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UNCUT REACTION - Babylon 5: The Gathering (pilot movie) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-15 01:06:56
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Another 90-minute pilot... woo!

Babylon 5 is probably our most recommended thing since starting Star Trek so we had to include it in things to watch this month. Here is our full uncut reaction to the pilot movie The Gathering which we watched on HBO Max. 

This will be edited for YouTube, so expect the edited version this week. 

Thank you for being a Patron & enjoy!

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Patreon UNCUT REACTION - Babylon 5: The Gathering (pilot movie)

Comments

MertzRocks

Great reaction, guys! Pretty much what I thought you'd think of The Gathering. I know you have a shit-ton of Star Trek to get through yet (as I write you are in S1 of the Animated series), as well as other stuff! Hopefully you can get to this soon-ish, like by the new year(????), because the show IS SO much better than *this* offering, and reading the other comments I see I don't have to elaborate much. Seasons 2 thru 4 are the main arc of the show but it gets started in S1, which is mostly episodic world-building and character development. Stephen Johnson above said most of what I would have said on top of this so I'm done... (What Ricky said was good too lol) Keep up the good work and enjoy!

Steven Johnson

Man... Coming back to this really bums me out. We got BSG, we got GoT... I hope we can get a season of Babylon 5 in the future. I'm itching for a reason to do a rewatch.

Steven Johnson

I haven't actually started the watch yet, but I just wanted to say... The Gathering is probably the weakest link for Babylon 5. Only one element is ever really brought up again later in the series,. A lot of it is very rough around the edges when compared to the series. Not really a spoiler, but one of the big changes is the make up for the character of Delenn. All of the make ups got refined going into the first season and beyond, but Delenn was originally intended to be a male character played by a female (RIP Mira Furlan.). The make up had to be so severe to even remotely convince the audience of that, so for the series they just made Delenn a woman and gave the actress feminine appliances. A good change, imho. I do think you guys would really enjoy Babylon 5. The series starts out a little sluggish, but the joy of watching it is witnessing the evolution, and each season is basically akin to a chapter out of a book. It's the first prime time American TV show with arcing stories and one of the very few where the ending was plotted out from the beginning. It starts out more episodic, though even that can be deceptive as something that seems totally inconsequential in Season 1 comes to pay off in Season 3, 4, 5. I'm a huge Trek fan, and I sincerely consider Babylon 5 superior to most of Star Trek. Babylon 5 is full of Trek Alums like D.C. Fontana, and several actors from Trek show up on B5. Harlan Ellison worked on Babylon 5 as a "Creative Consultant." Harlan wrote Star Trek's "City on the Edge of Forever" the only original Star Trek episode to be nominated for a major award... Which Harlan turned down because he felt Gene fucked with his vision too much. Harlan's unofficial title on Babylon 5 was "The bullshit/shit filter." He tried to keep the show honest, and it really does show.

Steven Johnson
>>99646413

Some other little odds an edds. First series to use CGI over practical FX and models, something Star Trek's contemporary series would not do for many many years. Was the major inspiration for the Mass Effect series.

Ricky Johnson

B5 can be long winded... The best thing about the show is the character development. Almost all the stories are mysteries and none of the characters are what they appear to be(probably the second best thing about the show). After a while you see some interesting relationships develop. The most interesting thing to me is how they manage to do episodes that have closure and yet still develop several long arcs. I don't think anyone would argue this show is as good as TOS or Firefly but it was the best SciFi show between them IMHO.

Steven Johnson
>>99646413

The reason for the harnesses on the tram car is because there's no real gravity at the center of the station. The whole thing is a giant centrifical tube. :)

Steven Johnson
>>99646413

Yeah, like I said in my first post, The Gathering is very rough. In many ways it is the rough draft of the show... and JMS was smart to actually acknowledge the year between The Gathering and Midnight on the Firing Line (Episode 1). It literally is a year later, which is why things are "different" internally in the show. A lot of things are the same, but a lot of things change as well. I didn't see The Gathering until after I had watched all five seasons, and the other TV movies they did. I was starved for more B5, and finally heard about it... and holy shit. It's not that it's unrecognizable, but when you watch The Gathering and then jump into the first episode of the series... The series just feels so much more polished and alive. It's similar to how "different" The Cage feels compared to a proper episode of TOS.

Tom Occhipinti

The series finds itself, for sure. But this episode is still a bit rough. This is one of my favorite sci-fi series.

Tom Occhipinti

You said you might be exhausted with sci-fi…. But I gotta say …. Shortly after Babylon 5’s original run, I got my then-girlfriend to binge watch it with me. She had zero interest in sci-fi, but fell in love with the characters and the story arc. Stay with it.

Ron

I agree that the pilot is a bit slow. Even back in the day, I was not super invested afterwards. But, it does get better. There are a number of changes (I won't say what) between the pilot and the first episode of the show. But, keep in mind that the show was always planned with a 5-year arc. I'd like to recommend giving it a chance through at least 3 or 4 episodes of the first season. Effects: As you mentioned, this show was the first TV show to rely on CGI for it's visual effects. Even back in the day, they were never the best. But, it did give the producers the ability to give the show a *much* greater scope than they would otherwise have been able to afford. (This will pay major dividends later on.) IIRC, they used a 3D modeling/animation package called Lightwave (by NewTek) and modelled/rendered the effects using 24 Commodore Amiga 2000s with Video Toaster boards. 16 of these were dedicated to rendering alone. No spoilers: For more info, here's a short writeup: http://www.generationamiga.com/2020/08/30/how-24-commodore-amiga-2000s-created-babylon-5/ (Some shots from the show, but no context. If this is not a concern, here's a decent video on the effects (8:45): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn3UraChY0c

tyranusfan

I saw this when it aired, just a few weeks apart from Deep Space Nine's pilot. I was underwhelmed. I didn't see it again until mid-way through season 2, and I was instantly hooked. I was able to see season 1 in reruns later. The show most definitely gets better. Please be patient with it! :)

Ricky Johnson
>>99699256

Yep, I started with season 2 and was hooked. Went back later and saw season 1. I think if they saw S1E6, Mind War, they would be hooked. It is,however, a long series - it may not be what this channel needs at the moment. Personally, I would rather they watch the pilot from The Prisoner. Be seeing you....