I was there, when Babylon 5 first came to streaming. I was there, when Babylon 5 was remastered. I was there for all five seasons of the station that wraps humans and aliens in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night.
I was there at the dawn of the new age, traveling The Road Home.
Spoilers ahead, though I’ll try to keep them light.
Let’s get the celebrations out of the way. After 16 long, long years, The Road Home marks the first new filmed Babylon 5 project, and possibly first new project in general, since 2007’s The Lost Tales. That it’s got as many members of the surviving cast as it does, and is written once again by JMS, is truly a joy. That it is as successful as a direct to blu-ray/DVD/digital as it is makes me hope we will get more projects like this one, once the WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved to the benefit of their members (and yes. I know that animation is different.)
Oh. Did I bury that lead? Yes. The Road Home is ALSO the first fully animated Babylon 5 anything and JMS’s first return to animation writing since his stints on The Real Ghostbusters and the original He-Man/She-Ra. Gosh. This is a milestone of a film for a million different reasons, isn’t it?
I admit I’m stalling a little talking about the film itself. It’s hard to know exactly where to start and how to separate the excitement I feel for its existence from the movie itself. It’d be easy, as a B5 fan, to be overly critical of the film for its perceived differences while being overly forgiving because of its fan service elements. I’ll admit, I’m pretty favorable towards the film in part because I get to hear everyone’s voices and see many of the characters we never thought we’d see again. Still, I still think the film works separated from its meta-nostalgic elements.
Set during and between “Objects at Rest” and “Sleeping in Light,” the final two episodes of Season 5, The Road Home is a Sheridan focused affair, as he finds himself falling through time and lost in [REDACTED TRADEMARK.] Both a trip through the show’s history, it’s also an exploration of a number of what ifs and elseworlds as Sheridan tries to find his way home and figure out what’s keeping him from finding it.
The best parts of The Road Home are when we slow down and work on the film’s central theme of the power of love through quiet conversation. I particularly loved the scene of Sheridan talking to his dad next to the cornfield. It’s sappy, yeah, but so was the original series. JMS knows you need a little sappy to make the serious work. Sadly there’s not as much of that as you would think.
The Road Home is an action heavy film. Internally, this is because The Shadow War looms so large in Sheridan’s mind. Externally, there are a couple potential factors at play. One is the animation style not being suited for the subtle, low-energy, lengthy conversations and diplomacy that made up my favorite parts of the original show but does allow for more cohesive and impressive action set-pieces. The other is the film needing to be streamlined to fit its slight run time (79 minutes, or an hour and 19 minutes.) I’m actually glad it has this runtime. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, even if it isn’t able to slow down as much as I’d like.
Now for the part that I think is the most divisive: the animation. I’m happy that the film is animated. As I said, the animators could go to town on the action scenes and update the models for everything so they looked cohesive and “real” next to the now-animated characters. There are still some backgrounds that look dropped in, though it felt intentional from the way they were shot, likely as a nod to the original show’s pioneering CGI usage.
It also allowed the original cast to come back and not have to be slathered in prosthetics and de-aging CGI while also minimizing the dissonance between the old cast and the new. I know I’d have felt extra weird both seeing AND hearing a Dr. Franklin that’s not Richard Biggs next to Bruce Boxleitner. JMS also knows, as acknowledged in the blu-ray featurette “Babylon 5 Forever,” what can or cannot work in animation as well as how to pace it out.
Continued belowHowever, Warner Bros.’s direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray animation style is not something I actively enjoy, neither in 2D or 3D. Never really have. It’s too clean, too angular. Part of my issue here is the stiffness. The greatest strength of Babylon 5 was its actors’ range of facial expression. In The Road Home, those are significantly muted, creating a mismatch between the tenor of the voice acting – which is all excellent – and the severity, or subtlety, of the faces.
That’s not to knock the animation team. They did an admirable job of capturing both likenesses and mannerisms. It is a little uncanny, though it’s to be expected when moving from live-action to simplified designs. Practicalities, like ease of animation, often have to win out. It’s just something to know going in. My only real gripe is that Lockley & Ivanova looked very similar on screen. I think they didn’t make Lockley grizzled enough.
As for the voice actors, the other contentious part, I was over-the-moon. The returning cast didn’t have any issue with moving from live-action to voice acting, something that’s not common at all in Hollywood, and while it was clear the years had passed on many of their voices, the spark was still there. I did notice Peter Jurasik was out of practice as his rolled-Rs slipped a little but who cares? It’s Londo!
The stand out, and the one with the most lines, was Bruce Boxleitner as Sheridan. He genuinely did not miss a beat and kept the whole project centered. I think this helped smooth out the presence of the new cast for the older characters: Sinclair, Zathras (Paul Guyet,) Garibaldi (Anthony Hansen,) Stephen (Phil LaMarr,) G’Kar (Andrew Morgado,) and Delenn. Of the bunch, Phil LaMarr as Stephen was by far and away the most natural. If you had told me Richard Biggs’ ghost had come back and possessed the recording equipment, I would’ve agreed.
Everyone else did a great job as well, channeling the original performances but not trying to be perfect sound alikes. The two who seemed to struggle the most were Guyet as Zathras and Morgado as G’Kar, both taking over roles with such distinct presences that it’s impossible not to compare the original to the new. It’s honestly true for the whole main cast but Zathras & G’Kar stand out even among them all.
Zathras took a little to get into but I got there by the end. G’Kar, on the other hand, was a little too serious and stoic. I think Morgado captured early G’Kar well but was unable to fully infuse the performance with his levity, his light pettiness, and the playfulness that comes out in later seasons. To be fair, the G’Kars we see ARE more like early series G’Kar. I have no doubt that given more opportunities, we will get a complimentary performance that blooms and blossoms just as Katsulas’ did.
Oh. And I should also mention, since it’s a fun fact. David Sheridan, John’s dad, was originally played by Rance Howard, father to filmmaker Ron Howard. He sadly passed in 2017 and was played here by Piotr Michael.
Last casting note, Piotr Michael voiced Marcus Cole for the one scene he was in despite his original actor, Jason Carter, still being alive. It seems like he was unable to make it to a recording session and since he was not a large part of the film, they had someone fill in for him.
Moving back to the film as a whole, The Road Home is a success in that it is not, as it may at first appear, a nostalgia vehicle. While it does have many moments of fan service – Zathras! Sinclair! The BOOM timeline! – they’re all woven into the narrative via the pre-established conditions of the series and made accessible to new viewers through added context long-time fans don’t need.
For example, the film opens on a reanimation of Sheridan’s departure from Babylon 5 with an additional narration overhead from ISN filling in the important beats of backstory that will be used within the film. Later on, we get another flashback to Sheridan’s time with Zathras and his time stabilizer getting destroyed. I picked up on what was going on right from the start but those who haven’t watched the show in forever or newcomers need that bit of context to provide an internal framework for what was happening and why. Otherwise it’s hand-wavy storytelling and that’s not good.
This did lead to a couple moments where I think the film over-explained or simplified itself but that’s to be expected. It’s also interesting that the film is a successor to “War Without End, Part 1 & 2” in terms of structure, tone, and progression. That’s such a brilliant way to anchor the film in the original series metatextuality as well as textually.
As a whole, I really liked The Road Home. It’s a solid film for newcomers and old fans alike. It didn’t blow me out of my seat but neither was I offended by its changes and in fact, I welcomed them. It was a celebration of the show, and a continuation, something that time and dimensional travel-based plots tend to do. And if the ending is any indication, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to revisit this universe with fresh eyes and fresh adventures.
