The first couple of seasons the FX are not good, but I don't care for that much because the story is so good, except for season 5. 
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
Season 5 is a curate's egg -- some bits are good, some are pretty meh. The show was pretty much derailed from its 5-year plan back in season 4 due to apparent incipient cancellation, and season 5 was left with a lot of superfluous infilling and telemovies of varying quality when it was picked up on another network (TNT?).
I've mention this before - I find the show unwatchable on my 60" 4K TV.
8K TVs are now starting to appear on the market and will be common in a decade and I dread to think what it will look like on that.
I find viewing in an SD-resolution (PAL 625-line) window on my PC preferable.
I'm never going to bother with 8K as I find the difference between 1080p and 2160p marginal to my decrepit eyesight.
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It the colour profile as much as the resolution - I find a lot of stuff such as B5 is both blurry and dark looking.
The colour transfer in the B5 VHSs seemed much better than what ended up on the DVDs. I don't think much money was spent on conversion. I'd prefer a decent 4:3 aspect conversion to match what was originally broadcast than the botched 16:9 conversion that we got.
I’m not certain which version I saw - I suppose there’s no way for me to know unless told.
About the effects - they weren’t amazing, of course, but certainly did their job considering the budget, and I’ve never really been one to care about such things anyhoo. More important is the atmosphere. I enjoyed the pilot - it might help that my favorite Trek show is DS9 (is that a taboo comparison around here?) - and I thought it did a decent job of getting me, a layman, intrigued by the story and world.
The character I found most compelling was quite easily Delenn, but I also enjoyed both Commander Takashima and Dr Kyle - unfortunate, as I know that neither of those two appear again!
I’ll be happy to do proper, brief reviews of each episode as I watch them. Normally with these kinds of things I’m tempted to read up as much as I can and end up spoiling myself, but I’ll try my hardest to preserve my fresh perspective and truly experience each episode as they come. I’m a total newcomer to the series - as such, you may be tempted to reach through the screen and throttle me for my lack of understanding/misunderstanding of certain things at times, but bear with me. More fun that way.
The first version of The Gathering had a pop-rock soundtrack written by Stuart Copeland.
The second version had a more orchestral soundtrack by Chris Franke (of Tangerine Dream fame) in keeping with the remainder of the series.
The credit fonts were also brought into line with the series. However, apart from quite a number of edits for style aesthetics, the story remains basically the same.
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I'm pretty sure it was that second one I saw.
Yeah, in that case, I wouldn't bother to chase down the first version unless you're a completist. I downloaded it from iTunes. However, even the second version is quite distant from the main series in many aspects, such as Delenn's androgynous
which I kind of think they should have kept (probably too expensive to apply to all Minbari depicted) until no longer required.
Whilst it has been a number of years, I'm think CH4 did air some of B5 in 16:9 in the UK
Not back in the 90s though when originally broadcast -- there were no 16:9 broadcasts back then. It was all analog, not digital IIRC.
Analog and digital has nothing to do with aspect ratio. for example you could get films released on VHS that were in 16:9.
Have we not reached the limits of human perception already with 4K? I think 8K would look exactly the same as 4K.
Widescreen VHS was letter-boxed into 525 lines, losing vertical resolution, and was only analogue in commercially available tapes (D-VHS media and players were never widespread enough to make any impact). Digital TV broadcasts in the UK could support both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios in 625 lines but 16:9 didn't really take off until widescreen 720p/1080i vertical resolution TVs became available in the mid 2000s.
I've always preferred Copeland's soundtrack over Franke's. For its flaws and pacing issues, I also prefer the cinematography and costume design in "The Gathering" over the series proper.
The pilot is moodier and atmospheric. The cinematography makes the sets look more interesting and doesn't make them feel cheap as the series lighting did. And the uniforms are a lot less "costume-y" unlike the leather paneled series versions.
Also, Amazon Streaming has the original edit of the pilot whereas iTunes has the special edition edit.
So there are two editions of the original pilot in addition to the TNT version? I didn't know that. I purchased what I thought was the original version from iTunes in the UK. Anyway, I'm not really bothered about chasing down yet another version as I prefer the TNT edit.
ETA: Babylon 5 is not available on Amazon Prime in the UK, even to buy or rent.
There are only two versions:
- The 1993 original edit with Stuart Copeland soundtrack.
- The TNT edit, which is the special edition, when the series moved over to that network.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks.
Indeed. For some reason this ad at the front of a few VHS tapes I owned is stuck very vividly in my memory. It may be because it was the first time I ever saw any footage of Alien (having already seen Aliens & Alien 3.)
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