Text 16169, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-07-25 10:54:26 av Jon (2642.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: 2 Days Til Comic-con and 1 week until TLT! (Rant/Blog-typethinking ahea
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Wow, these are exciting times.  I'm sure a lot of us thought we'd
never get to see any more B5 again, and look at it..consistently in
the top 10 for amazon DVD sales for almost a month.  That *has* to
turn some WB heads.

Looking around the internet, I'm surprised there's not more buzz over
this.  I guess Babylon 5 was never really a high profile show, even
though it's a top seller, and has been more groundbreaking in its
storytelling and production than any show I can recall (except maybe
the Prisoner...which...it incessantly references ;) ).  But thinking
about it, I'm in awe of how much of a bigger deal TLT really is than
just Babylon 5.

Sure, we get more Babylon 5 in a week. I'm jumping up and down like a
little kid waiting in line at a supermarket who just saw some piece of
candy he just *has* to have, trust me.  The scope of this project
really is something else entirely: Direct to DVD marketing.

Up until this point, direct to DVD movies have always been poor
production quality third and fourth tier films (often sequels -
Starship Troopers 2 comes to mind...as does a number of Disney
"sequels", where typically none of the original actors remain).  Now,
we see a legitimate continuation of a cult television series with a
higher production budget than that of the actual show itself.  If TLT
is successful, it means that higher budget science fiction dramas no
longer have to compete for space against lower budget reality shows
for commercial times.  It means that artists like JMS are no longer
bound to produce content 42 minutes long, and can pace the stories to
actually fit *the stories* rather than commercial breaks.  It means
that many of our favorites (star trek, firefly, stargate, farscape,
arrested development...yes, I'm just naming the shows that *I* want to
see more content.  Jeremiah: TLT anyone?) are actually viable for
continuation because they have shown a track record of being able to
sell on DVD.

These are very exciting times, and Babylon 5 is leading the way again
to revolutioninze the way we see media.  I honestly think that
television and "the movies" are pretty dead as formats.  No one wants
to watch commercials anymore, and no one goes to see movies.  Serenity
was a prime example of old thinking applied to new concepts, and it
failed because of that reason.  Part of me is glad that Babylon 5
didn't get to the feature film level after seeing how Serenity went
down, because if the same thing would have happened with our little
universe, there would have been no way we would see continuation.  I
know I'm going to get some "are you crazy?" responses for that last
statement.

Think logically about all this.  Shows like Babylon 5, Firefly do
*wonderfully* on DVD.  So the response to put it in the untested
market of theatres would be an inappropriate one.  Serenity didn't do
well in theatres, but again did well on DVD.  I think that DVD/
webisodes are the future way of doing things, allowing more
flexibility for the artists not only for the above reason of story
pacing, but because it allows a cheaper way to reach a niche market
(that's us), exploiting technology so it doesn't have to compete in
the overall market (that's America's Next Top Model viewers..).  The
fact that our little tech-geek niche *loves* new technology doesn't
hurt either.  We eat up new ways to view content because it goes along
with the very principals of what science fiction is all about.

And on top of all that...we get to see Sheridan in a starfury
again.

Anyway, the real reason for the post is to re-extend invitations for
friday a friday evening get together after the B5 panel and to kill
time while I'm bored at work.  Feel free to email me and I'll respond
back with my cell number.  I'll coordinate with Jan so we can get
something fun going.

Hopefully there'll be DVDs availible in stores too..I'm going to
hawaii the first...so I don't want to order on amazon and not have it
show up the 31st.  It'll be good to watch over and over on the
plane :)

Jon D.
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