Wars have different ways to destroy people’s lives. Croatian actress Mira Furlan had one such experience during the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia. Her marriage to ethnic Serb branded her a traitor, exposed to blacklisting and death threats, finally leading to her and husband leaving Croatia. Despite being one of biggest pre-war film stars she became something of non-person in her native country, so, few years later, it was quite surprising to see her Hollywood work appearing in Croatian video stores. Ironically, it was a project that would bring her international fame and, even more ironically, dealing with something that represented anti-thesis of everything that went on and was promoted in her part of the world. It was Babylon 5, ambitious science fiction television series created by J. M. Straczynski. Few years before Croatian viewers were able to watch the series on television, its pilot episode The Gathering was distributed on video.
The plot is set in 2257 at Babylon 5, huge space station designed as neutral venue for diplomacy and trade between five major civilisations. Earth Alliance, which has built the station and is maintaining it, is represented by its commander Jeffrey Sinclair (played by Michael O’Hare). Currently there are three ambassadors representing their respective entities – Delenn (played by Furlan) of Minbari Federation, G’Kar (played by Andreas Katsulas) of Narn Regime and Londo Mollari (played by Peter Jurasik) of Centauri Republic. Maintaining peace might be difficult, because Earth and Minbari used to be at war ten years earlier, and Narn was enslaved by Centauri in the past. But real problems arise with the arrival of Kosh, ambassador of Vorlon Empire. Strange looking alien falls ill, apparently from poisoning. While station’s physician Dr. Benjamin Kyle (played by Johnny Sekka) uses all of his skills to save ambassador’s life, Lyta Alexander (played by Patricia Tallman), telepath from Psi Corps who assists Kyle, discovers that the ambassador was apparently poisoned by Sinclairs. With Vorlons demanding his extradition for trial, things don’t look good for Sinclair, but he, with a help of station security chief Michael Garibaldi (played by Jerry Doyle) works hard to prove his innocence and discover impersonator who is an actual culprit.
During its premiere and afterwards, Babylon 5 was often accused of being shameless copy of Star Trek or, more specifically, Deep Space Nine, television series which was running at the time and had somewhat similar premise. Taken by itself, The Gathering is actually more than decent television pilot and, unsurprisingly, the subsequent series remained on air for five years and created large fan base that lasts to this day. Straczynski, who directed and wrote the episode, managed to introduce setting and major characters in very efficient and economical way, while masterfully using attempted murder mystery as a simple plot that held film together. Despite its simplicity, Straczynski would later use pilot episode to build on general story arc of the series, known for being one of the rare to be planned and actually made as five-year narrative whole. The audience that saw The Gathering for the first time in 1993 was probably very impressed by the level of special effects seldom seen on American broadcast television. The station and space ships were brought to screen with very effective CGI brought by Commodore Amiga, which would only later be replaced by PC.
Somewhat ironically, when The Gathering doesn’t actually work or, to be more precise, looks inferior to Star Trek, it is due to cast, most notably in the case of Michael O’Hare, relatively unknown stage actor who simply lacked the charisma of William Shatner or Patrick Stwart (and later had to leave the show because of serious mental health issues). Tamlyn Tomita, who plays Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima, is wasted in one-dimensional role and her decision not to appear in subsequent series (when her character was replaced by Susan Ivanova, played by Claudia Christian) is quite understandable. Senegalese actor Johnny Sekka, who played Dr. Kyle, is much better, but he had to leave the series because of other health issues. But, despite those flaw, fans of the space opera would probably appreciate The Gathering, even more so in our dark times, when diplomacy and peaceful coexistence are something that real world needs even more than fictional world of Bablyon 5.
(Note: There are two versions of the film available – as at aired on 1993; and so called “Special Edition” from 1998. The latter altered few minutes of scenes, improved on CGI and, most notably, changed original soundtrack by Stewart Copeland with the soundtrack by Christopher Franke.)
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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