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Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

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Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#11

Post by sidpatil »

jefc1111 wrote: post #10
account42 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that disclaimer really needed? As someone who watched the series the first time last year, the acting and humor seem fine for TV honestly. The CGI dated of course but not offensive either. If anything I found the later seasons more disappointing than 1 and 2 as smaller scale stories are replaced with moving the big plot forward, which still feels rushed somehow.

The disclaimer is just based on my own opinion, so inevitably there will be people to whom it does not apply. Some of the acting in season 1 is great, I would just say there are some spots where it kinda briefly falls through the floor. It may be just because I have seen it several times so am spotting things that I wouldn't have first time round. With season 4, I believe what happened is that towards the start of pr…

> smaller scale stories are replaced with moving the big plot forward

This is pretty common in TV shows, from what I've noticed. It takes a few seasons for a show to find its footing.

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#12

Post by jeffwask »

jefc1111 wrote: post #6

If you decide to watch Babylon 5 for the first time, I suggest giving it a chance to get under your skin. There is quite a lot to get in the way of that such as mediocre acting, cringey humour, low budget fx (all particularly prominent in season 1). But the pay off in seasons 3 and 4 is huge if you take the time to let affection grow for the characters. Babylon 5 was my first 'favourite series' that 'changed my life'…

I rewatched it last year during an old sci-fi binge, I had watched bits as a kid but never got it. I grew up on TNG and DS9 was my favorite, so I was probably biased.

It's probably now number 2 for me behind DS9. I watched it again a few month later to catch all the foreshadowing I missed the first time. You are spot on that season 1 is a slow burn that ramps up to the amazing seasons 3 and 4. Best part, it has a clean conclusion without any sequel bait nonsense.

Londo and Gkar are two of the best characters in Sci-Fi and their relationship is brilliant.

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#13

Post by jeffwask »

RupertSalt wrote: post #4
account42 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The Gathering" was uploaded on January 22 The 16:9 cropped and upscaled version (of the TNT cut) unfortunately, with the same excessive noise reduction and sharpening that previous releases of that version had. Baffling why they keep using this version when even the old DVD release has better quality.

The original episodes were all recorded in wide aspect ratio, even though they were destined for broadcast TV. They were touted as future compatibility. So the original broadcasts were "pan & scan". Then, when the wide-aspect disc formats arrived, it turned out that converting them was not a simple matter of going back to the originals and plopping them on disc. https://b5remasterissues.wordpress.com/the-good/

DS9 and Voy have the same issue. For DS9, Season 1 was shot wide screen compatible then they switched to 16:9 but none of the effects are widescreen ready.

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#14

Post by t312227 »

hello,

as always: imho. (!)

ah ... babylon 5 :))

this was one of the best scifi shows back in the mid 1990ties.

it introduced a lot things which we take for granted today ... together with startrek "deep space nine" which roughly aired during the same time:

* telling a "story arch" over multiple seasons

* 2 parallel story-lines within episodes

* causally show people doing "every-day" life things, like going to the toilet - you may laugh, but 30+ years ago, for example in various startrek spinoffs - tng, ds9, voyager - nobody went to the toilet ... ever!!

don't get me wrong, i'm a big fan of startrek too ;))

* despite their budget decent CGI for the time

if i remember it correctly: they used a software called "lightroom", which ran on the amiga hardware-platform at first, for later seasons they moved to PC hardware...

just if you wonder about the quality of the CGI ... this was some 680x0 computer running at something like 16 or 32 MHz (!) with a few MB (!) of memory.

not a scifi "blockbuster" utilizing multimillion us$ SGI clusters like ILM productions of the era did!

absolutely recommended:

"the lurker's guide to babylon 5"

* http://midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html

just my 0.02€

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#15

Post by pjmlp »

t312227 wrote: post #14

hello, as always: imho. (!) ah ... babylon 5 :)) this was one of the best scifi shows back in the mid 1990ties. it introduced a lot things which we take for granted today ... together with startrek "deep space nine" which roughly aired during the same time: * telling a "story arch" over multiple seasons * 2 parallel story-lines within episodes * causally show people doing "every-day" life things, like going to the to…

You are missing one important detail, an Amiga alongside NewTek's Video Toaster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Toaster

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#16

Post by Apocryphon »

account42 wrote: post #8
RupertSalt wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original episodes were all recorded in wide aspect ratio, even though they were destined for broadcast TV. They were touted as future compatibility. So the original broadcasts were "pan & scan". Then, when the wide-aspect disc formats arrived, it turned out that converting them was not a simple matter of going back to the originals and plopping them on disc. https://b5remasterissues.wordpress.com/the-good/

Only the live action shots were recorded with a wide aspect ratio, and perhaps not even that for the pilot. The CGI was rendered in 4:3 and the final cuts including transitions and VFX where composited in 4:3. The remaster combines cropped 4:3 but high resolution scans of the original live action footage with (sometimes badly) upscaled versions of CGI and VFX'd shots -- except for the pilot which is fully upscaled an…

So just what is the optimal way to watch this show

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#17

Post by kouteiheika »

I would give my left kidney for either a continuation or a reboot of Babylon 5 under the helm of J. Michael Straczynski with full creative freedom. Or hell, even an entirely different show.

In my opinion he's one of the few people in the industry who actually knows how to skillfully write a coherent TV show. And by that I mean: he actually pre-planned the story (spanning multiple seasons!) of B5 right from the beginning, instead of completely making it up on the fly like so many other shows. Subtle things which might seem inconsequential, appearing in the very first season, can foreshadow events happening seasons later. This makes it, at least for me, much more coherent and enjoyable to watch, and I wish more writers/showrunners would adopt this approach (instead of the usual writers' room + only plan until the end of the season approach which is so common today).

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#19

Post by isjdjwjdhw »

account42 wrote: post #9
jefc1111 wrote: post #6

If you decide to watch Babylon 5 for the first time, I suggest giving it a chance to get under your skin. There is quite a lot to get in the way of that such as mediocre acting, cringey humour, low budget fx (all particularly prominent in season 1). But the pay off in seasons 3 and 4 is huge if you take the time to let affection grow for the characters. Babylon 5 was my first 'favourite series' that 'changed my life'…

Is that disclaimer really needed? As someone who watched the series the first time last year, the acting and humor seem fine for TV honestly. The CGI dated of course but not offensive either. If anything I found the later seasons more disappointing than 1 and 2 as smaller scale stories are replaced with moving the big plot forward, which still feels rushed somehow.

Completely unnecessary, yes. Babylon 5 is a product of its time, as is everything, but it is as fine a production as any other sci-fi-on-a-budget show from the early-to-late 90s. It’s a phenomenally intricate and interesting little universe with great characters and stories. No need for a disparaging disclaimer such as that.

Re: Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube

#20

Post by alehlopeh »

jefc1111 wrote: post #6

If you decide to watch Babylon 5 for the first time, I suggest giving it a chance to get under your skin. There is quite a lot to get in the way of that such as mediocre acting, cringey humour, low budget fx (all particularly prominent in season 1). But the pay off in seasons 3 and 4 is huge if you take the time to let affection grow for the characters. Babylon 5 was my first 'favourite series' that 'changed my life'…

That’s not what “get under your skin” means.
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