Downloaded the mini-movie last night, spent time capping, and then a shitload of time uploading to the scrapbook. I took a lot of caps. For anyone who wants to see them, there are a lot of Teryl Rothery pics in the B5 gallery I created for this direct-to-DVD film. :) She plays Miss Chambers, a reporter for ISN who is on Sheridan's ship to interview him. The "fuzzy" screencaps of her(and Sheridan) are because they're about to enter "quantum space," a step up from hyperspace. And she's never been in quantum space so as Sheridan explains it to her, she sort of freaks. ;)

So. My thoughts on the film. First, a summary. The film is split into two storyline segments and both underlie one overall backdrop plot: the return of President Sheridan to Babylon 5 for the 10th anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance.

The first story is a throwaway as far as I'm concerned. It's Christian-oriented, which pisses me off. While I never minded Brother Theo and the others coming into the 3rd season of Babylon, their belief system was an "addition" to all the others on the station. But in this segment, either JMS got religion or someone in his life did because the story is centered and based on Christian theology as if it were as real as Jeffrey Sinclair becoming Valen. And I'm sorry, but where Christianity is concerned, there's no room for interpretation. You either believe or you don't. Anyway, the short summary is a guy being possessed by a fallen angel and it's Lochley and a Catholic priest who deal with him. From a non-religious point of view, the story is interesting, but because it *is* a religious pov that has a history of fucking shit up, I found the plausibility of it far less likely than the actual existence of Valen. And that's saying something.

The second story was more engrossing and continued the storyline of Sheridan and the Interstellar Alliance. It involved Galen, the technomage, who comes to Sheridan in a dream. He shows him New York 30 years into the future, a city that's been turned to ash because of a surprise attack on Earth. The attacker is the man who ascends the throne of the Centauri Republic after "Emperor" Vir dies. In the present, he's Prince Ventari, 3rd in line to the throne, and Sheridan's ship is on its way to pick him up and escort him to Babylon 5 for the anniversary celebration. Galen tells Sheridan that this will be the time where he could avert this disastrous future by killing the creator, Prince Ventari. And so Sheridan has a moral quandry.

This second story is more in keeping with the nature of Babylon 5 and its stories. It posits a situation that we could all identify with, as B5 had done from the beginning. The first story did not do that. It was The Exorcist meets B5, and the result was unfortunate in that it just did not *fit.* Since the second story fit, it helped make up for the odd start.

The film starts with the voice of G'kar, who is out roaming beyond the rim somewhere(according to Sheridan, who tells Miss Chambers this when she asks). When Sheridan asks Lochley is Stephen(Franklin) will be at the party, she tells him he's joined G'kar. Sad, and apt, since "beyond the rim" is also another B5 expression for leaving this life and both Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs are no longer with us. It was a nice way for JMS to include them, and by extension their characters, in the story.

Overall, I liked this film very much(or I wouldn't have made so many caps). I really liked the character of the Prince. He sounded like someone who would have definitely been related to Londo. ;) And most of all, I loved the character of Galen(and Peter Woodward). I was so pissed when Crusade didn't get the backing it deserved. Seeing him again, along with Sheridan and Lochley, was very nice indeed.