I'm a huge fan of Babylon 5, so how could I resist picking up a full-length B5 movie that I'd missed? Of course, The Legend of the Rangers is a Babylon 5 movie only in the sense that it's set in the same universe as its parent series; otherwise, it's just regular space opera. Still, I thought it would be worth a look. In the end, it's a watchable feature but one that doesn't hope to recapture the magic of the original B5.

With its full title of "The Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight," this 90-minute film is clearly intended as a double-length pilot episode for a new B5 series, taking another shot at keeping the franchise alive after the short run of Crusade, the earlier spin-off. A lot of energy is put into introducing a new cast of characters and giving us quick snapshots of their personalities. We have the charismatic captain, David Martel (who is noticeably taller than all the other crew members), his friend and first officer Dulann, who is a thoughtful and slightly telepathic Minbari, and an assortment of other crew members with the expected variety in ethnic background, gender, and species (this time we get a Narn and a Drazi as well). Of course, this rag-tag misfit crew will go on to do great things, because... well, that's what rag-tag, misfit, rebellious crews do, right? At least in television shows...

The cast of characters leaves no doubt as to the audience demographic the film is aimed at: distinctly younger than the audience for Babylon 5. Some of the actors might actually be over 30 (Look out! They might not be hip any more!) but the overall group feels very 20-something. It's not just in looks, either, but also in behavior: most of the characters tend to react to disappointment or conflict in a very childish way.

The Legend of the Rangers also sets out to introduce a new threat to take the place of the original B5's Shadows. A new race has appeared on the galactic horizon, and it appears to be a potential threat to the new Interstellar Alliance. The Rangers, the elite combat/reconnaissance force of Minbari and humans (and now a few other races) has to step up to the challenge of dealing with this threat. As a result of this choice of focus for the film, we get to see the Rangers from the inside. It's a choice that's calculated to move the show from a single location (the Babylon 5 station) to a roving, Star Trek-like use of multiple locations; it's also a choice that capitalizes on one of the intriguing elements from the original series.

The attempt to recapture Babylon 5's magic is a rather unsuccessful one in this case, though. In order to understand why, you have to understand what made Babylon 5 great in the first place. Was it the setting? No; there have been other shows with equally interesting settings. Was it the characters? No. Was it the great acting performances? No. What it was - what made B5 great - was the narrative. Babylon 5 excelled in having a highly complex story arc that spanned multiple seasons, with well-developed subsidiary story arcs that interacted with each other in surprising and sometimes explosive ways. What will happen next? was the driving question in any B5 episode, and the great answers to that question were what made it so worthwhile. So it's not enough to take the universe of Babylon 5, and some of its characters, to make a new show of equal merit; those were just the trappings. You also need a powerful narrative, and here The Legend of the Rangers doesn't deliver. The one main new story is that of this new and threatening alien race, but that's a well that Babylon 5 has already been to, and with such power that any rehashing of it is going to seem weak and shallow by comparison.

But even with all this going against it, The Legend of the Rangers ends up being a reasonably entertaining short film. Partly that's because it's just fun to see some Babylon 5 material again, but it's mostly because the film is well structured and well paced as an adventure story in its own right. The plot delivers a series of escalating challenges, with each new twist nicely paced so that the film moves forward quickly without feeling rushed. There are also a few genuinely creepy moments woven into the story as well.

The DVD

Video

The Legend of the Rangers is presented in an anamorphically enhanced widescreen transfer, at its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It's nice to see the film in widescreen, but the overall image quality is a bit lackluster. The image tends to be soft, with a really substantial amount of grain in darker scenes.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 sound is satisfactory, though for a film with some good action scenes it would have been nice to have it in full surround. The soundtrack is clean and clear. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are also included.

Extras

There are no special features on this DVD.

Final thoughts

This 2002 television movie, most likely intended to spark a new spin-off series in the Babylon 5 universe, is a watchable space opera, but it's not at all in the league of the original Babylon 5. For fans of the original series, it'll be a decent rental for a moment when you don't have anything else more exciting to watch. Rent it.