The Strange, Secret Evolution of Babylon 5

Darrell Lawrence · February 22nd, 2013, 09:23 AM

Dang... 20 years already!

http://io9.com/5985727/the-strange-s...n-of-babylon-5

Tenement · February 22nd, 2013, 10:05 AM

Fifty years of Doctor Who, forty seven years of Star Trek, nearly forty years of Space 1999, thirty five years of Star Wars and twenty years of Babylon 5. Nobody can ever accuse of SF of not staying loyal to the film and TV shows.

gmd3d · February 22nd, 2013, 01:00 PM

B5 great canvas show.....
I have watched it a number of times from start to finish...

Auditor · February 22nd, 2013, 01:48 PM

I wrote a big post on this, but timed out cause I'm at work and kept getting interupted. Sigh.

When B5 was on I didn't watch it much. I did like the animation and it was part of my decision to go with LightWave. At the time I loved the animation, but not the live action parts. My viewing at the time was centered more around the various Star Trek series.

Although people put down the CGI of B5 I think it was really great for its time. For the money and the limitations of Lightwave at the time it was spectacular. For the most part they don't know what the pre-open GL LightWave was like. The turn around time of a weekly TV show. Texture image constraints. Image sizes were severally limited. LightWave was just becoming available for Windows coming from Amiga. They were using LightWave 3 I think. And computers at the time. There professional computers less Processing power than your phone does now.

Resently I watch B5 from start to finish including TV movies. It was fun and entertaining. Soap opera acting and dated CG, but fun and well worth viewing.

If nothing else it inspires you to power up the computer and create.

"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace..."

evil_genius_180 · February 22nd, 2013, 08:54 PM

Unfortunately, I started reading that article but quickly lost interest because I'm not that familiar with the series. They have the first season and part of the second on Hulu, I need to watch those sometime. Hopefully. they'll be getting more. I've only seen part of the first season on some scratched up DVDs (from the library.) I liked what I saw, though.

I agree with your assessment of the CGI, Auditor. It was definitely good for its time. Some shows were just starting to use it for some effects, they used it for all of them. Kudos for that.

gmd3d · February 25th, 2013, 03:34 AM

I thought the cgi was very good and still holds up well enough,,,,, pioneering show,

It did take me a long time to get into it, but when I did and followed the show I had to watch again, I do own the DVD collection now and will watch again.

I like it more than Star Trek DS9 and Voyager.. I never watched them since first run over here.

Auditor · February 25th, 2013, 06:46 AM

I have said before in the forum about my love for the Star Fury. That was star of the show for me.

http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/SA-23...ndyne_Starfury

evil_genius_180 · February 25th, 2013, 09:17 AM

For me, the CGI in Babylon 5 is a lot like the miniature work in King Kong. By today's standards, neither holds up. However, as pioneers of those kinds of effects, they're groundbreaking.

Raptornet · June 6th, 2013, 02:47 AM

I'm currently watching B5, i'm in season 3. I've not actually seen the end, EVER!

I remember B5 really did get me into LW, a friend of mine had LW 3.5 (it think) on his Amiga, was around 1993. I would go up on a weekly basis and learn Lightwave with him. That was when I was 13, i carried on playing with 3D, buying LW 5.0 for my then impressively upgraded Amiga 1200.

Auditor · June 6th, 2013, 08:22 PM

I think 5.0 was my first version. I'm amazed at what they got out of Lightwave 3.0 Anyway I've already posted on that. And B5 and LW3D.

Hope your enjoying B5. I did. I recently watched the whole series and movies. It has its moments. Good and Bad.

My favorite Amiga moment has nothing to do with LW3D or B5. It was capturing the backwards message off one of the songs from Pink Floyd The Wall and reversing it to hear it.