Babylon 5

[Knight26]

21 hours ago, Dynaman said:

No no, it is pronounced Zathras, hear the difference?

As for the multiverse thing, B5 never really had that (it had time travel but it was a closed loop for the most part) but I will give it a watch.

Dude, that is offensive, it is pronounced Zathras.  You're placing the emphasis wrong.

[Dynaman]

1 hour ago, Knight26 said:

Dude, that is offensive, it is pronounced Zathras.  You're placing the emphasis wrong.

Zathras never get offended, Zathras beast of burden...

[Knight26]

[Dynaman]

I loved that post.

[sh9000]

Official Trailer.

 

[Dynaman]

Have to say that trailer does absolutely zippo for me.  It is B5 so I will still watch it.  I watched Legend of the Rangers and still consider myself a fan so...

[Chronocidal]

Ok, I'm intrigued.  I actually kind of like how the art style is giving me slight Titan A.E. vibes.

I'm also a sucker for time travel/alternate timeline shenaniganry, so I imagine it will be quite fun to try and unscrew the twists and see how it interleaves with the original storyline.  Even if it breaks things, I'm sure I'll enjoy the mental puzzle of working out the details.

[Dobber]

I am so down for this. I adore B5 and love the tiny tweaks to the designs that can be done with animation to the sets an stuff to make them look a bit more…”real”

Chris

[Big s]

7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Ok, I'm intrigued.  I actually kind of like how the art style is giving me slight Titan A.E. vibes.

I'm also a sucker for time travel/alternate timeline shenaniganry, so I imagine it will be quite fun to try and unscrew the twists and see how it interleaves with the original storyline.  Even if it breaks things, I'm sure I'll enjoy the mental puzzle of working out the details.

I liked titan ae, but I feel the exact opposite about time travel/ multiverse shenaniganry. It’s done to death and just seems like a cheap gimmick 

[pengbuzz]

Originally, I had grave reservations about them doing any sort of continuation of B5, let alone animated.

...well, I just got proven wrong.

I actually want to see how they do with this one! If the story is good (and it looks like they're using the same animation studios ala WB's DC Universe), there may be a market for a series of movies after this one!

 

[technoblue]

Hype! I love how the trailer shows scenes that are pulling directly from War Without End. I am very curious to see how this will add to what us longtime fans know, given what was revealed in the B5 films, the Lost Tales, and Crusade.

But getting Sheridan back into his own timeline the first time was quite a big deal. I wonder how they will pull it off now?

Edited June 16, 2023 by technoblue

[mikeszekely]

I never watched Babylon 5, but my it's one of my buddy's all-time favorites.  I guess he's pretty hyped.

Did they ever do a remastered version of B5 with new CGI that doesn't look like PlayStation 1-era cutscenes?

[Big s]

6 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I never watched Babylon 5, but my it's one of my buddy's all-time favorites.  I guess he's pretty hyped.

Did they ever do a remastered version of B5 with new CGI that doesn't look like PlayStation 1-era cutscenes?

No, but even though it bugged me a little back then it probably would seem far worse now

[technoblue]

I’ll admit I was more into DS9 when B5 was originally broadcast. It did take some time for me to warm up to B5’s CGI, but warm up I did. I’m going to say that being raised on low-budget BBC programming helped me pay attention to the story.

For makeup and practical effects, there are some striking differences between the pilot movie (The Gathering), the series episodes, and the later B5 movies if one decides to watch things in order. Like Farscape, things improved as the series continued over the years.

For HD, Babylon 5 is only available on services like iTunes or streaming at the moment. The effects are upscaled, so YMMV on whether that is okay or meh. Sadly, the B5 TV episodes have yet to be remastered or released to physical blu-ray discs. A remastered blu-ray set would be a day-one purchase for me. A set with effects scenes redone like the ST TOS blus would be a dream come true.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

I’ll admit I was more into DS9 when B5 was originally broadcast. It did take some time for me to warm up to B5’s CGI, but warm up I did. I’m going to say that being raised on low-budget BBC programming helped me pay attention to the story.

For makeup and practical effects, there are some striking differences between the pilot movie (The Gathering), the series episodes, and the later B5 movies if one decides to watch things in order. Like Farscape, things improved as the series continued over the years.

For HD, Babylon 5 is only available on services like iTunes or streaming at the moment. The effects are upscaled, so YMMV on whether that is okay or meh. Sadly, the B5 TV episodes have yet to be remastered or released to physical blu-ray discs. A remastered blu-ray set would be a day-one purchase for me. A set with effects scenes redone like the ST TOS blus would be a dream come true.

