Babylon 5 Movies

“THE GATHERING” 2257

(Set six months before the beginning of the series)

Pilot - The original version of the Pilot is untitled

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton

Original airdate 02/22/1993

In spring 1993, a year before the Babylon 5 series was launched, the two-hour movie and series pilot staked out the initial territory, introducing primary characters (some of whom would never appear again) and sketching the alliances and rifts in interplanetary diplomacy. The central story involves the attempted assassination of the newly arrived Vorlon, the mysterious Ambassador Kosh, at the hands of (perhaps) Commander Jeffrey Sinclair. A broad first stab at characters that would be redefined through the course of the show's run.

The Vorlon ambassador arrives on station, and is nearly killed in an assassination attempt. Commander Sinclair is the prime suspect.

Babylon 5 awaits the arrival of the last alien ambassador to live on the station, Kosh of the mysterious Vorlon race. He is poisoned on arrival. After telepath Lyta Alexander scans the unconscious Vorlon, it seems that Babylon 5 Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is responsible. The investigation eventually shows that a Minbari using a changeling net to impersonate various station personnel was actually to blame. As the Minbari is being taken away, he leaves Sinclair with a cryptic message: “You have a hole in your mind.”

Starring

MICHAEL O'HARE as Jeffrey Sinclair

TAMLYN TOMITA as Laurel Takashima

JERRY DOYLE as Michael Garibaldi

MIRA FURLAN as Delenn

Guest Starring

BLAIRE BARON as Carolyn Sykes

JOHN FLECK as Del Varner

PAUL HAMPTON as The Senator

PETER JURASIK as Londo Mollari

ANDREAS KATSULAS as G’Kar

JOHNNY SEKKA as Dr. Benjamin Kyle

PATRICIA TALLMAN as Lyta Alexander

Co-Starring

STEVEN R. BARNETT as Eric

WILLIAM HAYES as Traveler

LINDA HOFFMAN as Tech #2

ROBERT JASON JACKSON as Tech #3

F. WILLIAM PARKER as Business Man #1

MARIANNE ROBERTSON as Hostage

DAVE SAGE as Business Man #2

ED WASSER as Guerra

The Gathering: Special Edition

The same as the pilot with an updated soundtrack, additional scenes and expanded scenes. For instance, there’s an early scene of Garibaldi breaking up a Dust deal in the embarkation lounge, a scene of Dr. Kyle discussing his recent abuse of stims, and Carolyn Sykes’s discussion of the battle of the Line with Sinclair runs easily twice as long, and is quite good. Garibaldi’s alcoholism is even foreshadowed. Is generally better than the pilot, above, but it still suffers from a weak middle act in which not much happens. Still, it gives us a glimpse into what JMS actually wanted the show to be when it started out, as opposed to the show we got when all was said and done.

23-Dec-97
Subject: Gathering Additions
From: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

"Can you spare a few words on how you went about the re-edit? Did you start with what you wanted to get back in, or trying to find out how much time you could recapture?"

The first thing I did was to sit down with the editor assigned to the re-edit, Suzie, and go through the original script for the pilot. My first words to her were, "Put everything in that ain't there." To that end, she redigitized all of the footage from missing scenes, and had available all of the available footage of the other scenes for digitizing as we went.

Note that I said all the *available* footage. The folks at WB who held custody of the film (we don't keep that stuff, we're not allowed to by contract, they store film, negative, prints, all that stuff) put the negative canisters into storage...and at one point in the intervening 4 years, there had been water damage, and on another occasion, apparently rats had gotten in there and chewed some of the original negatives (and in most cases there weren't positive struck of those takes).

Take your reaction to the foregoing, put it in front of the Hubble telescope, and you will have mine.

However, we lucked out...where there were some takes that are gone, we were able to find enough others (masters instead of a two-shot, or a close-up instead of an over-shoulder) and B-camera footage that we were able to build solid versions of those scenes. We didn't always have as many choices as we're used to but there was more than enough for our needs.

Suzi then dumped all of the newly edited additional scenes into the existing pilot, and that gave us the new running time (we added about 14 minutes). So at that point, John and I went in and worked to slice down the previously existing scenes, doing what we do with B5: tightening every loose screw and nut as much as we could. One or two incidental, unimportant scenes in the original pilot went out, because they added nothing and shouldn't have been there in the first place (a total of about 3 minutes). The remaining 11 minutes we made up in just tightening scenes, which were *so* lax and slow that it's amazing at times.

