original version of the Gathering?

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Since I'm a fantatic completist who wants to own every single piece of B5 universe anything that I can find, does anyone know where I could buy or download the original version of The Gathering?

I own the TNT movie collection, so I have the edited version now, but I've seen the opening of the original on youtube, which has made me really curious, and I want to be able to sit down and see what those who were lucky enough to view the Gathering in it's original airing saw.

Also when I get up to that point in the transcripts it won't feel right if I'm watching the later edited version, and not the one he will be talking about then.

Found an old thread from I Think, 2008, that asked this same question, and I found it on itunes. Yaaaaay!

Though if the edited version has Tamilyn Tomita's original voice I will prolly like that one better, but I still gotta have both for completeness sake.

[Marsden]

I have the original on a VHS, I like to cue up my Movie DVD and my tape and then I watch a bit and switch to see the same scene on the other.

On the one hand, I liked the "improved" one, but I liked the original, too. Some things that were cut out disappointed me, but it seemed more in line with the rest of the series, for consistancy sake. Of course, I'm one of the ones here that's always said I liked The Gathering even though that has a reputation of not being on most people's "best" list.

[KoshN]

Since I'm a fantatic completist who wants to own every single piece of B5 universe anything that I can find, does anyone know where I could buy or download the original version of The Gathering?

....I still gotta have both for completeness sake.

It was available through the Columbia House Video Club on VHS and that's how I got mine. Check out eBay periodically and you may find it. Good luck.

[Joe Nazzaro]

Yeah, I've got the Columbia House VHS tape too. Hard to believe how much money we spent in the good old days. And somewhere, I've got a REALLY early VHS review copy that Warners sent out long before the pilot aired, without sound FX, music, etc. More of a curiosity than anything else.

[Jan]

And somewhere, I've got a REALLY early VHS review copy that Warners sent out long before the pilot aired, without sound FX, music, etc. More of a curiosity than anything else.

Ah...Joe...to those of us (okay, me ) who are dead set on archiving as much stuff related to the show as possible, that's *much* more than a mere curiosity!

Jan
Why, yes...I *am* jealous, why do you ask?

[DGTWoodward]

It depends on your DVD player....

I got mine from here....

http://www.amazon.de/Spacecenter-Babylon-5-Die-Zusammenkunft/dp/B00007JWKK/ref=pd_bxgy_d_img_b

It is the original cut of the pilot, with the rather funky guitar score of Stuart Copeland (ex POLICE drummer), and audio defaulting automatically to English. But being a German/European issue DVD it will be PAL format and not NTSC.

Hope this helps.

[KoshN]

Yeah, I've got the Columbia House VHS tape too. Hard to believe how much money we spent in the good old days. And somewhere, I've got a REALLY early VHS review copy that Warners sent out long before the pilot aired, without sound FX, music, etc. More of a curiosity than anything else.

What are we going to do after the our VHS decks die? Heh, I'm still running a Sony SuperBeta (1986), Sony VHS (1988) and a Mitsubishi SVHS (2002). Both of my Panasonic DVD recorders (2001 and 11/2011) have died, and I'm going to try to get 'em repaired, the latter still on parts warranty but not labor.

I'm getting ready to go the DVR route (two DVRs for 4-at-a-time capability). Yes, I know DISH has The Hopper 4-at-a-time DVR, but I don't like little dish.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

One day I will collect the VHS, and any of the other language dubbs I can find, just so that I can own everything, but right now I lack the funds.

I was able to download the pilot for 1.99 on itunes though, and it was the original, and I couldn't help myself, had to watch right away.

I think that if I just seeing the pilot on tv, and hadn't seen any of the show yet I would prefer the original version to the edit. I love the funky music, even though it sounds nothing like B5, if I was new I wouldn't know that, and I loved all the shots of the animal looking aliens. When Sinclair is giving Lyta the tour. I was agape at the awesome habitats/atmospheres they showed, and I feel like I learned much more about the ship than I did in the later version. Plus it was just funner, somehow.

Was it my imagination or is Sinclair smilier in this version? He seems almost too friendly, like he's forcing himself and overdoing it a bit. Not all the way through, just in the beginning.

The only thing I didn't like was the weird dub of Laurel's voice, though once I got sucked into the story I started thinking it sounded fine. But then I watched the horribly English dubbed "Let the right one in" and after getting sucked into that forgot how horrible it sounded, so I guess if it's a good enough story anything can be overcome. And this is JMS so how could it not?

I think the JMS edit would have been best appreciated by me after I would have watched the series all the way through because I would already be a B5 acolyte and so would understand and appreciate how it blended together nicely. But for sucking me in immediately I would have been sucked in more by the original.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

OI love the funky music, even though it sounds nothing like B5 ...

If memory serves, we only didn't get Stewart Copeland for the series because he was tied up with other projects and couldn't do it. Since Franke's score is such a fundamental part of what makes B5 what it is, it is always interesting to think about what it might have felt like with 110 episodes of Copeland instead.

It was certainly strangely, and unexpectedly, jarring to watch the re-edit for the first time and hear Franke instead of Copeland in certain scenes.