2022/11/25

The River of Souls is the fourth Babylon 5 movie. Like In The Beginning, Thirdspace and A Call to Arms, The River of Souls is a TNT movie. It is set in mid-2263, about 6 months after the end of the 5^th season. The River of Souls is not a favorite movie of mine but I still find it an entertaining piece of television. Two big names as guest stars, Martin Sheen who is the Soul Hunter and Ian McShane as Dr. Robert Bryson. People who’ve watched the John Wick movies, will also see Ian McShane having an important role as Winston. Funny thing is that initially Martin Sheen would play Dr. Robert Bryson but after reading the script, he wanted to play the Soul Hunter!

The movie starts with Dr. Robert Bryson, archeologist who finds the find of a lifetime, immortality. In reality he finds a room filled with souls captured by Soul Hunters at moment of their passing. Bryson’s team isn’t so excited as he is and when they are in danger they flee, leave Bryson. Only Bryson is the only one to escape, he steals a bowl with a billion Ralgan souls. Dr. Bryson comes to Babylon 5 because he has a meeting with Michael Garibaldi because Edgars funded him till now but Garibaldi wants to know what he is funding otherwise the funding will stop. Lochley is just enjoying the quietness on the station, she talks to Lt. Corwin saying that since Sheridan and Garibaldi left, Babylon 5 seemed to attract less chaos. But Corwin came to her saying that Garibaldi had just arrived on the station. At that moment you see a fight starting behind Captain Lochley. A fun scene!

Bryson meets up with Garibaldi and tells Garibaldi that he deals in immortality and that he has found something significant. When Garibaldi wants more information he cannot yet tell. Garibaldi sets an ultimation for the next day. Meanwhile we see a man walking into a brothel where an accident happens with a suit that customers are wearing because these are digital fantasies. The customer complaints with Corwin who takes him to Captain Lochley. He does his story and a very surprised Lochley sends Zack to investigate this. Meanwhile Corwin has a gift for the captain to deal with stress, a love bat! A bat, when you hit yourself with it, it says things like “I love you”. This is also a fun scene, mainly because Corwin thinks he really gives her a nice gift, he himself has used a love bat also. Later on the manager of the brothel sends a lawyer to Lochley to try and intimidate her, which of course doesn’t work.

Meanwhile a Soul Hunter (Martin Sheen) arrives at Babylon 5, he says: something is stolen from us! He knows Bryson is here on Babylon 5 and he wants to talk to him. A stunned Lochley looks at Garibaldi and says: why is it always you! Garibaldi looking at here confused, shrugging! Nice moment! Meanwhile Bryson accidentally releases the souls and while he is asleep, the souls are roaming around on Babylon 5. Half of these souls are mad and seek revenge. They want revenge on the ones who has done this to them. These souls are about to kill the Soul Hunter, but Lochley jumps before the beam and saves the Soul Hunter! The Soul Hunter is confused, never has someone sacrificed him of herself for a Soul Hunter. Lochley almost dies, actually she is dead for a short period of time.

While she is dead she is transported to the planet where the Ralgan souls used to live. In the form of Stephen Franklin, he tells Lochley that the souls weren’t dying…they were evolving! They were about to leave their physical bodies when their souls were taken by the Soul Hunthers. Meanwhile lots of Soul Hunters arrive at Babylon 5, the Soul Hunter on Babylon 5 feels horrible as he learns what Lochley has learned when she was dead for a short time.

The owner of the brothel has also created a hologram of Captain Lochley in a very sexy pink lingerie outfit. The Ralgan souls use this image to subterfuge but when Lochley realizes this, she kills off the large energy beam running through where the brothel is also, the brothel is destroyed because of this but Lochley does save a lot of lives because otherwise the station could have been blown up. Soul Hunter on B5 realizes their mistake and promises the souls to be free, gradually and to prove his sincerity, he offers himself to them, so that he also will be in this big bowl. They accept his sacrifice. The other Souls Hunters acknowledge this promise, Lochley threatens to hunt them down if they don’t. In the final scene the lawyer from the brothel comes by again to try and intimidate Lochley but this time she has been prepared and shows him the door, she does have a gift for the lawyer, the love bat, but she made some alterations….. 😊

Soundtrack, Official Monthly Magazine & Pocket Books:

I have no doubt that every Babylon 5 fan knows that there have been multiple soundtracks on the market for a lot of B5 episodes. Most of them are still available. A number of B5 movies have also been blessed with a soundtrack! In the Beginning, Thirdspace, The River of Souls and The lost Tales. Most of, if not all, are still available although you might have to pay a steep price for it. I hear you thinking: What about A Call to Arms? Well unfortunately (or not), the soundtrack has never been released on CD, as you most likely know is that the music of the following movies In the Beginning, Thirdspace, The River of Souls and The lost Tales was produced by Christopher Franke. For some reason JMS decided with Crusade to change the sound of the show, by producer Evan H. Chen. And because A Call to Arms was more a less a pilot for Crusade, Even H. Chen also produced the music for that movie. Most fans aren’t thrilled with this choice and in my opinion, it is not in the same league as the music produced by Christopher Franke. So perhaps this is one the reason why there never has been a soundtrack released for A Call to Arms.

Back in the good old days, late 90’s, each month we were blessed with a monthly B5 magazine. In relation to these movies, there are some extensive specials of these movies in the B5 magazine, two parts for each movie, (usually) spread out over two issues. Issue 2 (*restart issue) September 1998 – In the Beginning. Issues 4 & 5 October / November 1998 – Thirdspace. Issues 5 & 6 November 1998 / December 1998 – The River of Souls. Issue 6 December 1998 – The Gathering, incl. 2.0 new version.  Issue 8 & 9 February 1999 / March 1999 – A Call To Arms. The specials are very extensive, interesting to revisit this if you have the magazines but haven’t checked them out in a long while. And perhaps for new fans interesting to know that these magazines exist and that there are very interesting movie specials to be read in the old fashioned way! Below you see the front covers of the magazines in question so it is easier to find it.

*The first 9 volumes were released from/for the UK, from July 1998 (Restart Issue #1) they were also released on the North American market, hence restart issue.

If we are talking about soundtracks and monthly magazines, we also have to talk about the Babylon 5 pocket books. There have been lots of B5 pocket books released in the 90’s and early 2000’s. I’ve read a lot of them, probably not all but I’ve read my share. You guessed it, there also have been pocket book releases of the movies, not all the movies but for In The beginning, Thirdspace and A Call to Arms there have been pocket book releases, which I also all read. As far as I know, The River of Souls, although it was probably planned to be released, it actually has never been released, anyway I have never been able to find it. Is there anyone who was able to purchase it? According to the so-called temporary cover it was written by Yvonne Navarro.

Final Word:

The River of Souls is a very decent movie, it is not the best Babylon 5 movie but it is certainly entertaining. As said some great guest spots, a bit of humor and well, another Babylon 5 movie! How many TV shows were able to make a bunch of Telemovies? This is quite unique, okay Star Trek went a little further but still I would be impressed if you can name five TV shows which were able to generate 6 movies (excluding the pilot). Next movie: A Call to Arms.