I love my physical media and me being a Sc-Fi fan has nothing to do with it I can watch my shows anytime without the fear of the streaming service screwing me over
I'm with you there, for sure. I prefer physical media precisely because the availability of shows/movies on streaming services is so unreliable and erratic. I want to watch what I want when I want to watch it.
I love this new channel! I’m a huge B5 fan and I can’t wait to own The Road Home movie. And I’ve pre ordered the blu ray edition of B5! I’m so excited for new fans to come to this franchise! 😊
I both want a reboot and I'm afraid that it will happen. The ideal option for me would be some kind of sequel so that the legacy of the original series is constantly remembered. After all, there's every reason for that - Sheridan was president, Delenn played a crucial role in two wars, Sinclair was Valen, Londo was an emperor (and so was Veer), and GKar is a religious icon. It would be great if the Narn protagonist loved (or disliked) Book of GKar and constantly mentioned it, and the Centauri protagonist swore by Molari's name. My fan soul would be satisfied.
To me I see that the series had an opportunity for a lot of spinoffs in various directions. Not only future but also past. Like the origins of the technomages.
There was a trilogy of novels about the technomages published in 2001. Jeanne Cavelos wrote them, but I understand that JMS had input and the books are pretty much canon. Galen and Elric are both in the stories, and the plots and characters are soooo good. Some of it is a different perspective on plot arcs we've seen in the main series (trying not to give spoilers). I would love to see these stories as animated features! And if you haven't read the books, it would be worth finding old copies to read. 🙂
They are canon, as they're based on JMS' outline. Although out of the three trilogies (Psi Corps, Centauri and Technomages), I find the mages books are the least interesting. The Centauri trilogy is just on a different level.
You can find them digitally scanned as well as scifi nerds are great like that, some of the canon books have gone up in price more than they are worth. I did buy slot of them though lol. My favorite is the technomage trilogy and the prequel , although I think they are all pretty dang good. I have read a lot of great to bad star trek novels and the canon b5 ones mostly fall in the great category. Some of the same authors of those great star trek novels funny enough!
there were other books that got cancelled, probably by that WB executive who did not like B5. I think some were written by Claudia Christian who played Ivanova
I didn't know someone at WB was in the way. I knew something was up, as they made half a BILLION dollars on the DVD's (yes, with a B) on the DVDs. Those DVD season sets were about 100 bucks EACH back in the day 20 years ago, and one came out every 6 months. They literally made 500 million dollars on those DVD sets, but treated the show like garbage at every turn.EDIT TO LEO AND ANY OTHER SKEPTIC: the 500 million number (which is indeed half a billion) comes from JMS himself, and is still archived by google from the old moderated Usenet newsgroup. That is a global number, not a domestic number. How you can think a show that cost 90 million for all five seasons would only sell 5 million dollars in DVD sales boggles the mind. 50,000 sets would only be 1000 PER STATE. Does that sound right in any universe? It is possible you are looking at one SEASON of sales over ONE YEAR, but clearly by 2006 the 500 million number had been passed (granted, including Crusade DVD sales and the movie set as well, globally, AND the fact that each SEASON set was around $100 at the time--DVD prices at the time were not as low as they are now, AND the show was riding a fanbase who was only a couple of years after the first run of the series, and a year or so after the Sci-Fi channel aired the widescreen version, AND the fact that these DVD versions were the best version available anywhere if you wanted to own the show).
No. They didn't sell more than 50,000 sets, selling for $100 each make for $5,000,000 dollars. Yes, 5 million with an m. No idea where you come up with your silly numbers. Had they made that much money on the franchise we would have a real remaster long ago!
@@Leo_prado "The original series was released on DVD in 2003 and 2004 and according to some sources has made over $500 million in worldwide sales for Warner Brothers." JMS from 2006: "The biggest announcement I'll paraphrase: Every 6 months, I get together with WB to discuss what to do something with B5. The DVD sales have raised over 500 million in revenue. Now, I produced B5s 110 episodes at about 90 million dollars. Somehow, B5 is still 50 million in the red. Every time I mention that to WB they say We made a good deal, huh? Anyway, they asked if I wanted to do a feature film but I declined mainly because I can't yet picture structuring a B5 movie as long as [Andreas Katsulas] and [Richard Biggs] insist on staying dead. Maybe in a year or two I'll be able to but right now I can't do something big and those two roles will NOT be recast." ... Do you have the internet? The information is still there. Maybe you were not born back then, but each SEASON was 100 dollars. You had to wait 6 months in between to get it. And the 500 million number is global, not domestic.
The WB has been in the way a long time. They bought the TV rights from JMS and have let it sit in the basement so to speak. They could have done a lot with the franchise but let it linger. JMS owns the movies rights but has never been able to get anything major out. As mentioned he also can't seem to gain full control of any development. I would not want a re boot or re telling of the same story with different actors, I would want a continuation and development of new actors and story lines. Just don't know if modern Hollywood could get anything decent out without an agenda.
I have a problem with Susan ending up with Londo to wait for you know what. Otherwise I got used to the road home being animated after a while. What happened (in RL) to O'Hare was so tragic.
