It was the dawn of the third age of mankind. Ten years after the Earth Minbari war. The Babylon project was dream giving form. It's goal to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call. Home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanders. Humans and aliens wrap in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
Looks like they cropped the 4:3 original to make it 16:9. Below here is a comparison of a random shot. It wasn't even evenly cropped. There was more cropped off of the bottom here than the top. Which, I guess is a good sign. Perhaps that means that they are trying to crop each shot to optimally keep the subject matter in frame. Still, I think most people would rather they just left it 4:3.
It was actually filmed in 16:9, but aired in 4:3. Strazinsky correctly predicted that 16:9 would be the future format. A 16:9 crop OF the 4:3 crop is criminal.
The CGI was done in 4:3 for budget reasons, so CGI and composite shots are only available in 4:3 (which then had to be cropped for 16:9 later on), which is why the CGI looks terrible. At least in the earlier seasons, afaik later on rights were acquired by some network that wanted 16:9 and so from that point forward CGI was also in 16:9
https://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/Babylon5/DVD/DVDTransfer.html has lots of info and examples
The CGI was supposed to be re-rendered for widescreen release but things went south with all that. A bunch of files were found though and someone has done them in 1080 widescreen and they look amazing.
When they were making the original 4:3 CGI, they thought that by the time a 16:9 release was desired, technology would have evolved enough that they’d want to re-render everything anyway.
Indeed. And they certainly did want to. But as always, money.
That's an excellent link, thank you!
It was actually filmed in 16:9, but aired in 4:3.
I have heard that about Stargate, which is why modern remasters of Stargate SG-1 are in an uncropped 16:9, with more content onscreen than the original 4:3 run.
I love Stargate, but I don't think I knew that. Cool!
Did they release the original 16:9 too?
That I don't know. I believe the original DVD releases were still 4:3.
I seem to recall that the CGI effects were only rendered at 4:3, and with the original files lost there was no simple way to re-record them.
Ah that's too bad. Thanks for the info.
That's too bad that they cropped it, the framing is going to be super tight in a lot of scenes. It's nice that it's available for free though, hopefully it brings in some new fans.
Obligatory Simpsons cropping that ruined jokes:
Hopefully nothing this bad will end up happening. Regardless, I really don't know why anyone would still choose to crop a release after issues like this have been known to unintentionally occur.
Because those in charge don't care - they just want to shut up the "black bar" whiners who are too clueless (and equally careless) to understand why they're there & what they're losing when it gets "fixed."
the “black bar” whiners
Is that still a thing? I genuinely don't know whether it is, or if that is just an executive thinking back to the days when people would complain when modern content that has a 16:9 aspect ratio would produce black bars on their aging 4:3 televisions. I would hope that people in modern day with 16:9 televisions understand why old television shows might look different on a modern display, and that they would be willing to put up with the black bars that they know are helping them to not lose any content. But maybe the ignorant whiners do still exist. I don't know.
When 4:3 content is (properly) displayed on a 16:9 screen, there will be wide black bars to the sides which people also whine about. They paid for a big screen for a reason, dammit!
People stretch 4:3 content to 16:9 — e.g. in uploads on YouTube, and afaik on their tvs too. Which is immensely stupid but is done anyway. So complaining about the bars is relatively innocent.
Some episodes there are 4:3.
Good call out. Looks like only the first episode is 16:9, and everything else (so far) is 4:3. That might have something to do witn the fact that what they are calling "Episode 1" here is not technically part of the TV show. It is actually a made-for-TV movie or whatever.
The best Sci-Fi show ever, the themes and storyline are dead on for everthing happening today. "I need a drink!" "Some must be sacrificed, if all are to be daved". Great show. Was able to catch the Blu-Ray on a smoking deal afew years ago, it's better but not ideal.
Daving all of us is unrealistic
Loved babylon 5!
Ah fuck yeah
A couple years ago it was free on Tubi or Roku, I forget which but we watched four seasons of it with no problem.
The linked article mentions how it was recently removed from Tubi
Viewers noticed notifications on Tubi indicating that all five seasons would no longer be available after February 10, 2026, effectively removing one of the most accessible free streaming options for the space opera.
Ok cool, I wasn't off. We still need to watch the 5th season. The 4th season just felt so final (and I understand the reasons why) that we kind of lost interest in finishing the 5th. It was a great ride though!
Oh baby! Hopefully this will lead a lot more people to discover this underappreciated Sci Fi gem 🙏
Finally, some good news!