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Sci-Fi Channel Picks Up Babylon 5
Schemer writes: "The Sci-Fi channel has acquired exclusive rights to all 112 episodes of Babylon 5 (and the 4 movies) from TNT. They plan to start airing the episodes every night at 7:00 pm starting in September."
A couple of points of clarification:
Crusade was about as good, script-wise and plotwise as Season 1 B5. I've noticed that people who watch S1 tend to think it moves really slow and don't really understand the value of it until they see the rest of the series.
The Excalibur wasn't intended to me a small cruiser like the White Star fleet was.
But yeah, TNT did some nasty things to Crusade. Sad to say that JMS was right when he said, "I'd rather stop it now and have it become a legend rather than continue and compromise the integrity of the series, making it a disappointment to the viewers."
Babylon 5 was produced on roughly 10% of the budget that ST:TNG had, per episode.
Given this, they had decent acting, great writing, and pretty damn spectacular CGI. B5 had more original (meaning non-recycled between eps) CGI in one episode (I forget which, but I'm sure the Lurker's Guide has the statistics) than a whole season of TNG.
Add to this that the initial CGI work was done on Video Toasters (and later on less then top-noth graphics worstations), and you've got a totally GEEKY show, made great through effort and perseverence, not a big budget. B5 is a work of art, the ST series are a politically correct marketting franshise.
Just found this on the Lurker's guide:
The B5 effects teams, both at Foundation and at NDI, use Lightwave 3D by NewTek and specialized software to design and render the visual effects. For the pilot, the effects were rendered on a network of Amiga computers; later, Foundation used 12 Pentium PCs and 5 DEC Alpha workstations for 3D rendering and design, and 3 Macintoshes for piecing together on-set computer displays.
Considering that, it's pretty damn good... No?
Also, the graphics were not poor, they were realistic, IMHO. Video of Mir and other orbitting craft look pretty cheesy too, due to the harshness of the light outside the atmosphere.
Maybe what you meant to say was that the effects didn't look like those in big budget productions like Star Trek and SW:TPM?
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
It was "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", and yes, it was good.
Personally, I really liked "Severed Dreams". Delenn's speech was moving to more than the bad guys.
Of course, then there's G'Kar's voiceover at the end of season three in "Z'ha'dum", which I actually had on my desk at work.
And of course, "Confessions and Lamentations" was the most wrenching episode of anything I have ever seen. The feeling in Delenn when the doors opened to show her there with nobody left alive has haunted me ever since.
No other series has ever had a moment burn itself so deeply into my mind as Babylon 5, and that is why it is significant.
The DVD release is in limbo at the moment -- as are, unfortunately, the VHS releases. IIRC, Warner Home Video released all episodes of Seasons 1 and 5, and some of Seasons 2 and 4, before putting the whole thing on hold. I'm not aware of any official word on whether the VHS releases have been halted.
The problems with home video release of B5 are many. TNT pulled its support of the reruns, relegating them to 7:00 AM Saturday mornings, and killed the B5 sequel Crusade. So WHV wasn't getting any marketing support for the videotapes. There was the confusing release order. (I guess TNT encouraged WHV to rush Season 5 out simultaneously with Season 1 in order to get a fast return on their investment -- unlike the previous 4 seasons, TNT footed the bill for and first-ran the fifth season.) And, of course, B5 is essentially a 112-episode serial. Unlike STAR TREK, you can't pick up a random episode.
So now that the general audience had all kinds of reasons NOT to buy B5 videotapes, Warner Home Video was left with the fan market... many of whom had taped the episodes for themselves... and, knowing B5 was filmed widescreen, were waiting for the DVDs...
... but without good video sales, Warner Home Video has no inkling that there's even a market for the DVDs. Classic vicious circle. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath.
I don't think it's entirely fair to claim that Crusade failed because we knew they found a cure. Babylon 5 has never really been about keeping the endings from you... it's how you get there that's more important. We knew from the first episode, ("Midnight on the Firing Line") that G'Kar and Londo were going to kill each other 20 years in the future. We knew Londo would be Emperor of Centauri Prime pretty early on but that didn't make his innevitable journey to the throne any less interesting, (I would argue it made it _more_ interesting). We knew Londo was going to get a keeper. We knew G'Kar was going to lose his eye. We knew the Shadows would come to Centauri Prime. We knew these things were going to happen but we didn't know how or why or the reasons they did. When it comes down to it, Babylon 5 has always been more about the characters and the way the journies they take effect them than the journies and events themselves. So I don't think it's fair to say that Crusade failed because we knew the crew would succeed. Personally I think it failed because it wasn't all that good an idea to begin with, but the Babylon 5 series prejudiced me toward a more political and character driven type of show and Crusade was basically Xena in outer-space.
