I was truly hoping that this direct-to-DVD would breathe new life into a great series, and perhaps begin its road to recovery. Unfortunately, it does quite the opposite.Babylon 5's strongest points were the extended plot, the supporting drama and the credible-to-excellent effects. By design, none of those are part of this release, which focuses on dialog and acting. Those were never especially strong, and here they are at their worst.Yes, the series had great moments of dialog. Straczynski can be a good writer. But the dialog could be very predictable and often stilted and clichéd. (e.g. how characters tend to repeat "done, and done.") Now take that predictability and transport it into what is effectively a set of monologues. It doesn't stand up.Apparently for budget reasons, most of the entire set of vignettes are talking heads. The story explained in interviews. Boxleitner isn't too bad, but he certainly isn't great. Tracy Scoggins's halting presentation, like she's reading from a sticky teleprompter, was annoying in the series; here, it's unbearable. There's no drama, just long scenes of exposition.In the only real character-driven moments of all, Galen attempts to be manipulative, but comes off as unpleasant and potentially psychopathic, which certainly isn't the Galen we respected and found fascinating in the main series and Crusade.Basically, this collection focuses on Babylon 5's weakest points, and doesn't do them well. As stories, they're uninteresting. As a potential continuation of the series, it is catastrophic, and the possibility of anything growing in the Babylon 5 universe at this point has sadly fizzled.

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!

I am an avid B5 fan, and I have all 5 seasons on video, which I watch over and over again. I think that it is the best TV SF series ever, and contains some of the most original ideas and finest poetic writing on television. Unfortunately, it went downhill with the appearance of "Crusade" and "Legend of the Raiders," both of which were dismal efforts. At the time, I wondered what JMS was thinking. There were so many imaginative stories and so many creative writers that he could have used. Why did he have to do it all himself? He could have delegated some of the responsibility. Now along comes "The Lost Tales" and I thought "Oh boy! More B5" and I rushed out and bought my copy. What a disappointment! What a travesty! What drivel! The first episode is like a grade 5 production of "The Omen" and the second episode is pointless and trite. The acting is terrible, consisting of vacant stares into space; the script is pedantic and dull; the sets are non-existent (a couple of armchairs, a corridor or two, a blue screen backdrop and a drawing of a large hanger). How could Bruce Boxleitner and the rest demean their talents in this way? The potential is still there. If Warner Brothers is still prepared to finance and distribute further productions, JMS should hire some top-notch writers and a couple of talented directors to come up with a worthy successor to the original series. Tough as it is to face up to, I think that JMS is burnt-out, and he should stick to writing comic books.

If you're a B5 fan, you will really enjoy this! It's obvious that JMS had a budget, but I think he did a great job with it. Lochley's story was really great new territory for the series and brought up some great points about religion in this world and even had a really cool revelation about it. Sheridan's story set up a potentially great new character in Prince Vintari and set up a dilemma for Sheridan that was very well done. It was also cool to see Sheridan and Galen interact. If I had any complaints it was the music. I couldn't believe it was Christopher Franke. I loved the work he did in the B5 series but it just didn't seem as good here. Regardless, it was a great start to what I hope turns into bigger and better future B5 productions!