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Babylon 5 - 1x1 "Midnight on the Firing Line" - Full watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-04-21 18:00:37
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Follow along with me using your own copy of the episode!

Files

Babylon 5 - 1x1 "Midnight on the Firing Line" - Full watch-along

Comments

Squeesher

"So, I'm 2B, Sypha, Star Trek...I don't know what I am. But anyways, we're gonna watch some Babylon 5," is a great way to start the series proper lmao

Trish

That was a pilot to see if people liked it tv shows used to do that

fargoboyle .

Same actress played the Minbari ambassador, Mira Furlan in the pilot, they softened her look. So many 'throwaway' lines here that aren't throwaway.

Trish

It is the same actress I think as the minbari ambassador. I rtemember watching the pilot

StuArtist Studio

Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (played by Claudia Christian), the new Executive Officer who replaced Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima, is a fan favorite. Vir Coto, Ambassador Mollari's new Aide, is played by Stephen Furst, aka "Flounder" from Animal House. A great casting choice, if ever there was one. Talia Winters, the new Commercial Telepath, who was sent by Psi Corps to replace Lyta Alexander (Played by Patricia Tallman) for .. reasons. Nuff said about that. Since you're actually several episodes in, per our private chats, you have by now already figured out that Delenn is indeed played by Mira Furlan, the same actress who played her in the pilot. As we discussed, her softened look was at Mira's continued "insistence".

Paul Hess

I wanted to wait till watching but I can't so I'll just say thank you for starting your Babylon 5 journey and I'm really looking forward to your reactions!! ;-)

Jack

Londo (Peter Jurasik) (jer-UH-sick) and G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) are definitely two of my favorites. Their rivalry is a treat to watch. Jurasik said he would "find" Londo's vaguely European accent in rehearsals each morning by repeating, "Mister Garibaldi!" 😄 If you've ever seen "The Fugitive," with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, then you've seen G'Kar without his heavy prosthetic makeup as the "one-armed man". Claudia Christian is a great addition; I leave it at that for now. I'll have some interesting behind the scenes tidbits to share about her later on. Suffice it to say, she's led a rather interesting life. I absolutely love the design aesthetic of this show. The pallette of greys and pastels and geometric shapes are *very* 90s, a period I have a lot of fondness for.

Greg

Like Bunny, I have never seen Babylon 5, and I wasn't going to watch along with her, but decided in the end I could find the time for it. So I spent $37 on a complete B5 DVD Collection, read the premise that the creator came up with that shared in Bunny's Discord (I'll share a link here -- it's a great short premise to set the scene without spoiling anything), and watched this first episode. Since I was told The Gathering was NOT critical to see to understand what was going on and my time is still short right due to work and other things I did not watch it yet, but I will circle back to it at some point. So far, I'm interested. I liked what I saw, despite how dated and hooky that it felt at points, and the characters seem like a diverse and interesting mix, with a combo of political intrigue, interpersonal relationships, and space battles. A hour a week for this is not a huge time commitment, so I'll continue to do a first time watch along with Bunny. Some first time impressions: Babylon 5 is of course very similar to Star Trek DS9 in many ways (that's a whole long story). DS9 is my second favorite ST show, so of COURSE I kept comparing things I saw in this first episode of B5 with DS9 even though I wasn't trying to do that. It will be interesting to see how Bunny handles this, as she'll be coming at it from the OTHER way -- I believe she'll be done with B5 by the time she starts DS9. Man, that CGI looks SO dated and bad! I understand it was state of the art for the early 90's, as I saw similar stuff being used in video games and other TV shows on a low budget of the time period, but you just have to try to overlook that and focus on what's important. A lot of the look of B5 and the hairstyles and uniforms remind me of the late 80's to early 90's as well, which I have some nostalgia for. I also was reminded very much of X-Wings in terms of the fighters that the Humans flew. Do they have a proper name? Telepaths being here and how they are treated is interesting -- it's very different the Star Trek, and I'm very curious to see where that goes. I also was reminded some of Star Wars watching this along with DS9. The Duck Rodgers cartoon was a nice thing to throw in -- some both the cartoon and B5 were WB productions and they were able to use it, and also humorous to see someone reacting to something that old that tried to portray the future in some way and sharing it with an alien. B5 Show Pitch: https://pastebin.com/hfKCWaxm

