Babylon 5 season 3..when? (1 Viewer)

Just curious as to when season 3 of B5 is coming out.

Spoilers
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I remember when the show first aired on tv. When the Shadow War started. It was the only show that I kept looking at the clock hoping I would have more time left on the episode than it did. I couldn't wait for the next week to see what would happen.

Based on the release dates of Seasons 1 and 2, most likely November. They seem to be following a pattern similar to what Fox did with The X-Files - a new season about every six months:

S1 - November 2002
S2 - Late April 2003
S3 - November 2003
S4 - April 2004
S5 - November 2004

The reason for this schedule is the same in both cases: It takes time to master all the episodes and pull together the extras, and if you wait until you see the sales figures on the previous season before starting on the next one, every six months is about as fast as you can crank them out. (Especially when you take into account production capacity and the need to keep producing feature DVDs that will greatly outsell the TV discs.)

That said, there are a few indications that Warner Bros. may be confident enough of the series appeal on DVD that they might accelerate the release schedule, at least a little.

1) A couple of months ago an alleged schedule of Warner releases in the U.K. showed B5 S2 coming in May (which turned out to be correct) and S3 coming in September. Depending on exact dates, that's from five to as little as four months between seasons. At that rate they could conceivably see S4 in the U.K. by December (the Warner list only covered November 02 to November 03.) The corresponding U.S. releases would probably be about one month earlier. Always assuming, of course, that this U.K. list is (a) genuine and (b) accurate.

2) JMS reported last month that they had already completed production on the S3 extras. (He mentioned just making the deadline to record his two commentary tracks.)

So I'm expecting S3 in November, and hoping that it turns up sooner.

Regards,

Joe

I received an e-mail from Warner Home Video yesterday that states August 12 as the street date for Season 3. The text of the message is as follows:

Babylon 5: The Complete Third Season is now available as a fully-loaded 6-disc DVD collector's set.

The set contains all 22 episodes of the third season - remastered for widescreen picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

DVD Features:

Introduction from series creator J. Michael Straczynski
Commentaries on 3 key episodes by series creator and stars
3 new documentaries:
1. Behind the Mask: Creating the Aliens of Babylon 5
2. Designing a Better Narn
3. Designing Tomorrow: The Look of Babylon 5


Data and personnel files
New digital widescreen transfer
Remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1



Jimmy!

New tv show sets coming out every month is wrecking havok on my bank account

ca[t

Damn. I thought I'd have a it of a break in August. :frowning:

Jimmy, I was just heading over to post this! Good way to scoop the presses! :wink: :p)

Well, the cover art looks better than Season 2's, anyway!

Oh, wow, August?! I was also expecting November. This would be fantastic.

I'm still going to assume November so that I don't get dissappointed if this good news turns out to be premature.

The cover does look cool and reminds me just how awesome season 3 is. I can't wait to watch Markas, War Without End, Lyta, Zack coming into his own, the growing relationship btw Delenn and Sheridan, etc again.

Season 3 and 4 are, IMO, the two best seasons of TV ever made. They also feature the best cast lineups throughout the show- Sheridan is captain, Ivanova is XO, Markas is around, Delenn looks great, Lyta is the more compelling telepath over Talia.

AUGUST? Not November??? Man... I hope that happens!!!

Coverart looks good. I'd just like to add that Patricia Tallman (Lyta) is damned hot.

*crossing my fingers for an August release*

I hope that August is correct and that every 4 months is the pattern that is followed. Every 4 months is good enough for me. Every 2 months is a bit too much finacially and timewise for me with everything else that is coming out and every 6 months is too slow so every 4 months is good

Well since we are on the subject of B5, Did anyone hear anything about WB releasing the movies that they made. From what I remember of the titles, there was River of Souls, And ... BLANK... Ok I have to rewatch those to get the titles. I have them tapped. Well you get the ideal.

Has any one heard of them realesing those?

