Would you replace your DVD sets?

[hypatia]

Well, that's what we need a new B5 series for.

And again, Star Wars did just what I said: they edited out an actor and replaced him with ... well, you know.

Is that preserving the story line? Or everyone's favorite "Han of course wouldn't shoot first"?

I've always wondered why people are so content with remakes, recolorings if you will, of old and great films and shows when it would be so much better for all of us if the big Hollywood money went into new projects instead.

 

[raw_bean]

Not sure why you keep using examples from Star Wars to counter points about B5, seems rather a straw-man sort of tactic. No-one was suggesting that B5 actors be replaced with CGI, just that the B5 CGI be replaced with better resolution B5 CGI, and the composite shots re-done with all the detail of the original live-action footage restored.

So in answer to your question, no that's not 'preserving the storyline', which it is why that is not what should be done to B5. The B5 storyline should be preserved, by not doing that.

 

[Triple F]

No, I wouldn’t buy them.

For one very simple reason. Babylon 5 is a complete package – is it any coincidence that the two episodes that got Hugo’s had a good story and were heavy on the CGI, or that the first Emmy was for the CGI seen in the pilot.

Of course, for some, the CGI was the best thing about it, for others it was the story and the 5 (sorry 4) year arc. But for most, it was both. While many acknowledge that jms did some ground breaking work that influenced later television, you have to remember so did those behind the CGI, in some ways more so, and those in the industry acknowledge this.

To remove and replace them with hi-res hi-poly models (which by the way most definitely does not guarantee they would be “better”), to say the least, is rather insulting to the trail blazers that created them.

 

[Shabaz]

No, I wouldn’t buy them.

For one very simple reason. Babylon 5 is a complete package – is it any coincidence that the two episodes that got Hugo’s had a good story and were heavy on the CGI, or that the first Emmy was for the CGI seen in the pilot.

Of course, for some, the CGI was the best thing about it, for others it was the story and the 5 (sorry 4) year arc. But for most, it was both. While many acknowledge that jms did some ground breaking work that influenced later television, you have to remember so did those behind the CGI, in some ways more so, and those in the industry acknowledge this.

To remove and replace them with hi-res hi-poly models (which by the way most definitely does not guarantee they would be “better”), to say the least, is rather insulting to the trail blazers that created them.

There is one big "but" there though. Which is that said trailblazers from the start intended the CG work to eventually be redone for a wide frame and at HD resolutions. This would've been trivial had the files not been lost, and would now require a much more substantial effort. But with that intention having been there from the start, I'm not sure if it would be insulting if the necessary steps were taken to get the CG and comped shots in a full resolution, non-cropped form.

However, like I said, I would love to have the original 4:3 480i uncropped versions of the B5 episodes as some extra if they ever re-release B5 in some special edition. I believe an entire season fits on a single Blu-ray disc easily, and it would show off that iconic and historically significant CG in a better way than the current cropped versions do.

But the widescreen look of the episodes is something that was intended from the beginning, and I would love to also have version that retains that wide look, but doesn't have inferior looking cropped shots thrown in out of necessity because files were lost.

 

[raw_bean]

No, I wouldn’t buy them.

For one very simple reason. Babylon 5 is a complete package – is it any coincidence that the two episodes that got Hugo’s had a good story and were heavy on the CGI, or that the first Emmy was for the CGI seen in the pilot.

Of course, for some, the CGI was the best thing about it, for others it was the story and the 5 (sorry 4) year arc. But for most, it was both. While many acknowledge that jms did some ground breaking work that influenced later television, you have to remember so did those behind the CGI, in some ways more so, and those in the industry acknowledge this.

To remove and replace them with hi-res hi-poly models (which by the way most definitely does not guarantee they would be “better”), to say the least, is rather insulting to the trail blazers that created them.

I disagree (not that the work was revolutionary but that remaking it would be insulting) with that. The artistic merit in the work was in the designs and the animations. The resolution of the models and textures was a compromise of the design work with the real-world technical and budgetary constraints, not an artistic decision in itself. Recreating the shots with the same ship/creature/whatever designs and movements and framing but with higher resolution models and textures would be honouring the original work, not insulting it. And the original work will always exist, this would not eradicate it from history or anything.

Do you feel that the Christopher Franke score for the revised version of The Gathering is an unforgivable insult to Stewart Copeland who scored it originally? Or the revised station CGI shots used in The Gathering re-edit represents the CGI artists insulting their past selves? Or that the brief re-creation of the scuttling of B5 and the IA ships flying away from it from the beginning of TLT was insulting towards those who worked on the original shot for Sleeping In Light? Of these, the CGI shots were re-using the great design work that had been done before, but Franke re-scored The Gathering in a completely different style, so surely that's far more insulting than replacing the CGI with higher res versions of the same shots?

 

[Galeon 7]

Seeing TLT, I just had the feeling that seeing B5 I was actually thinking this was a new station and not B5. Naw, I'll keep the old ones. The CGI may look cheeky today, but in it's day it was hi tech.

 

[raw_bean]

Really? I got a real sense of familiarity looking at the station, and thought it looked gorgeous. It's as though seeing it in the series was through an ever so slightly hazy piece of glass, and seeing it in TLT was after a quick polish that let you see through the glass more clearly.

 

[Crusader]

While i felt the CGI in B5:TLT was impressive i wouldnt re-spend X ammount to get episodes and films i already have with only improved CGI. Besides IMO the CGI from the original series is still pretty good, and the stories will always hold up well, even if the CGI does look outdated

 

[Shabaz]

I was actually quite amazed at how much the station in TLT looked like the original. It's a bit less true for some of the other things, but the station at least looks amazingly accurate to how the station base model ended up looking around season 4 to 5-ish. Just with more polygonal detail and better lighting, but hardly anything significant added that would look unfamiliar or out of place compared to the old station to me.

 

[raw_bean]

Yup. And damn, did those 'Furies look good!