It seems in parallel to this both the Roku Channel and Tubi are dropping B5 this month. No reason why. Maybe WB pulled it back to boost dvd sales, maybe not. But blu ray or digital ownership may be the only way to watch it soon.
They may be trying to boost sales of the Blu Ray set, but I'm sure at some point soon the show will be streaming again. These deals are always for set periods of time, so I'm sure this was just a case of the deal expiring. They may sign a deal with a new streaming service soon, or a deal may already be done and just not announced yet.
What I'm more worried about is that the world has changed so much that the attention span of people has changed too much and it's hard to get new viewers of a major undertaking from the TikTok generation where people gets bored after 4 seconds.
When I first heard the announcement of Babylon 5 being shown in widescreen on the Syfy channel many years ago I was so excited, then I went to get all 5 seasons including the movie collection, and I still enjoy them. I've seen fellow UA-camrs like Tom Smith and CaptRobau who have been working really hard to re-render and remaster the original CGI effects. Using Topaz and other software at their disposal. I know the road home movie was an amazing success, but seeing this Blu-ray release, without actually putting in the work for us fans. Makes me feel disappointed for the company. They'd rather waste money on the DC / Conjoining universes and not giving us what we want. The 4:3 re-release feels like a way out from Warner Bros. Like a "Ok, you got what you wanted. Just leave us alone now." Type feel.
By the way - there are a lot of actors from Babylon 5 that have passed way too early. The ones that struck me hardest was Mira Furlan followed by Stephen Furst. For some reason the other people from the series passing were sad but those two struck hard.
I'd love to see Complete Babylon 5 'Bluray' Series available in Australia 👍🇦🇺. I absolutely love this phenomenal series. I can't find this item on Amazon 🙈
WaTched the movie a couple of days ago and I believe the new series will carry on where it left off. As for the Bluerays for now I’m sticking with the download from Apple.
As soon as the complete serie blu ray set will be available in France, i will buy it straight away, i had the whole serie on VHS and alos watched it on tv :)
A reboot of Babylon 5 is possible. To run through the whole story, including the novels, the comics, the back story mentioned but not show, would be done. Much happens in parallel, there's the complexity of the first version due to actor's unavailability, the changes to the story, the splitting of story between two characters, the replacement of one JS with another JS, the replacement of one planetary archaeologist with another, etc. It could all be done. See how it goes this time...
The key thing that JMS has said is that it will NOT be the same story. It will be a similar story, but significantly different. It's not a remake. It's a reimagining. JMS said his concept for the reboot is, "How would I do it differently today if I were making it for the first time." He wouldn't do it the same way. I'm really interested to see what the differences would be!
I don't mind having the original aspect ratio, but I'd love for the space scenes to be re-done with modern graphics, it's something i always wanted but thought would never actually be done; so if they have remastered this with all new visual effects, that would be a dream come true, because this and SG-1 are my favourite not just si-fi but generally) series of all time, though maybe I'm misunderstanding about the better visuals, and he means they're the same effects but looking a bit better in the other aspect ratio; i still think it would be better to have just re-done the effects, i think the sales and re-selling the that to Tv channels, would have justified the budget.
The CGI has not been re-rendered. That would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and Warners was never going to do that. What they did is FIX the problem the DVD's had. (For the widescreen DVD release for the CG shots they cropped the top and bottom of the frame, then zoomed in on them - essentially making them LOW res. About 360 instead of 480.) So they went back to the original masters with the full 480, stuck with the original 4x3 aspect ratio, and upscaled the effects shots. It's going to look WAY better than the DVD's as a result. The old LaserDiscs of the show looked better in the effects shots because it was 4x3 and hadn't been cropped and zoomed. This will look much better than that. This is by far the best the show has ever looked, and that's great news!
@@Babylon5Alliance It is great news; just having the picture quality better, but i still think re-doing and updating the effects for what many consider the best sci-fi show of all time, would have been worth it, and the revenue from sales to people and Tv channels would have made it worth it i think. Look at the re-doing of the original Star Trek series for example, it's so much better with the,re-done effects.
@@SpartasEdge - It was actually the sales of the TNG Blu Ray sets that ended that path. Notice that Paramount didn't give DS9 the Blu Ray treatment like that? They lost money on the TNG Blu Ray sets, and Star Trek has an audience about twice the size of Babylon 5. There was just no way that Warners was going to risk losing that much money by redoing the effects for 110 episodes plus several movies. I would have loved it, but it was never going to happen.
@@Babylon5Alliance The big difference, is the effects in TNG were already pretty good, so the impact of the new effecs were barely noticeable to most people, while B5 is screaming out for more modern CGI and would makeca much bigger and noticeable impact to it, which would draw in more interests and sales. Also (though i may be wrong), but i don't think they actually put the remastered TNG up for sale as a boxset, which would severely effected sales, if they weren't actually selling it..
@@SpartasEdge - The problem is B5 had just about half the audience Star Trek had. The numbers just aren't there to make those season sets profitable for Warners. Believe me, I'd love to see it, but as B5 had been inactive for 15 years, with only moderate activity for the 10 years before that the audience has shrunk as far as the die hards who would buy these sets. No one loves B5 more than me, and I'd love to see it happen, but I'm not going to blame Warners on this one. They've done us a huge favor by remastering these in HD at all. For almost 15 years it looked like this would never happen, but now it has, and that's a HUGE bonus for us.
