oh happy day!!! the b5 movies are comeing... (1 Viewer)

TVShowsOnDVD.com says the b5 movies box set are going to be released August 17th.

The Gathering (1993): Alien envoys come to the giant space station in the pilot that launched the five-year TV series.

In the Beginning (1998): The B5 prequel! It's humans vs. aliens in the battle that led to the station's creation.

Thirdspace (1998): Is there a realm beyond hyperspace? Discovery of a million-years-old gateway technology may hold the answer...and more.

River of Souls (1998): After death, then what? Questions of eternity arise when a supposedly infallible harvester of souls proves to be very fallible.

A Call to Arms (1999): The torch is passed. A race against time to save Earth links the B5 mission with the Rangers' new interstellar efforts.

thanks for the info TVShowsOnDVD.com

Any chance they'll have these individually? I already have THE GATHERING and IN THE BEGINNING.

i kinda dout it.
im just glad they are being released at all...
i to have "THE GATHERING and IN THE BEGINNING"
but ill live with it.
ill just give it to my brother.

Sell'em while you can, IIRC JMS said these would be new transfers with some extras...

"Each movie will contain commentary from the creator (J. Michael Straczynski), cast and crew, as well as an introduction for each movie by JMS."

You're welcome.

And Rick P's got it right...scrag the flipper that's out now and just get this instead. A friend of mine just recently bought the flipper, too...totally against my advice! Now he'll double-dip like the rest of us!

I have no problem double-dipping on this one. I'll just use the old disc as a way to pull in new fans to B5.

I've already sold mine...

Jason

Yeah, lose the flipper. It was purely a cheap way to "test the DVD waters" back when Warner Bros. was still skeptical about TV shows on DVD in general, and even more skeptical about B5 in particular. (Oh how I love saying "I told you so" to those guys whenever I have occasion to drop WHV a line!) According to JMS the studio has made something like $70 million off the DVDs to date. (Presumably that's a world-wide tally, but still damned impressive for a little-seen series that barely survived its planned five-year run.)

I always expected that WB would revisit the first two telefilms, preferably with new transfers, DD 5.1 remixes and extras, once the series had proved itself in the marketplace. (And suggested exactly that strategy in 1998, at the same time I suggested releasing TG and ItB as a cheap, no-frills double-feature release - but I digress. )

BTW, the last letter I sent to WHV was one protesting their decision not to have JMS record commentary tracks for the upcoming Crusade DVD release. Seems he made it clear that he intended to discuss the full extent of TNT's interference and perfidy in the making of the series and the decisions that led up to the plug being pulled on production six months before the complete episodes finally aired. WB is nervous about publicly insulting their corporate stable-mate (despite the fact that TNT's breach of their Crusade contract cost the studion about 10 million dollars, and TNT's hardball negotiating over the rights to the B5 reruns prevented the spin-off from moving to The Sci-Fi Channel in 1999 - which potentially cost them a whole five year series and many millions more.)

The story is already well-known in the fan community, so it isn't exactly a "secret". JMS had discussed the problems on-line, in numerous press interviews and at any number of SF conventions over the past five years. So I'm not sure who WB thinks they're protecting. As long as he doesn't mention individual TNT execs by name (and he never has before) JMS would hardly be opening either himself of the studio up to legal action. I don't see why what is rapidly becoming the standard disclaimer ("The opinions offered in the commentaries and interviews on this disc are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of BigGiant Studio, its employees or shareholders...") wouldn't immunize WHV enough to let JMS speak his mind. But they seem to think it won't and he says he won't do any commentaries if he can't say exactly what he wants to say.

I suggest that anyone who wants to weigh in on the matter before the final decision is made fire off a snail mail to WHV.

BTW, Dave, is Doug Wadleigh still the VP of Marketing and Special Features over there? If not, who is?

Thanks,

Joe

You're asking ME? Heh, Gord's the one who gets to speak to bigwigs. Me, not so much. I have no idea who's VP of what, at any studio, other than Martin and Peter (courtesy of HTF). And I only have a phone # for one of them, and to my recollection I've used it maybe once.

Do you have a link to this stuff handy? I'd like to print it out into a DVD-sized booklet and put it in the eventual Crusade box set.

When is Crusade coming BTW? My guess is January, but I hope sooner.

This link at ISN News provides a good overview of what happened, including numerous excerpts and entire posts from JMS.

Regards,

Joe

Can't Wait

i wonder why The Legend of the Rangers was not added to the box set?

Any word on how many total discs? Will it be five? Or are they putting more than one movie on a disc?

Ric

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1...ry=movie%20DVD
>What a weekend! Does all movies include B5LR by the way?

Not in the big set, no...that will be a separate DVD since it's really not a part of what comprised the original B5 movies.

jms

5 discs.
one for each movie.

You know - its exciting news, but I wish the original version of the pilot was on the disc, in addition to the re-edited The Gathering. Just for comparison's sake.

at least they are still releaseing it...
Thanks!

I know the re-edit is JMS's preferred version, but it may not be too late to lobby for including the original cut - WB still owns all the rights and WHV had actually started prepping that version for the first DVD before JMS discovered the mistake and got them to switch. And a PAL version was released on DVD in several countries where the re-edit was never dubbed or subtitled in the local language. So it should be doable for a relatively small additional cost if there's enough interest - and if JMS is willing.

I'll definitely try to post a note to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated suggesting this to the GM, but I've had trouble posting there lately. (A note I sent Monday urging JMS to take another shot at Michael O'Hare to participate in the extras for The Gathering and possibly In the Beginning hasn't shown up on the group yet.) Also could be worth writing directly to WHV about including both versions. I've never seen the original cut myself and would be very interested in comparing the two, and having it on disc just to have a really complete "archive" of the series.

Regards,

Joe