"Last time we saw you, you looked so much older; Your famous blue raincoat was torn 'round the shoulder..." -------
- Galen alone is a better character than any other sci-fi channel character. Not because technomages are cool, but because he is more than just an SF stereotype. Yes, he's Aragorn and Gandalf. Yes, he's got bits of a lot of archetypes, but he's a living breathing character. Plus, technomages are cool.
- ;-)
9.- The sci-fi channel has some people (at least indirectly) who are familiar with how to integrate good animatronics into a science fiction show, and it would be a cool thing to see some of Straczynski's odder ideas put into play (e.g. the praying-mantis-like character from B5).
8.- The bits of Crusade that TNT didn't f**k with were much more interesting than the bits that they did. This makes me think that a station willing to let Straczynski do his thing will reap the rewards.
7.- There's a ready-made fan-base, as I'm sure the B5 ratings will tell them.
6.- The sci-fi channel has good connections among teleplay-capable SF authors. This means that they can feed Straczynski with good authors and keep him down to those 8-12 per season where he does his best writing (e.g. see the first 2 seasons of B5 vs. the rest; still a lot of good writing, but not as many GOOD EPISODES).
5.- They need a good companion show for Farscape (once they start writing episodes as well as they did at the end of last season, and I'm hoping that they will...)
4.- A 4+ year show that's pretty much guaranteed to have interesting stories for the full run.
3.- Sci-fi could use some good will among fans right about now.
2.- If they don't Joe will go somewhere else, and do something that Sci-Fi will wish they had.
1.Ever since I first saw Lexx, and every time I accidentally catch a little of it by way of the promo spots, I sigh and say "this is what Sci-Fi wanted in stead of Crusade." I can only hope that the move to pick up B5 is a trial before going whole-hog and developing Crusade. Fellow fans, let us hope....
This is the series that got me interested in space-opera again. Something that Star Trek, in its endlessly repititive episodes, fail to deliver. (Dons flame retardent asbestos suit).
Okay, this is just slightly off topic, but I think it's close enough (flame me if I'm wrong and I'll apologize personally).
Babylon 5: Into the Fire was/is a sim based on the StarFury fighter in B5. If you haven't heard about it, it hasn't made it to life yet. It has now been dropped around twice or so, and a last-ditch effort to save it is continuing.
If anyone cares, you can see the current status at FirstOnes.com. If you liked the show, and might like the true inertial space flight sim (you can spin around in mid flight just like in space and the show), support B5:ITF now and we might even be able to convince them to port it to Linux once it's actually revived... again.
(Just thought it would be informative for those who really liked the show and would like to fly a 'Fury. If you don't like this post, please just flame me and let me apologize in person; don't moderate it down.)
As a fan of Babylon 5 from day one, I can say that this is news I've been waiting for a long time to hear. TNT terribly mistreated Babylon 5 after doing so much, producing the final season and four telefilms, then screwing over both Babylon 5 and it's short-lived but promising spinoff Crusade.
/.ers who haven't seen Babylon 5, give it a try. Especially if you like the epic scope of The Lord Of The Rings, you'll find many parallels to Babylon 5. While Babylon 5 doesn't always have the production values of Star Trek, the compelling stories and characters more than make up for it.
For those
Now that it's on at a decent time, give it a try. You could end up as hooked as me and all my friends...
This is the one show that I got hooked on religiously. I have none of the extra paraphenalia nor have I tried to extend its universe. I just found it to be a damn good show, one that was (pardon the fanaticism) extremely well written with intertwining plots and a human race that seemed believable.
This was the first show I saw where I felt the politics were believable. Most of the star treks always felt like they assumed that going into space would unite humanity. Babylon 5 went with the idea that... 'ooo, space' and life moved on. Perhaps it felt believable because that world was as cynical as the one I live in today, but I really got lost in the show when it came on.
Since I know we're all going to start mentioning favorite episodes, let me submit mine. I think it was called "The Deconstruction of a Star" but that doesn't seem right. In any case it right after the new alliance was created and everything seemed alright.. so this one episode sidetracked and stepped ahead into the future at different intervals. I don't remember all of it, but I know it showed the alliance after sheridan's death, a new 1984ish government complete with its brand of newspeak attempting to change history, and even a race of people without technology following a religion that worshipped sheridan and the alliance.
You can bet that 7:00pm is now booked solid from now on for me.