Not sure this will be better on BR, because of the quality of the effects & sets, but it's still a very good tv-show, 1 of the best sci-fi things in general. Maybe I'll buy this, when available, and not too expensive, as a fan I'm open to kinda support this, even though I still have the big box from before.
I think WB saw there was a audience for a HD release. When Topaz Video Enhance A.I. came out people started fan HD upscales and Topaz was doing a very good job. But its better now that WB is going because they have the master files.
B5 is my all time favourite SF series - that said, I'm afraid that any modern take would be swamped with "current day" politics. (Especially given Sense 8). I'd be very happy to be proven wrong - but until such a time I will remain skeptical.
Skepticism isn't bad - as long as you've got an open mind and give it a chance. My view is this - we'll always have the original. It will now be on Blu Ray in the best picture quality the show has ever had. It's not going away. I'm VERY curious to see what JMS will do with the overall themes and ideas now. How would he do it differently today? I find that an exciting prospect. I believe he can do a great job with the show. I believe the show will be worthy of the original series. If not? Nothing will ever take away the original. It will always be here for us! No harm, no foul. No risk, no reward. I can do this all day. 😉
I really enjoy Star Wars Rebels rwally part of Star Wars for me. If done well, I hope the B 5 a will be a great way to link the past to the franchise future. I a. Excited 🙂🙂
I am looking forward to the B5 BluRay. My DVD's are destroyed. But kinda underwhelmed by the presentation. I wish we had the option of watching the remaster and the original widescreen release. My understanding is the BluRay is 4:3 ratio with updated graphics. Also wish the packaging didn't seem so generic. It's like WB put in the bare minimum amount of effort. Also, I wish it included the movies. It's not "Complete" without them and Crusade.
Yeah, there isn't a re-rendering of the CGI. Just good upscaling. On the DVD's the CGI literally got DOWNscaled as they cropped those shots and zoomed in, making it very low res. This release will look at TON better than the original DVD releases as a result. I would have preferred 16x9 for the non CG shots and 4x3 for the CG shots (Nolan's Batman films showed you can switch aspect ratios throughout a movie/tv show and make it work). But that was probably asking for too much from Warners at this point. At least we're getting B5 with improved picture quality. That's all I've been asking for (since I knew even that was asking for a lot from Warners for about 15 years).
Ok The Road Home was a bit wonky but there were some good Londo lines that made it worth watching. Its sad he can't do more with the show as the WB owns the rights to the TV show. He can do movies but can't really get much going.
Got all the season boxsets plus the movies plus "The Lost Tales". Not keen on the story of "The Road Home" but it's got to be bought, even if it's just to complete the B5 collection.
Probably would have been worth a shot using AI to expand the 4:3 CGI scenes. I might just end up trying that and then adding the missing parts of 16:9 from the older sources and adding that on the edges.
I don’t expect the reboot to be a play by play copy of what we already have. Im hoping that they follow the Galactica playbook. Preserve the original spirit. Be bold. Make changes. Drop what didn’t work (like flying space boy scouts in BSG!). Execute brilliantly.
Rebooted--- yeah, we all know how well those things work. Tell you what, reboot it using the original script. By original, I mean the one that was intended before it appeared the the series would be cancelled before Season 5 and the Civil War arc had to be rushed to wrap it up. Even then, as was said in the video, there's only one man who could ever play G'kar. If I have to pick a best arc, it would be the one in the start of Season 4 with G'Kar a prisoner.
@@Babylon5Alliance ohh for sure most definitely I still pre ordered but I’ve never owned the DVD sets was looking foward to special features and behind the scenes extras but ohh well
Well, the picture quality on the DVD is absolutely AWFUL in the CG shots because the discs were mastered incorrectly. They cropped the top and bottom of the picture off for the CGI shots and zoomed in on them, making them grainy and blurry. The Blu Ray will have excellent picture quality for all shots, unlike the DVD set, so the advantage is massively improved picture quality. That's a big deal to me.
@@Babylon5Alliance Hmmm... thanks; I thought it was noted that they did NOT change the CG shots on the Blu Ray. I'll think about it. I have noted graininess in my DVD set. However, reviews on Amazon say that the Blu Ray version does not include the episode commentary tracks - that would be a major disappointment. It is also claimed that the Blu Ray, though high definition, is 4:3. I don't mind that so much, but I do want the video improved if I spring for the set, and I don't want to lose things I have on the DVD version.
@Babylon5Alliance 17 hours ago The CGI has not been re-rendered. That would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and Warners was never going to do that. What they did is FIX the problem the DVD's had. (For the widescreen DVD release for the CG shots they cropped the top and bottom of the frame, then zoomed in on them - essentially making them LOW res. About 360 instead of 480.) So they went back to the original masters with the full 480, stuck with the original 4x3 aspect ratio, and upscaled the effects shots. It's going to look WAY better than the DVD's as a result. The old LaserDiscs of the show looked better in the effects shots because it was 4x3 and hadn't been cropped and zoomed. This will look much better than that. This is by far the best the show has ever looked, and that's great news!
