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Babylon 5 Project - The Film Series

Update time! I've completed and uploaded two more movies: Babylon 5 Project X: War Without End and Babylon 5 Project XI: No Hiding Place. Both are a bit on the short side but War Without End is actually much longer than the 2-parter it's based on. I expanded it to include the footage from Babylon Squared from when Sinclair arrives to when he departs so viewers get a full view of all the sequences of events minus any inconsistencies. Don't worry, those inconsistencies also do not exist in my version of Babylon Squared that appeared way back in Babylon 5 Project I: Dawn of the Third Age. Both of these films were cut concurrently.

Film 11 was originally much longer at 2 hours 45 minutes but found that format was too long and there was a natural stopping point right smack in the middle. So while Films 10 - 12 fall short of my goal of 2 hour long films, they're still in the feature length time limit. I'll be updating IFDB in the next little bit.

I also completed my technical edit of Babylon 5 Project XVII: No Surrender No Retreat which puts me one film away from wrapping up season 4. Season 3 and 4 make up the bulk of my film series at 12 movies (or 13 if you take into account that the season 3 premiere is part of film 6) out of 22.

What does this all mean? Well, it means that I've released 50% of my film series, there are 6 complete movies that all I have to do is output, and only 5 movies more movies after that require minor edits and tweaks. It's just a matter of sitting down to watch the 5 remaining films to make technical edits and the whole 22 film series has picture lock. The end is nigh!
 
Just completed putting the finishing touches on Babylon 5 Project 18: Endgame and Babylon 5 Project 19: A Tragedy of Telepaths. That means I'm just 3 movies away from locking down the series!

It took me a bit longer to run a technical edit on film 19 because I forgot I did another major pass on it. It was originally 2 hours and 45 minutes long which I thought was far too long for it. I figured out a way to really cut it down and I'm pretty happy with how it worked out now that's it's a more manageable 2 hours and 24 minutes. Surprisingly, there's a really great telepath arc in the first half of season 5 when you boil everything down to essentials.

The next two films are fairly straightforward edits of 3 episodes cut together so they shouldn't require anything more than a trim here and there. The series finale is a slightly different beast since Wheel of Fire, Objects in Motion, and Objects at Rest are bookended with Sleeping in Light. There's quite a bit removed from OaR because I removed JMS' added loose threads.

Basically, I'm almost done!
 
That's it, I've completed all my technical edits. I've officially picture locked the series finale which brings this whole 22 movie project to a close. Of course, I still need to export 11 movies so it's not over over but... well, I sometimes never thought I'd get to the end of this film project. Now that I'm here it's kind of sad.

There's always the possibility that I missed something. In fact, I exported film 12 last night but found a minor edit I could make to improve it today so I've made a slight modification and will be re-exporting soon. I'll try to make all movies available over the next few weeks and hope you all enjoy them.
 
Contrats on "finishing" the project. I'm really looking forward to watching this project.
 
Babylon 5 Project XII: In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum and Babylon 5 Project XIII: The Summoning are now available! This brings us to the end of season 3 and the beginning of season 4.
 
Season 4 is done! Since my last update, the following films are now available:
  • Babylon 5 Project XIII: The Summoning
  • Babylon 5 Project XIV: Into the Fire
  • Babylon 5 Project XV: Lines of Communication
  • Babylon 5 Project XVI: Moments of Transition
  • Babylon 5 Project XVII: No Surrender, No Retreat
  • Babylon 5 Project XVIII: Endgame
Notable missing stories are Delenn's dreaming in Atonement and the episodes "Intersections in Real Time" and "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars". Season 5 consists of four films so I expect to wrap this up in the next week or two.

For all you B5 aficionados, I'm also thinking of creating a document that you can use to get the most out my film series for whatever your viewing needs are by making variations on watching the series. One possible variation is to watch season 3 and 4 normally between the first 6 and last 4 films in my series. Another variation would be to just add a couple episodes between my movies to expand watching the series.

So, if you'd like to help, here's my list of what I've used and cut out of the series. Green denotes I've used most (if not all) of the episode, amber means I've used only part of the episode, and red means it's been cut completely. What I really want to know is which of the amber and red episodes do you think you would add to augment my film series?

