The futuristic drama Babylon 5 has been among the most requested TV series to be released on DVD for years. Warner Brothers Home Video and the series“ creators had made it known during those years that the show was coming eventually, but many issues had to be sorted out first. Apparently those issues are working themselves out because Warner has announced the first volume of the series to hit DVD this December.

Although many questions surround the series and its eventual DVD release, virtually no information is available on the first volume at this point. What is known may be bad news for fans of the series. Despite the continuous episodic nature of the show, Warner has apparently decided to continue its trend of releasing television programs in a “best-of” manner as opposed to releasing all episodes in order. The first volume contains the series” 1993 pilot “The Gathering” and the 1998 television movie “In the Beginning” which chronicles the backstory for the series. Of course since “In the Beginning” was a movie and not part of the series regular run, it is still possible that future volumes will carry the series in order. Questions will likely spring up as to whether the pilot will be the originally aired version or the updated version shown on the TNT network, and what aspect ratio future episodes will be presented in. Unfortunately, none of this information is available at present, but will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

Regardless of the finer details, “Babylon 5: Vol. 1” will come to DVD on December 4th of this year. Suggested retail price is $19.98.