Babylon 5: The Gathering (1993)

The real shame of "The Gathering" is not in the bad acting, nor is it in the despicably shallow plot. The real shame is that it was far worse than the series it begun, even though it did have one main attraction: Takashima. I would love to see Laurel Takashima in a room with Susan Ivanova, even for just five minutes. She has that sarcasm, that wit, that double-edged personality that is at once volatile and lovable. Sadly, though, the "Babylon 5" pilot movie has an incredibly dull story involving assassination. Patricia Tallman-- who never seriously returned to the series until much later-- fortunately got much better with age as Lyta Alexander, who here is little more than a whiny, tiresome telepath. I shall leave you with one final thought-- why is it that Delenn looks like some sort of outer-space frog man (even though she is a woman)? Thank heavens for the way the Minbari looked later in the show.

I have long time been a fan of Babylon 5, so you should keep this in mind--I'm sure this must color my review of this TV movie pilot for the show. Fans of the series might notice some odd changes in cast--this happens a lot in pilot episodes, as the show often is slightly re-tooled before the shows begin in production. For example, the doctor, the second in command were different actors than in the series and the prosthetics on Mira Furlan made her look much more "alien" in this movie. It's a shame about the doctor, as I really liked the African man who played him with a bit of sarcasm and flair.As for the rest of the cast, they were amazing to watch for a pilot. Normally, on most pilots, the camaraderie isn't really there and the relationships just seem a bit underdeveloped. However, here, Garibaldi, Sinclair and the rest seem to work well together and the made for TV movie is very watchable and similar to the resulting series despite the cast changes. For the early 1990s, the production values are excellent, though in 2006, the computer graphics appear, at times, a bit dated--as this was the first sci-fi series that got rid of modeling and used computer generated images for all its space scenes. All in all, it's an exciting and riveting show--made even more so by the always brilliant writing of J. Michael Straczynski.

You can give JMS and the boys a pass on this one because they were at the beginning of their series and on a small budget, but the movie is still sub-par. Dont get me wrong, B5 the series is by far the best TV series ever, but if i was an exec seeing this movie, i wouldnt have ordered the series. I dont like O'Hare as an actor, the costumes are silly, and there are tons of cliches. The same can be said for most of the first season (with the exception of Babylon Squared and Survivors); Bruce immediately put a fire into the series and it went on to be an amazing spectacle. If you are a B5 fan and havent seen this movie, see it. If you arent a B5 fan, dont...you wont want to watch the series.

"The Gathering" comes as a complete surprise unless you are aware of the process of the development of a TV series for sale. For anyone who has not seen Babylon 5, "The Gathering" is a reasonable telemovie, but only of strong interest to serious science fiction fans. But for fans of the series, this movie is an excellent example of how the storyline for the series was originally conceived and then modified when its limitations became obvious. The changes in the characterisations of Delenn, G'Kar and Llando can, in the retrospect provided by the later release (and viewing) of this pilot, be seen as significantly adding to the strength that made the series the classic it has become.