BW Media Spotlight

In the 1990s J. Michael Straczynski, who worked on kids shows like He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe and The Real Ghostbusters, made a sci-fi show for adults that would become a classic in science fiction. Babylon 5 began as part of the Prime Time Entertainment Network, a failed attempt at creating a new television network. It came off more like a programming block, and in my area the shows aired late nite on the Fox affiliate, which I’m sure didn’t help. Babylon 5 would be one of the few shows in the lineup, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues being the closest thing to another success, while Time Trax is mostly known to people like me and I couldn’t even tell you what Pointman was outside of not about a superhero. I could have sworn the Tekwar TV movies that adapted William Shatner’s novels and led to a series on the USA Network aired here, but I can’t find evidence of that.

By now you know the deal. It’s the future. It takes place on a space station that’s become a gathering place for races across the galaxy. It has a tough commander, a no-nonsense but likable second in command and security chief…and that’s where you can compare it to a similar show from around that time: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Both series would also end up in a war and have a main character go off to be part of some cosmic event, but the details differ. Also, B5 was an intergalactic UN while DS9 was more of a waystation that ended up near a stable wormhole to another quadrant.

If you only know the show when it had left syndication for Turner Network Television, which started on the final season and a bunch of spinoffs, and those later episodes where all the big events happened, you’ll notice differences. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair you’ll be ready for given the future of Valen. Instead of Ivanova we have Takashima, since Tamlyn Tomita opted not to return for the series. Yes, Daniel’s love interest in the second Karate Kid movie. Doctor Kyle shares a skin color with Doctor Franklin and that’s it, with Johnny Sekka leaving for health reasons according to Wikipedia. Thus both characters wouldn’t make it past the pilot. Delenn has a bigger chin than you’ll be ready for because she didn’t do the cocoon bit yet and changes were made to various prosthetics for the series. I had forgotten what her make-up looked like in the old days. Wikipedia said they first planned her as male but the actress couldn’t get her voice low enough so she stayed female instead of transitioning, which is for the best, frankly. Garibaldi and all your other favorites are still here, though our first telepath, Lyta, makes her debut here. The series would take place a year later from “The Gathering”, the name of this TV movie pilot.

Enough about that, though. You came for the movie, and here it is. Note that they’re starting to roll this out on YouTube (odd given the current state of Warner Brothers and the bidding war) but there are places to watch the whole series online already, which I highly recommend. This version is actually a rework by TNT after the series was done. The original PTEN version is sadly not available, with different scenes cut and no references to what’s coming for Sinclair and company. Not much of a special edition since it still has the video game quality special effects. Apparently outer space runs on a PS2 and the original Playstation wasn’t even in stores yet. It was 2257. Enjoy.

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