SEASON 1
1. "Midnight on the Firing Line”
2. "Soul Hunter”
3. "Born to the Purple”: Used only the Adira storyline
4. “Infection”
5. "The Parliament of Dreams”
6. "Mind War”: used only Sigma 957 (in my edit, Catherine has no relationship with Sinclair)
7. "The War Prayer”
8. "And the Sky Full of Stars” Only used Sinclair remembering the Battle of the Line
9. “Deathwalker”
10. “Believers”
11. “Survivors”
12. "By Any Means Necessary” Only used the G’Quan Eth subplot
13. "Signs and Portents”
14. “TKO”
15. “Grail”
16. “Eyes”
17. “Legacies"
18. "A Voice in the Wilderness (Part 1)”
19. "A Voice in the Wilderness (Part 2)”
20. "Babylon Squared”
21. "The Quality of Mercy” Only used Dr. Franklin's alien healing device storyline
22. “Chrysalis”

SEASON 2
1. "Points of Departure”
2. “Revelations”
3. "The Geometry of Shadows” Only used the scene introducing Lord Refa
4. "A Distant Star” Used a truncated version of this story
5. "The Long Dark” Only used a single shot from this one of the book of G'Quan
6. "Spider in the Web”
7. "Soul Mates”
8. "A Race Through Dark Places” Used most of this but with definite changes
9. "The Coming of Shadows”
10. “Gropos”
11. "All Alone in the Night”
12. "Acts of Sacrifice” Only used G'Kar and Londo's story
13. "Hunter, Prey”
14. "There All the Honor Lies”
15. "And Now for a Word”
16. "In the Shadow of Z’ha'dum”
17. “Knives” Only used the baseball scene with the mention of sector 14
18. "Confessions and Lamentations”
19. "Divided Loyalties”
20. "The Long, Twilight Struggle”
21. "Comes the Inquisitor”
22. "The Fall of Night”

SEASON 3
1. "Matters of Honor”
2. “Convictions” Only used the monks arriving
3. "A Day in the Strife” Only used the stims storyline and G'Kar's storyline.
4. "Passing Through Gethsemane” Just used Lyta's return
5. "Voices of Authority”
6. "Dust to Dust”
7. "Exogenesis" Used only 1 scene where there is mention of “the package” being delivered to Marcus Cole. That sets off the next episode.
8. "Messages from Earth"
9. "Point of No Return"
10. "Severed Dreams"
11. "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"
12. "Sic Transit Vir" Only used the Sheridan/Delenn date (Vir never leaves for Minbar)
13. "A Late Delivery from Avalon" Only used the Babylon Treaty scenes.
14. "Ship of Tears"
15. "Interludes and Examinations"
16. "War Without End (Part 1)"
17. "War Without End (Part 2)"
18. "Walkabout" Removed Franklin's storyline
19. "Grey 17 Is Missing" Used only Delenn's storyline
20. "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"
21. "Shadow Dancing"
22. "Z'ha'dum"

SEASON 4
1. "The Hour of the Wolf"
2. "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"
3. "The Summoning"
4. "Falling Toward Apotheosis"
5. "The Long Night"
6. "Into the Fire"
7. "Epiphanies"
8. "The Illusion of Truth" truncated version of this
9. “Atonement” removed Delenn's storyline
10. "Racing Mars”
11. "Lines of Communication”
12. "Conflicts of Interest”
13. "Rumors, Bargains and Lies”
14. "Moments of Transition”
15. "No Surrender, No Retreat”
16. "The Exercise of Vital Powers”
17. "The Face of the Enemy”
18. "Intersections in Real Time”
19. "Between the Darkness and the Light”
20. “Endgame”
21. "Rising Star”
22. "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars”

SEASON 5
1. "No Compromises” used Lochley and Byron's arrival only as well as Garibaldi's promotion.
2. "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari” Only used Lennier leaving B5
3. "The Paragon of Animals” Used both the storylines but truncated them. The telepaths don't get involved with the alliance.
4. "A View from the Gallery”
5. "Learning Curve” Only used Garibaldi having lunch with Lochley
6. "Strange Relations” Only used Londo's storyline of the destroyed starship
7. "Secrets of the Soul” Only used Lyta and Byron's story
8. "Day of the Dead”
9. "In the Kingdom of the Blind”
10. "A Tragedy of Telepaths” removed the Na'Toth storyline
11. "Phoenix Rising”
12. "The Ragged Edge”
13. "The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father”
14. "Meditations on the Abyss”
15. "Darkness Ascending”
16. "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder”
17. "Movements of Fire and Shadow"
18. "The Fall of Centauri Prime"
19. "The Wheel of Fire"
20. "Objects in Motion"
21. "Objects at Rest"
22. "Sleeping in Light"
 
The film series has been completed and uploaded. It is now officially done!
 
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Wow what great timing for checking in here. I was a massive Babylon5 fan and was literally just pulling out my DVDs and trying to work out how (or if?) I can introduce my 9 and 10 year olds to it.

And I was also wondering about the HD remaster I’d heard about. Did you end up cleaning up the quality too or just improving the storytelling? Good either way!

