The problem with Babylon 5 is that it has not aged well. That’s not a criticism of the sets, acting makeup, scripts etc., but the truly low quality of the effects.

Let’s draw a comparison with Star Trek: TNG. Right now and for the next couple of years, this series is being converted to HD. This is no easy task - the show was filmed on film, but all the edits, wipes, captions, and effects were done in NTSC resolution. The result has been truly crappy looking TV on PAL. The HD conversion is a massive task (even in comparison with the original series) as they only have the original film and the edit logs to go on. Every episode has had to be re edited and assembled in HD. Series 1 has been hailed as the best HD restoration ever. It looks bloody good on SyFy in standard definition. It is very likely that DS9 will get the same treatment.

Unlike Star Trek: TNG & DS(, Babylon 5 was filmed in 16:9. The aim was to make the transition and upscaling easy (ie DVD releases). However, all the CGI - external shots, titles, caption, even gun shots, were only done in SD resolution. The idea was to have these redone fairly quickly when needed. However, as you may have surmised, the files used to generate these scenes have been lost. Worse still, the hardware and software used (especially for season one) are now horribly obsolete (done using Commodore Amigas and Video Toast). So the DVD edits had to include the SD effects. The result - no picture consistency, and an uncomfortable experience for the viewer. When Garibaldi fires a PPG shot, you get the NTSC picture.

The result, especially for exterior space shots, is something that looks like an old video game. It would probably be very costly to remaster B5 and redo the effects, even though the huge pile of money it would produce would happily fund another failure, like Yogi Bear.

It would be cheaper to reboot. New cast, new sets, effects and a commitment to do the story JMS had plotted over 5 years in 5 seasons (not compress series 4 and 5 into series 4 and then wonder what the hell to do with season 5 when the studio changed its mind about axing it).

I would suspect though that it will be left to drift into the obscurities of TV history.

I hope this is the eventual fate of the show.
B5 was a marvel of television, not just science fiction television.
I don't think it could be remade today, as the things that audiences seem to want are very different.
Studios wouldn't have the balls to put money on a show that wanted to take it's time on character building, story building and world building.
To remake B5 is to commit yourself to all the above and to do so over the course of five years.
I (thankfully) don't see that happening any time soon.

Mark

If all you are looking for are top-notch special effects with a rollicking roller coaster ride of a story from episode to episode, give B5 a wide berth.
If you want great story telling with wonderfully rounded characters in a universe that's as well represented as the characters are, then give it a go.

Mark

Many of the problems could be solved with pre-sales around the world. It does not have to be expensive and with DVD sales it could still make a profit, even if the TV showing still makes a loss.

The models are still available and compatible with newer software. The sequencing might need to be redone, but the models were done in a scalable form, so re-rendering for HD wouldn't that much of a problem.

That said, B5 is the only sci-fi series I keep re-watching.

As to spinoffs and prequels, as has been said, been there, done that.

There were 5 made-for-TV films based around B5, then there was the spinoff series Crusade and a pilot for another series, "Legend of the Rangers", which never got taken up. A shame, as I found the concept was good and the pilot wasn't that bad.

And then there were the new episodes, which they released in 2007, The Lost Tales. That was, again, supposed to be made into a series, but on the 4 episodes ever appeared.

Very amusing.

As I understood it, they were either lost or incompatible. Good news if they can reuse them, though I would expect they would need more detail to make them good for HD.

I was under the impression that they had to produce new models to do some of the work for The Lost Tales - specifically things like the Warlock and Omega class destroyers. The Centauri ships seen in the rather brief battle scenes didn't match the ships from the show but may have been different (bigger) ones anyway </geek>. In any case I suspect the original designer is still kicking about somewhere and probably has original sketches and there were plenty of fan made meshes kicking about on the internet a while ago. Whether they're still there is a different matter of course.

It would be perhaps ironic if Warners had cease & desisted all the fan made ship meshes off the internet only to then have to spend a ton of money doing the same job themselves..

Thread resurrection

http://forbiddenplanet.com//101507-baby ... 3745407a0d

Clashes with the local village fair.

Doesn't exactly sound laugh-a-minute, to be fair. Still, Claudia Christian .

She is a tragic character, but I'm glad she has found a solution and is still around. So many of the original cast have died over recent years.

with Dave on this so it a plus 1 for rewatching

funny thing is JUST finished watch the whole lot last week