Reboots are always going to be bad. There has never been a rebooted series that’s out performed at the original. it would be better if they just told another story with another cast and expand the universe.
I am fine with them not doing MORE Babylon 5 content until this animated film. Content for the sake of content is not good...just look at Star Wars and Marvel. Occasional quality is far better. Also, the 2 movies they did after the show were terrible and was the reason why they stopped making content for it because they had plans to make a series or set of movies set something like 20 years later based on the rangers. Also, I am NOT going to touch the reboot. Hollywood does not know how to not trash existing IPs and I have zero interest in seeing them change existing characters to fit their idea of what "Modern sensibilities" are. Odds are at LEAST one male character will become female, there WILL be a gay/lesbian couple. Someone is going to be Trans, queer and non-binary. There is going to be a white supremacist storyline, most males will become beta, women will know things they shouldnt know and obviously can just do everything because female and that is just the tip of the bullshit that will ruin the story, as they have been doing with everything they have rebooted/remade the last 10 years. No thank you.
You do realize that JMS will be in charge of the reboot, right? He will have 100% control. It will be HIS vision, just like the first time. I trust JMS to come up with something great.
@@Babylon5Alliance You do realize that this means nothing right? I mean, even Spielberg gave in a edited out guns from E.T. in its re-release...no one is immune from being infected by Hollywoods current insanity. B5 was already great, it does not need a reboot or even a REMAKE. I would have been far FAR FAR more open to a REMAKE. Exact. Using modern FX but with the same story. A reboot? Fuck that bullshit, that means changes.
@@thomasjones4570 - So you don't trust JMS. That's fine. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and beliefs. I trust JMS. The Road Home is a good start.
@@Babylon5AllianceSo you want to pretend that JMS is a magical being from another dimension that has some kind of ability to not be under the influence of those paying for his project, producing his project, distributing his project and airing his project that all have DEI departments to enforce their beliefs...only TWO entertainment companies have fired their DEI departments and shut them down and Warner Brothers is not one of them. And again. Reboot, not remake. You dont reboot a thing you plan on sticking to.
Well, clearly you've made up your mind before they've even cast the thing or been picked up for series. That's fine. I'll actually, you know, watch it and judge for myself. How good is the story? How compelling are the characters? How well written is the script? How good are the actors? Those are the questions that are important to me.
I brought the Blu ray 2 weeks, I'm now in my 60's, and to be am a great fan of B5 from the beginning I own all the books,videos,Dvd, tee shirts jumpers, trading cards, figures ext.. But I have to the Blu Ray in my opinion is an abomination This is the first time I feel like I've been violated by a pack of Pak'ma' ra Feel like this is a fleecing operation arranged by Londo Mollari Packaging is atrocious, as is the sleeve art work, and the discs lack of episode details. The seasons are batched together, good, but it was till I got tother end of season 5 I found the pilot. Lack of any special features, really sucks Now we come to the reason for buying the Blu Ray set that's allegedly was remastered It's atrocious, looks like the remastering was done on a Sinclair ZX 80
My entire collection is dvd so gutted this isnt coming out on dvd and just blu ray or 4k The dvd set looks stupid mainly due to fact Babylon 5 doesnt even feature in artwork
Yeah, that was a little surprising, but Blu Ray players are pretty cheap, so you can start collecting Blu Rays for the movies with visuals that are worth seeing in HD. Not the best solution for you, I'm sure, but, still, not necessarily a bad one.
blu ray release 😁 animated film 👎 rebooted series 🤮. every producer/director is either milking the nostalgia train or crapping all over it and I don't want to find out which it will be. no way will I be watching the battlestar gallactica reboot either.
Our analysis and review of the first Babylon 5 episode, Midnight On The Firing Line - ua-cam.com/video/FXBxFquJKPk/v-deo.html
I love my physical media and me being a Sc-Fi fan has nothing to do with it
I can watch my shows anytime without the fear of the streaming service screwing me over
I'm with you there, for sure. I prefer physical media precisely because the availability of shows/movies on streaming services is so unreliable and erratic. I want to watch what I want when I want to watch it.
I have digital copies of all my disks. I don't deal with censoring streaming services.@@Babylon5Alliance
I love this new channel! I’m a huge B5 fan and I can’t wait to own The Road Home movie. And I’ve pre ordered the blu ray edition of B5! I’m so excited for new fans to come to this franchise! 😊
Awesome! Thank you!
I both want a reboot and I'm afraid that it will happen. The ideal option for me would be some kind of sequel so that the legacy of the original series is constantly remembered. After all, there's every reason for that - Sheridan was president, Delenn played a crucial role in two wars, Sinclair was Valen, Londo was an emperor (and so was Veer), and GKar is a religious icon. It would be great if the Narn protagonist loved (or disliked) Book of GKar and constantly mentioned it, and the Centauri protagonist swore by Molari's name. My fan soul would be satisfied.
To me I see that the series had an opportunity for a lot of spinoffs in various directions. Not only future but also past. Like the origins of the technomages.
