galfridus

The Gathering & the first eight episodes of Babylon 5

Unfortunately, 1988 to 1999 or so was a wasteland of bad science fiction shows. Star Trek: The Next Generation had premiered in 1987 and was successful, so a lot of production companies chose to jump on that bandwagon… to some very mixed results. The 1996 Doctor Who revival went nowhere (leaving Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor to only two filmed appearances that were 17 years apart), so there seemed to be a desire on the part of production companies to want to tackle more “dark” and “gritty” SF… and some of it was simply not good (for every Babylon 5 and Farscape there was at least one seaQuest DSV or War of the Worlds).

But that bandwagon is what allowed B5 to come into existance.

The Gathering is the original pilot episode from 1993 (the version most of us have access to now, and the one I’m watching, is a re-edited and expanded version from 1998) and… it really feels like it. The pilot’s overall quality is very pilot-like (you probably know what I mean). Some of the actors feel as though they’re phoning it in (not the main characters), and the physical quality of the film and the feel of the effects and the overall sense of the movie certainly feels like a science fiction TV show from the 1990s that wasn’t given the budget a Star Trek series would have gotten. That may be difficult for some to get past, but the focus here should be on the storyline, not the clear issues with the budget and the fact someone was seeing this as a way to cash in on Star Trek’s success.

What isn’t immediately clear in The Gathering is the creator of B5, J. Michael Straczynski, was already laying-down the groundwork for the story he was telling. He already has an end in mind for these characters and the story and he is masterfully building those pieces.

The basic concept of the series is simple: We quickly learn Babylon 5 is the fifth (and last) station of its kind and its mission is to serve as not only a way station for all the races in galaxy, but also as a sort of galactic United Nations. As four of the five major races have recently been at war with one of the other major races, the station and its mission are seen as the “last, best hope” for peace in the galaxy.

The series starts in 2257 (a year after the station has opened) and we’re introduced to Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare), the commander of Babylon 5 and Earth’s ambassador. There are many ambassadors from many different races across the systems, but the main members (who also happen to be some of the main characters) are Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) of the Centauri, G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) of the Narn, the Minbari ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan), and the mysterious ambassador from the mysterious (and elder) Vorlon race, Kosh (basically a puppet and portrayed by Ardwight Chamberlain and Jeffrey Willerth).

I’m not going to get into detailed summaries (you can find extensive ones online) but I’ll point out specifics (yes, there will be spoilers and I’m not going to call them out) as I go along. 

Even in The Gathering, one can see how politics will play a vital role in the series and that Straczynski is focusing on socio-political commentary. There’s plenty of action and adventure to be had, but it’s clear the primary focus of the series is a discussion of progression and cooperation and of humanity finding what its place is in the larger universe.

The station’s mission is endangered in The Gathering when it seems Sinclair has poisoned Ambassador Kosh. The Vorlons, taking this as an act of war by Earth, begin to take steps to take Sinclair (by force, if necessary) to their homeworld for trial. The very fragile construction of the diplomatic mission is clear in just this episode. The council agrees to turn Sinclair over, but (of course) in the end everything plays out to show he’s been framed.

Why he’s been framed is the entire key to the episode and to the first season itself. The individual who tried to assassinate Kosh is from the Minbari warrior caste and wants to destroy Sinclair for his role in the Earth-Minbari War, informing him he has a “hole in his mind.” The “hole,” we learn, is a 24 hour period Sinclair can’t account for at the end of the war (just before the Minbari, on the precipice of victory, surrender).

The first episodes lay down a lot of the background story one would expect. We learn in “Midnight on the Firing Line” that Londo (like most of his species) has had a vision of his own death (at G’Kar’s hands) and that Mr. Garibaldi (the head of security, played by Jerry Doyle) loves old Daffy Duck cartoons (his “second favorite thing in the universe”).

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