Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7639 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-08
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the gap between seasons four and five of Babylon 5, fans suffering withdrawal symptoms were sated by this first TV movie. As a prequel to the series' timeline, creator J. Michael Straczynski had an awful lot of continuity to consider. Amazingly, there's only one inconsistency throughout (a matter of who met whom and when), making this an essential part of the overall storyline. The tale is told cleverly from the future as the remembrances of Londo (Peter Jurasik), who is now Emperor of a dying Centauri homeworld. He looks back at the beginnings of the Earth-Minbari war and links together many clues strewn throughout the shows' early years. We see exactly how Delenn contributed to the first blows, the death of dignitary Dukhat, and most importantly what really happened to Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) at the Battle of the Line. The FX showcased by the battle are genuinely spectacular, but overshadowed by the make-up department which had the thankless task of making everyone look younger. Their best success is on an uncredited Claudia Christian who appears as an 18-year-old Susan Ivanova dealing with the death of her brother. Being a prequel there's little in the way of a surprise finale, but there's plenty of intrigue along the way. --Paul Tonks

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Set 200 years in the future--in a universe where mankind has reached the stars, contacted and colonised new races, and fought new wars--IN THE BEGINNING is the first feature-length film based on the popular sci-fi series. The movie charts the war between Earth and the mysterious Minbari race and recounts the early days of the characters who will one day change the destiny of the galaxy.

Customer Reviews

Simply brilliant sci-fi
Keeping this short and sweet, i dont want to spoil anything for anyone who hasnt seen it, this is a great sci-fi movie. On its own it could be a little confusing so i would reccomend seeing the first few seasons of the series first. It has a great story and acting and some of the best special effects in a straight to video and dvd release. The spaceships all move as they would in real life, no unrealistic WWII style dogfights here (Lucasfilm really need to brush up on their physics!), the Earth Force Starfury slides, rotates, and pulls off maneouvres that you will never see an x-wing do. And the Minbari ships are works of art. Buy it and you wont be dissapointed.

The Earth/Minbari war in all its glory
This is the first movie set in the world of, the brilliant, series Babylon 5 and it is probably one of the best that I have seen. Detailing one of the most important parts of the Babylon 5 back-story, the Earth/Minbari war, this film uses a mixture of footage already used as flashbacks in the series alongside newly filmed footage, although it is quite difficult to tell the difference between the two. The acting is just as good as in the series as the actors now feel comfortable in their roles, and the graphics are OK considering how old they are, the Battle of the Line is just spectacular and is probably one of the best space combat sequences that I have witnessed. This is a definite must see for all fans of the series, though newcomers may be slightly confused by some of the detail.

The prequel to the saga of "Babylon 5"
One of the great things about DVDs is that I finally get to catch up on all the science fiction series from cable that, for various reasons, I missed out on the first time around. Today I watched the "prequel" to "Babylon 5," which was made four years after the show started and which provides the backstory of the Earth-Minbari War.

"In the Beginning" starts off on Centauri Prime, where outside the royal palace the city is burning. A young boy and girl intrude upon Emperor Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik), who gives the boy an opportunity to issue one order. "Make it good," the old man advises, and the boy does, saying, "Tell me a story!" The Emperor does, going back to the start of the Third Age. This would be the year 2243, when a young Londo Mollari arrived at the Earth Dome as liaison to the Centauri delegation. Earth had recently won the Dilgar War and the government of Earth is now expanding its sphere of influence. Earth is having some success in its attempt to make treaties with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and now Earth is sending an expedition to make contact with the mysterious Minbari. Londo advises General Lefcourt to send only one ship and to be wary of the Minbari, but, of course, the military of Earth is nothing if not arrogant. Even not knowing the "history" of the series, it was clear that when Londo mumbles something about Earth not waking up the dragon it foreshadows hard times for Earth. Any and all doubts disappear when Lt. Cmdr. John Sheridan (Boxleitner) shows up and calls Captain Jankowski, the leader of the expedition, "a loose canon."

Before the Earth ships reach Mindari space we learn something about the warrior caste of these people and Lenonn, the leader of the Anla'shok (the Rangers). Lenonn is worried about the prophecies of Balen, which indicate that a time of crisis is coming during which the Anla'shok will play an important role. We also hear about the Vorlons for the first time. Then Captain Jankowski shows up and despite having been warned not to make first contact (which begs all sorts of questions about why this particular captain was sent with a fleet on an intelligence gathering mission) gets close enough for the Mindari to engage their senses. This begins a chain of events with tragic consequences, as both Jankowski and the Mindari prove equally adept at having no understanding of cross cultural communication.

The importance of this exchange is that this little encounter is the spark that ignites the Earth-Mindari war, and the importance of that war is that the forces of Earth are no match for the Mindari. It is ironic to watch "In the Beginning" today, a year after the war with Iraq, because it is hard not to see strong parallels between the one sided wars. The great strength of this story is the idea that there is nothing Earth can do to stop the Mindari from destroying the Earth and ending the human race, a far cry from the superiority of the species that is a constant in the vast majority of science fiction (e.g., the "Star Trek" universe.

The problem is that just as the cause for the war was a bit far fetched (one of the first things you learn in encountering another culture is that symbols do not mean the same thing; e.g., do not hitch hike in central Africa because that gesture is their version of flipping somebody off), so is the end of the war, where a convenient bit of information pretty much pops out of nowhere. Still, on balance, there is a clear sense that in the universe of "Babylon 5" that humanity is occupying one of the lower rungs on the intergalactic totem pole, which is a decidedly different premise from what we are used to.