Some notes on “The Gathering”, the “Babylon 5” Pilot

- From the pilot to the main show, it’s notable that we swap out an Asian second in command for a white one and a very dark, accented black doctor for a much paler, American-accented one. 

 

- I found the first doctor’s accent quite interesting to listen to, but Katy observed—think rightly—that a US tv exec would say, ‘axe that, if it takes people a bit to understand him they'll lose interest.’ Everyone human is thus mid-Atlantic, even Russians. Only Delenn is allowed a fruity accent.

 

- The technical staff for the pilot don’t seem to know what to do with the very dark black man playing the doctor. Due to a combination of make up and lighting issues, his face is often shadowed or shiny-shiny. A quite nice-looking actor thus ends up looking indifferent in this pilot because the team is inexperienced with the different approaches required to appropriately support him.

 

- Delenn’s design was initially quite, quite different. Abigail Nussbaum said that “apparently the original plan was for her to be male and then change gender. Which... yeah, I do not trust a mid-90s science fiction show to handle that concept at all well.” Interesting, though. (Wild that in-universe, apparently Delenn got that chin surgery incels love just for this special and then evidently regretted it. But who am I to judge?)

 

- Katy observed that the pilot lacked the ‘A plot, B plot’ structure from TNG that most of B5 employs (though I suspect that’s probably mostly due to its being a pilot).

 

- It’s surprising that only a year elapsed between this and the first series, when so much seems to have altered between the two productions in terms of actor availability (or casting choices) and sets. For the series proper, they lose the very annoying pinwheel loading screen embedded in the floor (as well as the attractive but otherwise unimpressive playing their proto-Ivannova, who seems to like to stand on it).

 

- So many technical changes were made between the two stages of production. The series proper has fewer puppets: the world apparently was not yet ready for 1999’s Farscape. The station employs less safety protocol in terms of securing mechanisms in their internal transportation and breathing masks. The captain’s girlfriend changes actors, and the vibes of both Mollari and the Narn ambassador also shift.

 

- I explained to Katy that this was basically the sort of thing I thought “The Beginning” was going to be. Katy opted for us to delay watching it, chronological order be damned. She was a bit hardline in her conviction that the pilot was unnecessary. Ultimately I also don't think the pilot needs to be included in the S1 box (as indeed it isn’t). But it's very unusual to see a show just not use its pilot like this? They're very expensive! Production teams routinely hobble shows with the weakest possible beginning, just so as not to waste the money involved in shooting them.