"Babylon 5: The Gathering" (1993) - Pilot Movie for the "Babylon 5" TV Series, Created and Written by J. Michael Straczynski

[DonRocks]

On 7/22/2018 at 10:41 AM, DonRocks said:

If I'm going to watch any Babylon 5 episodes - given that I know nothing about it - should I watch the pilot ("The Gathering") first?

On 7/22/2018 at 11:42 AM, Steve R. said:

Yes.  Its great for the backstory and sets the stage nicely for the series.  Its also pretty good.  However, be aware that a)there are 2 versions and the one you'll probably see is the revised one (which I think is better anyway) & b)the series has a very different cast of characters than "The Gathering" so don't get too attached to any of the characters.  I actually liked Babylon 5 more than the Star Trek series.

And so I watched the 1993 movie, "The Gathering." I'm pretty sure that this is going to be a necessary prerequisite for understanding the series, even though the series will apparently have a very different cast of characters.

On its own, the movie played like a better-than-average, one-hour TV episode - it was clever, with nice plot twists, and set the stage for the viewer to hit the ground running when watching the series. 

The "I'll have what she's having" line has a lead-in that goes: "Someday, I'm going to find the guy that thought up the idea of renting telepaths to businessmen, and I'm going to kill him."