‘Long-Awaited ‘Babylon 5′ Blu-ray Release is Here’
Great news continues to pour in for Babylon 5 enthusiasts as the complete series is set to be released on Blu-ray shortly after the announcement of an upcoming animated film. To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the release will encompass all 110 episodes spanning five seasons, along with the pilot TV movie, The Gathering. J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the show, expressed his excitement on Twitter, addressing fans and acknowledging their role in making this long-awaited release a reality.
ATTENTION #BABYLON5 FANS! YOU WANTED IT, YOU ASKED FOR IT, AND IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED! To celebrate B5’s 30th Anniversary, the Complete Babylon 5 series will be released ON BLU-RAY December 5, ’23. Pre-orders can be placed STARTING TODAY via the retailer of your choice. Huzzah! pic.twitter.com/9OfI05I0fa
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) July 18, 2023
Straczynski’s series followed the inhabitants of a 23rd-century Earth Alliance space station set up to mediate peace between five powerful empires. Its original production wasn’t of the highest quality – to say the least – jumping between staged scenes and blurry CGI frames. But in 2021, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released Babylon 5 Remastered to stream on what was then called HBO Max and as a digital download from iTunes and Amazon. The original camera negatives were scanned at 4K and then upscaled to HD with cleanup and color correction to boot. The CGI episodes were upscaled to HD, and the show has been watchable in its original 4:3 aspect ratio ever since.
The Blu-ray release will be “fully remastered in HD,” which could be the 2021 update or later. The Blu-ray version of Babylon 5 is available for pre-order now for $100 and will be released in the US and Canada on December 5th.
