• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Chicken Dynasty

  • Home
  • Web Series
    • Safety First
    • Scientific Method
    • Redeemers
  • Reviews
  • Blog

Babylon 5 Soundtrack Review

January 18, 2020 1 Comment

This is my first time reviewing music, so I figured I’d start by looking at Babylon 5’s first soundtrack release (okay, technically it’s a score but I feel it’s easier if you just call everything a soundtrack) featuring music composed by Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream fame. This volume features suites from 4 episodes early in the show’s run…

Babylon 5 Soundtrack Cover

The cover art

Chrysalis

4 tracks

There’s a lot of action music here, mixed in with what I’m going to call epiphany music, like someone told you an important secret and you run off to tell all your friends, but then you remembered: “Oh yeah, it was supposed to be a secret.”

The first track ends with Kosh sound effects – the weird, otherworldly noise that plays when he speaks. I imagine it’s what lemurs sound like, but I don’t want to check because there’s a good chance I’m wrong.

The third track has a lot of foreboding, mystic music, like someone’s telling a story about their experience with bed bugs. This one played during most of Delenn’s scenes in the episode, by the way.

Now, we really need to talk about the fourth track. I don’t think this one was actually in Chrysalis (it was Adira’s theme in Born to the Purple), but that’s not a complaint because this is easily one of the best tracks in the entire series. It’s seductive and relaxing, as if a lover (or your cat) got extremely close and started breathing on your face. Soft, rhythmic breaths that calm you and induce a meditative state. You can seriously listen to this one on loop for hours…I speak from personal experience.

Kelsey and Bester

Mind War

2 tracks

From the episode where Walter Koenig and that British lady visit the station to hunt that super telepath. This music sounds suitably mysterious and eerie, like “I’m going to tell you the secrets of the universe” type stuff. Then it builds up to a confrontational theme, like you just poked a bear a bunch of times and it starts chasing you.

Babylon 5 producers

The season 1 cast

Parliament of Dreams

3 tracks

Back to the same flavored action music we heard in the Chrysalis tracks. There’s a good part two minutes into the third track that gives the feeling of being sucked out of an airlock and you’re freely floating in space.

Track 2 is the standout here – a steady bongo beat accompanied by a saxophone. Very unique, as I don’t think anything like this ever pops up in the show again. It also uses a synth woodwind-type instrument that sounds like a person exhaling, similar to what was used in Chrysalis 4 and Tangerine Dreams’ Song of the Whale.

Babylon 5 Station

Geometry of Shadows

3 tracks

Starts off with the season 2 opening then becomes yet another action theme, but this one feels bigger and grander, like it’s a boss fight in a video game. It also has elements of a royal march; this definitely played during the episode’s Technomage scenes.

The third track reuses some of the themes from Mind War, which I think were also used at least a couple more times in later episodes. This is what we hear in the show when the situation looks especially grim and we’re not sure how our heroes are going to survive.

Christopher Franke

The man of the hour

Overall

I love Babylon 5‘s season 1 music in particular because I felt it was when it was at its most “synthiest,” if that makes sense. There is a lot of sameness in some of these tracks, though – especially when it comes to all the action music – but it’s all worth it for Chrysalis 4 alone (and, to some extent, Parliament of Dreams 2).

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Film and Television

Related Posts

  • N'Grath close up
    Character Spotlight: N'Grath
  • Didi Pickles as a Quintesson
    Rugrats Horror Mashups
  • Lyta pointing
    21 Best Random Things About The Gathering
  • Nathan speech
    10 Elections in Sci-Fi Television

Comments

  1. Steve says

    January 21, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    Wonderful comparisons!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe

Sign up to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Connect

Find me on TwitterFind me on YouTubeFind me on RSSFind me on IMDbFind me on Newgrounds

Blog Categories

  • Toys
  • Reviews
  • Projects
  • Film and Television
  • Events
  • Artifacts
  • Announcements

Recent Reviews

  • Money Train

    A transit cop plans to steal from a money train to pay off his gambling debt.

    Share this:

    • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
    • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

    Decade: 1990s Filed Under: Movie Reviews Tagged: Christmas, action, comedy, live action

Featured Episode

  • Sm64 Thumb

    Episode 64: Best Intentions

    Roger gets dragged into a plot to overthrow the Grand Minister of Comedy.

    Share this:

    • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
    • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Connect

Find me on TwitterFind me on YouTubeFind me on RSSFind me on Newgrounds
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2021 Chicken Dynasty | Site Design by Spica Creative

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.