Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
If you've been curious about Babylon 5, but have been hesitant about coming into a continuing story "in the middle", this Thursday is your chance to start watching the show from the very beginning.
The Sci-Fi Channel is restarting B5 Thursday night, August 23rd at 7 PM (ET/PT - but check local listings. Not all West Coast cable providers are using the Sci-Fi Channel's West Coast Feed.)
The series is kicking off with the original pilot film The Gathering, which Sci-Fi had edited into a two part episode. Sci-Fi also had the originally 1.33:1 TV frame matted down to 1.77:1 to match the widescreen series episodes, but this is less distracting than it sounds. (The pilot film was shot on standard 35mm. When the series went into production the better part of a year after the pilot was completed the producers switched to Super35 and began composing the shots for both 1.33:1 and 1.77:1. Sci-Fi has been the first U.S. outlet to air the widescreen version of the show.)
During the long gap between the production of the pilot and the start of work on the series a number of changes were made to the look and feel of the show (as well as several cast changes), but "The Gathering Parts 1 & 2" does serve to set-up the initial background of the series, and introduces plot elements and themes that carry over for the rest of the series. (One scene in the pilot involves two characters who will not appear on-screen together again until the last three episodes of the fifth season, at which point they will continue a conversation that begins here.)
Sci-Fi is currently running B5 Monday through Friday at 7 PM, but there are indications that they are going to add an early evening movie to their original programming block on Fridays, which would change the show to Monday through Thursday. Again, check local listings for the latest information.
The show is well worth investing the time to "get into." It is one of the most ambitious adult SF projects ever undertaken, an attempt to do a TV series on the scale of Asimov's Foundation series or "Doc" Smith's Lensman books (although without the comicbook space opera elements of the latter.) If you like the mix of stand alone adventure and a continuing storyline that shows like X-Files (up to a point), Buffy and Angel use, this may be another show you can sink your teeth into (as it were.
)
(And unlike X-Files, the writer producer actually had a definite ending in mind for the show, and shaped the episodes to get there.)
Regards,
Joe
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The Sci-Fi Channel is restarting B5 Thursday night, August 23rd at 7 PM (ET/PT - but check local listings. Not all West Coast cable providers are using the Sci-Fi Channel's West Coast Feed.)
The series is kicking off with the original pilot film The Gathering, which Sci-Fi had edited into a two part episode. Sci-Fi also had the originally 1.33:1 TV frame matted down to 1.77:1 to match the widescreen series episodes, but this is less distracting than it sounds. (The pilot film was shot on standard 35mm. When the series went into production the better part of a year after the pilot was completed the producers switched to Super35 and began composing the shots for both 1.33:1 and 1.77:1. Sci-Fi has been the first U.S. outlet to air the widescreen version of the show.)
During the long gap between the production of the pilot and the start of work on the series a number of changes were made to the look and feel of the show (as well as several cast changes), but "The Gathering Parts 1 & 2" does serve to set-up the initial background of the series, and introduces plot elements and themes that carry over for the rest of the series. (One scene in the pilot involves two characters who will not appear on-screen together again until the last three episodes of the fifth season, at which point they will continue a conversation that begins here.)
Sci-Fi is currently running B5 Monday through Friday at 7 PM, but there are indications that they are going to add an early evening movie to their original programming block on Fridays, which would change the show to Monday through Thursday. Again, check local listings for the latest information.
The show is well worth investing the time to "get into." It is one of the most ambitious adult SF projects ever undertaken, an attempt to do a TV series on the scale of Asimov's Foundation series or "Doc" Smith's Lensman books (although without the comicbook space opera elements of the latter.) If you like the mix of stand alone adventure and a continuing storyline that shows like X-Files (up to a point), Buffy and Angel use, this may be another show you can sink your teeth into (as it were.
) (And unlike X-Files, the writer producer actually had a definite ending in mind for the show, and shaped the episodes to get there.
)Regards,
Joe
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