Babylon 5 Remastered on HBO Max

[Apparition]

Just FYI, Babylon 5 is now on HBO Max... and has been remastered to HD!  It looks great, IMO.  If you don't want to subscribe to HBO Max, you can also buy the remastered Babylon 5 seasons on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

 

Personally, I plan on having Babylon 5 on in the background via HBO Max when I work all day just to show my interest to Warner Bros.  Hopefully if enough people watch it on HBO Max, it will inspire Warner Bros. to do something with it.

[Ura Hero]

Nice.  I've been wanting to re-watch this.  I'll be sure to add it to my watch list tonight.  

[ZacKing]

Damn would love to watch this but I refuse to pay for HBO after the shitty way they ended GoT

[Ohsirus]

Started watching that godawful season one again yesterday. 

[Techwright]

On 1/28/2021 at 1:54 PM, Ohsirus said:

Started watching that godawful season one again yesterday. 

I find it's easier to take if it is understood to be foundational work for what is to come.  Foundations are not the beautiful part of a house, but they are an essential part.   Season 1 may seem a desert, but deserts have flowers, if you know where to look.  There's still some really beautiful things in season 1.  G'Kar's explanation to Catherine about the terrifying mystery at Sigma 957, for one.  It's the first time I realized G'Kar had the soul of a poet, and was so much more than a foil for Londo. 

 

There's also actor Dwight Shultz's turn as a tortured PTSD vagabond with more backbone than he realized.  That was some fine acting.

 

That all said, I do wish they'd firmed up the Minbari physical appearance before filming the pilot movie.  The story is foundational, but the look is so radically different as to be distracting.

 

Lastly, I'm glad they remastered the series, but it could really use the same treatment given to Star Trek, The Original Series, and have modern CGI space sequences replacing the dated special effects.  What they achieved, and on Amiga computers of all things, was remarkable for its time, and could be preserved as an option in a special edition DVD set, but refreshing the space scenes would really refresh the look of the show.

[TheOtherTed]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:27 AM, Techwright said:

same treatment given to Star Trek, The Original Series, and have modern CGI space sequences replacing the dated special effects

Call me crazy, but that was actually really jarring to me.  Even with the remastering of the crew scenes, part of me expected the dated special effects in space.  My brain was anticipating classic 1960s technicolor ("Now with Blur-O-Vision!"), and what it got was painfully hi-def imagery of the ship flying past all-too-realistic looking planets.

 

Ugh.

 

But anyway, I've put Babylon 5 on my watch list because of this thread (making myself watch season 2 of SG1 first).  It had its rough moments, but all in all, it's one of my top 3 sci-fi series.

 

I probably won't watch the remastered version, though.  Sorry, HBO.

[Ohsirus]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:27 AM, Techwright said:

I find it's easier to take if it is understood to be foundational work for what is to come.

I'm sad to say I watched the entire run within the last decade, but don't really remember it other than bits and pieces and I liked it enough to continue watching it. I had to see what "inspired" DS9, which I'm on my third rewatch minus it's god awful first & second season (few exceptions) and the seventh season I could just skip all together.