Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Plot synopsis:
In the Beginning tells the story of an important event in the history of the Babylon 5 universe. Ten years before the television series Babylon 5 is set, Earth becomes involved in a deadly conflict with the just-discovered Minbari race. This war nearly leads to the extermination of the human race, but it is mysteriously halted at the last moment by the Minbari leadership for reasons that would remain secret for over a decade. This near-destruction of the human race led to the Earth Alliance creating the Babylon space stations as a means of preventing further wars.
During the first four years of the Babylon 5 TV series, numerous hints about and glimpses of the Earth–Minbari War were offered. When the program moved to the TNT cable network for its fifth season, a set of television movies were ordered to promote it, and Straczynski chose to use the first of these to tell the story of the war he had so often alluded to in previous episodes.
The movie opens with a view of Centauri Prime in flames. A man is seen looking out of the window of the Royal Palace looking at the destruction. Two children, Luc and Lyssa, are seen playing in the royal throne room and looking out of the window watching numerous buildings go up in flames. Their governess finds them and tells them that it's the Emperor's window and that only he can look out of it. The Emperor hears them and tells them to come in front of him. It is then revealed that the Emperor is an aged Londo Mollari. Mollari allows Luc to be Emperor of the Centauri Republic for five minutes, during which time he may give any order he wishes. Luc asks for a story of great battles and heroes and villains. Lyssa wants to hear a true story. Mollari decides to give them both what they want and tell them the story of the Earth–Minbari War that happened 35 years ago while he was ambassador to Earth.
The movie begins before the war, when the human race—feeling cocky following their defeat of the Dilgar—is rapidly expanding into space. Word reaches them of the mysterious Minbari race. Though they are warned by Londo to leave this race alone, they seek to research the species first-hand.
Meanwhile, the Minbari Grey Council, led by Dukhat, have become concerned that the Shadows may have returned to Z'ha'dum in fulfillment of Valen's prophecy. They are taking a roundabout route to the dark world to investigate when they encounter Earth ships, specifically the Prometheus, seeking to investigate the Minbari.
A misunderstanding then follows. The Minbari ships turn towards the Prometheus and engage their long-range sensors to gain more data on the unknown Earth ship. Unknown to the Minbari, the intense EMP field generated by their long range sensors has the unexpected side effect of disabling the Prometheus' jump engine, preventing the Earth ship from retreating. As the Minbari ships draw closer, they open their gun ports—a sign of respect in their culture. The interference from the Minbari sensors also prevents the Prometheus from determining whether or not the Minbari ships are charging their weapons. The captain of the Prometheus, with his jump engines disabled and the Minbari ships approaching with apparent intent to fire, misinterprets this as a sign of aggression and opens fire. The Minbari ships are heavily damaged, and their beloved leader Dukhat killed. In retaliation, the Grey Council announces a holy war against humanity, and the Earth–Minbari War begins.

Tags: cult

Review:
A good movie that adds important detail missing from the series.
As with most TV movies that are effectively a story arc, "In the Beginning" is only attractive to fans of the series.
But for these people, this movie adds critical background information only hinted at in the series, and as well, casts one of the significant characters of the show into a different light.
Now we can see a little of why the first four Babylon stations were destroyed, and how Sinclair and then Sheridan were fated to be the keystones in the development of Earth-Mimbari relations.Finally the linked histories of Delenn, Sincliar and Sheridan that are alluded to throughout the series are explained, revealing some of the deep background created by J.
Essential viewing for fans of the TV series, but still enjoyable for those who haven't seen Babylon 5 before..
The five year TV tale of Babylon 5 did not however begin with the first episode.
Babylon 5 has consistently shown what can be done in the science-fiction area with intelligent writing, a good cast, and a decent budget for special effects.
The individual scenes are just long enough in  most cases to carry the plot and allow the actors scope, while still making sure that those who watched the series find out the pasts of all the characters, although Garibaldi is conspicous by his absense.For those who want a rollicking good tale of heroism, triumph, tragedy, humour and big explosions, then this is a movie for you..
