Should Babylon 5 be remastered?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Gotham Central, Nov 21, 2010.

  1. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    You'd practically have to have made the assets necessary to remake all of B5 as CG animation. You'd need pitch-perfect 3D models of the sets and the actors (adjusted episode by episode and shot by shot to match hair, makeup, wardrobe, and aging) to match any shot where a PPG was fired or someone looked out a window.

    At that point, you're starting to get to the point where you're doing a shot-for-shot remake rather than an enhancement of the existing show to bring it up to spec.
     
  2. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think (correct if wrong) that Resonator meant that on the DVDs, live action shots have been sourced from the widescreen set footage, but shots which have added effects have been cropped/stretched from the 4/3 transmission edits, with an off-puttingly noticeable change in quality. Nothing to do with the quality of the effects, just an inconsistency in the quality of the image.
     
  3. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    Which isn't possible as the assets are no longer available. You might as well keep the audio and turn the whole thing into a machinima.
     
  4. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    They used models. They didn't use what was cheap, they used what was good. Considering how bad the VFX of Babylon 5 look compared to - dare I say it - DS9, JMS really went for the truly cheap.
     
  5. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    Totally ignoring all the logical financial, technological and social arguments presented upthread, and delving here into pure fannish dreaming (;)), I like the idea of new CGI for one reason - they can introduce more ship models to better represent the diversity of the setting. There were several scenes of importance over the series where much significance was made of the number of races and nations involved, yet the available models were limited to only a few ship designs. "Over two dozen races", yet what we see is rather limited to "about five of them". Sure, races could share designs, but often the vessels in question (and their technologies) were portrayed as exclusive to their races, even jealously guarded. If they ever did update the effects, they could sprinkle more designs in and truly represent what we're told in dialogue we're seeing (throw in some of the League ship designs from the "Into the Fire" concept art).
     
  6. Solariabsg25

    Solariabsg25 Commodore Commodore

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    Hey, I'd be happy if they just swapped the name-plates of the Roanoke and Agrippa in "Severed Dreams"!

    All joking aside would love to see B5 remastered, but it's probably way too expensive.

    Besides, where does the remastering stop? Land of the Giants? The original V? Seaquest DSV?

    The Last Starfighter....


    I'll just wait 20 years for the remake...
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2011
  7. Tulin

    Tulin Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Finally.

    Another voice of reason.
     
  8. mic of orion

    mic of orion Commander Red Shirt

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    perhaps in 10 years time, don't think it is necessary atm.
     
  9. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    One that always sticks out is during Endgame, when the soldiers aboard the Apollo rush up to destroy the telepath hacking their network. When they fire, the shot drops in quality.
     
  10. FalTorPan

    FalTorPan Vice Admiral Admiral

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    No sci-fi TV show or movie "should" be given more updated visual effects, because it is already a finished product. Having said that, it can be fun to watch an old favorite with new VFX.
     
  11. Bishop76

    Bishop76 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, shit - maybe I do need a roommate ;)

    Babylon 5 had awesome effects in its day and surprise, surprise - 17 years later the effects look dated! They're a product of their time. Would it be neat if they updated them? Well, maybe. But really, if you're watching Babylon 5 for the effects, you're missing the point.
     
  12. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    Like I said when Trek Remastered was being considered - I enjoy seeing new effects in NEW productions, and I enjoy seeing people like us messing around with desktop CGI creating cool new effects of old favorites, I do NOT want to see original shows disfigured with new effects in any official way.

    Alas...
     
  13. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Season One aside, I think the B5 CGI holds up pretty damn well. I still think its gorgeous. All those massive space battles? Hell yeah.
     
  14. Tulin

    Tulin Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah I always noticed that, Candlelight.
     
  15. Capt_Pickirk

    Capt_Pickirk Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Hey, at least the original versions are still available in the best format that they can be.

    *COUGH* Lucas *COUGH* 1993 Laserdisc Transfer *COUGH* GOUT *COUGH* *COUGH*
     
  16. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    The problems is that a new higher resolution media come out (DVD,Blu-ray etc) the quality or lack there of in the original effects will become more and more apparent.
     
  17. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    I just wish we had the 4:3 originals, and not the new, cropped to 16:9 versions that are on DVD (cropped, at least, when it comes to any visual effect shot).
     
  18. Jan

    Jan Commodore Commodore

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    ...is insane. --JMS
    Like he had any choice in the matter:

    Trek budget - approx. 1.4 million per episode.
    B5 budget - approx. 900K per episode.

    It's simple math. Don't think for a moment that B5 would have been renewed if it had gone over budget.

    Jan
     
  19. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    So?
    The older I get the more apparent it becomes too. :)

    If new audiences have problems accepting the way things were when a show was made, that's their problem, not the show's.

    It's the "colorizing Casablanca" discussion.
     
  20. Tulin

    Tulin Vice Admiral Admiral

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