In some cases, we substituted one take for another in the pre-existing pilot when we had a better reaction, or played scenes closer for more intimacy. (One of the problems with the pilot is that it kept the audience far from the action, and the actors far from each other, something we changed in our shooting style for the series...here we tried to change it when we could and when we had the coverage.)

Tiny example: when Kosh falls down upon arriving at B5, that sequence ends with a big honking wide downshot of a nearly empty docking bay, with Kosh far from us, and Sinclair looking down (away from us) when he says "Damn." Then we go from that to a wide shot of the medlab. Same framing. So I had Suzie look for a take where we panned up from a close on Kosh, to a close on Sinclair for that line, so it's more immediate, more personal, and the jump to the next scene doesn't feel like the one before.

See, directors like to stay wide in their cuts, so you can see their nifty camera angles, see the set, the lighting...but after you've established where we are, most people want to see the *characters*, not the walls or how the camera moves. That was what we tried to fix where we could.

We couldn't totally re-edit the pilot, because we hadn't been given the money for something that intensive (the main expense is in opening up all the audio stems in the sound mix). But all the stuff I wanted back in, is now in, and the scenes I wanted to fix, I fixed.

I also got the thing back to its original format. All TV movies are 6 acts. Because PTEN wanted more commercial breaks, I had to re-jig the structure of the thing into 9 acts, which meant moving some scenes into places where they weren't as effective, and frankly after 9 acts you just get tired of watching. Here I was able to move scenes around and get back to the original 6-act structure that was intended for the thing, and that alone makes a huge difference in how the film feels.

One of the biggest changes is the one least immediately apparent. After we finished the original pilot, some folks at WB felt that Laurel was too...strong. They will rarely put it in terms quite as blatant as that, but that was the message...she was "unlikable, unsympathetic, harsh." Meaning some of the guys felt she was too strong, let's cut to the chase, okay?

They wanted her to loop her lines, soften their (her) delivery. I fought this tooth and nail. I fought this until finally I was pulled aside and it was communicated to me that B5 was, after all, still an unknown property could be a big failure, and if we ever wanted to see this thing on the air, we'd accommodate this note (which was, I have to admit on balance, one of the few they had). The advice was, in essence, "Pick your battles."

So, reluctantly, I let it get looped by Tamlyn.

But now, when the re-edit was commissioned, and with the person at the studio who insisted on this now no longer AT the studio, I told Suzie, "Screw it, put back her original production track and trash the loops." Instantly, Laurel's energy level comes up, the performance is better...it just *feels* more natural now.

So basically, we did a lot...some of it may not be immediately apparent (improving a sound here, altering coverage, adding additional sound layers, redoing a composite shot of the garden), but over the duration of watching it, it's just *better*. It's still a *tad* slower around the middle than I would've liked, but that's a WP (writer problem), nothing that can be fixed in an edit. It's just exposition-dense there, and nothing of a sort that can be cut.

jms

____________________________________________________________________

“IN THE BEGINNING” 2278 / 2243

(Set during the Earth-Minbari war, ten years before the series)

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Mike Vejar

Original airdate 01/04/1998

"In the Beginning," produced between the fourth and fifth seasons, packs all the history alluded to in "The Gathering"--and more--into a prequel stuffed to the hatches with the epic doings of Earth, Minbar, Narn, and Centauri in the days before the Babylon stations were built. Infused with epic sweep and storytelling confidence by producer-writer Michael J. Straczynski and his cast and crew, it's an elegant, compelling addition to the Babylon 5 universe and a dramatic highlight of the series. It's not an ideal introduction, though, as it gives away the shadowy history slowly revealed through the first three seasons.