There was a trilogy of novels about the technomages published in 2001. Jeanne Cavelos wrote them, but I understand that JMS had input and the books are pretty much canon. Galen and Elric are both in the stories, and the plots and characters are soooo good. Some of it is a different perspective on plot arcs we've seen in the main series (trying not to give spoilers). I would love to see these stories as animated features! And if you haven't read the books, it would be worth finding old copies to read. 🙂
They are canon, as they're based on JMS' outline. Although out of the three trilogies (Psi Corps, Centauri and Technomages), I find the mages books are the least interesting. The Centauri trilogy is just on a different level.
Very nice !!! I have always wondered if the use of Elric as a technomage was an homage to Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone by JMS.
You can find them digitally scanned as well as scifi nerds are great like that, some of the canon books have gone up in price more than they are worth.
I did buy slot of them though lol. My favorite is the technomage trilogy and the prequel , although I think they are all pretty dang good. I have read a lot of great to bad star trek novels and the canon b5 ones mostly fall in the great category. Some of the same authors of those great star trek novels funny enough!
there were other books that got cancelled, probably by that WB executive who did not like B5. I think some were written by Claudia Christian who played Ivanova
They are canon, not just pretty much. Lol
Saw the Road Home. It was a great film, and JMS said he was open to more.
Here’s hoping.
It was ok. The ending solution was pretty silly though, kinda ruined it for me.
Will there be a set with "In The Beginning", "Thirdspace", "A Call To Arms", "River of Souls", "Legend of the Rangers" and "Lost Tales"?
I didn't know someone at WB was in the way. I knew something was up, as they made half a BILLION dollars on the DVD's (yes, with a B) on the DVDs. Those DVD season sets were about 100 bucks EACH back in the day 20 years ago, and one came out every 6 months. They literally made 500 million dollars on those DVD sets, but treated the show like garbage at every turn.EDIT TO LEO AND ANY OTHER SKEPTIC: the 500 million number (which is indeed half a billion) comes from JMS himself, and is still archived by google from the old moderated Usenet newsgroup. That is a global number, not a domestic number. How you can think a show that cost 90 million for all five seasons would only sell 5 million dollars in DVD sales boggles the mind. 50,000 sets would only be 1000 PER STATE. Does that sound right in any universe? It is possible you are looking at one SEASON of sales over ONE YEAR, but clearly by 2006 the 500 million number had been passed (granted, including Crusade DVD sales and the movie set as well, globally, AND the fact that each SEASON set was around $100 at the time--DVD prices at the time were not as low as they are now, AND the show was riding a fanbase who was only a couple of years after the first run of the series, and a year or so after the Sci-Fi channel aired the widescreen version, AND the fact that these DVD versions were the best version available anywhere if you wanted to own the show).
No. They didn't sell more than 50,000 sets, selling for $100 each make for $5,000,000 dollars. Yes, 5 million with an m. No idea where you come up with your silly numbers. Had they made that much money on the franchise we would have a real remaster long ago!
@@Leo_prado "The original series was released on DVD in 2003 and 2004 and according to some sources has made over $500 million in worldwide sales for Warner Brothers." JMS from 2006: "The biggest announcement I'll paraphrase: Every 6 months, I get together with WB to discuss what to do something with B5. The DVD sales have raised over 500 million in revenue. Now, I produced B5s 110 episodes at about 90 million dollars. Somehow, B5 is still 50 million in the red. Every time I mention that to WB they say We made a good deal, huh? Anyway, they asked if I wanted to do a feature film but I declined mainly because I can't yet picture structuring a B5 movie as long as [Andreas Katsulas] and [Richard Biggs] insist on staying dead. Maybe in a year or two I'll be able to but right now I can't do something big and those two roles will NOT be recast."
...
Do you have the internet? The information is still there. Maybe you were not born back then, but each SEASON was 100 dollars. You had to wait 6 months in between to get it. And the 500 million number is global, not domestic.
The WB has been in the way a long time. They bought the TV rights from JMS and have let it sit in the basement so to speak. They could have done a lot with the franchise but let it linger. JMS owns the movies rights but has never been able to get anything major out. As mentioned he also can't seem to gain full control of any development. I would not want a re boot or re telling of the same story with different actors, I would want a continuation and development of new actors and story lines. Just don't know if modern Hollywood could get anything decent out without an agenda.
I have a problem with Susan ending up with Londo to wait for you know what. Otherwise I got used to the road home being animated after a while.
What happened (in RL) to O'Hare was so tragic.
That was actually the best part IMO. Londo got the one liners in that made it worth watching. Otherwise it was a bit campy IMO.
Susan and Landon have the same fatalistic view. And you should drink to every event.
It seems in parallel to this both the Roku Channel and Tubi are dropping B5 this month. No reason why. Maybe WB pulled it back to boost dvd sales, maybe not. But blu ray or digital ownership may be the only way to watch it soon.
They may be trying to boost sales of the Blu Ray set, but I'm sure at some point soon the show will be streaming again. These deals are always for set periods of time, so I'm sure this was just a case of the deal expiring. They may sign a deal with a new streaming service soon, or a deal may already be done and just not announced yet.
And it was just announced that B5 will be renewed on the Roku Channel and continuing on Tubi after all. That's good news.
What I'm more worried about is that the world has changed so much that the attention span of people has changed too much and it's hard to get new viewers of a major undertaking from the TikTok generation where people gets bored after 4 seconds.
