Writer:	J. Michael Straczynski
Director:	Richard Compton
Star:	Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari),  Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander),  Mira Furlan (Delenn),  Michael O'Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair),  Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi),  Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar)
Recurring Role:	Marianne Robertson (Hostage),  Patricia Tallman (Lyta)
Guest Star:	Jeffrey Willerth (Ambassador Kosh (uncredited)),  Tamlyn Tomita (Laurel Takashima),  Blaire Baron (Carolyn Sykes),  John Fleck (Del Varner),  Paul Hampton (The Senator),  Johnny Sekka (Dr. Benjamin Kyle),  Steven R. Barnett (Eric),  William Hayes (Traveler),  Linda Hoffman (Tech 2#),  Robert Jason Jackson (Tech #3),  F. William Parker (Business Man #1),  David Sage (Business Man #2),  Ed Wasser (Guerra)

Each season of Babylon 5 has its own title. The title for Season 1 is "Signs and Portents.” (edit) A number of television crew members who create B5 can be seen in the opening parts of the episode. Production Designer John Iacovelli, F/X supervisor John Stears, and Christy Marx (who later wrote "Grail") can be seen. One of the two homeless people in Brown Sector is Visual Effects Designer Ron Thomson. (edit) "The Gathering" is one of three Babylon 5 productions without a production number. The other two are "Crusade" and "The Legend of the Rangers." This was not a rule for B5 movies. Four had production numbers "Babylon 5: In the Beginning" (TNT MoW2), "Thirdspace" (TNT MoW1), "The River of Souls" (TNT MoW3), and "A Call to Arms" (TNT MoW4). The "TNT" in the code stands for the Turner Network on which these telemovies initially aired. (edit) Ed Wasser, the actor who plays Mr. Morden, is seen in Command And Control (CNC) as one of the command staff. He is credited as "Guerra." (edit) On January 4, 1998, after "In The Beginning", TNT broadcast a special version of this movie. It had been reedited considerably, with new scenes added and a few of the existing scenes reordered. Some of the computer graphics were also retouched, and it had a new score by series composer Christopher Franke. (edit)

Sinclair: It's a location transmitter, see? It should dissolve in about 5 years. But until then, Ambassador, my friends in my warrior caste have this frequency, and if anything should happen to Babylon 5, they have instructions to track down that transmitter and … well, why spoil the surprise?
G'kar: This is an outrage!
Sinclair: This is insurance.
[a bit later]
Garibaldi [to G'kar]: beep beep.
Londo: Beep beep? It must be earth humor. Who can figure a species like that? "Beep Beep".
G'kar [holding stomach]: Ohhhh!
(edit) Delenn: On the matter of Commander Sinclair, I am here strictly to observe.
Caroline: Observe what? (edit) Business Man: Someday I'm going to find the guy that thought of the idea of renting telepaths to businessmen, and I'm gonna kill him.
Lyta: Funny, somehow, I knew you were going to say that.
(edit) Sinclair A poem, a story in meter or rhyme.
Delenn: Ah, there once was a man from Nantucket.
Sinclair: You've been talking to Garibaldi again, haven't you?
Delenn: Why yes. How did you know? (edit) [opening narration]
Londo Mollari: I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257, with the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats, and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Under the leadership of its final commander, Babylon 5 was a dream given form. A dream of a galaxy without war, where species could live side-by-side in mutual respect. A dream that was endangered as never before by one man on a mission of destruction. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story. (edit)

Goof: Ambassador Kosh`s encounter suit has two parallel, protrusions sticking out from his chest area above his glowing translation devices. These sticks are gone in the TV series without explanation.

Perhaps a new encounter suit was needed
after the assassination attempt on Kosh. (edit) Trivia : According to a Usenet post by Straczynski dated August 8, 1992, actor Sven Thorsen was supposed to have a part in, or maybe does have an uncredited costume part, in this pilot movie.

"(For those who know of "Captain Power," Sven Thorson, who played Tank in that show, came by the stage to say hello and inquire about where the babes were, and to ask where the hell his part is ... he'll play an alien, a fern, whatever ... as long as the part calls for a Danish accent.)"

If Thorsen did appear in The Gathering, it would be JMS's inside joke to how he slipped the name Babylon 5 into the Captain Power episode Final Stand back when B5 was gestating in Joe's mind for the first time. (edit) Plot Holes: Not exactly a goof, but ... what is the point of completely frictionless sheets? Either you get underneath them, in which case it doesn't make any difference if they're frictionless, or you get on top of them, and ... well, off you go. (edit) Plot Hole: When Kosh is poisoned by the assassin, Babylon 5's alarm goes off. But, ... who or what set it off? The assassin would not do it, and Kosh has just arrived, and he would have no idea how to do so. (edit) Plot Holes: Although the assassin has a gun, he doesn't use it. Instead, he just jumps on Sinclair. (edit)

Sinclair: That, as our poet Tennyson once said, is the goal, "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

[ Sinclair is quoting from Tennyson's novel "Ulysses". ] (edit) Sinclair: Sooner or later, everyone comes to Babylon 5.

[ This line is a deliberately homage by writer J. Michael Straczynski to the film Casablanca and the line in that movie, "Sooner or later, everyone comes to Rick's bar." ] (edit)