While the Drakh is holding David Sheridan, Delenn, and a time-traveling John Sheridan hostage on Centauri Prime, an aged Emperor Londo Mollari tells the story of the Earth-Minbari War — and his intimate involvement in it — to a pair of young Centauri children. It seems that Londo was Ambassador to Earth in the 2270s and was present when Earthforce decided to attempt a first contact with the Minbari. The Minbari Grey Council, meanwhile, is welcoming Delenn as a new member, and is also discussing whether they should contact Earth. Young Delenn and Dukhat think they should, but the rest of the council disagrees. Taking the Grey Council ship to Earth, they are intercepted by an Earthforce cruiser that opens fire, damaging the Minbari vessel and killing Dukhat. The Minbari ship limps away from the scene, and the Grey Council votes on what to do. Delenn casts the deciding vote to go to war against earth. We see a teenaged Susan Ivanova saying goodbye to her brother Ganya, who served on the same ship as Commander John Sheridan. Ganya, and Sheridan’s captain are killed shortly thereafter in an attack by the Minbari flagship, the Black Star. Sheridan’s ship itself is crippled, but he sets a trap that lures the Black Star back and ultimately destroys it, making John a hero. This is the one uncontested victory of the war, though it will have ramifications for years to come. Sheridan, G’Kar and Doctor Franklin get assigned to a secret diplomatic mission to meet with Delenn, who now regrets the war, and negotiate an armistice. This is betrayed by the timely intervention of Ambassador Mollari, resulting in the death of one of the Minbari and the capture of Sheridan and the others. Sheridan says a phrase in Minbari that the dead Minbari had taught him specifically to exonerate him if he was captured, and Delenn lets him go. Interestingly, none of the people involved — G’Kar, Delenn, Sheridan, or Franklin — seem to remember this event after it happened, though I suppose it’s possible Delenn and Sheridan might not have recognized each other. Meanwhile, back on earth the Battle of the Line begins, and we’re introduced to Lt. Jeffrey Sinclair, then a fighter pilot. We see his capture and release, and get a foreshadowing of his importance to future events, and time itself. Back in the present, Londo finishes his reminiscences, and dismisses the children and their nurse. He then peers in on John and Delenn in the holding cell, and orders more wine, a lot more.

____________________________________________________________________

“THIRDSPACE” 2260

(Set during the early part of season four)

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Jesus Treviño

Original airdate 07/19/1998

Returning to Babylon 5 after a mission, Commander Susan Ivanova (CLAUDIA CHRISTIAN) picks up an irregular scanner reading from somewhere in hyperspace. The mysterious object seems to be enormous and Ivanova and her starfury squadron move deep into hyperspace, where they find an ancient alien relic, part platform and part strange geometric design. Captain Sheridan (BRUCE BOXLEITNER) quickly orders the investigation of the bizarre wreckage. As soon as the artifact arrives on Babylon 5, Interplanetary Expeditions sends Dr. Elizabeth Trent (SHARI BELAFONTE), a xenoarchaeologist, to supervise the find. Headstrong and intense, Dr. Trent is immediately at odds with Captain Sheridan. As the investigation of the artifact continues, people throughout Babylon 5, including Dr. Trent, have frightening dreams of surreal towering structures and massive ships. The dreams intensify and soon become a kind of mental compulsion. Dr. Trent suddenly becomes intensely determined to make the artifact work. Dr. Franklin (RICHARD BIGGS) and Zack Allen (JEFF CONAWAY) begin dealing with out-breaks of violence on the station as humans and aliens continue to have disturbing dreams. Delenn (MIRA FURLAN), and Sheridan try to retrace the artifact's origin. Lyta (PATRICIA TALLMAN) begins to suspect a telepathic component within artifact, a signal that is drawing people toward it and forcing them to repair it. Finally, it's discovered that the device is a gateway to another kind of space, a third space. Residing in this dimension are ancient living things looking to occupy other places. Under its powerful telepathic control, Dr. Trent activates the artifact, which begins to launch alien ships that attack Babylon 5. But, the invasion has only started: a massive, ten mile-long alien ship is about to come through the artifact's gateway. Faced with devastation, Sheridan must figure out how to destroy the implacable device before it's too late.