I bought the complete series ...from China... via Ebay many moons ago. 32 DVDs in English in great shape.
I did as well, and many of the disks were unplayable or out of sequence. I don't even have anything that will play a cd/dvd/br anymore.
Sorry to hear that. I bought a few bootlegs back in the day. They all worked even though some of the menu items were a little confusing.
Can't wait for the release counting the days👍😁
I believe that within 10 years that we will have AI actors and we will be able to generate whole movies with them.
When I first heard the announcement of Babylon 5 being shown in widescreen on the Syfy channel many years ago I was so excited, then I went to get all 5 seasons including the movie collection, and I still enjoy them. I've seen fellow UA-camrs like Tom Smith and CaptRobau who have been working really hard to re-render and remaster the original CGI effects. Using Topaz and other software at their disposal. I know the road home movie was an amazing success, but seeing this Blu-ray release, without actually putting in the work for us fans. Makes me feel disappointed for the company. They'd rather waste money on the DC / Conjoining universes and not giving us what we want. The 4:3 re-release feels like a way out from Warner Bros. Like a "Ok, you got what you wanted. Just leave us alone now." Type feel.
By the way - there are a lot of actors from Babylon 5 that have passed way too early.
The ones that struck me hardest was Mira Furlan followed by Stephen Furst. For some reason the other people from the series passing were sad but those two struck hard.
Been keeping an eye out for these new releases, sadly being in NZ means we probably wont see these come onto store shelves for a while...
I'd love to see Complete Babylon 5 'Bluray' Series available in Australia 👍🇦🇺. I absolutely love this phenomenal series.
I can't find this item on Amazon 🙈
It's available on AppleTV+ in Australia, it's 4:3 and not cropped like the DVDs.
WaTched the movie a couple of days ago and I believe the new series will carry on where it left off. As for the Bluerays for now I’m sticking with the download from Apple.
As soon as the complete serie blu ray set will be available in France, i will buy it straight away, i had the whole serie on VHS and alos watched it on tv :)
A reboot of Babylon 5 is possible.
To run through the whole story, including the novels, the comics, the back story mentioned but not show, would be done.
Much happens in parallel, there's the complexity of the first version due to actor's unavailability, the changes to the story, the splitting of story between two characters, the replacement of one JS with another JS, the replacement of one planetary archaeologist with another, etc.
It could all be done. See how it goes this time...
The key thing that JMS has said is that it will NOT be the same story. It will be a similar story, but significantly different. It's not a remake. It's a reimagining. JMS said his concept for the reboot is, "How would I do it differently today if I were making it for the first time." He wouldn't do it the same way. I'm really interested to see what the differences would be!
I don't mind having the original aspect ratio, but I'd love for the space scenes to be re-done with modern graphics, it's something i always wanted but thought would never actually be done; so if they have remastered this with all new visual effects, that would be a dream come true, because this and SG-1 are my favourite not just si-fi but generally) series of all time, though maybe I'm misunderstanding about the better visuals, and he means they're the same effects but looking a bit better in the other aspect ratio; i still think it would be better to have just re-done the effects, i think the sales and re-selling the that to Tv channels, would have justified the budget.
The CGI has not been re-rendered. That would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and Warners was never going to do that. What they did is FIX the problem the DVD's had. (For the widescreen DVD release for the CG shots they cropped the top and bottom of the frame, then zoomed in on them - essentially making them LOW res. About 360 instead of 480.) So they went back to the original masters with the full 480, stuck with the original 4x3 aspect ratio, and upscaled the effects shots. It's going to look WAY better than the DVD's as a result. The old LaserDiscs of the show looked better in the effects shots because it was 4x3 and hadn't been cropped and zoomed. This will look much better than that. This is by far the best the show has ever looked, and that's great news!
@@Babylon5Alliance It is great news; just having the picture quality better, but i still think re-doing and updating the effects for what many consider the best sci-fi show of all time, would have been worth it, and the revenue from sales to people and Tv channels would have made it worth it i think. Look at the re-doing of the original Star Trek series for example, it's so much better with the,re-done effects.
@@SpartasEdge - It was actually the sales of the TNG Blu Ray sets that ended that path. Notice that Paramount didn't give DS9 the Blu Ray treatment like that? They lost money on the TNG Blu Ray sets, and Star Trek has an audience about twice the size of Babylon 5. There was just no way that Warners was going to risk losing that much money by redoing the effects for 110 episodes plus several movies. I would have loved it, but it was never going to happen.
@@Babylon5Alliance The big difference, is the effects in TNG were already pretty good, so the impact of the new effecs were barely noticeable to most people, while B5 is screaming out for more modern CGI and would makeca much bigger and noticeable impact to it, which would draw in more interests and sales. Also (though i may be wrong), but i don't think they actually put the remastered TNG up for sale as a boxset, which would severely effected sales, if they weren't actually selling it..
@@SpartasEdge - The problem is B5 had just about half the audience Star Trek had. The numbers just aren't there to make those season sets profitable for Warners. Believe me, I'd love to see it, but as B5 had been inactive for 15 years, with only moderate activity for the 10 years before that the audience has shrunk as far as the die hards who would buy these sets. No one loves B5 more than me, and I'd love to see it happen, but I'm not going to blame Warners on this one. They've done us a huge favor by remastering these in HD at all. For almost 15 years it looked like this would never happen, but now it has, and that's a HUGE bonus for us.
