Board logo

Babylon 5
James - 13/1/10 at 04:03 PM

Anyone a fan?

Anyone geek enough to admit it?



I was pretty into it back in the 90's when it was on channel 4 but missed the end of series 5 or so and can't really remember what happened in most of it. (so no spoilers please!!!)

Against her better judgement my girlfriend bought me the boxed set for Xmas.

5 series of B5, 1 series of Rangers, all the movies plus a bunch of other stuff.

Watching through in chronological order and really enjoying it. On season 2 now where it all starts to go to hell with The Shadows.

Bit disappointed by some of the CGI graphics though- and some of the interior filmed scenes the quality is dire and switches between high and low quality with each cut in the middle of dialogue scenes!

Ah well, fantastic story though and lovely to see a 5 year story arc as opposed to the usual Yank stuff where everything is back to normal after the end of each episode!


Cheers,
James


UncleFista - 13/1/10 at 04:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by James

Bit disappointed by some of the CGI graphics though


I'm not suprised, the original series "CGI" was done on Commodore Amigas with video toasters


bilbo - 13/1/10 at 04:39 PM

Yep, big fan
As said, it was done on Amigas. CGI was state of the art at the time. You have to remember, everyone else was still using models.
Apparently, the basic premise was nicked by the people who did DS9 (don't let anyone tell you it was the other way round). Thankfully, B5 turned out far better.
Enjoy the rest of it - I've got the whole lot on VHS - tempted to dig it out again if I had the time.


scotty g - 13/1/10 at 05:40 PM

Always used to watch it, thought it was so much better than the Star Trek offerings running at the time, hated DS9.
Loved the whole political back story that runs through the 1st few seasons, very well written, would love to get them all on DVD box set.


James - 13/1/10 at 07:02 PM

Perhaps it's just I remembered it as 'excellent CGI' but things have moved on a little.

To be honest, it's more the non-CGI interior dialogue scenes where it's so variable. Some explanation here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5#Mastering_problems

it's really shocking in some scenes... like a 70's US TV show. When it's most noticeable it's when it'll change within one scene from one cut during a conversation between people to another.


For those interested though it's still available at Amazon for £61
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babylon-Complete-Collection-Exclusive-Amazon-co-uk/dp/B000WDSRG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263409285&sr=1-1 />

ETA: Amusingly enough, having refused to have anything to do with it (she hates Sci-fi apparently) my girlfriend is now as keen to watch it as I am!

Cheers,
James

[Edited on 13/1/10 by James]


scudderfish - 13/1/10 at 07:02 PM

Yep, watched them all. Season 5 was a bit of a let down as they didn't know until too late that there would be a fifth season, so most of the good story lines are wrapped up at the end of season 4.

What do you want?

vs.

Who are you?

The "Lurkers Guide to Babylon 5" is an excellent resource

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/eplist.html


marcjagman - 13/1/10 at 07:36 PM

Well not wanting to spoil it, but at the end of season 5...................


Gav - 13/1/10 at 07:41 PM

Yeah i was hooked on it when it was on C4, the shadows/vorlon thing was a great storyline, as i remember through rose tinted glasses...

But i am a complete Sci-Fi fan, i have literally hundreds of Sci-Fi books


JEPY - 13/1/10 at 07:55 PM

Me too... got the box set as a pressie last year but only unwrapped it at christmas. Need a bit of swine flu, week off work and do a marathon back-to-back viewing!


Toltec - 13/1/10 at 08:12 PM

We have watched the box sets - twice...

you are not the one


David Jenkins - 13/1/10 at 09:27 PM

I believe that the backers pulled the money during the last series - the end was a bit of a disappointment.

But I did enjoy the series, being a change from all the Star Trek variants.