The Gathering

The Babylon 5 Pilot Movie

Reviewed by Lady Keela Shanri

Click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE to see LOTS more pictures from the movie. Hey, it's a whole MOVIE, not a normal episode, twice as long so it behooves me to include twice as many pictures in the review, yes? Besides, there were lots of different characters and differences in the regular characters that I wanted to show, and the pictures were AVAILABLE, so...

And so, it begins...
This is where it ALL began. January 1, 2257. But for me, this is closer to the MIDDLE of the story...
You see, I came in on B5 at the very end of Season Two. I was not a fan of it back in 1993, and so therefore I missed seeing the pilot the first time around. (And I understand that the REAL pilot, which was "remixed" for The Gathering, had some weird differences, such as things in the Zocalo that made it look like a futuristic disco and things in the Alien Sector that made it look like a zoo.) So this is the first time I have ever seen it--and I saw it AFTER I had seen the third, fourth, first, and second--yes, in THAT order--seasons! Which will bring a rather...unique perspective to this review. Yes, I saw it out of order, but I'm glad I finally DID see it, because now a lot of things make more sense. And a LOT of in-jokes and references I'd been reading on the 'net for months now but never understand have finally been put into context. The quote I have from Londo on the front page of this site, with the counter--that's from this episode/movie. I had READ the quote and liked it enough to use it, but until just a couple hours ago, I had never actually HEARD the line come out of Londo's mouth.
Well, the obvious thing to do with a pilot episode, when comparing it to the later, more polished product, is to list all the differences, especially when it comes to people. So let's do that now.
Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima: The ORIGINAL First Officer of Babylon 5. I don't really know what to think of her. She was not a very good actress--Claudia Christian is FAR better--but she was likeable as a character, and I think, rather exotic-looking. (I would KILL for hair like that. Then again, I'd kill for hair like Claudia's too.) I've heard back-story rumours about how she was originally going to be some traitor or something, and then her second-in-command, a crochety redheaded Russian woman named IVANOVA, would take over her spot, but that when something happened--I don't know what--to keep Tamlyn Tomita from coming back--Ivanova got her rank, but NOT her story. I'm not sure who got her story--Talia, maybe? Or perhaps it was dropped entirely. Anyway, it seems to me that no matter WHO the First Officer was, she was ALWAYS destined to be a cynical, pessimistic, angry, agressive smartmouth. She has EXACTLY Ivanova's personality, just not with all the "Russian" and telepath stuff. The lines about the "fruit basket" and "Tell them to get STUFFED!" (which made my mom go "I've decided I like this woman.") prove that. No matter what, Ivanova's PERSONALITY was going to be there from the start--regardless of whose body it was in. And so was her illegal coffee plant...
Dr. Benjamin Kyle: Well, first off, not to be shallow or anything, but I think they definitely made a better choice when they chose Franklin over this guy when it comes to the LOOKS department. Not that Kyle was UGLY, mind you, but I always thought Franklin was one of the nicest-looking guys on the whole show...whoops, did I type that out loud or just think it? EEK. Anyway, I can't really say much about this character, as he didn't get much to do except "doctor-stuff" in this movie, and then never showed back up again. (As with Tamlyn Tomita, I don't know what kept the actor, Johnny Sekka, from coming back.) He was fairly interesting--that accent was nice and exotic--but Richard Biggs is a MUCH better actor. And he seemed, like Franklin, to be a pretty honourable kind of guy, and good at treating aliens. I didn't see any of the ferocious intensity and harried never-sleeping thing that Franklin has going, though, he seems to be a bit more relaxed and laid back of a character. Then again, Franklin didn't show his stim addiction right at the beginning either, and Kyle DID mention taking at least one stim...
Carolyn Sykes: I would say this was a totally WORTHLESS character. She seemed to add practically nothing to the story at all. Oh, sure, she gave Sinclair someone to tell the story of the Battle of the Line to so we could hear it (and when he said "And the sky was full of stars", I gasped and bugged my eyes out--EPISODE TITLE!!), but we hear PLENTY about it later. And just WHAT does Catherine Sakai think of this big-haired hussy moving in on HER man, HMMN? I didn't like EITHER character, but I'd like to think that at one point, off-camera, the two girlfriends met, and Sakai whapped Sykes silly before slapping Sinclair's face and walking out on the two-timing bum... ;)