The cover art is just great for season 3, and I do agree that this is hard on the pocket book. But it is the least inexpensive way to watch movies. Has anyone gone to the theater lately??? WOW !!!! What a shock to the system and the wallet.

I only discovered B5 with DVD and am very glad at the speed up of the releases. I loved the first season and was surprised when people told me it got even better - I didn't see how it could. Well, it did. Season 2 was excellent and I can't wait for the rest. I rather like the Shadows

I wish they would release the other TV movies. I don't know a lot about them, but I have heard good things about 'Thirdspace' (I'm a sucker for stuff with Lovecraftian influences...)

Yay! Months early! Whoo hoo! I stopped watching the show after season 2 when it went from 10? to 1am to 3am on my local Fox station. Hard to stay up until 3am when you go to high school (I did follow it to 1 AM though). I already stocked up some VHS tapes to tape it off Sci-fi starting next month.

Great news!

Hey Julie.. thanks for refrehing my memory. Thirdspace is very good. I have that one recorded as well.

The TV movies in (roughly) chronological order:

In the Beginning
The intro with Delenn and G'Kar takes place in 2261. The framing story set on Centauri Prime takes place in 2278. But the flashback to the Earth-Minbar war, which accounts for the bulk of the story, is set in the 2240s.

The Gathering
Takes place in January 2257, nearly a year before the first regular season one episode. The movie was also produced and aired almost a full year before the series started production, and this shows in the changes in costumes, makeup, props and most of all cast members that were made in the interim. The DVD version is not the original 1993 director's cut, but the 1999 writer/producer's cut, restored to its planned six act structure (rather than the nine acts it originally contained) and adhering more closely to the original screenplay. Because of the wholesale edits, restoration of lost footage and rearranging of scenes, a new score by series composer Christopher Franke was commissioned to replace the now-unusable Stewart Copeland score heard in 1993.

These two have already been released on DVD. Double feature, two-sided disc in R1 and R4, separate discs in the U.K. Because the 1999 re-edit was never sold into foreign markets, The Gathering (revised) hasn't been translated into other languages. So the film has either never been released on DVD (in places like France) or the 1993 version has been released in its place.

Thirdspace
2261. This film actually takes place between the fourth season episodes "The Illusion of Truth" and "Atonement", though you'd never know that anything this big happened at that time from watching the series. (Thirdspace and In the Beginning were filmed immediately after S4 finished production, before it was known that there was going to be a fifth season.)

All of the remaining films fall into the long gap between episode 521 ("Objects at Rest", 2262) and the series finale "Sleeping in Light" (522, 2281):

River of Souls
2262, about six months after "Objects at Rest"

Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers
"To Live and Die in Starlight"
2265. Pilot for a possible series about the covert operatives known as the Rangers. Only peripherally a B5 adventure. Includes scenes set on Minbar and guest stars a B5 regular in a familiar role, but otherwise concentrates on new characters and a new ship. The station is seen briefly at the end.

A Call to Arms
December 2266.
An alien force is planning an attack on Earth, and only some of the current and former crew of Babylon 5 can stop it. The last B5 adventure, it also sets up the situation that provides the backdrop for the short-lived spin-off Crusade. (The situation at the end of the movie would have been dealt with over the first two seasons of the new series, had TNT not backed out of supporting the show before it aired due to creative differences.)

Since all but one of the remaining movies take place after the bulk of S5, I wouldn't expect to hear about their being released until we're a lot closer to the S5 date. Maybe WHV will release all of the films in a boxed set. If they release them separately, I think they'll need some extras - commentaries especially. (And if they go that route I think they should re-do the first two films as real SEs with 5.1 remixes, etc.)

Regards,

Joe

A box set of all 6 films would be good Joe but I personally vote for having the remaining 4 films put in the 13 episode Crusade box to fill that set out especially since "A Call to Arms" is sort of a pilot for Crusade. I think this would help the sales of the possible Crusade box as well.