A campaign to free Babylon 5?

My favorite tv series is Babylon 5, period. I like other shows too, of course, but the number one in my personal list is Babylon 5, and it should remain so. Time will tell.

Since about 48 hours, the Internet has been pretty agitated, or at least the small portion which is still impassioned by this series that celebrated its 20 years this year. The problem comes from the fact that the series isn’t aired anymore in the United States for a long time, and isn’t even available in VOD, such as for example on Netflix. It’s a message of Joe Michael Straczynski himself which set fire to the net, even if officially of course he can’t take any active part in any campaign. According to his own words, all is thus between the hands of the fans.

Yes, but what can they do? Here are the interrogations which agitate the small world of Babylon 5 fans across the Internet. The movement was named #FreeBabylon5, it has its Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/FreeBabylon5?hc_location=stream

Of course in France we’re not very concerned. Babylon 5 was only aired on Canal+, at the beginning at whatever time, before having a little more defined schedule for the last seasons. The tv movies were seen during some time on a little channel, which also aired if I remember correctly Battlestar Galactica, without much impact. We had the DVDs, except for the pilot episode, which was only available on VHS, and except the last DVD to date, The Lost Tales. (Let alone the new cut of the pilot episode which will probably never be dubbed around here) So it’s pretty useless for us to hope for an airing of importance on a channel, except some miracle is at work. Even the most recent Star Trek series had only one airing on Canal Jimmy and W9, the last one in 2007…

But anyway, 20 years later, Babylon 5 remains a unique and exceptional series, because it originated from the one imagination, at some 80%, of a single author. No series can claim this feat.