The Aliens:
The actors playing the alien Ambassadors had a doubly difficult job to do. Not only did they have to properly establish their characters well enough to hopefully keep the potential audience interested in the actual series--should the money for one even exist--but they had to introduce these totally new whole SPECIES to the audience. They were LITERAL "Ambassadors" to the viewers, each the very first member of each race we EVER saw, and so therefore how they acted was VERY important in the way we would see those races forevermore.
Ambassador Londo Mollari: He was a bit different-looking here. His hair, as you can see in one of the pictures above, seems to be going more just UP rather than in a nice, rounded crescent-shape. And his wardrobe is a bit different, too. While still as decadent and foppish as ever, to start off with, his coat had no gold epaulets or those button-highlight thingies going down the sides, and he wore a cravat and a bow tie, and a shorter vest, and no bejeweled sash. (Only someone who watches clothes like a hawk would notice all this stuff, of course...)
But the PERSONALITY, ah, the personality was there from Day One. Londo was ALWAYS the wonderfully complex, sad, tragic character that we've all come to know and love. From the very beginning, he is funny and poignant--with just a HINT of something dangerous lurking beneath--at the same time. The Londo in this movie gambles, drinks, wears fancy clothes, oggles the women--and also sighs into his wine about how his Republic has fallen, happy on the outside but sad on the inside. Ultravox has a song called "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes"; that title sums up the old-school Londo perfectly. When he said that line about the Centauri Republic being a tourist attraction, I started seeing that scene in which he stripped G'Kar of his Ambassadorship in a slightly different light--it's still a mean thing for Londo to do, but now it's a little more understandable, now that I've SEEN exactly HOW far down he was when the series started. Now his fatal answer to Mr. Morden is put into context, too. The wheel has indeed turned...
And I must say, from the bottom of my hearts, it was SERIOUSLY COOL hearing HIS voice, that wonderfully odd accent, saying the opening monologue. LONDO got to be the one to narrate the introduction of THE ENTIRE SERIES! Yes! And speaking of accents and pronunciations, notice that all through this episode, everyone pronounces the name of his race as "Cen-TOOR-ee". Whereas later on, it's either "Cen-TORE-ee" or "Cen-TAH-ree" depending on who you ask.
Ambassador Delenn: Boy, did SHE ever change later. She was cold, vicious, and sadistic in this episode. Sure, she doesn't want anyone to know she's on the Grey Council, but she didn't have to squish poor G'Kar almost to jelly with 5 gravities! (Side-note: Those rings were WEIRD. I've heard references to Minbari gravity-rings before but I had NO idea that the people talking about them were actually SERIOUS! I'm glad they never mentioned them again; WAY too comic-book-super-hero-ish.)
And what about the way she LOOKED! Wow! Did they ever change THAT! I'm not talking about when she went into her cocoon, I mean, just from the pilot Delenn to the NORMAL first-season Delenn, wow! To begin with, she had her chin and nose both built up real chunky and ugly, so she looked like a MAN. (I think that's what they were going for; they never mentioned her gender, maybe they wanted her to be an ANDROGYNOUS character originally--female voice, but a DEEP female voice, and a male face, with clothes that reveal nothing of the figure.) She had SPOTS! On her forehead and her neck, like a paler, washed-out version of Narn spots. And the head-bone did not go all the way down to the nape of the neck the way it did later on, but rather stopped about halfway down the head and went UP in a curve. Not only Delenn herself, but the Minbari race in general underwent a MAJOR makeover...
Ambassador G'Kar: His makeup was pretty different too, though I'm hard-pressed to name specifics as I never stared all that hard at Narns in the first place--I dunno, the...face-bones were...different... I DID notice that he did not have that little leather-strip skirt he wears all the time later. He was acting REALLY sinister. He was definitely in full villian mode here, but then again, he was in "Midnight on the Firing Line", too, so it wasn't THAT much of a shock. His selling out Sinclair, who was not his enemy, WAS a bit unexpectedly nasty, though.