Not sure this will be better on BR, because of the quality of the effects & sets, but it's still a very good tv-show, 1 of the best sci-fi things in general.
Maybe I'll buy this, when available, and not too expensive, as a fan I'm open to kinda support this, even though I still have the big box from before.
I think WB saw there was a audience for a HD release. When Topaz Video Enhance A.I. came out people started fan HD upscales and Topaz was doing a very good job. But its better now that WB is going because they have the master files.
Please. I hope for the complete Babylon 5 Series in Blu Ray here in germany the whole time
B5 is my all time favourite SF series - that said, I'm afraid that any modern take would be swamped with "current day" politics. (Especially given Sense 8).
I'd be very happy to be proven wrong - but until such a time I will remain skeptical.
Skepticism isn't bad - as long as you've got an open mind and give it a chance. My view is this - we'll always have the original. It will now be on Blu Ray in the best picture quality the show has ever had. It's not going away. I'm VERY curious to see what JMS will do with the overall themes and ideas now. How would he do it differently today? I find that an exciting prospect. I believe he can do a great job with the show. I believe the show will be worthy of the original series. If not? Nothing will ever take away the original. It will always be here for us! No harm, no foul. No risk, no reward. I can do this all day. 😉
How expensive could re-rendering be, given 30 years of hardware advances?
B5!!
I really enjoy Star Wars Rebels rwally part of Star Wars for me. If done well, I hope the B 5 a will be a great way to link the past to the franchise future. I a. Excited 🙂🙂
I am looking forward to the B5 BluRay. My DVD's are destroyed. But kinda underwhelmed by the presentation. I wish we had the option of watching the remaster and the original widescreen release. My understanding is the BluRay is 4:3 ratio with updated graphics. Also wish the packaging didn't seem so generic. It's like WB put in the bare minimum amount of effort. Also, I wish it included the movies. It's not "Complete" without them and Crusade.
Yeah, there isn't a re-rendering of the CGI. Just good upscaling. On the DVD's the CGI literally got DOWNscaled as they cropped those shots and zoomed in, making it very low res. This release will look at TON better than the original DVD releases as a result. I would have preferred 16x9 for the non CG shots and 4x3 for the CG shots (Nolan's Batman films showed you can switch aspect ratios throughout a movie/tv show and make it work). But that was probably asking for too much from Warners at this point. At least we're getting B5 with improved picture quality. That's all I've been asking for (since I knew even that was asking for a lot from Warners for about 15 years).
The packaging is dreadful, but I bought it because apple TV does not do surround sound for some reason when streaming it.
Ok The Road Home was a bit wonky but there were some good Londo lines that made it worth watching. Its sad he can't do more with the show as the WB owns the rights to the TV show. He can do movies but can't really get much going.
Any good actor can play G'Kar. Just like any good actor can play Kirk, Spock, Othello, Hamlet, etc.
That may be true for Kirk or Henry V but only Zathras can play Zathras. Zathras tried to tell them but nobody listens to Zathras.
Even Zathras is sick of Zathras moaning about Zathras' fate.
Prosthetics? G'Kar played himself!
Finally!!!
Got all the season boxsets plus the movies plus "The Lost Tales". Not keen on the story of "The Road Home" but it's got to be bought, even if it's just to complete the B5 collection.
Fans of B5 got it&get it😶
Also key characters from the original cast have passed away.
Probably would have been worth a shot using AI to expand the 4:3 CGI scenes.
I might just end up trying that and then adding the missing parts of 16:9 from the older sources and adding that on the edges.
I don’t expect the reboot to be a play by play copy of what we already have. Im hoping that they follow the Galactica playbook. Preserve the original spirit. Be bold. Make changes. Drop what didn’t work (like flying space boy scouts in BSG!). Execute brilliantly.
Rebooted--- yeah, we all know how well those things work. Tell you what, reboot it using the original script. By original, I mean the one that was intended before it appeared the the series would be cancelled before Season 5 and the Civil War arc had to be rushed to wrap it up. Even then, as was said in the video, there's only one man who could ever play G'kar. If I have to pick a best arc, it would be the one in the start of Season 4 with G'Kar a prisoner.
Does the Babylon 5 Blu-ray set include all the the movies like third space River of souls?
No. An odd decision, but they were not included. Still, the series is what I'm most concerned about, and this has that in HD. One week away now...
Most likely because of distribution rights. I know JMS owns the movie rights but not sure if WB owns any of the distribution rights to the old movies.
Will the release include special features?
I haven't seen anything on that. It may not, but the improved picture quality will make the Blu Ray set a must have anyway.
@@Babylon5Alliance ohh for sure most definitely I still pre ordered but I’ve never owned the DVD sets was looking foward to special features and behind the scenes extras but ohh well
I own the full DVD set; I'm not sure that there is any advantage in purchasing the Blu Ray version.
Well, the picture quality on the DVD is absolutely AWFUL in the CG shots because the discs were mastered incorrectly. They cropped the top and bottom of the picture off for the CGI shots and zoomed in on them, making them grainy and blurry. The Blu Ray will have excellent picture quality for all shots, unlike the DVD set, so the advantage is massively improved picture quality. That's a big deal to me.