I was a fan of Babylon 5 as a kid, but I didn't remember the story before seeing this movie.
Not because I am the greatest fan, but because of the amazing acting and setting in some of the scenesWithout doubt the movie that has brought me closest to crying in a whole lot of years.
"In the Beginning" is a mark of brilliance...a perfect made for TV movie for the Babylon 5 series.
It is the best of the B5 movies with the second being the pilot episode.ITB chronicles the genesis of the Earth Minbari war which was a holy war started by misunderstanding between Humans and a powerful alien race called the Minbari.
In the struggle, a huge chunk of humanity is killed as the Minbari march towards Earth, destroying human colonies on the way.Since this movie comes near the end of the 3rd season and out of chronological order, it answers many unanswered questions that B5 watchers would expect to be answered from the 1st Season onwards.On its own, the story is PERFECT.
Great acting by everyone.An interesting tidbit about one of the alternate language tracks is if you turn on the German language dubbing, Reiner Schone, who plays Dukhat does his own dubbing because he's from Germany.This is a must-have movie for a B5 fan, Its the best of the bunch..
"In The Beginning" is quite simply the one of the best movies ever filmed.
As part of the Babylon 5 series it is technically superfluous, since everything depicted in the movie is spoken of in various episodes during the series.
If you do not wish to see Babylon 5 you should still watch this movie because to ignore it simply because of its roots is to deny yourself the experience of seeing some of the finest performances ever put on film.
Although this movie came a long time after the series premiere, it was actually the first piece of B-5 I saw.
It's a great movie on it's own, and a perfect way to start the whole series, because you get all the background info.
And that's all you need to know, the rest will show itself when you watch the movie.The action is great, special effect OK (they were never great, sad to say) and the acting first-class!
So go see this movie, and then follow up with probably the second-best Sci-Fi series EVER (after Enterprise of course...:)).
After watching this film I became an avid fan of the series.
In the Beginning tells the tale of the Earth/Minbari war, Earth was on the rise as an interstellar power and filled with confidence after defeating the Dilgar.
Through his narration you get a sense of the importance of the events surrounding the war and the consequences for all life in the universe as a result of it.The special effects are of good quality, on par with the series but not of the same quality you'd find in a cinema release.
Some of the scenes have been recycled from the first season of Babylon 5 (particularly those shots involving the Battle of the Line and Michael O'Hare) but coupled with Peter Jurasik's voice over they prove to be very effective in portraying the relentlessness of the Minbari and the courage of the humans in the face of destruction.Despite the conspicuous absence of Micheal Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), all of the series regulars make an appearance.
It was interesting to see a young looking John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) in his much talked about battles with the Minbari and the events surrounding Delenn's (Mira Furlan) proclamation of war against the humans after the death of the Minbari leader Dukhat.
Anyone familiar with the regular series will appreciate Peter Jurasik's performance and his subtle references to the mistakes he made in the past.In the Beginning can be watched by anyone.
Those fans of the series that haven't seen it yet will no doubt come away with a greater appreciation for Babylon 5.
It fills in a lot of the history surrounding the Earth/Minbari war and has a great ending that links in directly to the double episode War Without End from the third season of B5 (it my confuse those not familiar with the series though).
This is a must see movie for all those who call themselves a fan of Babylon 5.
The reason of the Human-Minbari war, and why the Babylon stations were built.
There are a lot of questions that is not answered in the B5 series, but you get a lot of answers by watching this spectacular movie.
Having watched virtually no "Babylon 5" but willing to check out this series, I made the mistake of assuming I should start with this prequel TV movie, chronologically the "first" story in the series' universe.Turns out the prequel was obviously to provide pre-existing fans with bonus backstory -- so much so that at times, the film simply gives up on making sense as a standalone product.As a framing device, we get a badly-lit emperor narrating historical events to a bratty little noble and his sister.
