I haven't had the chance to watch again yet, but let's talk more about the title sequence:
It's still rare for TV shows to alter title sequences at all over the years - almost unheard of in the 1990's.
I've literally gotten people to watch B5 (borrowing my DVDs) just by showing them the online compilations of all five title sequences. For new viewers I'll go so far as to state it's only seasons 1, 2, and 4 which use the "Babylon 5 Theme," - all with different orchestrations - while s3 will use a variant of the "Requiem for the Battle of the Line," and s5's theme represents *Spoiler Redacted.*
So, what do we get? We'll look at the voice overs and start with the pilot, which was skipped for this blog.
*The Gathering (Series Pilot):
Londo Mollari: I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257 with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessman, diplomats, and travellers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Under the leadership of its final commander Babylon 5 was a dream given form. A dream of a galaxy without war when species from different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect. A dream that was endangered as never before by the arrival of one man on a mission of destruction. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story.*
Londo narrates - he sets the stage, describes the setting, but has an outsider perspective... "We accepted the risk" refers to the Centauri participation on the council.
*Season 1
Jeffrey Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari war. The Babylon project was dream given form. Its goal: To prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call; home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanders. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.*
Again, set and setting, but hints of backstory - "Ten years after..." Of course it's a new year. Time passes on B5. Yet there is similar cadence in the structure of both narrations. "It's a port of call for..." and "This is the/this is it's story..."
*Season 2
John Sheridan: The Babylon Project was our last best hope for peace. A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens. A shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind... the year the Great War came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.*
Again, set and setting, but this time the talk of the station is shorter... But, what's this? Instead of backstory we get forward looking hints: "...the year the Great War came upon us all." The showrunner is telling us up front the bio-waste is about to leak into the ventilation system. JMS, you cheeky bastard. Let's also note Londo's narration references "...it's final commander." Sinclair was the first, Sheridan the second. Will there be others in the future? Who knows. Yet, again we have repetition of "Third Age" and "This is the story..."
Well, I'm sure first time viewers can figure out EVENTUALLY we'll be told what the "Third Age" is. There's also a specific reason for repetition of "This is the story." I ain't giving those spoilers. One is among the three central themes of the show, the other... You'll have to see it for yourself.
As far as the visuals go - well, it's mostly episode clips, but S1 has those sweet shots of the station under construction, and that amazing shot pulling back from the welder at the end of the radiator fins (those are6the heat dumps for the fusion reactor, not solar panels) to show the entire station.
S2 is all episode clips except for the first shot - where the animators were trying to outdo the s1 welder shot... How beautiful is the staging to fade up on an expansive nebula only to pull out and reveal its the reflection in the helmet of an EVA suit?
Since S1-3 VFX Supervisor Ron Thornton used to work for the BBC, including on Doctor Who and Blake's 7, I've always wondered if those two pull out shots were homages to Lister painting the hull of Red Dwarf. Since I'm online buddies with a B5 animator, I think I'll ask Mojo. Watch this space.
Billing - actor billing order is heavily contested. First billed is a big deal, LAST billed (using an "and X as Y" or "with X as Y" credit is also a big deal. Peter Jurassik and Andreas Katsulas agreed to swap the penultimate and final position every season. They flipped a coin to see who went first.
New viewers - if you think S1 and S2 have effective title sequences, I just say S3 is REALLY gonna make you sit up and pay attention. Return viewers, you know what I mean.
For me it was almost a readjustment: my memories the first time I saw anything of Babylon Five were just Sheridan, so going back the first time I saw Sinclair, which was weird, and then oh hey Sheridan's back. It's definitely a jolt, that's for sure, and I love that they just went with it.
DC comics had a short lived Babylon 5 comic. One issue dealt with Sinclair's side of this episode.
The aired episode is January 8, 2261.
On January 6, 2261 Cmr. Sinclair was in Earthdome. Sinclair is also told about the Battle of the Line - by President Clarke!
Seems there were those in Earthforce who have actually known the truth for a decade. It's not just the Minbari keeping secrets.
If Clarke knows, the Shadows probably know. Mull that over!
Said comic was written by JMS.
Earthforce keeping secrets? In "Points" Sheridan says President Clarke is the only other human who knows the truth. Sheridan is wrong. Who else knows? Good question. Bester, maybe?