@@Babylon5Alliance Hmmm... thanks; I thought it was noted that they did NOT change the CG shots on the Blu Ray. I'll think about it. I have noted graininess in my DVD set.
However, reviews on Amazon say that the Blu Ray version does not include the episode commentary tracks - that would be a major disappointment. It is also claimed that the Blu Ray, though high definition, is 4:3. I don't mind that so much, but I do want the video improved if I spring for the set, and I don't want to lose things I have on the DVD version.
Did they update the CGI?
@Babylon5Alliance
17 hours ago
The CGI has not been re-rendered. That would have cost tens of millions of dollars, and Warners was never going to do that. What they did is FIX the problem the DVD's had. (For the widescreen DVD release for the CG shots they cropped the top and bottom of the frame, then zoomed in on them - essentially making them LOW res. About 360 instead of 480.) So they went back to the original masters with the full 480, stuck with the original 4x3 aspect ratio, and upscaled the effects shots. It's going to look WAY better than the DVD's as a result. The old LaserDiscs of the show looked better in the effects shots because it was 4x3 and hadn't been cropped and zoomed. This will look much better than that. This is by far the best the show has ever looked, and that's great news!
What about Crusade?
4 gone 🙏
Reboots are always going to be bad. There has never been a rebooted series that’s out performed at the original. it would be better if they just told another story with another cast and expand the universe.
I am fine with them not doing MORE Babylon 5 content until this animated film. Content for the sake of content is not good...just look at Star Wars and Marvel.
Occasional quality is far better. Also, the 2 movies they did after the show were terrible and was the reason why they stopped making content for it because they had plans to make a series or set of movies set something like 20 years later based on the rangers.
Also, I am NOT going to touch the reboot. Hollywood does not know how to not trash existing IPs and I have zero interest in seeing them change existing characters to fit their idea of what "Modern sensibilities" are. Odds are at LEAST one male character will become female, there WILL be a gay/lesbian couple. Someone is going to be Trans, queer and non-binary. There is going to be a white supremacist storyline, most males will become beta, women will know things they shouldnt know and obviously can just do everything because female and that is just the tip of the bullshit that will ruin the story, as they have been doing with everything they have rebooted/remade the last 10 years. No thank you.
You do realize that JMS will be in charge of the reboot, right? He will have 100% control. It will be HIS vision, just like the first time. I trust JMS to come up with something great.
@@Babylon5Alliance You do realize that this means nothing right? I mean, even Spielberg gave in a edited out guns from E.T. in its re-release...no one is immune from being infected by Hollywoods current insanity.
B5 was already great, it does not need a reboot or even a REMAKE. I would have been far FAR FAR more open to a REMAKE. Exact. Using modern FX but with the same story. A reboot? Fuck that bullshit, that means changes.
@@thomasjones4570 - So you don't trust JMS. That's fine. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and beliefs. I trust JMS. The Road Home is a good start.
@@Babylon5AllianceSo you want to pretend that JMS is a magical being from another dimension that has some kind of ability to not be under the influence of those paying for his project, producing his project, distributing his project and airing his project that all have DEI departments to enforce their beliefs...only TWO entertainment companies have fired their DEI departments and shut them down and Warner Brothers is not one of them.
And again. Reboot, not remake. You dont reboot a thing you plan on sticking to.
Well, clearly you've made up your mind before they've even cast the thing or been picked up for series. That's fine. I'll actually, you know, watch it and judge for myself. How good is the story? How compelling are the characters? How well written is the script? How good are the actors? Those are the questions that are important to me.
......B5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💋....
I brought the Blu ray 2 weeks,
I'm now in my 60's, and to be am a great fan of B5 from the beginning
I own all the books,videos,Dvd, tee shirts jumpers, trading cards, figures ext..
But I have to the Blu Ray in my opinion is an abomination
This is the first time I feel like I've been violated by a pack of Pak'ma' ra
Feel like this is a fleecing operation arranged by Londo Mollari
Packaging is atrocious, as is the sleeve art work, and the discs lack of episode details.
The seasons are batched together, good, but it was till I got tother end of season 5 I found the pilot.
Lack of any special features, really sucks
Now we come to the reason for buying the Blu Ray set that's allegedly was remastered
It's atrocious, looks like the remastering was done on a Sinclair ZX 80
My entire collection is dvd so gutted this isnt coming out on dvd and just blu ray or 4k
The dvd set looks stupid mainly due to fact Babylon 5 doesnt even feature in artwork
Yeah, that was a little surprising, but Blu Ray players are pretty cheap, so you can start collecting Blu Rays for the movies with visuals that are worth seeing in HD. Not the best solution for you, I'm sure, but, still, not necessarily a bad one.
Too little, and way to late.
blu ray release 😁 animated film 👎 rebooted series 🤮.
every producer/director is either milking the nostalgia train or crapping all over it and I don't want to find out which it will be.
no way will I be watching the battlestar gallactica reboot either.
to bad its already been done ... HD B5 seasons have been around for years - and BTW the road home sucked
B5 bluray finally---! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🤣