Season 3 DVD Impressions

[Snatcher42]

Well, I've gone through all the S3 extras now. Pretty nice - they seem to have put more effort into the documentary features this time around... especially with that demonstration of applying the Narn makeup to Marshall Teague! Good to see some new faces in the interviews as well, such as Ed Wasser and Jason Carter.

But (and I'm both surprised and sorry to say this), JMS is getting repetitive in his commentaries! They are still nice and informative, but he repeats things from previous season tracks, and he repeats himself just between the two commentaries on this set.

But the real highlight here is the cast commentary on Interludes And Examinations. It's just as laugh-out-loud funny as last season's cast track, plus it's somewhat more informative and balanced. Everyone gets plenty of time to offer insight. And it was great to hear from Mr. Morden too!

Video quality is also slightly improved, as others have noted. These DVD sets are getting better and better. Here's hoping we get two cast commentary tracks for season 4! Just maybe Joe should look at his own quotes on the Lurker's guide to refresh himself before he records his.

 

[PillowRock]

But the real highlight here is the cast commentary on Interludes And Examinations.

I watched / listened to that last night.

They complemented a bunch of their ex-coworkers, but in my opinion the highest praise (in terms of skill or talent) went to Mira. Toward the end of the ep Mira had a single shot while she was delivering a small speech and a few seconds into it one of them commented on how quiet they all tended to get whenever Mira came on and spoke. I think it was Bruce that replied along the lines of "Well, we all want to watch and listen to her."


BB cracked me up during the scene when the dieing Kosh appears to Sheridan in his dream. He started to go on about how he had realized a few days before doing the commentary (presumably while pre-screening the ep to prepare for doing the commentary) that Rance Howard was actually Kosh appearing to Sheridan in that form in his dream. Then he stopped and said something about how the fans would already know that and were probably thinking "Shut up. We've known that for 5 years. Dumb actors." Biggs asked him if he had known that back when he shot the scene, then forgotten and re-figured it out. Bruce said he wasn't sure.

You know, it muct be a lot harder to keep track of how a lot of that stuff fits together when you are shooting everything all out of order and just focusing on the scene that you are playing at the moment.

 

[Fas]

I wonder whatever happened to the two special music tracks by chris franke. *sigh* i was looking forward to those as much as the commentaries.

 

[B5_Obsessed]

Got mine yesterdaty and went through all the special features immediately. It is funny, the difference between the JMS commentaries and the cast commentaries. You go from JMS's scholarly revelations on plot, character, and writing to Bruce Boxleitner saying, "These guys, the Gaim, I call them "hose-noses".

It was hilarious, although sometimes they're all going at once and it's hard to make out. These guys really do get along great. There's the one scene where Delenn walks in and they all start doing Mira accents and saying "A thousand years ago..., Uh oh! Speech coming on!" There was also a group Londo impersonation, and of course, cries of "Flounder!" every time Vir walked on. I really had a great time listening to that one. I'd love to see these nuts do every episode.

Some interesting points: When commenting on the poor souls wearing alien prosthetic makeup, Jerry said that he had been offered a spot on Enterprise as an alien and turned it down, because he "couldn't last three minutes with that stuff on."

Also from Jerry: "Thanks for supporting B5 and you MAY be seeing us soon. How Koshy was that?"

Dovetails nicely with the recent JMS hint of something B5 in the future, no?

I'm gonna have to run out and grab Season 2 now.

 

[Lyta]

Can we please use spoiler space for commentary comments and other special features? I haven't gotten my set yet and would like to watch them spoiler free.

 

[B5_Obsessed]

Sorry, I hadn't thought that anyone would consider comments to be spoilers. Don't worry, though. You'll laugh anyway.

 

[zantarous]

Is anyone having a problem with Severed Dreams? At about the 29 minute mark the dvd seems to send out a autoswitching signal and puts my TV into 14:9 mode. The funny thing is that my TV doesn't do auto switching on NTSC material via component video, it can only do this via PAL. stuff.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Um, mine looks fine. I watched all 22 episodes and the documentaries in 3 days, didn't notice any problem, but I'm feeling kinda woozy

It's a great set. The picture quality is amazing. ::sigh:: I can't wait until the next one


-SnowGlobe

 

[Lyta]

Well, spoiler is probably the wrong word but I was hoping that people would give general impressions about the DVD set and not anything specific about what is said in the commentaries.