In the arena of 90’s science fiction television there were plenty of giants. Three different Star Trek shows spanned the decade, followed by another that moved the franchise into the 00’s. There were also very popular shows outside of that franchise, like X-Files, or Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The decade, like any other, was home to a bunch of shows that never found their footing. Or maybe shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Your various Space:Above and Beyonds or Earth 2s. Slipping through the crack between those two types was a little show on a new network: Babylon 5.
It was as cheap as can be. The pilot episode/two-parter of Deep Space Nine had a budget that was roughly the same as a 22 episode season of B5. This showed in the rough production values, and sometimes in the quality of the actors available. However, Babylon 5 had two things going for it. The new network PTEN allowed the series creator, J. Michael Straczynski(JMS) to attempt to write Babylon 5 as one long “novel for TV”. A single large story that would play out over five planned years. B5 also leaned into the relatively new for TV area of computer generated graphics, as the budget did not allow for large expensive miniatures. This would allow for interesting character arcs, changes in the status quo, and most importantly for an elementary school aged viewer, space battles that were much more flowing and interesting than the ST:TNG style of two models next to each other slowly drifting.
However, none of that is evident in the first episode of the first season of Babylon 5. “Midnight on the Firing Line” had to pull some extra pilot duties after a disastrous pilot movie “The Gathering”. If I stick with all of this long enough I may revisit the B5 movies, but for my purposes S1E1 is the best place to start. For this episode that means re-introducing some of the concepts of the series as well as introducing a new character in Claudia Christian’s Lt. Cmdr Susan Ivanova.
One thing that the episode tries to do right is drop the viewer into some action. Though at this early stage the CGI is not as good as it would eventually become and the sequence is a bit clunky. More important for the story is that we understand that this is a Centauri colony, and that the attackers remain a mystery to the audience. It is also an interesting choice to hit a new viewer with that Centauri hair first thing, instead of starting the show with the human characters.
Maybe the action was a good idea, as the next several scenes are full of exposition. Maybe it would have come out smoother with a better actor than Jerry Doyle. But they hang it on him and he does the best he can. Michael Garibaldi is a very everyman character on B5 so it wasn’t the worst idea to have him pivot from introducing Ivanova to introducing Londo Mollari, played boisterously by Peter Jurasik, and Vir Cotto played by Stephen Furst. They manage to tie the opening attack back to these characters quickly enough and then we’re off to a very 90’s title sequence.
The title sequence voiceover spends some time holding the audience’s hand and going over the concept of the show, with Michael O’Hare’s soothing voice. Before we get launched right back into some more character introductions that establish the major powers that are all part of the station’s peacekeeping initiative. Everyone acts confused and surprised by the attack and agrees to come back together when they know more. We then get teased with the possibility of more action when the station receives a distress call, before we go right back to character introductions as Andrea Thompson’s telepath character Talia Winters strolls into the scene and dumps some of her character information. Ivanova is dismissive in a coldly professional way. And we move on to teasing some action again with Garibaldi.
The trope of the TV news playing and giving important background knowledge seems like a very quaint thing to have in the future to our current eyes, but it does its job here dropping information on Earth. Ivanova comes in to ask some questions and help deliver still more character exposition. And a hint of world building with the mention of a war between Earth and the Minbari. A war that will drive many more plots in the future. Looking at the conversation that Sinclair and Ivanova have about the election is somewhat maddening in the present day as Ivanova claims to be basing her decision on looks alone, but hey at least she says she is voting.
Londo and Vir pore over a video of the attack. It is somewhat silly that Londo is able to figure out the attackers with some very mild image enhancement on his little computer, but it at least leads to him getting to leave while angrily repeating “G’kar!” which is a fun one in the accent that Peter Jurasik decided on. Rumor is that he developed the accent against the wishes of JMS, but everyone rolled with it, including some of the guest actors portraying Centauri characters in future episodes. I personally like it, since it implies that there are multiple accents on their world, which why wouldn’t there be?
We then get a much more interesting scene between Andreas Katsulas’s G’Kar and Londo. There is still more exposition that gets delivered, but at least these two actors deliver it well. I am slightly biased as G’Kar is probably my favorite in the whole show, and these two actors and characters always play well off each other. It is followed by another great scene that ups the stakes for Londo, but more importantly sets up one of my favorite aspects of the Centauri. They are the only species that is regularly shown to be able to see the future, but every other race seems to dismiss it as Centauri mysticism.
