Babylon 5 - The Gathering

I have this one in the complete universe, and i have to say it is one of the best episodes of B5. The atmoshpere of this one is amazing it is rather dark compared to the actual series. Its also good to see how the make up changed when the series started.

Having heard great things about B5 I decided to take the plunge and get it on DVD, Play.com had it cheap so I bought this (the pilot) and season 1. Having watched this, I really hope season 1 is better. The acting in this movie is awful, from the bland secondary characters (the Doctor and 1st officer) to the monotone of the main character, its just naff and comes off as cheesy. When the aliens are the most believable characters, you have a problem. Now I've heard the series proper is much better, and I hope so. That said, even this gets better as it goes on and there are a few interesting ideas, but the awful music, poor acting and stilted dialogue makes this unintentionally hilarious at times.

Someone told me you can pick up the first season and not bother with this movie as most plotpoints are re-addressed and there are cast changes, if thats the case, then I'd advise skipping this. Very poor.

The pilot for this series is not exactly the most captivating. The acting is wooden and the sub characters (especially the doctor) are not great actors. Stick with it though, because it turns into one of the greatest sci fi sagas ever made. The entire story arc over 110(ish) episodes is utterly superb and the actors improve drastically in the first series. Bruce Boxleitner takes over the reigns in series 2 and it just gets better and better. Buy this dvd by all means, but get the rest too. I promise, if you're a lover of sci fi, you'll utterly adore this absolutely barnstorming classic.