I honestly didn’t like Ds9 for the story, but the effects looked good for the time. But I felt the opposite with B5. I liked the story more, but the effects were a bit off putting. I do prefer B5 space combat though. Star Trek combat felt dated since it was based on combat from a much older series. The movement of the fighters and designs for the ships looked better as well, just too bad they had that reboot style of animation that didn’t quite fit live action as well.

 I think the overall designs in B5 were the first  sci fi ship and fighter designs that I liked since Battle Star Galactica or Buck Rogers as far as live action shows went.

[technoblue]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

I honestly didn’t like Ds9 for the story, but the effects looked good for the time. But I felt the opposite with B5. I liked the story more, but the effects were a bit off putting. I do prefer B5 space combat though. Star Trek combat felt dated since it was based on combat from a much older series. The movement of the fighters and designs for the ships looked better as well, just too bad they had that reboot style of animation that didn’t quite fit live action as well.

 I think the overall designs in B5 were the first  sci fi ship and fighter designs that I liked since Battle Star Galactica or Buck Rogers as far as live action shows went.

I can understand that criticism of DS9’s story. There were elements of it that had a lot of promise early on but then fell flat in later seasons. The whole thing about the founders being one, but I digress. That’s for a different thread. 

I do find it funny that B5 is part of a short list of shows that play at showing physics in space. I wish more SF series would do this, but I can only assume it increases the effects budget so I’ll take what I can get. The shows I’ve seen that do take advantage have yet to disappoint me, which is nice.

I also agree wholeheartedly about how creative the ship designs are in B5. This all adds variety to the universe and that variety helped the show come alive once I got used to the things that were a bit uncanny in the beginning. But speaking more about the ships themselves—oh yeah—the Starfuries, the White Stars, the different capital ships and the Babylon stations themselves. For me, they are now iconic. 

[mikeszekely]

I'm a Trekkie and DS9 is my favorite, so I'm definitely not the best person to do a DS9/B5 comparison.

[enphily]

the star of my whole collection

[Dobber]

Nice build!

These are my collections stars 😎

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Dobber

[enphily]

1 hour ago, Dobber said:

Nice build!

These are my collections stars 😎

 

 

That's great!

[Dynaman]

The closest we have to updated B5 effects is from the direct to video "The Lost Tales".  In at least one of them there is a very short (30 seconds or so) battle scene and it is great.  Sadly the actual stories are Meh at best.

The FX during the show improved a lot each season.  Watch the first season renders of B5 in the credits versus season 5 to see how much they improved.  Even so the detail would not look good in 4K.

 

[technoblue]

9 hours ago, Dynaman said:

The closest we have to updated B5 effects is from the direct to video "The Lost Tales".  In at least one of them there is a very short (30 seconds or so) battle scene and it is great.  Sadly the actual stories are Meh at best.

The move to TNT sure proved to be a monkey’s paw. Although it literally saved season 5, it also resulted in more drama (all the back and forth around Claudia Christian’s departure), and B5: Crusade didn’t get its chance to percolate since TNT cancelled the sequel series after its first season. 

Alas, until now, The Lost Tales was all we had as an end cap. I’m really hoping The Road Home closes some of the remaining loose threads.

[Dynaman]

Crusade was just catching its stride when it was cancelled.  I would have loved to see more of that.  Hopefully it gets some attention in the animated movie.  If someone from that show was mentioned as being in the movie already I did not notice it.  

[DewPoint]

At least Babylon 5 didn't get messed up in the manner that SeaQuest did.  That one was really upsetting for me.  I totally dropped that show.

[Big s]

16 minutes ago, DewPoint said:

At least Babylon 5 didn't get messed up in the manner that SeaQuest did.  That one was really upsetting for me.  I totally dropped that show.

I forgot about Sea Quest until you mentioned it

[DewPoint]

At least Lois & Clark survived relatively unscathed during that time.

[tekering]

4 hours ago, DewPoint said:

At least Babylon 5 didn't get messed up in the manner that SeaQuest did.

I was a huge sci-fi geek back in the early '90s, and eagerly consumed everything I could get access to, SeaQuest DSV included.  I remember Deep Space 9, Babylon 5, The X-Files, EXO Squad, RoboCop: The Series, even Wild Palms... but all I remember of SeaQuest is the action figures. 😅

Apparently they messed up the show so badly several cast members (including star Roy Scheider) asked to be released from their contracts. 🙄

On 6/18/2023 at 3:06 AM, Big s said:

 I think the overall designs in B5 were the first  sci fi ship and fighter designs that I liked since Battle Star Galactica or Buck Rogers as far as live action shows went.

