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Babylon 5 Streaming on Amazon Prime June 2018

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    Babylon 5 Streaming on Amazon Prime June 2018

    http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/new...kZaVk3jEsJF.99

    This is such great news, especially if it can be seen globally. Plan your re-watch now!!!!! So glad I am going to be able to stream a re-watch on my TV. That was the big limitation of streaming on Go90, no available on enough platforms. I am so excited.

    P.S. I don't know if it will be available, but Amazon Video does have the original cut of The Gathering (1993). I hope it will be available as part of the streaming package, but if not I think it is super cheap. I own it. It is a bit hard to find, but I think you just have to look for Babylon 5 Episode 0.

    #2
    Great news indeed!

    Here's a great guide to help figure out the watch order for B5.
    Spoiler:
    I don’t want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly, because I have to—I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language, but I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I’m a machine, and I can know much more.

    Comment


      #3
      Woot woot, awesome news!
      sigpic

      Comment


        #4
        Very nice! Missed out on so many episodes on the original run. It was on a local network of particularly low quality making it impossible to watch.
        "I met a traveller from an antique land..."

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Looney View Post
          P.S. I don't know if it will be available, but Amazon Video does have the original cut of The Gathering (1993). I hope it will be available as part of the streaming package, but if not I think it is super cheap. I own it. It is a bit hard to find, but I think you just have to look for Babylon 5 Episode 0.
          Wait, there's more than one version?

          Originally posted by Chaka-Z0 View Post
          Great news indeed!

          Here's a great guide to help figure out the watch order for B5.
          There are...numerous errors on that. Yikes.
          "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post
            Wait, there's more than one version?


            There are...numerous errors on that. Yikes.
            Would you have a better guide? This is the one I personally used on my first watch and haven't noticed any continuity issues. I'd love to have the real watch order then!
            Spoiler:
            I don’t want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly, because I have to—I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language, but I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I’m a machine, and I can know much more.

            Comment


              #7
              Well, I was being a little hyperbolic - there's only really one glaring error (Sleeping in Light), one that's debatable (Thirdspace), and one that should be different in my opinion rather than in fact (In the Beginning). So, I was almost certainly being more vocal than was actually deserved.

              For any newcomer (which you are not, obviously, I'm just answering the question ), my needlessly verbose recommendation runs:

              Spoiler:
              1. Babylon 5: The Gathering
              Set in 2257, same as your link.


              2. Babylon 5: Season 1
              Set in 2258, same as your link.

              There's a more convoluted approach to Season 1 that re-sorts the episode order based on production order, script details, and a few other factors, but practically speaking there's not really any compelling reason to approach it in any order other than what's on the DVDs.


              3. Babylon 5: Season 2
              Set in 2259, same as your link.

              If you want to get into 'expanded universe' media (much of which is actually JMS canon), there are a number of novels and comics that slot into Season 2, but for the 'lay person,' just the episodes in the DVD order is perfectly fine.


              4. Babylon 5: Season 3
              Set in 2260, same as your link.


              5.
              Babylon 5: Season 4, Episodes 1-8/9
              Babylon 5: Thirdspace
              Babylon 5: Season 4, Episode 9

              All set in 2261. Thirdspace is...a nuisance. To be completely nitpicky, I think it fits in most accurately if you play episode 409 for the first few minutes, pause it, watch Thirdspace, then go back to 409. But even that doesn't make complete sense (not to mention it's a really onerous thing to ask of someone coming into the series for the first time). So I'd say your link's placement of it between 408 and 409 is probably the simplest compromise.


              6. Babylon 5: Season 4, Episodes 10-22
              Also set in 2261, same as your link.

              There's an argument that 422 should be either moved to the very end and act as a coda to the entire story (which I don't like simply because it feels like it undercuts everything else), or else dropped entirely (which I also don't like, because I dislike skipping anything). Again, for simplicity's sake, it's probably easiest to just watch it as the last episode of Season 4.


              7. Babylon 5: Season 5, Episodes 1-21
              All set in 2262, same as your link.


              8. Babylon 5: The River of Souls
              Set in 2263, same as your link.


              9. Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers
              Set in 2265, same as your link. (But oh my god is it ever awful)


              Error
              This is where your link says to put "the rest of season 5" (ie: 522 Sleeping in Light). That cannot be the case, as Sheridan meets his destiny in 522, but is still around in Call to Arms, Crusade, and Lost Tales, which are later in your link's order.



              10. Babylon 5: A Call to Arms
              Set at end of 2266, same as your link. Again, Sheridan appears here.


              11. Crusade
              Set in 2267, same as your link. There's no end to the debate about which order to watch these episodes in.


              12. Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
              Set in 2271, same as your link. Again, Sheridan appears here.


              13. Babylon 5: In the Beginning
              So this is the difference of opinion one. Your link wants this right after Season 4, and I cannot figure out why. If the flowchart's author wanted it to echo War Without End, that was in the second half of Season 3 (so why wait till end of Season 4 to watch it?). Alternatively, the framing story for this (Emperor Londo) is set in 2278, long after the events of the main series and Crusade.