After a bit more back and forth between Garibaldi and Ivanova and some more of Ivanova avoiding Talia Winters, we get our first glimpse of Ambassador Kosh. This episode functions as a second pilot so there isn’t any mention of the events from The Gathering. Kosh gets to seem alien and he does his favorite trick of being cryptic with his answers.
Londo gets a good ranting scene. He gets to loudly and drunkenly lament for a bygone era when his people were a more powerful force. Which does some good work selling the idea that the Centauri Republic is in a state of managed decline, with a leadership that is not eager for confrontations. Something that Londo clearly disagrees with.
G’Kar gets to deliver some exposition. Katsulas does a good job making it sound like wistful musings, rather than an information dump. G’Kar also comes across as oily when he tries to get Sinclair’s support. Causing Sinclair to get angry and mock the Narn’s choice in targets. Sinclair then gets a report about the next raider target which ups the stakes some more. Before he then gets bounced back into the other plot with the first of several different Earth Senator talking heads that he will deal with during the season. Sinclair decides to get clever, which will be a recurring trait of his and it is nice to see that the character is fully formed this early on.
The council scene is brief, but it does set up the idea that there are legitimate concerns amongst the various powers. G’Kar gets to arrange for a laughable transmission from the captured planet. The kind where you can hear the guns being pointed at Londo’s nephew. G’Kar outmaneuvers Londo which again is a good showcase for his character.
The action scene that was built up ends up being fairly anemic. Though it is nice to see physics taken seriously. The show was still figuring out the space scenes. Although, we get some lovely shots of the Starfuries moving through the debris.
Talia finally gets something to do besides get avoided. As she gets to run to Garibaldi to prevent an assassination. After a brief standoff everything ends peacefully, and it seems that Londo’s vision of the future will still come true.
Sinclair gets to bring the action plot and meld it with the main plot of the episode. Turns out the Narns like to sell weapons even to pirates. Sinclair uses this outmaneuver G’Kar and gets everything resolved. They even mention voting again. Every character seems determined to vote. Nice to see that democracy has limped on in this future.
Ivanova and Talia get a nice quiet scene where we get some more character info dumped into a conversation between people that dont know each other that well. Ivanova is the child of a telepath that went on psi suppressing drugs that caused her suicide. More than enough reason for her hostility toward Talia and her organization.
After a short cute scene of Garibaldi sharing cartoons with Delenn we get more of the runner about the election. Gee that Luis Santiago’s platform sounds vaguely right-wing, but I am sure that won’t come up again.
The Good:
- Lots of characters are introduced efficiently, and we even get a little bit of development for some of them.
- The world building is handled well, we get a sense of how the station operates and a little of how the universe works too.
- I always like seeing the silly way that the fighters are launched. They are not pushed out, and they dont take off, but thanks to the station rotating they are basically let go and flung off.
The Bad:
- Many of the actors are still finding their way into their characters. Some of this is because they are brand new to the roles, like Claudia Christain and Stephen Furst. Some of it is because there was an eighteenth month gap between filming the first pilot and this episode.
- The alien prosthetics in the background look pretty rough at this stage, something that will improve. In fact the rumor is that in the scene where G’Kar asks for a second to his motion, the reason that it takes so long is that the actor couldn’t see or hear anything in the costume.
- Much like the practical effects the CGI starts off shaky. The action scenes don’t move very quickly. It feels like the scenes are staged as if they are still using models instead of taking advantage of the new medium.
Arc Points (SPOILERS AHEAD)
- The election runner in the background becomes much more important as the seasons progress. I like that it starts as a little “slice of life” thing in the background before growing into a real problem.
- The Narn/Centauri conflict will only continue to grow. But, the show goes out of its way to paint one side as villains. Which makes it more interesting when the roles quickly become reversed later.
- The Susan/Talia relationship begins here too. It was a shame that mid 90’s TV decided to be so tentative about it as it was good for both characters. A further shame that behind the scenes drama derailed the intended storyline as well.