Funny you should mention those two in particular, since few shows got messed up as badly as their second seasons did...   🤕

[Big s]

30 minutes ago, tekering said:

I was a huge sci-fi geek back in the early '90s, and eagerly consumed everything I could get access to, SeaQuest DSV included.  I remember Deep Space 9, Babylon 5, The X-Files, EXO Squad, RoboCop: The Series, even Wild Palms... but all I remember of SeaQuest is the action figures. 😅

Apparently they messed up the show so badly several cast members (including star Roy Scheider) asked to be released from their contracts. 🙄

Funny you should mention those two in particular, since few shows got messed up as badly as their second seasons did...   🤕

I can watch Buck even when it’s bad, but I just pretend galactica 1980 never happened 

[TangledThorns]

Interesting. This could be good for MAX as they need a good sci-fi series in their streaming line up.

 

Babylon 5 Creator Says a Single Warner Bros. Executive Stopped the Show’s Comeback for Close to 20 Years

 

https://me.ign.com/en/tv-shows/210451/news/babylon-5-creator-says-a-single-warner-bros-executive-stopped-the-shows-comeback-for-close-to-20-yea

[mechaninac]

Sheesh!  When some media executive, or worse - a CEO, gets a bug up their butt regarding some IP/programming (almost always sci-fi or fantasy show), he/she becomes the worst enemy of good worthwhile entertainment... CBS' Les Moonvez ignominiously cancelling Enterprise when it had finally found its legs, Amazon's Jennifer Salke vehemently passing on Conan The Barbarian because of... reasons, etc.

[sh9000]

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=32939

The Complete Series is coming to blu-ray.

[Keith]

On 6/15/2023 at 4:16 PM, sh9000 said:

Official Trailer.

 

Just watched this & really enjoyed it. For some reason I thought Peter Jurasik was dead, and was super impressed with who they got to play Mollari until finally realizing it was Peter Jurasik (he really nails himself!). Aside from that, the story was fun, whoever they got to play Garabaldi was amazing, Phil Lamar was Dr Franklin' almost as amazing, theor Sinclair was pretty damn good, and their Jakar was....there.

[Thom]

On 6/19/2023 at 4:32 AM, tekering said:

I was a huge sci-fi geek back in the early '90s, and eagerly consumed everything I could get access to, SeaQuest DSV included.  I remember Deep Space 9, Babylon 5, The X-Files, EXO Squad, RoboCop: The Series, even Wild Palms... but all I remember of SeaQuest is the action figures. 😅

Apparently they messed up the show so badly several cast members (including star Roy Scheider) asked to be released from their contracts. 🙄

Funny you should mention those two in particular, since few shows got messed up as badly as their second seasons did...   🤕

 

Sequest DSV had a really good first season. That's when all the promise of hope was there for a good sci fi drama, before they decided that tank tops were in for most of the women on the cast, they needed a teen hearthrob on the show (which did not end well for that poor kid...) and they wanted to copy every single sci fi gimmick there ever was, rather than just sticking with what worked. Not surprised Scheider wanted out after all that.

 

On 7/20/2023 at 8:18 AM, TangledThorns said:

Interesting. This could be good for MAX as they need a good sci-fi series in their streaming line up.

 

Babylon 5 Creator Says a Single Warner Bros. Executive Stopped the Show’s Comeback for Close to 20 Years

 

https://me.ign.com/en/tv-shows/210451/news/babylon-5-creator-says-a-single-warner-bros-executive-stopped-the-shows-comeback-for-close-to-20-yea

Too bad they had to wait for this guy to retire rather then being able to side-line or force him out.

But as Straczynski stated, 'the speed bumps they've gone over are the speed bumps they've gone over.' For the most part, I liked Babylon 5. Sure it got super hokey at times, but it was a good story an well worth a renaissance.

[Dynaman]

10 hours ago, Thom said:

For the most part, I liked Babylon 5. Sure it got super hokey at times, but it was a good story an well worth a renaissance.

Yup, most of the interrogation episodes were hokey as heck, but the one with Sheridan was genius.  It showed actual mind games an interrogation would actually try. 

[Dobber]

Watched the Long Road home. Not bad but not ground breaking or anything. I did like a lot of the design updates. The Whitestar in particular makes a LOT more sense. The Shadow ships are….alright but I prefer the original Battlecrab design. The StarFury’s are perfection and weren’t muddled with. In a way, the way the show ended, they sort of set up a reboot new series. I’m curious if that was the plan originally before WB cancelled the reboot…again. 
 

Chris