THE GATHERING

I have been thinking of getting the original verison of the gathering by Columbia House .But I do not want to go through them .Is there any other dealers that sell it ? All the ones I have seen are the reedited one ? Thanks.

Oh, this one is a hard one. The re-edited version will have the same information on the cover as the original one. (Both had the information from the original.)
Your best bet might be places like the Amazon.De (Germany). The original was released in some countries because of subtitling costs, and some of the original also found its way into English covers and stores.

I would wait untill somebody who recently got the original version DVD chimes in to tell about it here.

(I have both. I found the original in a bargain bin at my local supermarket here in Trondheim, Norway. How wrong is that? )

I found VHS copies of the original in the 98 cent store, myself, LOL.

The flip disks are a crap shoot. Some are original version, some are re-edited version, but you can't tell except by watching the content, as they look the same on the outside. (at least here in the USA)

crap shoot

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Or "throw of the dice". Not discharging guns at manure. (Craps is a gambling game with dice. I think Londo Mollari played it.

The flip disks are a crap shoot. Some are original version, some are re-edited version,

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Slight correction: The original version of The Gathering has never been released on DVD in the United States. Period. None of the Warner Bros. two-sided "double feature" DVDs (where it was paired with In the Beginning) or the "loss-leader" $6 single-sided single discs contained the original cut. The only U.S. release of the 1993 cut was the first run of VHS tapes from Columbia House. Every subsequent U.S. release, on VHS and DVD, has been the 1998 recut. That's the version JMS preferred, and it was only a mistake on Warner Bros's part that caused Columbia House to be sent the original master early on. As soon as JMS became aware of what had happened he insisted the WB send them the corrected master. Because Columbia House had already run off thousands of duplicates at considerable cost neither JMS nor WB could ask them to scrap their first run and start over. (Which JMS would do several years later when WB was prepping the first DVD release and he discovered that they had started mastering the DVD based on the original cut. WB certainly ate tens of thousands of dollars, maybe as much as a hundred thousand dollars, scrapping their initial work on The Gathering and starting over again with JMS's producer's cut.)

The only original version DVDs youi'll find in the U.S. are imports, mostly from Germany.

Regards,

Joe

My flip disk, purchased here in the states was indeed the original version. So, maybe I ended up getting an import, but, I believe it came from Amazon.com, and not from Amazon Market Place.

The original was released in Germany because they didn't go to the effort to redub the new version. Can be get fairly easily on amazon.de - not that I know how bad the shipping costs are to the US, amazon.de ships for free to us - if one can put up with having the cover from In the Beginning on The Gathering .. yes, German DVD releasers are that clueless

My flip disk, purchased here in the states was indeed the original version

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Really stupid question: How do you know it is the original? Because Warner Bros simply never released the original in any format in the US, ever. So unless you have a unique one-off made on somebody's computer, I'm deeply confused.

Does the movie open with a dust dealer taking a woman hostage at B5 customs? If it does, it is not the original cut. No matter what the box might say.

Regards,

Joe

I'm not sure of the specifics of the starting scene, as I gave it to a friend when I got the new box set with the TNT version, but, it's the one where Kosh doesn't greet Sinclair with "Entilzah Valen". It came in the Cardboard jacket, just like the ones I've seen in the stores.

And you're saying that it's a flip disc? I thought the original was only available single sided.

My flip disk, purchased here in the states was indeed the original version. So, maybe I ended up getting an import, but, I believe it came from Amazon.com, and not from Amazon Market Place.

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I am confused as well since I am the one is trying to locate a copy .Thanks for the info on amazon.de it is a possiblity albeit a small one that I could order from them but I am almost certain that my player both dvd and VHS can;t play european disks.

JDM seemed to be implying I must have gotten a bootleg copy (My apologies if that wasn't your intention JDM). Bootlegs are generally region free, so that's how I would've been able to play a European copy on my DVD player, if it was a bootleg, but, I doubt it was, since it had the regular packaging.

Some DVD plaers are region free, or will play other regions, for whatever reason. I just got a bootleg of something else, and it won't play on my DVD player, but, will play on my computer.

Japanese and Korean DVD plays are built to play all regions. It may be set to Region 1 but other regions can be unlocked. A bigger problem is that US TVs cannot display all the lines.

Portable DVD players and can play NTSC and PAL but need unlocking.

My flip disk, purchased here in the states was indeed the original version

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Really stupid question: How do you know it is the original? Because...

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As I always say... There are no stupid questions. Only stupid people.
(kida sounds like something Eilerson would say, doesn't it?)

Easy way to check on whether you have the original cut or the re-master - just open your ears. If you don't hear Christopher Franke (and it will be obvious) you have the original. If you do it is the re-master.

Wait. Mr. Hair. Can you be more explicit? Where and when should we be listening for Mr Franke and what is he supposed to sound like? I know I'm a stupid person (that's a given) but I have no idea what you're talking about.

Sorry to be cryptic.

On the original version of The Gathering, the music was scored by Stewart Copeland (ex-drummer of The Police) and sounded significantly different to the grand orchestral music of the series itself which was scored by Christopher Franke.

When JMS re-editted The Gathering in 1998, he had CF rescore it in full to fit in with the episodes.

So the upshot is ... if the soundtrack sounds like the rest of the B5 series, then it is the new version. If it sounds different, and trust me you will spot the difference straight away, then it is the original.

On top of that, IIRC, the re-edit has a "TNT Presents" banner right at the start, which the original doesn't. But I could be getting mixed up with the other TVMs there.

Hope I have been a bit clearer this time.

Cheers,

On top of that, IIRC, the re-edit has a "TNT Presents" banner right at the start, which the original doesn't. But I could be getting mixed up with the other TVMs there.

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No, you're correct. "The Gathering" version 2.0 does have the "TNT Presents" introduction.

Ah, excellent. I have two copies and I'll check them out.

I like the old soundtrack. It wasn't really B5, but it was funky and stuck in your head. Christopher Franke's remix is a bit forgettable by his standards, imho.

Actually, I miss the muppet newsreader and the 'silicone-based life forms' and 'insectoids' as well.. And the way Epsilon 3 looked extremely pixellated in the effects shots..

And G'Kar's 'do you mind if I invoke privacy, so everyone in the room can see we're up to something shifty'. And his mention of his wife. And the nonsensical way B5 turned into a line drawing in the closing credits.. Yeah, the original is definitely worth seeing if you can. I think it flowed better.