A million years ago, the Vorlons attempted to find a newer, faster way to travel through space. They invented a new kind of ‘Super Jumpgate’ that allowed them to pass through another dimension called ‘Thirdspace’ instead of conventional hyperspace. Alas, Thirdspace was inhabited, and its denizens were a thanatous, life-hating race that immediately attacked the Vorlons. The Vorlons eventually managed to defeat the thirdspacers, but were nearly destroyed in the process. In the battle, the Thirdspace gateway was lost, and drifted through space for a million years. In 2260, coming back from battling Raiders with really cheap-looking helmets, Ivanova’s squadron discovers the Vorlon device, and they have it towed back to B5. IPX finds out about the thing, and sends a research team headed by Dr. Elizabeth Trent (Shari Belafonte). Captain Sheridan gives her permission to experiment on the thing, but wants full reports as to what’s going on. Trent realizes the importance of what she’s found, and doesn’t deal squarely with Sheridan, who doesn’t trust her anyway. Meanwhile, people on the station like Ivanova (with ‘Big Hair’), Vir, and Deuce (William Sanderson, Cf. Grail) are having strange dreams. Riots are breaking out on the station with more frequency the longer the artifact stays nearby. Eventually the Thirdspace jumpgate is activated, and the evil aliens immediately attempt to invade the universe. B5’s fighters and Whitestars manage to hold them at bay temporarily, while Sheridan sneaks through the gateway into Thirdspace and plants a small tactical nuclear weapon on ‘their’ side of the gateway. He escapes back into ‘our’ universe just as the bomb goes off, once again proving that Captain John J. “Starkiller” Sheridan never met any problem that couldn’t be solved by a suitable application of thermonuclear weapons (cf.: In the Beginning, There all the Honor Lies, Z’ha’dum). Meanwhile, Zack talks himself out of having a relationship with Lyta, Lyta walks around in a daze a lot, Dr. Franklin and Zack end up fighting rioters on the Zocalo, and Vir has dirty dreams. Then it all ends and Dr. Trent goes home. Curiously, this ‘movie’ takes place between the first and second acts of Atonement.

____________________________________________________________________

“THE RIVER OF SOULS” 2262

(Set six months after the end of the series)

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Janet Greek

Original Airdate 11/08/1998

An ancient vault filled with relics believed to hold the secret to eternal life is the centerpiece of the Turner Network Television (TNT) Original Film BABYLON 5: The River of Souls. Julie Weitz, executive vice president of original programming for TNT, confirmed that Martin Sheen (Talk Of The Town, The American President, Apocalypse Now) and Ian McShane join series stars Tracy Scoggins, Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs and Jeff Conaway in TNT's next BABYLON 5 full-length movie. Douglas Netter and series creator J. Michael Straczynski will executive-produce the two-hour film from the script by Straczynski. The film is a production of Babylonian Productions. After a brief absence from Babylon 5, Michael Garibaldi (Doyle) returns to the station as a harbinger of doom. An archeologist in his employ has stolen an ancient relic he believes to be the key to eternal life from the Soul Hunters, immortal creatures who capture and preserve souls throughout the galaxy. With the station under siege from the Soul Hunters, the explorer releases thousands of enraged souls from the relic who merge with others, attempting to taste life one more time. Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Scoggins) must save Babylon 5 from an impending attack of the Soul Hunters and the wrathful entities looking for retribution.

When archaeologists excavating a vault come under attack, one of them escapes with a sphere containing thousands of souls. He brings it to Babylon 5 where he attempts to make contact with those inside, the remnants of a society named Ralga. An accident releases some of the souls into the station’s power grid, and projections of those inside the sphere begin to appear around the station. A Soul Hunter arrives to retrieve the souls, who don’t want to return to captivity. A power surge meant for the Soul Hunter hits Lochley, and during her unconsciousness she communicates with the souls. She learns that while the Soul Hunters meant to catch the society on the verge of their death, they instead interrupted a transformation that was about to take place: a transformation to a kind of ethereal being. They hope Lochley can help the Soul Hunters see that they had made a mistake. Other Soul Hunter ships begin arriving to help recapture the Ralgans, believing that their immature 4000-year-old colleague is too inexperienced for the task. The souls congregate in the ship’s fusion reactor, ready to blow the entire station to avoid recapture. The young Soul Hunter offers himself as a sacrifice, willing to join the Ralgan colony in their sphere in order to learn from them. The Ralgans accept, and his soul is taken into the globe. The other Soul Hunters leave with the sphere, satisfied.

