Me too. Possibly on the first broadcast of the pilot - which, IIRC also had the original musical score before Franke was asked to redo it?
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
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Fairly certain I saw that version too (and that was a vhs hire).
Well, unless our memories are playing tricks on us (I'm certainly not ruling out senility on my part) that would mean there were *three* released versions of the pilot, because I have two of them on DVD; one with the weird electric guitar music, all gen-1 CG, gorilla bartender, but still with Mira's natural voice. The other being the one re-released along with the TNT movies with some of the less crude establishing shots from later seasons edited in, some of the more "gorillay" scenes edited out, and with Franke's music.
I suppose it's possible the version released to the rental market mistakenly contained the distorted voice, or the removal of the voice distortion was made after the initial release, or maybe what we're actually remembering is seeing some "making of" piece on TV way back when. Memory can be tricky like that, especially when you only see a thing just the one time.
Incidentally, both of those DVDs have *exactly* the same cover and disc art, and I mean down to the barcode! Only way to tell them apart is to play them. Even the menus and chapter thumbnails are identical!
ETA: a few googles later and I'm unable to confirm or deny this, I did come across some circumstantial evidence that there was a difference between the "original cut" DVD and the actual original rental VHS release. If you look on the cassette sleeve here (which does seem familiar and is likely the one I rented), it's lists the run time as '89 mins' where as the DVDs (both of them, which is where it gets very muddy) say '91 mins'. And just to make it more complicated, IMDB lists the original cut as being '89 mins' just like the VHS says, but the "Special Edition" edit at '94 mins'.
This could prove us right as three different run times seems to imply three cuts (though what else might have changed besides Delenn's voice to alter the length by an extra 120 seconds, I have no clue.)
Or perhaps WB home video is just rubbish and rife with mislabelling releases...which it kinda notoriously is.
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You just know that now you're tempting me to pull out my B5 dvd's don't you?
I don't think I have the purchased vhs versions anymore (and our vcr's are dodgy at the moment) but the dvd version of The Gathering I have doesn't mention the composer on the case.
I'll have to replay that to see at some point.
I don't think I have the purchased vhs versions anymore (and our vcr's are dodgy at the moment) but the dvd version of The Gathering I have doesn't mention the composer on the case.
I'll have to replay that to see at some point.
So last night (April 1, 2020) I was watching the episode, Severed Dreams. And it’s funny, since it was the 24th Anniversary of the episodes first broadcast on April 1, 1996! Such a nice anniversary! My birthday and the CLIMAX episode of the whole Babylon 5 narrative arc!
This is the episode that the narrative src of the series was building up to. Sheridan declares Babylon 5 as an independent nation, the B5 crew goes from defense to offends, and the Shadows/Earth Civil War arc begin to seperate even further.
This is the episode that the narrative src of the series was building up to. Sheridan declares Babylon 5 as an independent nation, the B5 crew goes from defense to offends, and the Shadows/Earth Civil War arc begin to seperate even further.
This episode has one of my favorite lines:
Delenn: Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!
I got so worked up by that ep, that when it became obvious that Hiroshi was about to ram the other ship, I literally stood up out of my comfy chair and yelled "Ram it down their throats, baby!" I never do anything like that with a TV show! My wife, knitting on the couch, just gave me a side-eye, and I grudgingly sat back down.
Yes, 89:24 PAL for the original, 94:36 NTSC for the SE (dvdcompare.net).
I much prefer the original Stewart Copeland score. Christopher Franke often telegraphed the emotional beats of a scene too much with his soundtrack.
There's a lot visually in "The Gathering" that I prefer to the series proper, such as the cinematography, which was moodier and gritter. I also liked the original EA uniforms without all the leather accents. They looked more like uniforms and less like costumes. I also like the muppet aliens because it gave the show a kitschy SF visual feel that was lacking in the concurrent Trek shows.
PAL is faster than NTSC by 4%, so PAL lengths are usually shorter than NTSC for the same program.
Yes, which is why I noted that one running time is PAL and the other NTSC, but multiplying 89:24 by 25 / 23.976 yields 93:13, consistent with @JoeD80’s info, not 94:36, so it’s still shorter than the SE.
(If you could also look it up to the second, it would be great.)
This episode has one of my favorite lines:
Delenn: Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!
Honest to God.... Maybe the best quote from any scifi show ever.
This from Ivanova runs a real close second place: Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see.Honest to God.... Maybe the best quote from any scifi show ever.
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