Babylon 5
- Thread starter AJTaliesen
- Start date
Richard Baker
Sr Member
VUDU also has the series
Yes, I'm watching it on Amazon Prime.
Solo4114
Master Member
For the pure CG shots, yeah, you could update them and make them look good.
For the few composite shots (and there are a decent number that I can think of), it's simply not possible. I mean, you'd be right that you could just take the live action footage and map it into new effects....if the standalone live-action footage still existed.
It doesn't, though, and that's why fully fixing the f/x is basically impossible.
The separate components no longer exist. So, there is no separate live-action shot to map into anything. The only footage of either the CG or the live-action elements for merged shots are the merged shots themselves. And, to make matters worse, those merged shots are all native to TV resolution at the time.
Now, you might -- might -- be able to take the footage that exists and "upscale" it using computer programming to estimate what the details would've looked like, but either that tech doesn't exist, or it's prohibitively expensive for a super-niche property like B5.
All that said...it doesn't really matter. I mean, it stinks that you can't fix the footage, but the story itself holds up regardless. It's truly an amazing story and amazingly well told. It's one of my gold standards for televised storytelling, and a large part of that is due to the fact that one person wrote almost the entire thing -- and happened to write some terrific stuff, at that.
Anyway, enjoy the series! It's truly fantastic.
Oh! Almost forgot. You should probably slot the Thirdspace film into where it fits chronologically. You can look online for how that works.
Riceball
Master Member
The composite shots could be fixed, even without the live action plates. It would just take longer is all, you'd have to rotoscope the actors and any physical set pieces and then you can comp them on to a new backdrop. But, as I said, it would take a good bit of time to do it that way since rotoscoping is still, to the best of my knowledge, done by hand.
B-Movie Zombie
Sr Member
Man, B5 is my favorite sci-fi series. Just wish it was treat more kindly. Plus, I hate how WB jerk around MJS.
Mojo could do it but it ain’t never gonna happen WB told Joe the Series is STILL in the red!
This is from an interview on Syfy a month ago. It sounds like one a-hole executive is holding everything up over hurt feelings.
Any chance of returning to the world of Babylon 5?
I would be very open to that. If the SYFY channel or CW want to revive that one as a series or try to get a feature going, I'd be more than happy to do that.
The problem is that Babylon 5, like Time Trax, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and a couple other series that were launched on the PTEN network back in the '90s, were not part of the usual Warner Bros. structure. Those who normally look after the process of development were not directly involved in it as much as they'd like to have been. Therefore, when that network went down, certain individuals at Warner [Bros.] decided those shows don't exist. And that's why you don't see Time Trax or Kung Fu in syndication.
It took an act of god to get Babylon 5 onto Amazon and other places. And they made it clear we had no plans to do anything with Babylon 5, ever.
Yeah, This show has some of the few moments in TV that have caused me to actually stand up and cheer at my screen! I remember taping all of them on my VCR so that I would not miss a single episode. (There were thunderstorm power outages that caused me to drive to a friends house 4 hours away to watch an episode!) It is a just a perfect combination of great writing, excellent cast and special effects that were pretty great for the time and TV format. Enjoy!
This reminded me that I need to go back and watch it again. It's been a few years since the last time. And maybe get to making that PPG I bought grips for ages ago! The chemistry between G'Kar and Londo will live on forever as one of great character development arcs. Some aspects of it feel 'mid 90s', much like TNG feels 'late 80s' at times, but overall it still holds up.
Last year I got to work (and hang out) with Mira Furlan on a live action set for the game I write for (Payday) where she plays a major character who is basically the opposite of Delenn personality-wise. She's just awesome and we traded cat stories.
Side note: Claudia Christian is occasionally hilarious on social media.
Last year I got to work (and hang out) with Mira Furlan on a live action set for the game I write for (Payday) where she plays a major character who is basically the opposite of Delenn personality-wise. She's just awesome and we traded cat stories.
Side note: Claudia Christian is occasionally hilarious on social media.
That to is another thing the whole PTEN fiasco
It really was amazing the show got the green light as well as finishing.
I remember when I visited the set and thought it was on the Warner bros. Lot.
Boy was I in for a surprise!!
It really was amazing the show got the green light as well as finishing.
I remember when I visited the set and thought it was on the Warner bros. Lot.
Boy was I in for a surprise!!
Besides the lack of the original film elements to work with, besides all the PTEN stuff languishing in eternal limbo, I think the thing I am most irked about is that they cropped the image top and bottom for "widescreen" airing of the extant episodes on TNT and this is the only home-video version out there or that we're likely to get. So for seasons 1-4 we forever have to put up with the tops of people's heads or their chins getting cut off, and a particular thing in one episode getting ruined because it's hard to read the top and bottom lines because the letters have been cut off.
It is, sadly, entirely in keeping with how WB handles... well... everything. Harry Potter? There's enough content that got cut, all the books should have been two films each, based on the UK's rules for child actors. Their inability to understand why Marvel's movies from Iron Man on have been doing so well, going "full retard" with their DCEU films...
...and then throwing their hands up and scrubbing the whole thing five films in. The MCU hadn't even gotten to the first Avengers yet five films in.
So yeah. *sigh* They have this whole series just sitting there when it could be making them money, and they're content to not lift a finger. There are people who would do the work to get it back out there -- restored, even! -- for free, just out of love, and they keep saying no. If JMS had an idea to continue the story of Legend of the Rangers twenty years after the pilot with the same central characters (or at least David Martell), and put up a kickstarter, it'd probably be funded in slightly less time than a kickstarter to continue Firefly. The interest is still out there, but WB refuses to sort out its PTEN books to let people enjoy things.
...and then throwing their hands up and scrubbing the whole thing five films in. The MCU hadn't even gotten to the first Avengers yet five films in.
So yeah. *sigh* They have this whole series just sitting there when it could be making them money, and they're content to not lift a finger. There are people who would do the work to get it back out there -- restored, even! -- for free, just out of love, and they keep saying no. If JMS had an idea to continue the story of Legend of the Rangers twenty years after the pilot with the same central characters (or at least David Martell), and put up a kickstarter, it'd probably be funded in slightly less time than a kickstarter to continue Firefly. The interest is still out there, but WB refuses to sort out its PTEN books to let people enjoy things.
I'm still pissed we don't have B5 computer games! They canceled the Star Fury game and nothing was ever done again. We should have as much merchandising as any other property.
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