Babylon 5 on DVD [NO SPOILERS for Season 5, please]

[Psychic Warrior]

The dating doesn't bother me, at all. I'm more referring to the DVD transfer. Have you seen the DVD compared to the show because I haven't. The net is telling me that the CG stuff actually looks better on a non-HD TV. I should have been more specific. My bad.

I'm counting on it. Too many folks have recommended this show for it to be bad.

Any favorite characters? Without giving away too much that is...

I'm liking Sinclair and Garibaldi the most at the moment. And I can tell that G'Kar and Londo are going to get along swimmingly... mmm.

By Season 2 you should see a big improvement in the DVD transfer. I'm not sure if it traslates well on a HDTV but I know (having seen all the episodes on TV back in the day) that there is a world of difference between TV B5 and DVD 5 after season 1. For better.

Favourite characters for me are G'kar and Londo. They are the first aliens that, to me, feel like aliens. They have their own agendas. They don't really care what Earthlings have to say most of the time. they do what is best for their people. The two are so similar they coudl be brothers. One of the most interesting things I ever heard about G'kar was said by a female friends of mine. She said G'kar always came across as handsome and charismatic - amazing since the fellow who plays him is such an ugly troll!

 

[nharwell]

CG problems on the DVD

The CG was MUCH better in the original show (if you can find someone who recorded it from TV, watch it and compare). The transfer to the DVD is the problem.

Althougth the series was filmed in widescreen format, it was broadcast full-frame (4:3) -- so all the CG was done in the same aspect ratio. When Warner Bros made the DVD transfer, they used the widescreen format -- but re-framed the CG without doing any digital enhancements. The result was very inferior, and unfortunately there are no plans to re-do the first season boxed set (AFAIK). I believe that they corrected these problems in the later boxed sets, but I may be wrong.

 

[Dagger75]

Man when that show came out they were super high tech. Back in 93 we got a Video Toaster for out technology lab for my high school. One of the graphics was a star fury. It would take like 6 hours to render it on the screen with a desktop. It was so cool.

I mean Jurassic Park had just come out with CGI dinosaurs that were the PEAK of CGI effects, now every show can get them it seems.

I liked the stories and have to agree they got better as time went by. My favorite episode though was the season finally for season 4 (I think). And Veer Cotto was one of my favorites.

 

[BastionPress_Creech]

In my opinion, things really start picking up in season two. B5 is one of the best sci-fi series to have aired and really is writing done right. One of the things I have liked most about the series is how JMS laid the groundwork in season one for plots that don't emerge until season four.

My two favorite regular characters are Delen (who really shows her stuff in Severed Dreams and Lenir (what's not to like about him?). For guest stars or ongoing character appearances, it's Bester and Marcus.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

The CG was MUCH better in the original show (if you can find someone who recorded it from TV, watch it and compare). The transfer to the DVD is the problem.

Althougth the series was filmed in widescreen format, it was broadcast full-frame (4:3) -- so all the CG was done in the same aspect ratio. When Warner Bros made the DVD transfer, they used the widescreen format -- but re-framed the CG without doing any digital enhancements. The result was very inferior, and unfortunately there are no plans to re-do the first season boxed set (AFAIK). I believe that they corrected these problems in the later boxed sets, but I may be wrong.

I have season 3 (and have borrowed and/or watched 1,2 & 4) as well as having every esisode on tape and I have to say that the DVd versions are better. Does the CGI hold up to the standards we have today? Not really. But they are more than adequate for the show.

 

[nharwell]

Well, I'm glad to hear the season 3 set is so much better but I'm afraid I have to disagree with you about season 1. Perhaps the tapes you watched were poor quality? Before typing this I just compared 4 or 5 episodes and, even with the superior image quality of DVD, the CG just looks better on my tapes (of course, I have SVHS as well).

 

[LightPhoenix]

My two favorite regular characters are Delen (who really shows her stuff in Severed Dreams and Lenir (what's not to like about him?). For guest stars or ongoing character appearances, it's Bester and Marcus.

Heh, Marcus is great. But I'd lump him in with the regular characters myself.

 

[Shag]

If I remember right B5 season 1 was done with Newtek Lightwave 3.5 on Amiga 3000 computers.

By the time they got to Season 3 they were using Lightwave 5 on IBM workstations.

 

[Eridanis]

An easier question for me may be which characters I don't like, and I still wouldn't have an answer.

Every single major character - and many of the minor characters - will change drastically during the five years of the story. That's part of the charm for many people, I imagine. No one is the same, and some don't even make it alive to the end.

G'Kar may be my favorite. Might be hard to believe in the middle of season 1, but his character will change in ways you can't imagine. Andreas Katsulas (sp?) is a marvelous actor, which improves my memory of him, I'm sure.

 

[wingsandsword]

As has been said, the early seasons of B5 were done on off-the-shelf Amigas & Video Toasters. The show was made on a shoestring budget (especially early on) and CGI was the only way they could even really afford to show anything in space. Those Season 1 effects date back to 1993 as well (which were considered quite good for the time), and it really was the first show to use CGI for all the effects (not because it was trendy, because it was cheap and the could show a lot more space battles with CGI for the same budget as models).

The CGI does get somewhat better later on, as they get more of a budget, and the DVD transfers get better as well. Anyway, the real strength of B5 is not in the special effects, it's in the writing and acting, which is really better than any TV Sci-Fi show in history. Unlike a lot of shows, the characters really change and grow, they aren't afraid to kill off or seriously change main characters, and things aren't all the same at the end of an episode.

To somebody who's watching it for the first time: pay attention to the little things. The show makes a big point out of foreshadowing and setting things up in early seasons which you can go back later and understand what and why things happened.