Babylon 5 Project: The entire series edited into 22 movies (Released)

A while back I finished my Babylon 5 edit of the entire series. I love the series but I wanted to put together an edit that which removes plot threads that go nowhere, fix a few inconsistencies, and removed the stories that don’t add to the major arc stories.

I’ve put together a series of 22 films that tell the entire Babylon 5 story while removing all of the filler. In some cases, this means just stitching three episodes together in sequence while in other cases, I’ve modified story elements and rearranged some things. In the case of Babylon Squared / War Without End, I’ve removed some of the inconsistencies to create a more seamless story, even adding more of B-Squared back into WWE.

My edit works for long time fans and newcomers. A few people have told me they couldn’t get into the series before and this helped them get into it.

SEASON ONE

• Babylon 5 Project I: Dawn of the Third Age
• Babylon 5 Project II: Signs and Portents

These two films condense most of season one into about 4 hours. Talia’s role has been minimized throughout.

SEASON TWO

• Babylon 5 Project III: Moments of Revelation
• Babylon 5 Project IV: The Coming of Shadows
• Babylon 5 Project V: The Long, Twilight Struggle
• Babylon 5 Project VI: The Fall of Night

Season two is a bit odd in that it includes both the season finale of season 1 and season premiere of season 3. In both cases it has to do with new characters who are more slowly introduced in these edits.

SEASON THREE

• Babylon 5 Project VII: Point of No Return
• Babylon 5 Project VIII: Severed Dreams
• Babylon 5 Project IX: Interludes and Examinations
• Babylon 5 Project X: War Without End
• Babylon 5 Project XI: No Hiding Place
• Babylon 5 Project XII: In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum

This is the season where the series really begins to shine. As such, there aren’t as many changes here as there were in previous seasons. Films 7 and 9 are where most of the condensing of episodes happen.

SEASON FOUR

• 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

Like season three, there wasn’t very much to change here. The only real truncating of several episodes happens in film 15 and only two episodes are removed entirely.

SEASON FIVE

• Babylon 5 Project XIX: A Tragedy of Telepaths
• Babylon 5 Project XX: Darkness Ascending
• Babylon 5 Project XXI: The Wheel of Fire
• Babylon 5 Project XXII: Sleeping in Light

The first half of season 5 was really slow and the whole story arc of 11 episodes was truncated into a single 2.5 hour film. The series finale features a time jump so I used that to bookend the film version.

How Much Has Been Cut?
I’ve cut about 45% out of the series entirely with a large amount coming from the first two seasons. If you want to get into some specific numbers, here’s what has been cut:

• Season 1: 60% removed
• Season 2: 52% removed
• Season 3: 29% removed
• Season 4: 17% removed
• Season 5: 31% removed

I’m interested in this. Did you do anything with the TV movies? Do you recommend them as part of your take on the series?

skyled said:

I’m interested in this. Did you do anything with the TV movies? Do you recommend them as part of your take on the series?

I used a bit from In the Beginning for films 1, 3, and 18 as framing devices… probably 10 minutes in total? There’s no reason you couldn’t watch the films with this (and I guess The Gathering might be required viewing just to introduce Lyta) along with a few episodes that were cut out completely, honestly, it’s up to you.

I did edit this to be completely self contained but I haven’t radically changed the story so you can expand it in any way you like.

Just about to re-watch this series and am interested in this.

Interested in hearing why you chose a movie format instead of cutting them down to a more streamlined tv show?
That said, I’ll take any excuse to rewatch Babylon 5.

-Viti- said:

Interested in hearing why you chose a movie format instead of cutting them down to a more streamlined tv show?
That said, I’ll take any excuse to rewatch Babylon 5.

Honestly, it was because I realized the big, arc heavy episodes came in multiples of 3 which roughly equaled 2 hours and a bit. It also gave me some leeway when I was mixing and matching stuff together in earlier seasons (plus making the addition of Sheridan a bit less abrupt). Also: it was just fun to see if I could do it!

That said, I’ve been planning on going back and redoing the entire thing in episodes sometime in the future. because of the higher def releases. And that I miss the intros!

Thoughts on the new animated movie Subject?

Cameron Samurai said:

Thoughts on the new animated movie Subject?

I have many!

Some context: outside of the original 5 year run, In the Beginning, and A Call to Arms/Crusade—I don’t think any of the other things JMS has tried to get going have worked (although I will always say that if you compare Crusade to the first 13 episodes of B5, Crusade is actually better [despite the music and studio interference]). Also, I’ve never been a fan of multiverse stories.

I LOVE the idea of the animated film, however. I think I understand the reason for the story which is that JMS has a shot to bring back all the characters but, story wise, it would be impossible to have them all in the same movie—particularly Londo. I also think it was studio mandated that he must have the Babylon 5 station as prominent component of the story (see: intellectual property and brand recognition).

Speculations: I also think JMS is tired of being asked the question “what would have happened if Sinclair stayed on Babylon 5” and will at least deal with that here. I bet over the years he’s had better ideas for the original series and wants to play with them.

Then there’s the reboot. I’m not against the idea since WAY back in the day I wanted Richard Hatch’s Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming pitch over what Ron D. Moore was pitching… so I have egg on my face over that. Reboots can be good.

Here’s what I think is the plan: we’ll get the B5 reboot BUT, if The Road Home does well, we’ll also get the B5AU as well that will exist in the original series continuity. WB’s DCAU has been awesome and has lived alongside the live action stuff for years and years. Why have only one project running when you can have 2 working concurrently?

JMS says that he wants to make more animated films if this does well and there’s big stories he can do. I can see the stories in the canon books being adapted (psi-corp trilogy, Centauri trilogy, technomage trilogy, To Dream in the City of Sorrows), get an ending to Crusade, the telepath war (hell, bring back Talia for this one!), the first Shadow War (which could be a sequel to TDitCoS and reveal the fate of Catherine Sakai), a movie about the origins of the Great Machine, the Drakh War which was mentioned by Delenn (assuming it isn’t part of Crusade), you name it.

Up to this point, JMS has been limited by budget on B5. The animated format allows him to bring back the surviving original cast in any time frame and to tell grand stories where budget isn’t a concern. The first movie is to test the waters with the entire cast and a familiar setting, I just hope JMS decides to use it to fill in the big questions he left dangling.

Any links available on this project yet? Would love to check out your edits on my next rewatch of the series.