Emma

I'm glad you like it, Greg. Bear in mind that every new show goes through a few patchy parts, and Babylon 5 is no different. Stick with Season 1, and you will be heavily rewarded. It is much better than Season 1 of TNG, so if you can power through TNG, you have the staying power. The X-Wing-looking ships are called Star Furies. They are very manoeuvrable, which this episode tries to capture. While B5 is stationary, the furies allow us to explore local sectors and take some of the named cast along, to make the show less static. I like the idea of dogfighting small ships, even if the graphics for the Raider ships and their explosions are dated.

Emma

I think this is a great start to the show. It introduces characters that were not in the show, and it gives the named cast a bit of time each, and it establishes themes. What other SF shows start their first episode with a tale of the demise of a character's mother? It might resonate with you after watching the Stargate movie. ps. I'm surprised you didn't shout out CARN!!!!!!!!!

Emma

I see what bunny means about Delenn here being more wide-eyed and less aloof. I think they decided to go a slightly different route with the portrayal of the Minbari. JMS's original plan got transmuted. The original promo materials for Delenn in 1991 were even further removed from what we got.

Emma

Including telepathy in a show is a big commitment because it changes everything. In this episode, telepathy has been used to resolve a plot issue (Londo going to kill G'Kar), but you need to put enough rails in place to avoid it being used to rapidly resolve plots, because then you just have a Deus ex Machina that can be pulled out whenever you write yourself into a corner. You will have to decide for yourself how well telepathy is handled on the show.

Lost Monk

Babylon 5 is an amazing series, though Season 1 does fall short. It's still better than TNG Season 1. In fact, its better than TNG Season 2.

Lost Monk

You will find that characters like Londo and Vir evolve.... by Season 2 and beyond. Not simply because the character arcs take them there (they do).... but because the acting and the directing of the actors.... become much more nuanced. Also, Delenn.

Lost Monk

In my opinion, the special effects aren't bad at all.

Mark Gosine

A decent start out the jump gate.

Lost Monk

Hey, the Mimbari ambassador is the same as the one in the pilot. Delenn. And she's played by the SAME ACTRESS. But her head and face prosthetics were made differently. And yes, G'kar is played by the same actor as in the pilot.

Mark Gosine

Greg, even in the 90's this CGI was a bit jarring and didn't have the theatrical smoothness and warmth of lightning that physical models provided. JMS himself constructed the station in the Lightwave software over a weekend. However, it gave much more flexibility for overall special effects versus static matt paintings that Star Trek DS9 used. Freedom of camera shots too. Lightwave was brand new OTS software that was inexpensive to use, but gave the bang for the buck. Just a few short years later, the STV effects guys used it for most of the Voyager ship shots and a lot of the CGI. Shows how well the right team can use the same tool with dramatically different results; also the improvement in the software.

George N

Yeah, as others have said... Delenn is the same character and actress. But they drastically changed her look. The original plan for the Minbari was to not have as big a difference between males and females, but they scrapped that concept.

George N

Peter Jurasik (Londo) is a damned genius. He is just getting started. Andreas Katsulas as G'kar is also great.

George N

The Pilot movie aired a full year before ep 1. It's standalone but fully cannon... please do not put any information from that show into a hole in YOUR mind!

Paul Hess

The Starfury fighters are a masterpiece. They’re designed with thoughtful realism and true space maneuvering, while still looking super cool. The X-Wing configuration is there to position thrusters at the four extremes, and each thruster can independently fire forward or backward. Momentum is conserved in space, and thrust is used to change direction rather than banking like an airplane, as in most other shows. The Starfury can rotate, thrust, and angle, and the battle scenes take advantage of these realistic maneuvers.

