Sci-Fi Storm

Warner Home Video has released the technical details of the eagerly awaited Babylon 5 Season 1 DVD Set (now at 35 on the Amazon sales rankings). Included on the 6 DVDs are digital transfers, Dolby 5.1 sound, introduction and commentary on two key episodes by JMS, two behind-the-scenes documentaries, and a “tour” of the station that includes technical data and more. JMS also says it includes an on-camera introduction by him, and one of the half-hour documentaries includes all new interviews with several key production people. He also mentions targeted release dates of April 2003 for Season 2 and November 2003 for Season 3.

I have been doing some minor reorganization of the various affiliate stores to bring them under the Sci-Fi Storm site and make them look better, including more product info extracted directly from Amazon.com. Now the stores can be reached via http://stores.scifistorm.org/. The Sci-Fi TV and Stargate SG-1 stores are actually on a new server, and the B5 and Known Space stores will move soon. Let me know if there are any problems.

At Comic-Con, Lucasfilm spokesman Steve Sansweet told an audience that the upcoming DVD of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones will include 8 deleted scenes. The scenes will be separated from the feature, not edited in. Also, the revolutionary digital version of the film will be used, which should make the video quality better than anything we’ve seen before.

August 6th marks the release of several long-anticipated DVDs, including The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring (both Widescreen and Fullscreen versions), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Director’s Edition, V – The Final Battle, and two new Who entries, Tomb of the Cybermen and Ark in Space.

Looks like the University of Calgary might be a popular place to study the fine literature of Science Fiction. It seems a huge donation of some 35,000 volumes has been made to the University from the estate of William Gibson (not the cyberpunk author), with stuff ranging from Jules Verne, to pulp comics, to more recent works. It is believed this is one of the largest collections in the world.

At last!! Amazon.com has finally listed the Babylon 5 Season 1 Box Set! It is currently scheduled for release on Nov. 5th, for $74.99 – but beware, other box sets have gone up in price closer to release, so you might want to order early!

So much for not getting the DVDs until its all over. Cinescape is reporting that the Star Wars: Attack of the Clones DVD will be released November 12th. Jim Ward, vice president of marketing for Lucasfilm, says “the film looks amazing on DVD.” It should, since it won’t require analog-to-digital conversion…

I’ve added two portal boxes (also called “slashboxes”) – the boxes that appear on the right side. These consist of a “Coming Soon” and a “Recent Releases” view of items from our various SF stores. This way you’ll be able to see what just came out and what is coming soon, including the estimated release date.

If you’ve set up an account, you need to go to your Preferences and add them under the “Customizing Slashboxes” section.

In addition, we’ve added an Andromeda section the SciFi TV Store for the forthcoming Season 1 Volume 1 DVD release.

I’ve already noted that the Complete Season 2 Box Set is due out September 3rd. Now, those of you that bought the first two DVD volumes from the first season don’t need to buy the Season 1 Box Set to get the rest – Volume 3, Volume 4, and Volume 5 will also hit the streets on 9/3, completing the first season as individual DVDs. Also, the entire series of Space: 1999 – two seasons, 48 episodes – plus extras will appear on a 16 DVD Mega Set due 9/24. Head on over to the Stargate SG-1 Store and the Sci-Fi TV Store for details.

Update: Every time I edit this article, I find something else. The first 13 episodes of Gerry Anderson’s UFO will be released this coming Tuesday as a 4 DVD set.

Might as well just rattle it all off. Unless you’ve been living under a boulder of kryptonite, you’ve heard about Batman vs. Superman, with Wolfgang Petersen at the helm (putting the Ender’s Game project on hold); Serling redux times two – first, UPN produces a new Twilight Zone – now, USA pulls out a new Night Gallery; The Matrix Reloaded gets a release date of May 15th, 2003; and Enterprise kicks off its second season on Sept. 18th.