Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

SnoopyStyle It's the dawn of the third age of mankind. It's 2257 and it's the last of the Babylon stations deep in neutral space. It's a port of call for a variety of alien species. Jeffrey Sinclair is the commander. He's still haunted by the Battle of the Line. The remaining Earth forces were gathered in a final battle against the Minbari. Despite destroying most of the remaining Earth forces, the Minbari surrendered without explanation. Laurel Takashima is the second in command. Lyta Alexander is the newly arrived telepath. Michael Garibaldi is the security chief. Delenn is a Minbari. Humans made first contact with the Centauri. The Narn do not like the Centauri after overthrowing their enslavement. The Vorlons are a mysterious powerful race and their ambassador Kosh Naranek is the last to arrive. Kosh is poisoned and Sinclair is blamed.I was never a big Babylon 5 fan although I stayed with it for long stretches. It always seemed to me to be a slightly inferior Deep Space Nine. It doesn't help that it came out slightly after DS9. It felt always a step behind. The best idea from the pilot is the Battle of the Line. I found that battle to be mysterious, poetic, and full of possibilities. This pilot movie is a lot of expositions with a functional TV story. It holds the promise of a solid sci-fi TV show although it's not something extraordinary. Second season lead Bruce Boxleitner is superior to Michael O'Hare although I wish they kept Tamlyn Tomita around. I have nothing against Claudia Christian, and I can certainly understand the complexity of contracts and TV casting.

gavin6942 The opening of a crucial space station is put in jeopardy when the commanding officer is accused of the attempted murder of a diplomat (Jeffrey Willerth).There was a strange point in history, known as 1996, where voters on IMDb rated this film one of the Top 100 movies ever made. Not Top 100 of the decade, but of all time. A made-for-TV movie for a second-rate science fiction series. Oh, voters of 1996, you were a strange people.The movie is not bad for what it is. And, since it was basically a pilot, I can understand how this led to a series. It is nothing compared to the Star Trek shows of the era, but could arguably be said to be better than "Voyager".

Xander Seavy (RiffRaffMcKinley) The real shame of "The Gathering" is not in the bad acting, nor is it in the despicably shallow plot. The real shame is that it was far worse than the series it begun, even though it did have one main attraction: Takashima. I would love to see Laurel Takashima in a room with Susan Ivanova, even for just five minutes. She has that sarcasm, that wit, that double-edged personality that is at once volatile and lovable. Sadly, though, the "Babylon 5" pilot movie has an incredibly dull story involving assassination. Patricia Tallman-- who never seriously returned to the series until much later-- fortunately got much better with age as Lyta Alexander, who here is little more than a whiny, tiresome telepath. I shall leave you with one final thought-- why is it that Delenn looks like some sort of outer-space frog man (even though she is a woman)? Thank heavens for the way the Minbari looked later in the show.

no-skyline Babylon 5 was a hugely ambitious sci-fi show to get off the ground with complex characters and story arcs that went on over the entire 5 series run. This was the first pilot movie and it paves the way to what would follow.It's an intriguing piece of sci-fi with some strong performances in particular Peter Jurasic as Lando Mollari and Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar. The special effects are a bit limited in places but thats to be expected from a show just finding it's feet.Some of the actors in this initial show would leave to pursue other projects but the core remained in. There are some story lines (which I wont spoil) that could have been further explored had Takishima and Lyta stayed on the show. The acting quality is mixed and this was ironed out as the series went on.All in all it's a good TV movie that does stand on it's own well but it will leave you with a few questions and a good reason to pick up on the series which just get's better as it goes along.Good TV movie that will get you ready for the full series 7/10