Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)

You can buy the first two movies (In the Beginning, The Gathering) separately, but in order to get all five B5 movies (the first two plus Thirdspace, The River of Souls, and A Call to Arms), you have to buy them in a box set. The first two movies are out of order—they should be In the Beginning and then The Gathering. These movies are GREAT for background information. They really should be watched before watching the series. Thirdspace is a detached from the rest of the movies and series. It comes after the end of the Shadow War (season 4, episode 6), but then there is no mention of it again. If you never saw this movie, you wouldn't miss any continuity. The only thing it clears up is why Lyta Alexander and Zack Allen never got together. The River of Souls occurs in apx. Year 2263 and is less detached because B5 has encountered Soul Hunters before. This just gives more insight to them. It is like an extra episode in Season 5.A Call to Arms (Year 2267) is a prequel to the Crusade series. If you aren't planning to watch the Crusade series, there is no reason to watch this movie. Season 5 should go like this: 1. Season 5 Episode 21 "Objects at Rest" (Year 2262) 2. The River of Souls movie (Year 2263) 3. A Call to Arms and the Crusade Series (Year 2267)—optional. I suggest these be watched separately from B5 series as they really don't enhance or expand on the B5 series. 4. The Lost Tales—Voices in the Dark movie (Year 2271) 5. Season 5 Episode 22 "Sleeping in Light." (Year 2280)6. The Legend of The Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight (after the Year 2280)—optional. Does not add nor detract from the series.

I was very excited to finally watch Thirdspace, but it was something of a letdown. There was plenty of action, great graphics, a few fun, cheesy moments but it was missing that tell-tale OMG moment. The revelation about the Vorlans being responsible for the artifact was a good explanation, but it wasn't what we've come to except from Babylon 5.It was still a good movie, don't get me wrong. The graphics were amazing, and it was nice to go back to the good old days of Season 4. Can't tell you ow excited I was that Claudia Christan was in it. However, there was a slight goof with the summary (I got this from Netflix) it said Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari) was in it, but Vir specifically points out that he wasn't on B5 at the time.It was nice to see some characters who didn't get as much screen time as the others. Vir had some great scenes, as did Lyta Alexander.All in all, I would recommend this movie to any B5 fan out there. :)

Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 have one more thing in common (to add to a large list that detractors of either or both trot out regularly) - they're candidates for having theatrical movies released which are set during the run of the show but made after the runs have finished. This option is favoured because both ended on rather a final note. Thirdspace, though only a TV film, and actually released while B5 was still showing, is the perfect example of why such an idea wouldn't work.The X-Files film was made to fit into a certain point of the show, and as such was perfect. Thirdspace was shown more than a year after the point at which it was set, and so loses a lot of context and leaves you thinking "so what?" If the show's brief cancellation during the 4th season, which required them to brutally truncate the Shadow War in order to fit in a lot of events which would have then appeared in the 5th season, then maybe this story would have been shown in its rightful place, perhaps as a Voyager-style ("Dark Frontier") TV film, much as "A Voice in the Wilderness" was in Season 1.Instead we get another reminder that Claudia Christian was far better than Tracy Scoggins ever was, and just as we were getting used to the latter. William Sanderson's return is wasted, there are too many fistfights, the battle scenes seem cluttered, and Sheridan solves ANOTHER problem with a nuclear weapon.Straczynski, Piller, Berman, et al, take note. Go forward, not back. I've an idea for a DS9 movie if anyone wants to hear it. . .

Holy Lovecraftian influence! Saw this on a b5-movie marathon between 'In the beginning' and 'River of souls', and this got me excited the most. Anyone who reads good ol' H.P. Lovecraft's novels should know why.The story at the beginning is like a sci-fied up of 'Call of Cthulhu', with the addition of all those inevitable B5-elements. However, in the latter part of the movie, the plot entangles to itself badly. Too much happening with so little time, leading to a slightly disappointing end. Oh well. At least it was enjoyable.