The Gathering (Babylon 5 pilot)
| Babylon 5 episode | |
|---|---|
| “The Gathering” | |
| Episode no. | Season 0 Episode |
| Guest star(s) | Michael O'Hare; Tamlyn Tomita; Jerry Doyle; Mira Furlan; Blaire Baron; John Fleck; Peter Jurasik; Andreas Katsulas; Johnny Sekka; Patricia Tallman |
| Writer(s) | J. Michael Straczynski |
| Director | Richard Compton |
| Production no. | |
| Original airdate | 1993, Feb. 22 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "None (pilot)" | – |
The Gathering is the Babylon 5 pilot, first aired Feb. 22, 1993.
The story is set on the Babylon 5 space station a year after it first opened, and a year before the first season. Characters were significantly altered from "The Gathering" to the first season, and many minor changes to the filmmaking were also introduced (changes to alien prosthetics, etc.).
Publications
- The first broadcast (Feb. 22 1993) of "The Gathering" was on "Prime Time Entertainment Network" (PTEN).
- A revised version was first aired in 1998 on TNT (Turner Television Network) immediately after "Babylon 5: The Beginning". The revised version edited many scenes, restored 14 minutes of exposition and character development, and deleted a trip through the station's alien sector. The revised edition also replaced the original score by Stewart Copeland (formerly of The Police) with a score by Christopher Franke, who did the scoring for the rest of the season.
Notes on casting
The first visible humans on this episode (and the series) were played by actors of underrepresented minorities on US TV: a woman of Asian descent (Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima), followed by a man of African descent.