Babylon 5 coming to Amazon Prime Video in June

[JTsyo]

It's been a while. I wonder if the nostalgia can overcome the old special effects.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah, I really don't want to watch that again. Something tells me that the Video Toaster generated 1990's era special effects will not be nearly as cool as I remember them being.

I want to leave my memories of that show unspoiled, thanks

 

[Exterous]

Awesome! I loved that show. I watched it a few years ago and the special effects didn't seem to age that badly

 

[zzuupp]

Awesome! I loved that show. I watched it a few years ago and the special effects didn't seem to age that badly

It helps because they were pretty cheesy, but cool, to begin with.

 

[DaveSimmons]

To anyone that missed this show, the acting in the first season is a bit stiff, but stick with it because it is setting up a well-written 4-year story arc that was planned in advance, not the usual JJ Abrahms / Hollywood making it up as they go.

(Yes I know, originally planned as a 5-year arc, then they were cancelled a year early, then un-cancalled after they'd already finished season 4.)

Straczynski also read real SF books unlike most TV writers -- one of the main inspirations for the ongoing war behind the wars was the millions of years war in E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series.

 

[Thebobo]

Yeah, I really don't want to watch that again. Something tells me that the Video Toaster generated 1990's era special effects will not be nearly as cool as I remember them being.

I want to leave my memories of that show unspoiled, thanks

Huge B5 fan mostly because of the Toaster/lightwave. I use to work Lightwave sure wish I could find my demo reel. But I think they'll hold up. I do remember one show of B5 using a butane soldering iron as a syringe of some sort. Was kind of lame at the time.

 

[Chapbass]

Huge B5 fan. I might give it another go. Seen the whole series four times now, but it doesn't get old. Last time was with the wife, and now she wants to watch it again so she can actually talk to me about episodes without spoilers .

Also, JMS reached out to Amazon via Twitter to see if they'd be up for remastering the originals (which were done on Super 35, roughly 1080p quality so I'm told). I don't know if they've gotten back to him yet, but that would be amazing if it happened.

 

[Chapbass]

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/05/hd-version-of-babylon-5-may-be-possible.html

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Making a 35mm archival print of something terrible in quality is like when some dipshit claims something is HD because they took the SD and copied it onto an HD placeholder. I am surprised, though, that WB asked for the 35mm after the fact instead of upfront. I guess this was a cost saving thing and the belief that no one, absolutely not a single person would ever want to see this show in the 21st century.

 

[Ken g6]

Given a narrow HD copy and a wide screen SD copy, I wonder if it might make sense to fill the edges of the screen with the SD copy? Maybe blurred so it's clear that it's not supposed to be HD there? Like the way vertical video is often shown on TV.

Or would that just be an unnecessary distraction?

 

[Iron Woode]

I have B5 on DVD and they look great on my HTPC. Certainly the special effects could have been better. However, some are far better than others.

 

[Chaotic42]

Such a great show and so sad what happened to Michael O'Hare. I rewatch it every few years. I wonder if they'll reboot Crusade...

 

[Thebobo]

How did they do it with Star Trek. I assume that was filmed in 35 to start with? The current version Amazon prime is HD and they've redone all the effects screens and it looks awesome, nice and crisp. But watch The Next Generation and its all fuzzy and looks like crap. Must of been a lot of work to redo Star Trek.

 

[Chaotic42]

I don't remember where I read it, but my understanding is that the studio cheaped out with B5 and so the source material is just overall crappy. I recall JMS being really mad about it. New renders would be interesting - I wonder if the original creators have any higher detail models of the ships.

 

[DaveSimmons]

How did they do it with Star Trek. I assume that was filmed in 35 to start with? The current version Amazon prime is HD and they've redone all the effects screens and it looks awesome, nice and crisp. But watch The Next Generation and its all fuzzy and looks like crap. Must of been a lot of work to redo Star Trek.

Yes. TOS was on film.

 

[Thebobo]

Given a narrow HD copy and a wide screen SD copy, I wonder if it might make sense to fill the edges of the screen with the SD copy? Maybe blurred so it's clear that it's not supposed to be HD there? Like the way vertical video is often shown on TV.

Or would that just be an unnecessary distraction?

Honestly I would prefer black I find the blurred images espacialy if its moving very distracting.