Who payed the critics

Boring

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This ninety minute pilot episode introduces us to the space station Babylon 5, its crew, its inhabitants and most importantly its purpose. The Babylon Project aims to provide a location with various alien races can meet to trade and to talk; there are a wide variety of alien species present but there are five that are most important; the Earth Alliance, the Mimbari Federation, the Centuri Republic, the Narn Regime and finally the Vorlon Empire… the story opens as the station is preparing for its official opening and the arrival of the firth and final ambassador; Ambassador Kosh who represents the mysterious Vorlons. He isn't the only new arrival; on the same day a telepath by the name Lyta Alexander and a suspicious character called Del Varver also come aboard. Within a minute of his arrival Kosh is found unconscious suffering the effects of an unknown poison; if he dies it could mean war and the end of the Babylon Project. In an attempt to find out what happened Dr. Kyle asks Lyta to telepathically scan Kosh; when she does so she sees what happened to him; this gives the doctor a lead as to where to look for the poison; it also exposes the killer… Commander Sinclair: the man in charge of Babylon 5. With this evidence he will have a hard job clearing his name before he can be taken to the Vorlon home world for trial.This was a fine introduction to most of the key characters in the series; we learn a surprising amount of back story without it distracting from the story at hand; key details include the fact that the Centuri had subjugated the Narn until fairly recently and Earth and the Mimbari had been at war; Earth won but only because the Mimbari surrendered when it seemed their victory was assured… both stories that will be relevant in the following series. This episode's story featured a good mystery which when solved raised more questions; the most important being 'Why?' While this is primarily a drama with a good mystery there are some humorous moments; usually provided by security chief Michael Garibaldi and Centuri ambassador Londo Mollari… although not exclusively.Technically the special effects have dated quite a bit which is a pity as I recall being wowed by them when I first watched the series… the world of CGI has progressed very quickly though. The acting from the main cast was pretty good and by the time the series proper arrives the weaker members of the cast have been replaced. This doesn't apply to Patricia Tallman who did a fine job as Lyta but doesn't return when Season One begins. I first watched this some time after watching much of the series which was a pity; if you get a chance it is best to watch this first as it explains much of what you need to know to understand who is who.

My only knowledge of Babylon 5 comes from great and rave reviews about its great writing and story lines and story arcs, and the charges that "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" plagiarized the idea.Hopefully the series lives up to its reception and to the reception its allegedly ripped-off Star Trek equivalent has received, because this intro movie is horrid on almost every level.Starting on the most unfair level; the visual effects. Considering this came out in 1993, it's unfair to complain about bad effects because CGI technology was very new.But considering that this was also the time in which Star Trek was dominating the Sci-Fi circuit with TNG winding down and Deep Space Nine beginning, the look of the two shows from one to the two others is like the difference between a finely crafted guitar and a shoebox with fishing wire on it.From what I hear and know, the only CG used in Star Trek at that point was for the phaser effects. Everything else was standard visual effects and the use of models and miniatures. By comparison, this TV movie uses full CG.And it looks horrid. In space, the ships all look flat, with no substance or shading and stiff, blocky shadows that look as artificial as everything else. It's as if there are lights shining in all directions. It's all on par with the sort of things you'd see in Doom or Duke Nukem 64, rendered again and again to completely remove any and all traces of realism, grit, or even believability from these shots. Every time a shot from space is played, it's like having your head slammed into a table and jerked back up, a total break from the immersion and you're left gawking at how awful and pathetic that looked.Moving on to the fairer things: The acting.The acting is BAD. The only person who is a decent actor is the Vorlon guy who was on Star Trek as a Romulan commander. This Jeffrey Sinclair person sounds like his acting experience comes from watching TV and movies and then being given a script for the first time and told to act. He's either completely emotionless or so horribly forced, it utterly kills scenes that are supposed to be tense or emotional.But he's not alone. The guy playing Garibaldi sounds almost exactly like Randal Graves in "Clerks", and even speaks in almost exactly the same tone and temperament. It's impossible to take him seriously with the name of an Italian war hero and the voice of a snot-nosed punk clerk.Londo Mollari, whose actor clearly IS an actor, but with hair that is two feet tall, fanning out the back of his head, and utterly bald everywhere else, I was shocked to learn he's supposed to be an alien. Straight out from under the Iron Curtain, based on that scruffy "Generic East European" accent he chomps on so hammily, it's more annoying than humorous, if he's even supposed to be the humor character.Takashima and the telepath, with all the personality of a goldfish between them, are somehow even worse than Sinclair's actor, with virtually all of Takashima's lines sounding as lifeless as a middle school drama student being asked to sight-read a monologue without any preparation.All the rest are too stale and below average to warrant special attention, aside from the doctor's hilarity-enducing "Now will someone please tell me what tha HELL is going on around here!", but the description mentioned above, of amateur drama students acting for the first time pretty accurately describes everyone in every role, except for Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik.But maybe they all sound vapid and confused for the reason that they don't understand what the hell they're reading and speaking. I know I don't. "What the hell is going on around here?" is a pretty accurate statement for the entire first hour and 15 minutes, as names, alien species, and events are dropped liberally and at random, with almost no explanation or understanding, and immediate events unfolding involving an attempted poisoning of an ambassador and a shapeshifter apparently responsible. Exactly what else is filing in the other 60 minutes of that 10 minute plotpoint is purely speculation on my part.Don't misunderstand, I LOVE it when science fiction chooses not to dwell on exposition, going by either "show, don't tell" as with Battlestar Galactica, or letting relevant information be covered with relevant dialogue, or as Star Wars does, leave background information to be filled in (for better or worse) by expanded universe novels, video games, and comics, to make for a richer experience with the movies that is not needed to go along with it, as well as making more money by producing more work.Whatever Babylon 5: The Gathering is doing in its first 75 of 94 minutes, it sure as hell ain't any of that. Events unfold and you're expected to follow along, then try not to act surprised when something else happens that makes no sense or comes out of nowhere. Add to that the horrifyingly bad acting, and far too many scenes of droning expository dialogue, and you're bored into submission long before you can figure out what is happening and why.

Babylon 5 was a hugely ambitious sci-fi show to get off the ground with complex characters and story arcs that went on over the entire 5 series run. This was the first pilot movie and it paves the way to what would follow.It's an intriguing piece of sci-fi with some strong performances in particular Peter Jurasic as Lando Mollari and Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar. The special effects are a bit limited in places but thats to be expected from a show just finding it's feet.Some of the actors in this initial show would leave to pursue other projects but the core remained in. There are some story lines (which I wont spoil) that could have been further explored had Takishima and Lyta stayed on the show. The acting quality is mixed and this was ironed out as the series went on.All in all it's a good TV movie that does stand on it's own well but it will leave you with a few questions and a good reason to pick up on the series which just get's better as it goes along.Good TV movie that will get you ready for the full series 7/10

As a Babylon 5 fan I have watched it more than once, last time today, after seeing yesterday another B5 movie "B5:In the Beginning". I must confess that the latter is much better. Still, it is not bad for a series' start. Some of the characters are portrayed differently than I've grown accustomed to in the series (like G'Kar for example), Delenn's makeup is less than perfect (compare it with the one in "In the Beginning") and she really looks unusual (after seeing her later transformation...).But there are some good lines and Peter Jurasik(Lando Mollari)'s act is delightful and so is Mr Jerry Doyle(Garibaldi)'s. A good start for a B5 beginner and a must re-watch (after seeing the rest of the series).When J. Michael Straczynski conceived B5, he really wrote a great story!