Minbari "souls:" Atheist JMS very carefully addresses the question of the soul without committing to a definitive answer. A triluminary scans for traces of human DNA. It glows for Sinclair, obviously, as he is the original template it was programmed to scan for. It ALSO will be seen to glow for Delenn in s4 "Atonement" and "In the Beginning." Delenn is Sinclair's great-to-the-nth granddaughter.
For my own atheist self, "DNA scanner" is enough. Yet the soul question remains... Sinclair injecting human DNA into the Minbari doesn't explain their declining population, does it? Unless the human DNA mixed into Minbari DNA made the race less fertile overall? Or souls really ARE moving. Who knows?
So, yeah, this episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do: it needs to recap the end of s1, do some resolution of hanging threads, introduce the new lead, and tell a self-contained story.
And it does pretty well.
The good: Sheridan. We get a good amount of backstory there - son of a diplomat, war hero/tactical thinker. The story of his meal with the Dali Lama and his quoting of Lincoln shows us Sheridan, from an early age, immersed himself in multiple cultures. It's the type of mindset useful for a diplomat. The saga of the Black Star shows us he's tactically smart (Although the events shown in "In the Beginning" don't quite match what Sheridan relates in this episode). We get smiling, "I like oranges and showers" Sheridan, and even his love of baseball. His past relationship is with Ivanova helps smooth the command transition. There are plenty more layers to Sheridan, but he hits the ground as a rounded character.
The Minbari: We get some nice world building and backstory. The sense of conflict between the Minbari and Sheridan is a nice little twist. They were playing nice with Sinclair... Robin Sachs is beautifully pompous. Also, Lennier is just awesome. He's already grown so much from the wide-eyed novice of season 1. "If you are going to kill me, then do so. Otherwise, I have considerable work to do." We'll come back to the Minbari below.
What has gone before: Ivanova with the diplomats in the transport tube is a nice chuckle. It's the look on the Drazi which really gets me. Drazi ate typically combative, so that wide eyed stare, leaning as far back as possible shows Ivanova can intimidate those guys. Useful, later in the season. Also, our first look at the new Drazi masks. The s2-s5 design is a great improvement. There was a tendency in TV of the time for things to reset at the end of an episode. Massive changes would just vanish. Star Trek TNG is an example... With the exception of a single episode for Picard to get over the Locutus incident, and some of Worf's episodes, Trek was infamous for characters getting over trauma instantly. Leaving Garibaldi and Delenn hanging adds to the realism. Will they be fine? Of course. They're opening credit characters. It's a bit of a giveaway, but both have been in limbo for over a week of universe-time. Well done.
The opening titles: The complete change was a shock the first time around. We'll come back to that below.
Thus was Jerry Doyle's favorite episode. As Doyle put it, "No lines, just lie on a table for half a day, full paycheck, what's not to love!"
The bad: Fucking Keffer. I can immediately see why, 30 years ago, I never warmed to the guy. Robert Russler is immediately terrible. Also dude, your holomessage is some woman in a nightie starting to talk about what she misses in bed? This is NOT the message to view in a squadron ready room, dude. I'm sure your fellow pilots were almost happy to be called onto a combat drop to get away from your awkwardness. This guy we've never ever seen before suddenly hanging at the Officer's Club (Earhart's) with Ivanova and Franklin? Ah, the network forced this character on us and JMS had to do something with him. He's forced. He never gets better. We'll ignore him until we get to "A Distant Star," and "GROPOS."
Spoiler Stuff:
The Minbari: The discussion of the Battle of the Line was originally to be a Delenn/Sinclair conversation after her emergence from the Chrysalis. Production realities required the change. Bill Mummy, good as he is, still has to deal with a blatant exposition sequence. It's nicely broken up with a flashback, but it's still pure infodump. Fortunately it's Bill Mumy. An actor of, say, Robert Russler (Keffer) caliber would have resulted in a lot of audience changing channels. Oops, I said no more Keffer talk!
Opening titles: The DVD just used the post-Chrysalis-emergence titles. The Blu-ray uses the original air version with a season 1 Delenn. Now, the Sheridan voice over was originally recorded before the final sequence was assembled, and it jumped out to me, since I haven't seen this version of the credits in decades. Bruce Boxlightner recorded in A void and his delivery is a bit tentative. The VO was pre-recorded when they assembled the updated version of the sequence, and the 2nd version VO is much better.