____________________________________________________________________

“A CALL TO ARMS” 2267
(Set five years after the end of the series; prelude to the spin-off series, Crusade)

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Mike Vejar

Original Airdate 01/03/1999

This is the fourth TNT movie. It leads into the new series (Crusade) and features various members of the Babylon 5 cast who remain on station after the final season. Sheridan must unite 3 new allies in order to save Earth from certain annihilation. It tells the story of an attack on Earth by the Shadow's allies and the consequences of a biogenetic plague that is unleashed there.

Overview: The two-hour Babylon 5 film will start the story for Crusade. Featuring various members of the Babylon 5 cast (Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Tracy Scoggins, and Jeff Conaway.), it tells the story of the failed attack on earth and the consequences of a shadow-tech disease being spread on earth. Much will take place on Babylon 5. The Interstellar Alliance (ISA) president, John Sheriden and his friend, Michael Garibaldi, inspect the ISA's newest ships, the Excalibur and the Victory, which are based on Human/Minbari/Vorlon technology. Little do they know how important they will be. The former Shadow servants, the Drakh, are in a terrible situation. Without their masters, they have little power. So they decide on becoming independent and are in need of a new homeworld. They decide that taking Earth would be a powerful gesture, since it was a human who had caused them so much grieving (and who destroyed their former homeworld, Z'ha'dum).
Galen, a young Technomage, knows about the Drakh plan. He has secretly been watching Sheriden and decides to warn him. Two other people also had dreams about the planned attack: Dureena Nafel, a thief, comes to Babylon 5. Captain Anderson of the Charon, who commands a destroyer, also sets course for Babylon5.

With combined forces, the Drakh attack utterly fails, and they are forced to abandon their plans. However, before they retreat, they release a virus onto earth, a leftover of Shadow technology. The doctors of earth say that it will take the virus 5 years to adapt itself to the humans, and then become lethal.
As the ISA celebrates it’s fifth anniversary, John Sheridan decides to visit his pet projects, the Excalibur and the Victory, two new ‘Destroyer Class’ ships utilizing Vorlon, Minbari, and Human technology (cf. The Movement of Fire and Shadow). The ships are far beyond schedule in construction, which is being partially overseen by Mr. Garibaldi. Meanwhile, Galen the Technomage (Peter Woodward) has discovered that the Drakh have a working Shadow Planet-killer, and are planning to use it against earth. With the approval of his superiors in the Technomage Circle, he is allowed to warn Sheridan of this, invading the ISA President’s dreams. He’s also invaded the dreams of Dureena Nafeel (Carrie Dobro), a thief, and Earthforce Captain Anderson (Tony Todd). Ultimately, all these people come together at B5 and the crew of Anderson’s destroyer is divided between the ISS Victory and the ISS Excalibur. Anderson commands the Victory and Sheridan takes the Excalibur. Garibaldi, meanwhile, attempts to pump information out of the chief engineer of the Excalibur Project, who has been revealed as a Drakh agent. Alas, Sheridan and Anderson are too late to prevent the Drakh attack on earth, but they were able to forewarn Earthforce via Captain Lochley. Thus, Earth is at least somewhat ready when the Drakh come in shooting. Captain Anderson realizes that if the Drakh reach earth with their planet-killer, his family will die, so he pulls a ‘Captain Sheridan’ maneuver and kamikazes the Victory into the huge alien vessel, destroying it. This turns the tide of the battle, and the Drakh run, but not before releasing a Plague Virus into Earth’s atmosphere. This ‘Drakh Plague’ will wipe out all human life on earth in five years, unless a cure is found. President Sheridan vows to use all the resources of the ISA to find a cure, and figures for some reason (that is never adequately explained) that the cure must be on one of the abandoned worlds formerly inhabited by the First Ones.

Cast

BRUCE BOXLEITNER as President John Sheridan

JERRY DOYLE as Michael Garibaldi

TRACY SCOGGINS as Captain Elizabeth Lochley

JEFF CONAWAY as Security Chief Zack Allan

PETER WOODWARD as Technomage Galen

CARRIE DOBRO as Dureena Nafeel

WAYNE ALEXANDER as Drakh

TONY TODD as Captain Anderson

MATT GALLINI as Rolf

Season One | Season Two | Season Three | Season Four | Season Five

Movies | Legend of the Rangers | Crusade

Front Page | Star Trek Original | Star Trek Animated | The Next Generation | Deep Space Nine