Babylon 5

[Jodi]

Does anyone know the current status of Babylon 5 on BD? I am hoping Warner Bros will finally give this iconic sci-fi series the proper treatment it deserves compared to the lackluster DVDs.

Thoughts...comments....

Babylon 5: The Complete Series Blu-ray

Babylon 5: The Complete Series Blu-ray

Babylon 5: The Complete Series Blu-ray

Dec 5 2023

[Naiera]

Sincerely doubt it's going to happen.

In what ways are the DVDs particularly lacklustre?

[Sloppy Bob]

They'd have to redo all the F/X shots and that would be expensive.

I'd love to see it happen, but I doubt it.

[Naiera]

Yeah, those looked like crap even on dvd because they zoomed in.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

I spoke to JMS at SDCC in 2013 and his answer was effectively not going to happen.

Also mentioned that perhaps Warner Bros. should consider crowdfunding the first season to gauge interest. Again he did not seem particularly enthusiastic about the idea.

Clearly things can change but as great as B5 is, it unfortunately does not have the same fan base and support as Star Trek or perhaps even Firefly do.

B5 remastered in HD would be fantastic and wish Warner would put forth the effort in preserving some amazing serial storytelling Sci-Fi.

[nec1912]

Originally Posted by Jodi

Does anyone know the current status of Babylon 5 on BD? I am hoping Warner Bros will finally give this iconic sci-fi series the proper treatment it deserves compared to the lackluster DVDs.

Thoughts...comments....

I don't think they will bring out Babylon 5 in blu ray to the reboot comes out first. They will make more money after the reboot.

A feature movie that would reboot the series

Babylon 5 Movie Still Planned reboot

reboot in the works.
http://freebabylon5.com/category/movie-reboot-news/

[CouncilSpectre]

Considering that the TNG rebuilds weren't exactly considered a financial success then it's unlikely that WBs would be that eager to do anything for B5. The original VFX elements are long since gone and what was used for the DVDs is barely good enough for DVD, let alone anything higher in resolution. The live-action elements still exist so they could always yield a higher resolution master, but the VFX and composite shots will always look like ass unless they're completely redone.

The only hope we have for B5 in HD is if, at some point in the future, someone, somewhere, decides to remake the series.

[kemcha]

It was stated once before that Babylon 5 would not see a release to Blu-ray considering how cost prohibited it would be. Babylon 5 isn't the only series to be struck down in this fashion. There are other shows that will never be released to Blu-ray either. Such as:

Stargate SG-1
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Babylon 5

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by kemcha

It was stated once before that Babylon 5 would not see a release to Blu-ray considering how cost prohibited it would be. Babylon 5 isn't the only series to be struck down in this fashion. There are other shows that will never be released to Blu-ray either. Such as:

Stargate SG-1
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Babylon 5

I wouldn't say never just not anytime soon but no reason why Seasons 8-10 of SG-1 couldn't get a BD release as they were finished in HD so are ready to go.

[CouncilSpectre]

Deep Space Nine, and probably Voyager, will come at some point. Just not soon.

[cubdukat]

Sadly, it will most likely never happen, for the same reason we will probably never see Blu-Rays of "DS9," "Voyager" and the director's cut of the first "Star Trek" movie:

Foundation Imaging.

As a condition of them getting the job, Foundation Imaging was required to surrender its Lightwave scene and model data to Warner Bros., who then either lost it or destroyed it. This basically happened to every effects house to work on B5. Whatever data Foundation managed to hold onto disappeared around the time they went out of business. Supposedly the lead animator, "Mojo" Leibowitz, managed to salvage some DS9 and "Voyager" data, but he hasn't said anything about B5.

Basically, the only way they could do B5 on Blu-Ray would be to redo all of the CGI, and that would almost definitely be too expensive. But Warner Bros. could probably mitigate some of that by not giving the box sets obscenely high pricetags like Paramount did with "TNG." There was no reason they had to be that expensive; Paramount just didn't get it, just like with almost everything they've done with "Star Trek."

[jokerzwild]

I'd love to see them do something out of the box to fix redue CGI. Crowd source individual scenes to colleges or individuals. There has to be tons of people that want to break into the field that would do just about anything for a break or a big resume credit like that. A college class doing a scene as a semester project, I'm sure colleges and professors would love to have a credit mention.

[Vandal Savage]

I'd settle for Babylon 5 on DVD in the 4:3 aspect ratio. At least it wouldn'tbhavevall of that godawful zooming to the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Babylon 5 in HD is a pipe dream. Never gonna happen. Warner Brothers couldn't care less about this series.

I also think that the remake/reboot will never happen. Babylon 5 just doesn't have the pop culture cachet that other properties do and nobody is going to want to risk eight or nine figures on a movie.

[MrRonald2796]

According to JMS, conformed negative masters of the show still exist at WB(original CGI + 4:3 Picture transfered to Super 35 mm).That means if they're scanned into positives, an HD quality can finally be obtained. He even offered himself to do it for free.
There's also a petition to convince Amazon to get the original negatives.
https://www.reddit.com/r/babylon5/co...o_get_hold_of/

[CouncilSpectre]

I'm amazed that this hasn't come out before now.

The amount of talking that fans have done over this in recent years, and that Joe has even joined in on at times, it's hard to see why this has never been mentioned.

Great news though - it elevates the chances from impossible to maybe. Any chance is better than no chance!

[Rodney-2187]

I’d love this on blu ray.

[Cplhicks]

I'd be happy for decent 4x3 digital copies at this point. Hunted around but everyone has the 16x9. Bought them on iTunes (already had the DVDs) when the whole series went on sale for convenience. The iTunes masters look TERRIBLE on a TV. They could at least upload ones with modern encoding. Sad this show is on no streaming sites and will basically never get a new audience.

EDIT: And I just read that link above saying it's going to Amazon Prime, which is great news. It has needed exposure somewhere for ages. Now Amazon just needs the Expanse and I will love them forever.

[Vandal Savage]

We're stuck with the lousy-looking DVDs because, at the time, fans insisted that it be released in widescreen even though it would need extensive cropping and zoomng to fill the 16:9 box.

[Dragon Ranger]

I'd buy this on Blu in a heartbeat.

[Naiera]

I'd commit a fairly large sum of money to a Kickstarter.