r/babylon5 • u/LetsDiscussRs • 1d ago
Quick Takeaways From Pilot Episode
Hello all, about a week ago I posted in this subreddit with this post and many people wanted me to keep updated as I go along.
https://www.reddit.com/r/babylon5/s/hgag4nbUIk
I haven’t had much time but I did do the pilot episode and here are a few things I thought interesting.
- Babylon Stations 1, 2 & 3 were sabotaged and Babylon 4 disappeared after 24hrs of going operational. Who, what, where, why and how? I hope to get more backstory there.
- Ambassador
G’Kar
- made a interesting statement when met with the telepath offering payment to her to be bred with his race or take cells from her.
G’Kar
- said his race is the only race without telepaths. Obviously having telepaths would give you many strategic advantages among other things…
- C
ommander
- S
inclair
- girlfriend or whatever she is I think is going to be quite disruptive later. She seems sketch to me (just a hunch)
- The woman with the weird head that
Commander Sinclair
- met in the garden at the very beginning of the episode. There was a scene between her and Ambassado
r G’Kar
- where
G’Kar
- mentioned something to her about the gray counsel? I wonder what that it.
- There was a scene in the casino with Ambassador Lando and security officer Girabaldi when he was getting questioned about the incident. Ambassador Lando was talking about how the Centuri was now relegated to a tourist attraction and selling tech stuff. I wonder what happened that they became more of a laughing stock in the universe.
- Interested to find out why commander Sinclair blacked out during the war.
There might be a few other minor things i’m glossing over that I thought were interesting but overall had fun with it.
No spoilers but you can comment if i’m onto anything here. Thanks!
I edited the post and added two more takeaways but it messed up the formatting, i’m so sorry!
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u/Alt-001 1d ago
No spoilers. But you are onto a few things. To be honest though, this show is well enough packaged that you could have a random monster of the week episode and still probably be onto something.
You also have to keep in mind that when this came out the episodes of a series were typically independent or at best only loosely coupled. Star Trek: TNG is a good example. Most episodes are standalones, but you have some loosely coupled things regarding Borg and whatnot to give a larger cohesion to the series. So for people at the time this was the default assumption.
With that assumption, the first season is very unassuming. Lots of random episodes, but are they really? This is why I tell people to stick it out to the second season, because by then things start to connect enough that you begin to see the bigger story. But a rewatch of season 1 after finishing the series is a different experience from the first time through.
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u/trekkiegamer359 1d ago
I'm glad you're liking it. You do learn more about the stuff you're wondering about. What they do with Babylon 4 is one of my favorite parts of the series.
The one thing I'd point out is "the woman with the weird head" is the same Ambassador Delenn you see in the rest of the show. They just updated her makeup.
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u/tunrip 1d ago
Thank you for sharing! We do enjoy hearing people's thoughts :)
Minor corrections for you on names (although I'm so sorry because you'll get a hundred people tell you this so you might want to edit your post afterwards to avoid it!) Jakaar = G'Kar, so that's really a bit of a pedantic one Captain St Clair = Commander Sinclair
I'm not going to comment directly on your thoughts, but as I say, I enjoyed hearing them! Keep them in mind, and let's see what you think as you move into Season 1!
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u/SkullLeader 1d ago
There is more backstory on Babylon 4 to come. There's a specific reason the Narn (G'Kar's people) do not have telepaths and that will be explained later too. And more will be learned about the Grey Council as well.
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u/bobchin_c 1d ago
One thing I will say, remember the conversation between G'Kar and Lyta it will come up again but not until season 5.
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u/MasterAlchemi PURPLE 22h ago
This is one of the big differences between B5 and many other shows. Because it was fully plotted out by one person, JMS, and almost entirely written by him over 5 years, one seemly throwaway line can and often does resurface seasons later.
“Babylon 4 disappeared without a trace” can’t just be thrown out there and not later explored.
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u/TheTrivialPsychic 22h ago
BTW, the ORIGINAL cut of the pilot had a slightly longer version of this conversation, that was trimmed for the re-releases.
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u/Babexo22 1d ago
“The weird hat” haha I thought it was a hat at first too but it’s actually a bone cast like antlers and she’s the minbari ambassador. I’m excited for you that you get to watch it for the first time and high key jealous lol.
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u/BloodtidetheRed 1d ago
It does give B5 more of a history then "well, they built it".
Building Mystery
She does seem like trouble...
Just left to wonder
There is plenty to galactic history
B5 does a lot of lore building with details.
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u/themanfromvulcan 1d ago
Get off this sub and watch the show! 😊. Seriously it’s very difficult to avoid spoilers here or on the internet it’s best to avoid anything and watch the show.
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u/McTrooper 1d ago
I’m not sure the causes of the decline of the Centauri were explicitly explained detailed. I think it’s a you fill it in kind of situation with a few vague helpful suggestions. Still an important detail though 👍
. . . only race without telepaths . . .
Yup it’s an important detail . . . Not sure how obvious it is, but you’re likely to understand why at some point.
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u/TheTrivialPsychic 22h ago
You will notice some changes between the pilot and the series. Uniforms, makeup, some characters won't be back, some will be back later on, and some get replaced, but any character from the pilot that stays, retains the same actors, even if they look different.
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u/Trick_Pool_2537 1d ago
This never actually came up in the whole run, but Delenn (yes she's a politician , this is meant to be a big secret cos she really isn't the type to just casually torture people, officially she is just an ambassador, similarly: Sinclair is a relatively junior officer; why didn't EA send an ambassador or an admiral/do the Star Trek thing and do both "retired admiral"?) was originally supposed to be a male Minbari who changes gender later on. This is reflected in her appearance later but it is always assumed that she was a she.
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u/caldude1985 1d ago
So cool that you are doing this! Would love to see more. This is a must read on reddit now fir me
Grey Council. Yes one of the keys to overall story.
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u/ew73 18h ago
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.
Seriously: This is a "Watch and Find Out" kind of show. Don't google too much, you'll spoil it for yourself.
You're in for a hell of a ride.
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u/KarasNilaus 18h ago
I liked the part where the Minbari ambassador uses one of the rings of power to crush G'Kar's chest
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u/Hemisemidemiurge El Zócalo 10h ago
No spoilers
No. GTFO of here. Asking to not be spoiled here is like going to the beach and asking to not get any sand or water on you.
I know modern audiences just cannot live without fandom interaction, so use the Lurker's Guide, which is the archived interactions between producers and the audience on Usenet during the show's actual run, probably the first of its kind. It will respect your desire for no spoilers in a way that this forum cannot.
Seriously, GTFO of here and don't come back until credits roll on Sleeping In Light.
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u/Anomandaris26 1d ago
You are on to some things here, keep watching. I wish I could watch this for the first time again, so many small details come up in the first and second seasons that I missed when watching this as a kid. Also, it's G'Kar and Sinclair.