              My thought is to put it here, right near the end, for a couple of reasons. First, it brings the whole franchise's story full circle by revisiting the origin story of what got us started, and how that dictated all the years of story between then and now. Second, it ties off the recurring time-travel thread that first appeared in Season 1, came back in Season 3, and now here we finally see it in its final contemporary context--with the benefit now of knowing the whole story. Third, it gives us the opportunity to revisit Londo and G'Kar one last time (for G'Kar it's the first time we've seen him since Legend of the Rangers, 13 years earlier; for Londo, the first time since B5 Season 5, 18 years earlier). It also gives the two characters their final exit, making it unequivocally clear why neither appear in "Sleeping in Light" (and bonus points for making the lines in SiL about absent friends feel more acutely melancholic than they do without recent context).

              As an added bonus for people interested in checking out the (canon!) expanded universe, here may also be a good spot to check out the (JMS canon) Legions of Fire novels, which detail the nearly two decades that Centauri Prime was secretly occupied and Londo himself controlled by the Drakh. The author of the trilogy gets almost all of his dates wrong, but still manages to tell the great tragedy of the Centauri in a compelling and depressing way, and that trilogy ends shortly after the conclusion of In the Beginning.



              14. Babylon 5: Season 5, Episode 22
              The final ending, set in 2281. Aside from it naturally falling at the end due to its being the latest date in the franchise (minus Deconstruction of Falling Stars), I think that Sleeping in Light is just the perfect period at the end of the sentence for this universe. It's very much the end for us viewing the story, and the end of an era in-universe as well. I can't fathom anything else wrapping this universe up.



              ...man do I ever need a hobby
              Last edited by DigiFluid; 18 May 2018, 02:30 PM.
              "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

              Comment


                #8
                Cool! It was recced to me years ago, but I haven't been able to find it
                sigpic

                Click here daily to give free mammograms

                It is better to be crazy for Jesus than a wise man for Satan. Laters, Misi

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                  #9
                  Not on Amazon Prime though. Bummer
                  sigpic

                  Click here daily to give free mammograms

                  It is better to be crazy for Jesus than a wise man for Satan. Laters, Misi

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Everlovin View Post
                    Not on Amazon Prime though. Bummer
                    Looney (and the link provided) says it's coming in June
                    "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

                    Comment


                      #11
                      On 17/5/2018 JMS tweeted some very interesting stuff to Amazon about getting a higher quality version of B5 out there. Although some people are questioning the technical accuracy of some of his statements.

                      http://jmsnews.com/forums/showthread...321#post181321
                      Last edited by Blake00; 20 May 2018, 08:02 PM.
                      Blakes Sanctum: Retro site for retro games! Age of Wonders, Babylon 5, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Elder Scrolls, Dune, Final Fantasy, Freelancer, Heroes of Might & Magic, Imperium Galactica, Master of Magic, Quest for Glory, Starflight, Star Trek & more!

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                        #12
                        FIRST, yes there are two versions of The Gathering (1993). There is the original version, which aired in 1993. Then later when the series was picked up by TNT for Season 5 and the movies JMS was allowed to go back and create the Special Edition version, which is what was released on DVD. The Original Cut is available where I said and on the Columbia House VHS. I believe there is also a German DVD.

                        Originally posted by Blake00 View Post
                        On 17/5/2018 JMS tweeted some very interesting stuff to Amazon about getting a higher quality version of B5 out there. Although some people are questioning the technical accuracy of some of this statements.

                        http://jmsnews.com/forums/showpost.p...21&postcount=3
                        Yes there is a great debate brewing on the accuracy of JMS' statements. I choose to be hopeful and I give JMS the benefit of the doubt. If he is wrong then my guess is that he was just mis-informed. And it has created a petition.

                        https://www.change.org/p/warner-brot...ster-negatives

                        EVERYONE should sign it. Even if it is based on inaccurate information it will remind WB that there are fans out here if it gets enough signatures. So sign it and share it with everyone in the world so they will sign it too.

                        NOW AS TO VIEWING ORDER.

                        The first thing I should point out is that it has not been stated that Amazon Prime will have Crusade or any of the B5 movies. The Gathering (1993) while it is the pilot episode is considered to be one of the the movies. The Legend of The Rangers was also considered to be a Pilot Episode for a spinoff, but is also now considered to be one of the movies. I know Amazon Digital has all of these movies and spinoffs, but that doesn't mean they are part of the Prime Streaming License. I am hoping they are part of the deal, but while B5 was streaming on Go90 last year is was just the main series episodes. The Movies and Crusade are a separate licensing arrangement that Amazon may not have picked up, but they do have them. You just might have to pay to watch them individually.

