Any chance of a Babylon 5 DTV??? (1 Viewer)

[RogerH]

I'm looking forward to this. I'm making my way through the series now (finished Season 3 and Seasons 4 and 5 are in the mail).

 

[todd s]

In one respect I envy you. I remember watching the show when it aired. And to this day it is the only show (On a continual basis) made me watch the clock hoping the episode wasn't almost over. The story-arc was just so intriguing I couldn't wait until the next week...let alone through the summer hiatus.

Season 4 is great! Enjoy.

 

[RogerH]

I know I have seen the series before I just haven't gotten around to buying the dvd sets until now. I haven't seen the series in years and its even better than I remember.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

TV Shows On DVD has an update on The Lost Tales, including release date, special features, price, and cover art.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

 

[RogerH]

This should be good.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. $16.99. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Joe

 

[RogerH]

Hopefully they will make more

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I probably should order this at Amazon instead of trying to find this at a B&M I wonder if they would consider a HD-DVD Version?

 

[JediFonger]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7211

i actually emailed JMS about HD DVD... obviously he doesn't have time to respond =). the cover looks awesome!!! i usually don't buy SD-DVD's anymore but i want to support B5 so i'm going to buy this and if it comes out on HD DVD i'll buy it again =P.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

We already know that B5: The Lost Tales will be one of Warner Bros. first HD downloads for the XBox 360, and that WB helped develop the HD-DVD standard, so I'd say it is pretty much a lock that the film will be released on a hi-def disc after after XBox's exclusive window expires. (They may also do a Blu Ray release, or even make this an early TotalHD release - they know by now that B5 fans tend to be early adopters and they'd probably want to cover all bases.)

Re: e-mailing JMS. He actually discourages folks from sending him private e-mails on topics of general interest. It is a lot easier for him to respond to a question asked once on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated than to respond to the same question asked a thousand times in e-mails from a thousand different e-mails from a thousand different fans. This sort of thing rapidly fills-up his in-box and causes him to have to scroll through lots of messages he's not going to answer to find the mail he needs. Having stuff go through the moderated newsgroup also helps shield him from story-ideas and all the legal headaches being exposed to them can bring.

He has a "form letter" he periodically posts asking people to limit private e-mails to matters that need to remain private - and, let's face it, for most of what most of us discuss with him doesn't need to remain private. The last time I sent him a private e-mail was probably a couple of years ago when I wanted to alert him to some bootleg B5 stuff I'd come across.

Regards,

Joe

 

[RogerH]

Do I dare hope they touch on the Drakh plague in this? (Since Galen is in it I guess there is hope).

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Well I want to Own this and of course support it so more will come, but I might wait to watch it on the 360.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

TV Shows on DVD has now posted the official Warner Bros. press release.

Joe

 

[Holadem]

From the press release:
Couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift.

--
H

 

[JediFonger]

joe, did you ever get to read his comic book book of lost tales? i wonder if any of the themes from that will show up here =).

 

[Scott-S]

I just noticed that this new "Lost Tales" dvd is #5 in the Amazon sales ranking and it is only pre-orders! That seems really amazing to me. If this is any sign, it looks like we will see more of these in the future.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, I don't want to jinx it by bringing this up, but it does remind me of when Warner Bros. finally "tested the waters" WRT B5 on DVD by releasing the barebones, double-feature disc of The Gathering and In the Beginning. This was after years of fans pestering them (including on several live chats here, and during the 2000 Live Meet-up in L.A.) to release the show on DVD. They finally relented by offering the "test disc" and basically dared the fans not to buy it, saying there would be no further releases if the disc (which they did not promote or advertise at all) didn't sell. Their attitude was "here's your damned B5, now put up or shut up." I honestly think they expected the disc to tank and that this would "prove" there was no market for the show on DVD and get us all to shut up and go away.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral. Amazon.com accidentally listed the disc for pre-order in the wee small hours of a Saturday morning a week or so before it was supposed to be officially announced. This was around 2 or 3 AM Eastern time. Some B5 fan, probably searching for one of the novels, ran across the page and posted the news on a website. Then the story broke on usenet. Soon it was show showing up on fan forums all over the place. And the sales rank started moving up. By Sunday night it had cracked the Top 100 and it wasn't even supposed to be on the site. (Warner Bros. briefly made Amazon take the page down before they realized how many pre-orders they'd racked up - at which point they moved up the "official" announcement date and let Amazon and others start taking orders again.)

I don't remember where it peaked, but I'm pretty sure that disc cracked the top 50, maybe the top 20 within a week or two, and did it with absolutely nothing but "word of web" going for it.

It was Warner Bros' first glimpse of the power of the internet and the size and enthusiasm of the B5 fanbase. They greenlit season one before the first "test" discs even shipped - mostly based on the phenomenal pre-orders.

Let's just say I would not be surprised to see history repeat itself.

Regards,

Joe

Oh,k

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Oh, if anybody cares, here's the full Amazon DVD Top 10 Sales list:

Rounding out the Top Ten:

1. Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series

2. The Queen

3. Night at the Museum (Widescreen Edition)

4. The Secret (Extended Edition)

5.

 

[nolesrule]

JediFonger was referring to the comic book series Book of Lost Tales. I've read it, and I don't think the themes would appear here in the context of Babylon 5. It had more of a feel of Midnight Nation or perhaps Twilight Zone. I really enjoyed the series, as far as it got, and hope that it will continue at some point.

I'm really looking forwardto this DVD. I remember when I saw the last shot on the Rangers movie and it gave me chills.

Here's hoping they do the FX in HD this time around.