Stuff What Used to be on Telly - Babylon 5: First Impressions

I know I said I was going to finish DS9 before I got going on this but unfortunately due to bad weather my last two DS9 box sets are delayed. I've also decided to come back to The Wire later on.

So I started with the pilot, The Gathering. This wasn't just a run of the mill pilot episode however, it was a film. 90 minutes of introduction. It was alright, nothing mind-blowing but set-up episodes rarely are. It did a good job of setting up. We find out what Babylon 5 does (acts as a neutral discussion area for planets that always seem to be arguing amongst other things) and why and we're also introduced to the characters, crew and ambassadors alike. It was fairly gripping if not somewhat generic.

Then we have the first proper episode. This episode was a huge middle-finger to the pilot. Two crew members have been changed, the uniforms are different, the characterization is much slicker, the music is better and there's some wonderful CGI work (it seemed slightly average in the pilot). The first episode looked at the pilot, saw it's faults and corrected them. I've never seen such a good change from pilot to actual series. The pilot took a while to get going while this just simply jumped straight into the action.

So far my favorite character is Garibaldi, partly because he has one of the best TV character names ever but also because he's just brilliant. There's a scene at the end of the first episode where he's watching Loony Tunes, five minutes earlier he nearly killed one of the ambassadors. He's just mad, but in a good way.

I'm struggling to like the Commander however. He's a good character, well written and all but there's just something wrong that I can't quite put my finger on. However I believe that he's replaced in the second series so I suppose I'll just have to soldier on.

Frankly, I can't wait to get started on this series properly. It's completely barmy at the same time as having engaging stories and fantastic characters. No wonder this series has the good reputation that it does.