before it gets philosophical again. The Sheridan and the conscious universe as embodied by G'Kar at the edge of the Rim scene is why I give the new voice actor for G'Kar the highest marks of all the new actors, because it's the kind of JMS scene that either feels profound and incredibly moving if the acting is up to it (i.e. any speeches by G'Kar in the original show, because Andreas Katsulas) or makes your skin itch (most scenes when Byron is doing the speech making, sorry, Robin D.). If the new actor hadn't been up to the task, it would have fallen flat, which would have been a shame, because in many ways it's the core of the entire movie. As it is, I loved it, it made me feel and think, and I want to rewatch it soon.
Now, the last alt!universe where time travelling Sheridan ends up in before he and his version of Delenn reunite by the power of their love is one where the Shadows weren't woken up yet because IPX went broke a decade earlier and thus never sent the Icarus expedition. Sheridan still took command of B5. (This is thus the only scenario where there are two Sheridans present.) There's no mention of Anna in this one, and since the sequence heavily hints that alt!Sheridan is destined to fall in love with alt!Delenn as well, I wonder whether Anna even exists in this 'verse. Delenn is still fully Minbari, which makes sense. (No imminent Shadow return danger might lessen her urge at prophecy-fulfilling by turning herself half human.) And she lies to Sheridan in the one scene she has (when alt!Sheridan asks whether she has any idea about what Prime!Sheridan was talking about when he name-dropped Z'ha'dum), which cracks me up because let's face it, Delenn lying to Sheridan is one of the constants of the universe. No Icarus also means no Morden-as-Shadow-Agent, and so Londo and G'Kar are shown squabbling s1 style. I take this as confirmation that in this 'verse their main arc will still be with each other, which is good to know, because as mentioned before I suspect this scenario is the remix B5 one JMS was working on, and any B5 I am meant to deeply care about has to have Londo/G'Kar as its central arc. What's a bit weird is that Lochley and Sinclair are also around on B5 at this time, but as I like both characters, I'd take it in any future installment.
Lastly: in case you're wondering, Lennier shows up as well, once in the opening sequence (during the great departure from B5 scene, i.e. before the deed that gets a part of fandom so upset) and once in the last alt!verse (where of course he hasn't had the chance yet to do or not do the thing). Both scenes are on the light, comical side. On the one hand, it's a bit of a let down because an alt!Lennier could have been a way to explore him dealing with the Unfortunate Event and/or show maybe a version of Lennier who was never mentored by Delenn, something like that, or even let him and Sheridan have a conversation about what happened. Otoh, I can understand why none of that happened, because the movie did try to appeal to new watchers as well as old ones (at the start, we get a brief ISN exposition dumping on what the Shadow War was about and what role Sheridan played for that reason), and you need to have watched several seasons to understand why Lennier did what he did. Also I admit I had to grin when alt!Lennier after Prime!Sheridan broke down in his arms after arriving in this timeline insisted he didn't do anything to him.
In conclusion: I enjoyed it, and I want fanfiction both for the timeline where the Vorlons went scorched Earth (literally) and Ivanova & Londo teamed up for the Apocalypse, and for the timeline where the Shadows are still snoozing on Z'ha'dum. I would also happily watch more of the B5verse of the last alt!timeline, but would hope something can be done re: the music, and that Delenn gets scenes again which are in no way whatsoever about John Sheridan. (They can still fall in love, because that's inevitable for as long as B5 is written by JMS. Just show Delenn again in her other facets as well, please.)