Babylon 5: A Call to Arms

Nicely plotted, and working a good transition from B5 to the ill-fated Crusade spin-off not just in narrative but in mood - there's a general shift from politics towards mysticism (also adumbrated in Thirdspace, where the dream sequences were rather more powerful, even if they ultimately had nowhere much to go). This change of mood is underlined by Evan Chen's controversial scoring; personally I like his work for Crusade, but found his dry run here deeply mediocre.

It's a measure of how Bruce Boxleitner's stature as Sheridan has grown over four seasons of B5 that he effortlessly and charismatically takes centre-stage here. Jerry Doyle's Garibaldi is equally assured but doesn't in the end have that much to do. Of the newcomers, Carrie Dobro is probably the only one who can match up to the old timers, though Tony Todd is his usual professional self. Opinion is divided about Galen. Specifically it's divided between me and other sensible people who think Peter Woodward should have been drowned at birth, and people who aren't as sensible as me. To be fair, he's not as dreadful here as in the early episodes of Crusade. Be thankful for small mercies.

"A Call to Arms" is a pretty good movie. Sorry that sounds kind of blah, but it's true. Entertaining, but not epic. Guess I kinda got spoiled on "In the Beginning", a vastly more thought-provoking and involving movie than this. But, I have to agree with a previous reviewer...the music was abysmal. This "The Fifth Element"-esque dribble almost literally caused pain to my ears. The music should complement and enhance the program, not distract from it, as this did. I sincerely hope the upcoming series pays attention to what works: a classical piece of some kind...something kind of dark and gloomy, since, after-all, the premise of the series is the death of mankind, with an uplifting fanfare for victories achieved by the crew. Then again, Hanson vocals would have been better than what was chosen. Change the music, and I'll watch as a devoted fan.

I'd like to see Straczynski remaster this one and have Christopher Frankie redo the music. The music now just seems bland and gives the movie a very dull atmosphere.

Good pilot movie for the following Crusade series but the script left bothersome questions that only heightened my resentment as a viewer against Sheridan's new Alliance which by all rights, Earth should have revolted against. Here, five years after the events of the Bab 5 series, Sheridan is still President as is the Russian lady of Earth. Are there no elections for these presidencies? Not only that, Sheridan is secretly building two massive warships based on Volrlon tech without permission from anyone. Where's the legislature? Is Sheridan an unelected dictator? It's questions like these that have always turned me against Sheriden in the end and forced me to side with Earth.

...within the "modern-day" B5 context (which excludes In the Beginning, a prequel of sorts). Call to Arms leads neatly into the coming Crusade series, we're introduced to some of the important characters of that series (particularly the enigmatic Galen), we meet at least one other character who is played up but ultimately martyred, and unlike its two predecessors, Call to Arms gives us a menace directly out of the B5 "mythos." Boxleitner and Doyle take center stage for the final time. The pieces are in place - now we can look forward to the series itself.