                        Here is where you can find a chronological order of episodes with dates that they are supposed to be taking place - it even gives dates for the canon comics and novels. This list gives you all of the episodes in the order they were conceived by the dates they are supposed to be happening. Being a TV show not every episode aired in the original order they were intended for reasons of budget and logistics. For the most part, Babylon 5 did a great job putting everything in order, but this list really lines it up. A bit of a warning, when reading this chronological list from b5historyman you might want to avoid some of the little comments in parentheses next to the titles and supposed dates because there can be spoilers. Here is the list:

                        http://www.b5tv.com/showthread.php?t=45825

                        Possibly the most important part of the list is the Crusade Chronological order. In case you don't know when Crusade first aired TNT completely screwed up the episode order. This is the chronological order and, to add fuel to the fire of the debate DigiFluid mentioned, my favorite order. There is also a JMS favorite order list, but I didn't like it as much as the chronological order. JMS' list is based on episodes that he feels didn't turn out the way he wanted or that he felt kind of forced to do. So yes DigiFluid is correct that due to TNT screwing everything up there are multiple ways to watch Crusade. I think everyone agrees that the worst option is watching it in the order it aired, which is unfortunately how they put them on the DVDs and is likely the order in which they would stream.

                        Now there is some debate as to whether or not this chronological order of Babylon 5 is the best way to view it, but the differences of opinion are minor. The key point is that you should start with The Gathering. It has flaws, but it is a pilot after all.

                        So moving away from b5historyman's Babylon 5 Chronological List and taking what Chaka-Z0 and DigiFluid provided, here is a simplified viewing order:

                        The Gathering (Pilot Episode)

                        Season One

                        Season Two

                        Season Three

                        Season Four Episodes 1-8

                        Thirdspace TNT Original Movie: I think DigiFluid nailed this right on the head. It is hard to exactly place Thirdspace. It just goes somewhere around here. LOL

                        Season Four Episodes 9-22 – Episode 22 The Deconstruction of Falling Stars is a tough one to get around. Like DigiFluid explained you are probably okay just watching it at the end of Season Four. It would also be fine if you watched it closer to the end of everything, but it should definitely not be placed at the end of the series.

                        Season 5 Episodes 1-21

                        (You could put Season 4 Episode 22: The Deconstruction of Falling Stars HERE)

                        River of Souls TNT Original Movie

                        Babylon 5 The Legend of The Rangers – (Keep in mind this was another Pilot)

                        A Call To Arms TNT Original Movie

                        Crusade Chronologically (I provided where to find these titles on the DVDs. Streaming them through Amazon will likely be in the release order so you will also need this list to stream them in chronological order. Chronological is a good way to view Crusade for the first time. You can always go back and watch it again with other viewing orders.)

                        War Zone - DVD Disc One Episode One

                        The Long Road – DVD Disc One Episode Two

                        Appearances and Other Deceits – DVD Disc Two Episode Four

                        The Memory of War – Disc Three Episode Two

                        Needs of Earth – Disc Three Episode Three

                        Racing The Night – DVD Disc Three Episode One

                        Visitors From Down The Street – DVD Disc Three Episode Four

                        Each Night I Dream of Home – DVD Disc Four

                        The Path of Sorrows - DVD Disc One Episode Four

                        Ruling From The Tomb – DVD Disc Two Episode Two

                        Patterns of The Soul – DVD Disc Two Episode One

                        The Well of Forever – DVD Disc One Episode Three

                        Rules of The Game – DVD Disc Two Episode Three

                        Babylon 5 The Lost Tales

                        Babylon 5 In The Beginning TNT Original Movie

                        (You could put Season 4 Episode 22: The Deconstruction of Falling Stars HERE – Really you could put it anywhere after Season 5 Episode 21 or leave it where it is.)

                        Babylon 5 Season 5 Episode 22: Sleeping in Light.

                        This list would be fine for first time viewers, but if you really want to see it laid out in the timeline it was supposed to flow through then give the list b5historyman compiled a try. I highly recommend b5historyman's viewing order if you have already watched B5 once through.
                        Last edited by Looney; 20 May 2018, 11:12 AM.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Looney View Post
                          Yes there is a great debate brewing on the accuracy of JMS' statements. I choose to be hopeful and I give JMS the benefit of the doubt. If he is wrong then my guess is that he was just mis-informed. And it has created a petition.

                          https://www.change.org/p/warner-brot...ster-negatives

                          EVERYONE should sign it. Even if it is based on inaccurate information it will remind WB that there are fans out here if it gets enough signatures. So sign it and share it with everyone in the world so they will sign it too.
                          Yeah I 100% agree with you Looney & yup I already voted yester. Little bit to much pessimism & negativity in that jmsnews thread for my liking.
                          Blakes Sanctum: Retro site for retro games! Age of Wonders, Babylon 5, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Elder Scrolls, Dune, Final Fantasy, Freelancer, Heroes of Might & Magic, Imperium Galactica, Master of Magic, Quest for Glory, Starflight, Star Trek & more!

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                            #14
                            I’m a bit surprised that Amazon appear to be charging $30 per season for the series.
                            "I met a traveller from an antique land..."

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by photoglyph View Post
                              I’m a bit surprised that Amazon appear to be charging $30 per season for the series.
                              That is a last ditch effort to scam some money before it hits Prime. I bought Season One in November on sale for $4.99. I was hoping they would drop the rest of them, but they have been sitting around $19.99 to $25 until the obvious recent bump up.

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