I rewatched about 5 years ago and it’s just as great as I remembered it. Really thoughtful writing and performances. And old TV series seemed to give everything more time. With 20+ episodes in every season seems like they could let things marinate more. These shorter 8-12 episode seasons make everything feel too condensed to me.
Thats one of the things the SAG strike is angry about. Seasons are too damn short and get cancelled way too early.
Babylon 5 is so great. At the very end, unfortunately, I find it a bit confused. I missed what became of the host in the sealed vessel, for Sheridan’s child. Instead, at some point in an episode before, the evolution of humanity is seen (with the red eyes, downloading data from earth), before the Sun/Earth explodes. That should have been at the end.
This is exciting! I never watched it when it first came out, aside from it being on in the background.
Did they ever settle out the problems between Foundation Imaging and Netter digital so the CGI could be re-rendered?
I wouldn’t mind the space exterior CGI being completely redone from scratch. It’s awful in a way that’s distracting, not charming.
The Star Trek TOS CGI was controversial, mostly because of how few exterior shots are in the show and how the shots are mostly for framing, but it is an illustrative example of restrained CGI that makes itself non-flashy and is non-disruptive to a first time viewer if you aren’t looking for it. Babylon 5 could do with a similar treatment.
For anyone wondering it is no longer ger on HBO as of this year. I found it on tubi
Does anyone want to buy a B5 DVD set? I apparently won’t need it anymore.
Its a collectors item
Maybe someday, but Amazon is still selling them. For less than I paid at the time I believe.
I already have the series on AppleTV, but seriously, if you’re never seen it, do yourself a favor. This is some of the best sci-fi ever made for tv. Also, new animated B5 is coming out soon!
Oooh, didn’t know about an animated one. I’ve always been curious but 110 episodes works out to some 70+ hours of tv which would take me forever to finish.
It is a decent amount of watching, but well worth it. I wasn’t even that into it to begin with. I just started watching because my wife was watching it. Then we ended up watching the whole thing in less than two months because we couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
You see that, CBS? Warner figured out how to remaster and release their serialized '90s science fiction drama set aboard a space station on Blu-Ray. Surely doing the same for your serialized '90s science fiction drama set aboard a space station is not too tall of an order.
With the WGA and SAG strikes shutting down all production of new content, there’s never been a better time to put your editors and vfx artists to work remastering an old classic.
Eh, sorta. It’s possible that the CGI files may have finally been located, but I’m not sure. As far as I know, the Blu-Rays will be 4x3 instead of the originally-intended 16x9 aspect ratio. The show was filmed in 16x9 and J. Michael Stracznski intended to have the CGI re-rendered at some point when it could be done faster and cheaper, but the files were lost before that could be done.
Yeah, the DVDs kinda were widescreen, but that’s because they were cropped from 4x3 to 16x9.
Remastered CGI and 16:9 would be nice, but I’ll be plenty happy with the original 4:3 presentation. Assuming this release is cut from the new masters made for streaming (and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t), it will look pretty damn good.
Later DS9 seasons were also shot for 16:9 with a 4:3 safe zone, but I would still be fine with keeping that whole show 4:3 as well.
The expanded frame wouldn’t add a whole lot to the experience, because they still shot to capture everything in the viewable 4:3 area. I doubt much effort was put into actually composing the shots for widescreen beyond making sure crew and equipment were not visible in frame.
The problem CBS has with DS9 is the extensive use of CGI throughout live action scenes (like Odo shapeshifting). It’s a lot easier to get away with just upscaling old CGI when most of the relevant shots are 100% CGI and don’t need to be composited back in to the original photography.
Amazing news. I will take any excuse to watch B5 again, especially if it’s an improved version!
