Finally: Babylon 5 REMASTERED and Available for Streaming

Umbran · Feb 22, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
Andromeda had a great concept.* The first season was pretty good! After that, it was diminishing returns, and it really fell off the cliff in the final season.

Concept was Roddenberry's strength, after all.

Sorbo, unfortunately, ruined it. Not with his acting - in his producer role. Robert Hewitt Wolfe was co-exec producer and showrunner for the first season. Sorbo didn't like the direction they were going (which, by report, was that the show didn't center so much on his character and have everyone bow to his awesomeness). As Sorbo took on exec producing, Wolfe left. One can see the changeover in the second season when they ran out of Wolfe's scripts, the quality drops like a rock.

It is interesting to watch Star Trek: Discovery take up the general concept and run with it in the most recent season.

payn · Feb 22, 2021

Been watching on HBO Max. Man, that pilot was rough...

Vael · Feb 22, 2021

I quite liked Earth: Final Conflict, but it was uneven at best. Couldn't get past the Sorbo-ness of Andromeda, it's quite tolerable when he's not on screen.

But back to Babylon 5, one of my all-time favourite genre series. This show, together with Buffy and Star Trek, are kinda my holy Trinity of TV in the 90s. The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 was one of the first webpages I ever viewed. I was in the midst of a rewatch of my DVDs. Still hoping for it to come to streaming in Canada.

Ryujin · Feb 22, 2021

While Straczynski has publicly said that there would never be a B5 remake I wonder if he feels the same way about the spin-off, Crusade? It never really got its legs under it, before being axed.

Umbran · Feb 22, 2021

Ryujin said:
While Straczynski has publicly said that there would never be a B5 remake I wonder if he feels the same way about the spin-off, Crusade? It never really got its legs under it, before being axed.

JMS is not much for going back over stuff he's already done. That way lies madness of seeking perfection.

But, the biggest reason where will be no remake is studio-politics. JMS doesn't have the rights for the TV series, just over movies in the universe. And there's some executive in the background that never liked B5, and never wanted it done in the first place, and has done whatever is in their power to keep the lid on that property. I am, honestly, surprised to see it made it to HBO Max. Happy, but surprised.

You won't see any other B5 material until that person leaves the studio, or dies, and maybe not even then.

MarkB · Feb 22, 2021

The show's available to buy on Amazon UK, but I can't tell if it's the remastered version. The reviews are ambiguous, but some of them date back a few years, so probably not.

GreyLord · Feb 22, 2021

Will it be released on blu-ray sometime?

Zardnaar · Feb 24, 2021

Not often a show hits me in an emotional level but Sheridan's fate kicked me in the love spuds.

Did a rewatch few months ago on Amazon iirc. Still great looks bad though but doesn't matter to much.

Snarf Zagyg · Feb 24, 2021

Zardnaar said:
Did a rewatch few months ago on Amazon iirc. Still great looks bad though but doesn't matter to much.

That's the point of this remaster- doesn't look so bad. Well, I mean, there's the whole thing with the budget; not even a remaster fixes that. But it looks pretty pretty pretty good.

Umbran · Feb 24, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
Well, I mean, there's the whole thing with the budget; not even a remaster fixes that. But it looks pretty pretty pretty good.

Yes, B5 wasn't a comparatively big-budget operation. IIRC, B5 had about $800K per episode, while ST

S9 had about $1.6 million.

That being said, some of you folks are snobs.

Finally: Babylon 5 REMASTERED and Available for Streaming

Umbran

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payn

He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...

Vael

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Ryujin

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Umbran

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MarkB

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GreyLord

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Zardnaar

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Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist

Umbran

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