Should Babylon 5 be remastered?

[Bishop76]

Tulin wrote:

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Finally.

Another voice of reason.

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.

[Forbin]

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...

[Mr Light]

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.

[Tulin]

Yeah I always noticed that, Candlelight.

[Capt_Pickirk]

Forbin wrote:

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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...

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*

[Marc]

Forbin wrote:

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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...

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.

[Harvey]

Forbin wrote:

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I'll expect current-quality CGI in any NEW B5 productions that may happen, but I'm perfectly happy with the originals as they are.

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).

[Jan]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Considering how bad the VFX of Babylon 5 look compared to - dare I say it - DS9, JMS really went for the truly cheap.

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

[Forbin]

Marc wrote:

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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.

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.

[Tulin]

Younger Poster: "Casa.....What???"

[Forbin]

And while we're colorizing Casablanca, how about replacing that TERRIBLE model shot at the end of the airplane taking off, with some nice modern CGI.

Oh, and, Bogey and Bergman? Really? They're so 1940s. How about digital face replacement with Shaia Lebouefffff (whatever) and Jessica Alba so today's moviegoers can relate?

[Butters]

B5 is my favorite of all time series. The cgi at the time was amazing and attention to physics added an extra dimension. Trek's model ships we're beautifully detailed, but watching B5's graceful motions only served to ridicule TNG with its three-point turns in space, or DS9's use of tractor beams in battles to deflect disruptors. At this point, Trek battles made the Power Rangers seem plausible.

Despite the perfectly adequate special effects, for an upgrade to nuBSG standards and a HD release, I'd sell a kidney to fund a blue ray player!

[Tyson]

Forbin wrote:

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When the show premiered, nobody said "wow, that's bad CGI!" They said "WOW! You can do that with computers!?!? That looks GREAT!"

When I watch a TV show I put my head into the time it was made. B5 is an archeological gem of early TV CGI, and I love every minute of it, no matter how much better CGI has gotten over the intervening years. I'll expect current-quality CGI in any NEW B5 productions that may happen, but I'm perfectly happy with the originals as they are.

This. More and more people these days don't have the brainpower or the patience to appreciate older shows and movies because "da speshul effeckts r LAME!11."

Then again these are usually the same idiots who are blown away by shit like Sanctuary so I don't even know what the fuck anymore.

[Warped9]

Forbin wrote:

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When the show premiered, nobody said "wow, that's bad CGI!" They said "WOW! You can do that with computers!?!? That looks GREAT!"

When I watch a TV show I put my head into the time it was made. B5 is an archeological gem of early TV CGI, and I love every minute of it, no matter how much better CGI has gotten over the intervening years. I'll expect current-quality CGI in any NEW B5 productions that may happen, but I'm perfectly happy with the originals as they are.

[David cgc]

Forbin wrote:

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It's the "colorizing Casablanca" discussion.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't be in favor of it as a pipe dream if the difference in resolution wasn't so damn dramatic between live-action shots with and without visual effects in them. If it were just the space shots that were low-resolution, I don't think I'd consider it such a big deal.

My point is, though, making jokes about "colorizing Casablanca" and replacing the dinky model airplane with some shiny CGI obscures the issue. It's more like proposing to colorize that first version of "The Cage" that kept switching between color and black and white. When Babylon 5 was made, it was by no means intended that the picture should make like the 1950s every time someone fired a gun or looked out a window.

While I, personally, would love the opportunity to give Babylon 5 a new layer of polish, if this actually be came about, I would by no means consider it a waste of time if every effects shot was recreated exactly as it was made in the 1990s, just rendered in high definition.

I've been thinking about doing something like this as an exercise. Maybe I can put together a few images to illustrate the different approaches that could be taken.