I had been looking through what’s needed (and what’s not!) myself and skipping so many episodes in season 1 (& 2) felt like sacrilege, and yet still not enough to hook the kids. Your movies may be the perfect answer or close to it :)

Can’t thank you enough for the time and thoughtfulness you’ve clearly put into this and I really look forward to watching it.
 
subjectzero said:
I'm also thinking of creating a document that you can use to get the most out my film series for whatever your viewing needs are by making variations on watching the series. One possible variation is to watch season 3 and 4 normally between the first 6 and last 4 films in my series. Another variation would be to just add a couple episodes between my movies to expand watching the series.
Click to expand...

Besides the couple you've mentioned, the episode that stands out to me is And the Sky Full of Stars. It's a key episode of season 1, and the "what to skip in Babylon 5" articles tend to include that one. You've said you only include the Sinclair flashbacks... maybe that's enough (that was the key thing I remember about it. I haven't watched for years). Mind War was another one I was going to show the kids. Again... my memory isn't good enough to be sure I haven't watched in 15 years!

Watching the full season 3 and 4 might be good in the middle, but I'm a big fan of trimming the edges to bring out the quality. 

I was going to watch Thirdspace during season 4, after Illusion of Truth.
 
That is excellent news. I hope they do a good job with it, eg getting Tom Smith involved. Both of them, actually - Five Years would be a nice bonus feature :D
 
Ive seen many scenes redone by fans and ex team members who kept copies of the CGI files and models. If WB are smart, they will pull these people in. Plus, the B% Encyclopedia people have built HD models of many of the assets that would be needed. I would love to see a STTNG style rebuild.... it would pay off in time since they could sell this to the streaming services for years. The alternative is that this will wither in standard definition limbo on third rate cable services. That would be a tragedy. Plus if they render at 50/60 fps, it will look better anyway.

If anyone wants to know why B5 looks shit on DVD, here is an amazing article which is VERY technical and a GREAT read.
How Babylon 5 Is Transferred to DVD (modeemi.fi)
W

On the back of that article, I de-interlaced the whole series (from PAL DVDs), then rebuilt in progressive scan frame based and rendered out at 50 fps and it looks much better. And now my TV does intelligent frame build from the 25 fps PAL source source to create a synthetic higher frame rate and it looks really good. Only issue is I have no way to capture this and archive it. Shame.
 
I never watched Babylon 5's original run, so I've come into this completely blind. I've just watched the first three of your movies and I'm absolutely hooked! I feel completely up to speed, and though I'm sure there's plenty of nice texture which has been cut, I really appreciate the focus on the core storylines since they're clearly the show's strength. I totally get what people love about this show, and it's really scratching an itch for me. Thanks so much for doing this!

Edit: I see that the original show was also accompanied by five films - are any of them necessary to your edit, or incorporated into it? Or does your 22-film edit give a 'complete' end-to-end story with all the necessary content?
 
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EddieDean said:
I never watched Babylon 5's original run, so I've come into this completely blind. I've just watched the first three of your movies and I'm absolutely hooked! I feel completely up to speed, and though I'm sure there's plenty of nice texture which has been cut, I really appreciate the focus on the core storylines since they're clearly the show's strength. I totally get what people love about this show, and it's really scratching an itch for me. Thanks so much for doing this!

Edit: I see that the original show was also accompanied by five films - are any of them necessary to your edit, or incorporated into it? Or does your 22-film edit give a 'complete' end-to-end story with all the necessary content?
Click to expand...
You do own the show though, right?
 
DigModiFicaTion said:
You do own the show though, right?
Click to expand...
Of course! Bought the boxed set so I could watch this. Did the same thing with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant so I could watch the Paradise edit, and I hadn't seen either of them before either. Well, saw Prometheus once at the cinema, I think. But never owned either. But the ultimate collection also includes Crusade and the B5 movies which I'm wondering whether they're necessary for SubjectZero's recommended story.
 
EddieDean said:
Edit: I see that the original show was also accompanied by five films - are any of them necessary to your edit, or incorporated into it? Or does your 22-film edit give a 'complete' end-to-end story with all the necessary content?
Click to expand...
You do not need to watch any of the films to get the full story, it was designed to be as complete as possible. In fact, I did remove a few unresolved plot threads that should make it a bit more complete than the series in some ways.

The only two that really spring to mind are The Gathering (the initial pilot movie) because it introduces a character you meet later on. The other is In the Beginning but that one should only be watched after film 18. I did use pieces of In the Beginning in my film series, though, but it doesn't really tell the whole story.

Glad your enjoying it! I really think you should go back and do a rewatch afterward!
 
EddieDean said:
Of course! Bought the boxed set so I could watch this. Did the same thing with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant so I could watch the Paradise edit, and I hadn't seen either of them before either. Well, saw Prometheus once at the cinema, I think. But never owned either. But the ultimate collection also includes Crusade and the B5 movies which I'm wondering whether they're necessary for SubjectZero's recommended story.
Click to expand...
I've been doing the same. Fanediting driving sales of DVDs/BluRays/Boxed sets. :D
 
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