When Comet TV announced that Babylon 5 would be leaving their channel at the end of August 2020, I had hoped that the series might eventually land on the newly minted HBO Max, which at the time was the newest heavyweight player to join the streaming platform rumble.
HBO Max was the latest incarnation of streaming platforms that Warner Bros has tried ever since AT&T purchased Time Warner back in 2016, after HBO Go and HBO Now. In 2020, during big media’s scrambling to adjust to COVID-19 lockdowns and safety protocols (including shutting down movie theaters and scrambling release schedules at least through 2021-2022), HBO Go & HBO Now were merged into a new service, HBO Max.
Anyone who had subscribed to either of the old services would be shifted over to HBO Max (including people like me who were using Hulu’s HBO add-on), and the only thing that would change would be access to the larger WB library of movies and HBO Original shows & documentaries.
Since Friday is the last day #Babylon5 will be on @WatchComet, and Saturday night will be the last episode aired, here's hoping that maybe the show, plus Crusade and the movies, ends up on @hbomax eventually https://t.co/YvNV01z83T
— Slice of SciFi (@sliceofscifi) August 27, 2020
When the Comet cancellation was announced, I’d idly hoped that we’d eventually see the show again on HBO Max. Lo and behold, joyous news arrived in the form of an HBO press release:
January 26:
Babylon 5
Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO)
So if you already have HBO Max, set your watches for January 26, and if you don’t have it, maybe this is a good time to use their free trial to see if it would be a match for your streaming needs.
Stay up-to-date with their latest via Twitter: @hbomax
Great news! And the cleaned up video that has been running on other streaming services is supposed to be there too.
I’ve been enjoying rewatching B5 since it left Comet a few months ago, the picture quality is definitely an improvement as seen on HBO Max. I’ve caught up watching the first 2 seasons as of last night, and was wondering if anyone else has noticed that the playing order has flipped around a few episodes from the original airing order in each season. I wonder if JMS was consulted on this and who approved the cnahges.
No, I haven’t yet done a binge dive, I just did a quick viewing of a handful of favorite episodes. I hadn’t noticed that there were episodes in different orders?
You’re gonna make me go look, aren’t you…
Just finished with Season 3, they left the order alone, which makes sense.
I’d expect that going forward in 4, maybe they’ll play around in Season 5.
Lots of standalones in the first 2 which can be swapped, if you think about
it for a minute. Didn’t seem to impact the story flow for me, though…
Battle scenes definitely show the improvement.