For those who have the DVD - especially while watching with a first-timer, "In the Beginning" should be watched between S1 "Chrysalis," and s2 "Points of Departure." it introduces you to Sheridan just before the regular series introduces him. It shows the Battle of the Line just before the exposition dump. It does show post Chrysalis Delenn, but only two episodes before the series does. Finally, it shows Ganya Ivanov's fate, serving to nicely cap off Ivanova's "mourning for her family" arc.
It does spoil a season 4 revelation, but the season 4 episodes is about the aftermath of said revelation, so that s4 episode still works.
Watching "In the Beginning" in "universe chronological order" (as JMS recommends) kills the entire season Sinclair mystery. Watching in broadcast order (between s4 and s5) just makes the entire film a strange flashback.
Between s1 and s2 makes it the perfect Sinclair/Sheridan bridge episode.
It's such a VFX-heavy film, I'm not sure I want to go there until/if it gets the same treatment as the main series.
I think part of the pleasure of ItB is how it threads all those different episodes together into a single, mostly-coherent narrative. As such, I think it functions as a cool bonus between s4/5, or even as a post-series prequel. I'd be cautious about spoiling Delenn's reveal and some of the season 4 Minbari stuff - the s4 bits in particular are rushed through in ItB, which could then also diminish their impact when watched in the episodes properly.
Like all the movies, it's largely optional fan service and is far from essential viewing.
Actually, one of the things I like most about ItB is how it hits all the "have to" bits which were discussed in the series - The Black Star, Franklin, Ganya, Delenn, etc... But still manages to throw in a few genuine surprises (Londo), and then kind of re-contexutalise everything with the final scene establishing its final continuity.
I don't know if you read any of the B5 novels published AFTER s5 where JMS did all the outlines (he said 50-60 page outlines for 200-250 page novels, so detailed outlines, indeed), but the kids in ItB are Urza Jaddo's descendants (see s2 "Knives"), and the kids' lady attendant is someone quite important in the lives of Londo and Vir...
This would be a discussion for WhatsApp if you want expansion. I'm not getting into post s5 novels on a re-watch blog with possible new viewers. Everything would be spoilers.
I haven't had the chance to watch again yet, but let's talk more about the title sequence:
It's still rare for TV shows to alter title sequences at all over the years - almost unheard of in the 1990's.
I've literally gotten people to watch B5 (borrowing my DVDs) just by showing them the online compilations of all five title sequences. For new viewers I'll go so far as to state it's only seasons 1, 2, and 4 which use the "Babylon 5 Theme," - all with different orchestrations - while s3 will use a variant of the "Requiem for the Battle of the Line," and s5's theme represents *Spoiler Redacted.*
So, what do we get? We'll look at the voice overs and start with the pilot, which was skipped for this blog.
*The Gathering (Series Pilot):
Londo Mollari: I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257 with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessman, diplomats, and travellers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Under the leadership of its final commander Babylon 5 was a dream given form. A dream of a galaxy without war when species from different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect. A dream that was endangered as never before by the arrival of one man on a mission of destruction. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story.*
Londo narrates - he sets the stage, describes the setting, but has an outsider perspective... "We accepted the risk" refers to the Centauri participation on the council.
*Season 1
Jeffrey Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari war. The Babylon project was dream given form. Its goal: To prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call; home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanders. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.*
Again, set and setting, but hints of backstory - "Ten years after..." Of course it's a new year. Time passes on B5. Yet there is similar cadence in the structure of both narrations. "It's a port of call for..." and "This is the/this is it's story..."
*Season 2
John Sheridan: The Babylon Project was our last best hope for peace. A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens. A shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind... the year the Great War came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.*
Again, set and setting, but this time the talk of the station is shorter... But, what's this? Instead of backstory we get forward looking hints: "...the year the Great War came upon us all." The showrunner is telling us up front the bio-waste is about to leak into the ventilation system. JMS, you cheeky bastard. Let's also note Londo's narration references "...it's final commander." Sinclair was the first, Sheridan the second. Will there be others in the future? Who knows. Yet, again we have repetition of "Third Age" and "This is the story..."
Well, I'm sure first time viewers can figure out EVENTUALLY we'll be told what the "Third Age" is. There's also a specific reason for repetition of "This is the story." I ain't giving those spoilers. One is among the three central themes of the show, the other... You'll have to see it for yourself.
