Why won't time machine give me access to backups?

My Macbook Pro wasn't working so I took it to an Apple store and they said the file system was corrupted and it needed be reformatted. I had a time machine backup and they said I should restore the files from it but not the complete restore or I would just recreate the problem.

So, my laptop is now up and running and it works again. But I can't get access to my old files. ACK!!!

The time machine backups are stored on an almost brand new "WD My Passport" external drive. I mounted the drive, went to time machine and selected "browse other backup disks". My old backup is there and I can select it. Then I zip into the Star Wars interface and...nothing happens. No backups ever show up as available. It just sits there and nothing happens when I click on the bar to the right or the arrows or any of the windows in the background. Nothing.

I know backups are there on the disk because there is a huge amount of disk space taken up in the partion with this backup and b/c I can "show package contents" in the finder and see gobs of files with in the "bands" folder (with meaningless names like "1a1c"). Also, I think the WD backup drive is fine b/c I can add, delete and access files from a separate (non-backup) partion on the disk. Also, I used disk utility to verify and repair all partions on the disk and they said OK.

I need these files! It's all my pictures, music and lots of important documents. What the heck!?!?!