Babylon 5: The Gathering

Synopsis

In Earth year 2257, humans and non-humans gather at the newly operational Babylon 5 station, built as a neutral venue for resolving issues among the five major spacefaring races: humans, Narn, Centauri, Minbari, and Vorlons. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair oversees the station. Kosh arrives early and falls ill from apparent poisoning. Chief medical officer Dr. Kyle works to save Kosh, while Security Chief Michael Garibaldi investigates.

Worried that Kosh's death could provoke a Vorlon attack, Dr. Kyle and Lt. Cmdr. Takashima persuade Lyta to perform an unauthorized mind scan on Kosh. During the scan, Lyta sees Sinclair poisoning the ambassador and accuses him of attempted murder. The station's Council votes to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon homeworld for trial within twelve hours. Garibaldi suspects Del Varner, but finds him dead in a fish tank.

Lyta enters the medical lab and adjusts Kosh's life-support settings; when Dr. Kyle intervenes, she attacks him. The real Lyta then enters, and her double escapes.

Versions

Two versions of The Gathering exist. The original aired in 1993 on PTEN as a series pilot. This edition edited scenes for faster pacing and restored 14 minutes of footage adding exposition and character development, including a prophetic line from Kosh when he first meets Sinclair. A trip through the alien sector was removed.

Tamlyn Tomita's original vocal performance was restored, replacing a redubbed version. Stewart Copeland's original music was replaced by a score from Christopher Franke, performed by the Berliner Symphoniker. The special edition appears on Warner Home Video DVD releases Babylon 5: The Gathering/In the Beginning and Babylon 5: The Movie Collection. The original version was previously available on AOL's In2TV and Hulu but is no longer available on either as of April 2014.

The iTunes Store carries the special edition as part of its Season 1 bundle. The original is available for streaming on Amazon and was released on DVD in Region 2, as well as in UK-only box sets.

Changes between pilot and series

Many elements of the pilot changed when the series began, affecting prosthetics, sets, music, and cast. Patricia Tallman played Lyta Alexander, replaced by Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters, though Tallman later returned as a recurring character and then a regular. Dr. Benjamin Kyle, played by Johnny Sekka, was replaced by Richard Biggs as Stephen Franklin due to Sekka's ill health. The in-universe explanation for these changes is that the characters saw Kosh outside his encounter suit and were removed from duty.

First officer Laurel Takashima (Tamlyn Tomita) was replaced by Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova. Alien characters like Delenn and G'Kar had different prosthetics; Delenn was originally intended to be male and become female at the end of season 1, but Mira Furlan's voice could not be made male enough, so the character remained female throughout. Ed Wasser, who later played Morden, appears as Earth Alliance technician Guerra. Duty uniforms, rank insignia, and handheld weapons were altered. Sinclair's love interest Carolyn Sykes was replaced by Catherine Sakai.

Critical response

Rowan Kaiser of The A. V. Club noted that the pilot attempted an extremely ambitious task: introducing a fully fleshed-out universe, multiple characters, an epic story, and political and philosophical themes within ninety minutes. Kaiser considered this too much to accomplish in that runtime, and observed that the first season covers similar ground but has more time to narrow its focus.