As far as the visuals go - well, it's mostly episode clips, but S1 has those sweet shots of the station under construction, and that amazing shot pulling back from the welder at the end of the radiator fins (those are6the heat dumps for the fusion reactor, not solar panels) to show the entire station.
S2 is all episode clips except for the first shot - where the animators were trying to outdo the s1 welder shot... How beautiful is the staging to fade up on an expansive nebula only to pull out and reveal its the reflection in the helmet of an EVA suit?
Since S1-3 VFX Supervisor Ron Thornton used to work for the BBC, including on Doctor Who and Blake's 7, I've always wondered if those two pull out shots were homages to Lister painting the hull of Red Dwarf. Since I'm online buddies with a B5 animator, I think I'll ask Mojo. Watch this space.
Billing - actor billing order is heavily contested. First billed is a big deal, LAST billed (using an "and X as Y" or "with X as Y" credit is also a big deal. Peter Jurassik and Andreas Katsulas agreed to swap the penultimate and final position every season. They flipped a coin to see who went first.
New viewers - if you think S1 and S2 have effective title sequences, I just say S3 is REALLY gonna make you sit up and pay attention. Return viewers, you know what I mean.
For me it was almost a readjustment: my memories the first time I saw anything of Babylon Five were just Sheridan, so going back the first time I saw Sinclair, which was weird, and then oh hey Sheridan's back. It's definitely a jolt, that's for sure, and I love that they just went with it.
Two more SPOILER topics I missed:
DC comics had a short lived Babylon 5 comic. One issue dealt with Sinclair's side of this episode.
The aired episode is January 8, 2261.
On January 6, 2261 Cmr. Sinclair was in Earthdome. Sinclair is also told about the Battle of the Line - by President Clarke!
Seems there were those in Earthforce who have actually known the truth for a decade. It's not just the Minbari keeping secrets.
If Clarke knows, the Shadows probably know. Mull that over!
Said comic was written by JMS.
Earthforce keeping secrets? In "Points" Sheridan says President Clarke is the only other human who knows the truth. Sheridan is wrong. Who else knows? Good question. Bester, maybe?
Minbari "souls:" Atheist JMS very carefully addresses the question of the soul without committing to a definitive answer. A triluminary scans for traces of human DNA. It glows for Sinclair, obviously, as he is the original template it was programmed to scan for. It ALSO will be seen to glow for Delenn in s4 "Atonement" and "In the Beginning." Delenn is Sinclair's great-to-the-nth granddaughter.
For my own atheist self, "DNA scanner" is enough. Yet the soul question remains... Sinclair injecting human DNA into the Minbari doesn't explain their declining population, does it? Unless the human DNA mixed into Minbari DNA made the race less fertile overall? Or souls really ARE moving. Who knows?
And...we're back, after actually WATCHING it.
So, yeah, this episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do: it needs to recap the end of s1, do some resolution of hanging threads, introduce the new lead, and tell a self-contained story.
And it does pretty well.
The good: Sheridan. We get a good amount of backstory there - son of a diplomat, war hero/tactical thinker. The story of his meal with the Dali Lama and his quoting of Lincoln shows us Sheridan, from an early age, immersed himself in multiple cultures. It's the type of mindset useful for a diplomat. The saga of the Black Star shows us he's tactically smart (Although the events shown in "In the Beginning" don't quite match what Sheridan relates in this episode). We get smiling, "I like oranges and showers" Sheridan, and even his love of baseball. His past relationship is with Ivanova helps smooth the command transition. There are plenty more layers to Sheridan, but he hits the ground as a rounded character.
The Minbari: We get some nice world building and backstory. The sense of conflict between the Minbari and Sheridan is a nice little twist. They were playing nice with Sinclair... Robin Sachs is beautifully pompous. Also, Lennier is just awesome. He's already grown so much from the wide-eyed novice of season 1. "If you are going to kill me, then do so. Otherwise, I have considerable work to do." We'll come back to the Minbari below.
