Warner: Please! No "Best of's" for Babylon 5.... (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

I read over at dvdreview that Warner might be considering Best of's for the tv show Babylon 5. I know this might be the wrong because the first release is just the first 2 movies. Babylon 5 is a show that must be viewed in it's entirety. Best of's would ruin that. So please Warner please release all episodes in chroniclogical order.
Here is the link: http://www.dvdreview.com/html/news.html

 

[Simon Massey]

And please release these in Widescreen
B5 is not exactly a "family title", and I am sure the widescreen version will sell better

 

[Rob T]

best of's for B5 is just absolutely wrong. One of the great things of the show is that there are huge important story arcs which set it apart from all other sci-fi shows.
Also, I hope it doesn't get packaged in that terrible snapper case packaging. That would kind of be disrespectful to such a great series. give it a nice amaray case packaging.
[Edited last by Rob T on August 27, 2001 at 06:12 PM]

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Apparently Warner Home Video put up a cover shot of the first disc with a release date on their industry/press website. That's the source of the factual part of DVD Review's story. The rest of it is is speculation based on somebody's not understanding that both The Gathering and In the Beginning are TV movies. (They seem to think The Gathering is an episode, perhaps influenced by the fact that the Sci-Fi Channel edited it into a two-parter and airs it with the regular episodes.) According to folks who have seen the WHV page with the information there is nothing about any possible plans they may have for the release of the episodes. This whole "Best of" thing is an extrapolation based on - essentially - nothing.
We'll know something about WHV's plans for the episodes when they actually announce that they're doing the episodes. There is no way to figure that out from this early acknowledgement of the movie disc. The only thing the movie disc will shed any light on is the widescreen issue. If In the Beginning isn't widescreen, I'd say we have grounds for complaint. If it is (and preferably anamorphic) then that will be a good sign for the episodes.
Regards,
Joe
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[Craig S]

Also, I hope it doesn't get packaged in that terrible snapper case packaging.

It's from Warner - it'll be in a snapper. They own the company that makes the snappers. As long as this is true, Warner discs are gonna be in snappers.
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Too many DVDs, too little time...
AFI 100 Challenge - 36 to go!

 

[Rob T]

Curses! I hate those snapper cases.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

One more bit of info. Ken Crane's DVD Planet is now accepting pre-orders for the first double-feature movie discs (and they're a buck cheaper than Amazon ) as is CNL in Canada. Since listing the disc on its industry-only website, Warner Home Video has apparently also faxed for e-mailed some information to dealers, including brief descriptions of the two movies. (I know this because the description for The Gathering on DVD Planet contained an error. When I e-mailed them about it they corrected it, but replied to my message to say that they took the text directly from information that Warner Home video had sent them. )
The most interesting thing in all of this (to me) is that both DVD Planet and CNL.com are listing the disc as either Full Frame or Pan & Scan and anamorphic. (Although DVD planet gives the widescreen aspect ratio as 1.85:1, whereas it should be 1.77:1.) Since this is a single disc with two movies, this would seem to indicate that The Gathering will be presented in its correct 1.33:1 TV ratio, while In the Beginning will be in anamorphically-enhanced widescreen. This is very good news indeed, and augurs well for the upcoming episodes.
Regards,
Joe
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[Joshua Clinard]

Why is the first one 1.35 : 1, and the second one widescreen? Is it becasue after the first one they decided to shoot it 16x9, like some other TV Shows? Also, after the first two movies, did the episodes continue to be shot 16x9? If so, that the movies as well as the episodes get's released anamorphic.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Why is the first one 1.35 : 1, and the second one widescreen? Is it becasue after the first one they decided to shoot it 16x9, like some other TV Shows?

Exactly. Or rather, they decided to shoot Super35 and frame for both 1.77:1 widescreen and 1.33:1 standard TV ratio. It wasn't actually shot at 1.77:1 (which I believe is the native aspect ratio for Super 16, but not for any of the various 35mm or 70mm film formats.)
Everything after the original pilot, all 110 episodes and 4 TV movies (soon to be 5), was shot for widescreen. B5 was one of the first U.S. TV shows to do this (starting back in 1994.)
We hope the fact that In the Beginning is listed as anamorphic indicates that the episodes will be released the same way, but I've been disappointed by Warner Home Video too many times to make assumptions. To date they haven't even confirmed that they will be releasing the episodes (although both The Digital Bits and the DVD File have reported that episodes are planned for 2002.) So until I see an announcement from WHV, I'm not breaking out the champange. Still, the movie disc seems to be a step in the right direction.
Regards,
Joe
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