Babylon 5 The Complete Fourth Season: No Surrender, No Retreat

So there you have it, Babylon 5: The Complete Fourth Season: No Surrender, No Retreat. It was a terrific season as a whole and arguably the best to date. There were so many terrific moments along the way from the G'Kar/ Londo scenes in the first half to critical moments from Ivanova and Sheridan in the second half. Season Two and Season Three had exceptional episodes that rank among my favorites, but Season Four had a consistency to it that felt like a freight train running. Straczynski definitely had his groove on and there was no stopping its energy despite having to take a few shortcuts along the way in the event it might be the last season.

Understandably it also boasted the best special effects for the series to date and some sequences looked stunning for the period. Computer animation had clearly gained a foothold and was less blocky and digitized-looking in this fourth outing when compared to that dodgy Season One.
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The DVD box set has a number of special features. Most notably you will recieve an all-new Introduction by series creator J. Michael Straczynski, Audio Commentary on three episodes plus access data and personnel files as well as the Universe of Babylon 5. There is also a Gag Reel and the No Surrender, No Retreat DVD Suite. The one I enjoyed the most was a featurette called Celestial Sounds. It is a terrific feature focusing on the scoring with composer Christopher Franke. He is indubitably the unsung hero behind the scenes of each episode. His music enhances the performance, the emotions and it does its job because it's simply not obvious and it's not meant to be. You feel a sequence's power because the music complements the drama on screen. Some of the interesting points for me was the fact Babylon 5 included no 'pre-canned' music. Every episode received its own scoring. That's really amazing. Each show included roughly 25 minutes of original music and Franke composed it specifically for each moment along the way. It is an impressive undertaking and a significant milestone in his career to be sure. It's a real nice piece which includes input on Franke's work from writer/ director J. Michael Straczynski, John Copeland and Douglas Netter.

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Having four in the bag it's hard to argue for any one season being stronger than Babylon 5: The Complete Fourth Season: No Surrender, No Retreat. Season Four despite several strong marks from Season Two and Season Three, might be the most consistent in quality. A solid science fiction drama to date.