What has gone before: Ivanova with the diplomats in the transport tube is a nice chuckle. It's the look on the Drazi which really gets me. Drazi ate typically combative, so that wide eyed stare, leaning as far back as possible shows Ivanova can intimidate those guys. Useful, later in the season. Also, our first look at the new Drazi masks. The s2-s5 design is a great improvement. There was a tendency in TV of the time for things to reset at the end of an episode. Massive changes would just vanish. Star Trek TNG is an example... With the exception of a single episode for Picard to get over the Locutus incident, and some of Worf's episodes, Trek was infamous for characters getting over trauma instantly. Leaving Garibaldi and Delenn hanging adds to the realism. Will they be fine? Of course. They're opening credit characters. It's a bit of a giveaway, but both have been in limbo for over a week of universe-time. Well done.
The opening titles: The complete change was a shock the first time around. We'll come back to that below.
Thus was Jerry Doyle's favorite episode. As Doyle put it, "No lines, just lie on a table for half a day, full paycheck, what's not to love!"
The bad: Fucking Keffer. I can immediately see why, 30 years ago, I never warmed to the guy. Robert Russler is immediately terrible. Also dude, your holomessage is some woman in a nightie starting to talk about what she misses in bed? This is NOT the message to view in a squadron ready room, dude. I'm sure your fellow pilots were almost happy to be called onto a combat drop to get away from your awkwardness. This guy we've never ever seen before suddenly hanging at the Officer's Club (Earhart's) with Ivanova and Franklin? Ah, the network forced this character on us and JMS had to do something with him. He's forced. He never gets better. We'll ignore him until we get to "A Distant Star," and "GROPOS."
Spoiler Stuff:
The Minbari: The discussion of the Battle of the Line was originally to be a Delenn/Sinclair conversation after her emergence from the Chrysalis. Production realities required the change. Bill Mummy, good as he is, still has to deal with a blatant exposition sequence. It's nicely broken up with a flashback, but it's still pure infodump. Fortunately it's Bill Mumy. An actor of, say, Robert Russler (Keffer) caliber would have resulted in a lot of audience changing channels. Oops, I said no more Keffer talk!
Opening titles: The DVD just used the post-Chrysalis-emergence titles. The Blu-ray uses the original air version with a season 1 Delenn. Now, the Sheridan voice over was originally recorded before the final sequence was assembled, and it jumped out to me, since I haven't seen this version of the credits in decades. Bruce Boxlightner recorded in A void and his delivery is a bit tentative. The VO was pre-recorded when they assembled the updated version of the sequence, and the 2nd version VO is much better.
Should have brought this up quickly last week.
For those who have the DVD - especially while watching with a first-timer, "In the Beginning" should be watched between S1 "Chrysalis," and s2 "Points of Departure." it introduces you to Sheridan just before the regular series introduces him. It shows the Battle of the Line just before the exposition dump. It does show post Chrysalis Delenn, but only two episodes before the series does. Finally, it shows Ganya Ivanov's fate, serving to nicely cap off Ivanova's "mourning for her family" arc.
It does spoil a season 4 revelation, but the season 4 episodes is about the aftermath of said revelation, so that s4 episode still works.
Watching "In the Beginning" in "universe chronological order" (as JMS recommends) kills the entire season Sinclair mystery. Watching in broadcast order (between s4 and s5) just makes the entire film a strange flashback.
Between s1 and s2 makes it the perfect Sinclair/Sheridan bridge episode.
It's such a VFX-heavy film, I'm not sure I want to go there until/if it gets the same treatment as the main series.
I think part of the pleasure of ItB is how it threads all those different episodes together into a single, mostly-coherent narrative. As such, I think it functions as a cool bonus between s4/5, or even as a post-series prequel. I'd be cautious about spoiling Delenn's reveal and some of the season 4 Minbari stuff - the s4 bits in particular are rushed through in ItB, which could then also diminish their impact when watched in the episodes properly.
Like all the movies, it's largely optional fan service and is far from essential viewing.
Actually, one of the things I like most about ItB is how it hits all the "have to" bits which were discussed in the series - The Black Star, Franklin, Ganya, Delenn, etc... But still manages to throw in a few genuine surprises (Londo), and then kind of re-contexutalise everything with the final scene establishing its final continuity.
I don't know if you read any of the B5 novels published AFTER s5 where JMS did all the outlines (he said 50-60 page outlines for 200-250 page novels, so detailed outlines, indeed), but the kids in ItB are Urza Jaddo's descendants (see s2 "Knives"), and the kids' lady attendant is someone quite important in the lives of Londo and Vir...
This would be a discussion for WhatsApp if you want expansion. I'm not getting into post s5 novels on a re-watch blog with possible new viewers. Everything would be spoilers.