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

Cosplay yay! Bunny: "I don't know what I am!" :). I know what you are: cute and sexy as all get out! ;) Anyway, pretty good start. I do remember that the political maneuvering is a big part of this show and it was pretty well handled here. Good to see Ivanova. When I watched the pilot movie I was like "I could have sworn there was a female character with a Russian name on this show that I remember really liking". So I'm glad about that. The enmity between Londo and G'Kar is palpable, and juicy. Fun stuff. One thing I remember negatively though, I have a pet peeve with cliche of making alien names look more alien by throwing apostrophes in random places. But B5 is hardly unique in that and it's a totally idiosyncratic thing for me so no big deal, LOL.

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

I noticed that too! Movement in space should be purely dictated by thrust and inertia, not things like aerodynamics. I thought I saw a few questionable things but they obviously put a real effort into being more believable than many Sci-fi franchises and I appreciated that! Big 👍from me for that aspect.

Falconheart

Loved this! Babylon 5 is one of my favorite series. I watched it with my parents. It was a family event every week, and it's really nice to get to (sort of) share that with someone new. You're drinking from a fire hose at this point, with all the characters but you'll get them down. The minbari ambassador is Delenn, and she is one of the best characters in the show IMO. Give it time, I think she'll grow on you. :)

Paul Hess

Wonderful first reaction! As with everything Babylon 5 it will build over time. Conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison: JMS was a huge Ellison fan, then he and Harlan were best friends later in Ellison’s life, and he left JMS in charge of his legacy to publish unfinished works and prepare his estate as a museum of sorts. In addition to great story telling and acting, both of which will magnify over time, it’s also simply a great piece of literary art. Watch for powerful and poetic lines, great speeches delivered by amazing actors, and surprising emotional vises through genius mature plot moves. Some powerful lines from this episode that you don’t see on your typical 90’s network supervised serial television. - “what happened, run out of small children to butcher?” “your time has come and gone, it’s our time now!” - “On the issue of interstellar peace I am long past innocence and fast approaching apathy” - “and carved their bones into little flutes for Narn children. It is a dream I have.” - “Not every dream I’ve heard ends well for you” - “I don’t feel like a victim.” “No. And so far I can not tell if that is a good thing, or a bad thing” - "“The wheel turns does it not ambassador?”

Paul Hess

Unlike typical series of the time, every character in Babylon 5 is infused with a life and a backstory. Just like people, each character has an arc of things that happen to them and ways events change them over time. Causes have effects and (almost) nothing is forgotten in the plot. Also Babylon 5 exists at the juncture of massive interstellar happenings, both geographically and politically. Pay attention to happenings at the edge and in the larger domains and how they might impact events here on B5, or how B5 might impact events elsewhere.

Paul Hess

Watch Jurasik in the Zocalo scene with Garibaldi (t=1:25 on my copy). While the characters are dropping lore and history, Jurasik is using gestures, interactions with off-camera happenings, fiddling with props, timings and tone to teach you about his character. It's a joy to watch.

William Terry

I'm watching Babylon 5 for the first time and it looks very cool. Thanks bunny! No bunny's not dumb 🤬. It could be rogue, or bought on the black market. Most important is the Star Trek pin, which is sparkly and not the regulation com badge. It's a good substitute by the tailor for the anime depiction, but of course not an exact match.

Mike Yocom

Keep Andreas Katsulas's (G'Kar) voice in mind, you'll see him elsewhere in not too much longer.

TalynOne

I'm a big DS9 fan and a huge Babylon 5 fan. They have similarities, but it's surface level. They're very different shows. Very different philosophies, characters and stories. Both are worth watching.

bunnytails

Oh cool! I was wondering how Ellison came to be working on this project.

bunnytails

Yeah, aside from Delenn LOOKING different, she seems to act different from the pilot and it will take some adjusting to.

Muggy

About Garibaldi's favorite thing. There is tension in the scene because no one likes telepaths reading their thoughts. So he sends out dirty thoughts. It is some combination of rebellion, a prank and flirting. Pretty sure he is thinking about his penis based on her expression. Probably imagining it twice as big, like most men do, lol. Then she slightly smiled when he says second favorite because now he is thinking about HER genitalia as his favorite thing.