Lyta Alexander: She was originally supposed to have Talia's job, it seems. She was wearing the type of clothes Talia always wore and doing her job. Why she left and didn't come back until the late second season is still a bit of a mystery to me. I must say, the ORIGINAL look was much classier for her. The shorter, poofier haircut is more flattering to her face and the film-noir-ish clothes (love the trenchcoat!) were more elegant looking.
And now, on to our story...
Well, I already KNEW a lot of the stuff that was going to happen but it was interesting actually SEEING it anyway. The changeling-net was vaguely interesting, I liked that weird little bug-ship thingie, and...oh, my god! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD IT'S MR. MORDEN!!! IN C&C!! AS A TECH!!! ACCCCCKKKK!!!! Well, okay, it wasn't REALLY Mr. Morden, but rather Ed Wasser playing a tech named "Guerra", just your typical nice young man. (Or maybe NOT so nice--the name "Guerra" means WAR in Spanish, I believe. Even from the beginning he was there to stir up trouble!) He seemed to have Corwin's role! But Joshua Cox got that, while fate--and Straczynski--had more INTERESTING things in store for Mr. Wasser...
I had read about him being in the pilot before, actually, but I had forgotten it, and when I recognised him my jaw hit the FLOOR--as did the shards of all the glasses in the house I shattered with my shriek. My mom had to stop the tape and ask me why I was freaking out!
The sexual humour B5 is infamous for is alive and well here in the beginning--G'Kar's asking Lyta about her "pleasure threshold" (ANOTHER line I have read endlessly on the 'nets, but with NO explanation behind it) and the "frictionless sheets" that Carolyn Sykes brought with her. (Question: If they're TOTALLY frictionless, wouldn't you just FALL right off the bed? "Hey there, honey...WHAOOOHH!" (whumph). That doesn't sound terribly romantic...). Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the different races in B5 could NOT interbreed. But the G'Kar and Lyta conversation would seem to indicate the opposite. (The only reason Delenn can have a baby with Sheridan is because she turned half-human).
It was interesting seeing the station--I think they REALLY overplayed the rotational-gravity thing, but it makes sense, they were trying to show exactly how that technology works. The graphics were changed in some places (such as how the core shuttle did not yet have that sign telling you to hold on to the railings at all times in English, Minbari and Centauri, but then again, you didn't HAVE to hold on, it had RESTRAINTS), the costumes were WAY wilder and more colourful, and looked a LOT more like something out of the Star Wars cantina. There were also more ALIEN-aliens running around, such as little bug-eyed creatures, and really short things, not just normal Human-sized ones. Ya know, I kinda think I miss that in the regular version, even if it IS a bit cheesy. But a LITTLE cheese never hurt no-one. The more colour and variety the better.
And Kosh, in the mind-vision that Lyta may or may not have actually seen, actually CALLED Sinclair "Entil'zha Valen." It means nothing at the time, but once you hear more about the Minbari, it's a MAJOR spoiler! It was for things like this, EXACTLY for things like this, that I am SO glad I finally got to see this movie. It makes SO many things make SO much more sense now. When I see "War Without End" again, starting on Tuesday, I will UNDERSTAND the ending this time. The first time I saw it, several months ago, it confused the beejeebers out of me and left me feeling let down. Now that I know the whole story, I'll probably LIKE the ending.
As for the actual plot ITSELF, it was pretty good, actually. Rather confusing, but you can't go wrong with a classic murder mystery. It had a rather dark feel all the way through, and all kinds of plotting and scheming. It seemed EVERYONE was at least a little bit, if not a LOT, sinister, and you never knew who was in cahoots with who until the end! Although it left me a bit confused, I think, that if I HAD seen this episode first, it still WOULD have made me want to watch the entire thing. And isn't that the entire point?
Babylon 5 is indeed open for business...

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