Babylon 5

With The Gathering J. Michael Straczynski begins a five year epic journey to expand our minds on the positive and negative possibilities for our race (and others if and when we meet them). This episode lays the foundation for one of the few (if not the only) multi-year arc storyline. While many shows tell a story few (if none other than B5) have their start and end planned before the pilot. JMS gives us the seeds of the story in The Gathering and leaves us as uninformed, curious and yes even as frustrated as the characters in how the recent events will transform their lives.



As I watch The Gathering again, I wonder, if B5 was real (not a story) and one could be there knowing the full story, how would I interact with the characters/people? But no matter how The Gathering makes you think, it is a great episode because makes you consider, wonder, imagine, explore, or even fantasize.

I just watched this pilot to the series Babylon 5.

I have never seen any episode of this series, as it has never been broadcasted on TV in Belgium.

As it seems, the series revolves around 5 major species. Forgive if my spelling isn't accurate, I'm not into this series yet as I probably will be later. The Norns, look kind of evil. The Centauri, who were a great race and put a lot of importance to appearances. The Minbari, who fought the Humans in a great war and surrendered when they were winning. The Volnor, a species that seems very secretive. And of course our beloved us, Humanity.

Well, from the few episodes I've seen now, this series looks to me like a bad Star Trek immitation! No offense... Tough I have read in the forums that it gets a lot better in the next few seasons, so I will give it a shot anyways!

7/10

Ambition is at the forefront of this show. Lots of very good eye candy with all the top-notch set designs, costumes and make-up. Even the special effects aren't bad considering a television budget and the advances of CGI technology since the show aired. The plot was sufficient to establish the series, but the writing itself sometimes seemed more in line with a bad B-Movie. The dialogue was hard to watch at times. The acting was even worse as the poorly written lines were delivered. Over the top intensity. I don't know if the writer, director or show's creator decided the show needed to be so serious, but where was the light-heartedness? It's sci-fi!!

The episode was rather ok, with Ambassador Kosh life in danger due to an attempted assination. And the fact that G'Kar was up to no good and was in fact evolvement of a Warrior Class with G'Kar. I have only one complaint though. The weapons weapons and communications on the wrist were different than the reglar season. I am glad however, that they did replace both the doctor and the Lt. Commander with new one's in the series premier. In this episode you did not get to see much of the defensive systems in the Pilot. I wasn't expecting to see a new PSI Corp in the second season. But all in all it was a farily decent pilot. What I can't figure out is when the pilot came out, at the beginning or somewhere in the middle of the first season. I hope to see more movie type Babylon 5 shows soon.

this is the start of babylon 5. the station is waiting for the arrival of the new ambassador to babylon 5. which will add up to 4 ambassador of the league worlds. the narns, the centauri arch eminies of the narns and the minbari. they now wait for the arrival of the vorlons. a race that no one has ever seen. on his arrive the vorlon ambassador is nearly killed and the blame is put on to the commandar of the station jeffery sinclari. its up to michael garibaldi, head of security and good friend of sinclare to help clear his freinds name. this is the begining of a great award wining show. the place is called babylon 5 the peace hope of peace.

This pilot gave then a template of what needed to be changed, and how great this story really would become. it was nice how they change some of the makeup look... however this really is a good ep to see before you see the series itself. the story itself mostly revolves around the vorlon insodance, and they do mention this in the regular series.

Babylon 5 gets off to a rather unambitious start with this 2-hour pilot episode. It's not the best story, but it does set up a number of mysteries that will be prominently featured in the series. Chief among them are:

Commander Sinclair's missing 24 hours

Garibaldi's past troubles

What really happenned at the battle of the line?

What did Lyta see inside Kosh's encounter suit?

What's the deal with the Grey Council?

What is Delenn hiding?



we see a number of character changes between this episode and the series, chiefly:

Delenn is rather violent towards G'kar in this episode, punishing him with a gravity ring.

G'kar starts out as a violent character, out for Centauri blood

Londo starts out as a buffon