At no point does the film care to explain why half the buildings outside the palace are on fire.The emperor tells the story of Earth's war with aliens called the Minbari.
He focuses on the role played by Delenn, a young Minbari leader, and John Sheridan, a human military officer.
The war story is the bulk of the movie, until it swerves into left field by thrusting Sheridan and Delenn into a radical context that has nothing to do with the story we've seen up till now.
It's my all-time favorite sci-fi series because unlike any other show, it is almost like one huge movie--where almost all the episodes connect into one large and captivating tapestry.
This made for TV movie is meant to fill in the gaps for die-hard fans, as it goes back in time BEFORE the series opener to explain a lot of the back story.
However, for someone who hasn't seen the show before or isn't a huge sci-fi fan, I could also see that they could find the film pretty dull--especially since the first 20 minutes or so is filled with so much talking and no action.
That part where Londo is talking about loving Centauri Prime, and then it goes back to the war, showing the little shelter full of crying humans, powerful stuff.
A superb movie for Die-Hard fans of Babylon 5.
Personally I loved "In the beginning" but I know the series off-by-heart, therefore I was able to see how important a part of the series this film was and pick up on all the clever bits in the movie that one-off watchers wouldn't pick up on.It's not my favourite movie as generally I feel "A call to arms" was more important and more in tune for all fans of the show.
Mira Furlan is absolutely magnificent and you can't help but think her lack of presence in the other movies is a bad thing for them.Very good..
The story is more or less the true beginning of the Babylon 5 saga, and we get to see the events that started it all.
The Earth/Minbari War, the battle of the Line, and the death of Minbari's greatest leader Dukhat.
Whereas Babylon 5: A Call To Arms is the beginning of a new adventure in the Babylon 5 universe, Babylon 5: In the Beginning actually completes the epic story that is introduced to us in Babylon 5: The Gathering and then continued by the television series.Babylon 5: In the Beginning describes the events leading up to the Earth-Minbari war in context with everything we have seen in the TV show.
For those of you that don't know, the Earth-Minbari war happened 10 years before the start of the time line of the show.
The TV series then proceeds to tell the story of Babylon 5 year by year from then on.Babylon 5: In the Beginning has a fantastic story, and it introduces us to one or two wonderful new characters.
It is brilliantly put together, but just like Serenity (The Firefly movie), Babylon 5: In the Beginning makes much more sense, and is much better, if you watch it after watching the TV show.
Delenn, Sheridan and G'Kar's characters, for example, are very much in keeping with the characters as we know them towards the end of the TV series, not as they are in the first two seasons.
The first season of Babylon 5 somewhat revolved around the Earth-Minbari war, in which the human race was on the verge of extinction when the Mibari surrendered for reasons that were not yet know at the time.
This 90-minute film successfully portrayed the events leading up to the greatest war in human history.
For those who are new to the B5 universe, the movie starts in the devastated world of Centauri Prime, where Emperor Londo Molari (wonderfully played by Peter Jurasik) explains to two children the events leading and during that war.
We took care of the Dilgar." Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, Earth ships start a holy war with the death of Minbari leader Dukhat.
For B5 fans, the movie covers certain episodes and familiar characters.
The best performances came from Boxleitner as Sheridan, Mira Fulan as Delenn, and especially Peter Jurasik as Londo.
I think it's great that such a wonderful series as Babylon 5 is finally being released on DVD.
I hope that the entire series is being released later on.As for the storyline of the movie I liked extremely much.
While Babylon 5: In The Beginning is a watchable movie for a fan of the series (as I am) I would never recommend it to someone who has never seen the series on TV.
The story gives great background information for a large amount of the episodes in the series, but is largely aimed at someone who already knows a lot of the references.
The quality of the story is that good; the quality of acting passes: and the innovation surpasses anything within the past 30 years.-Tim. Excellent Movie, But What About The Ending?.
Although unfamiliar with the characters and storyline of the series, the format of the movie(as a story told by Londo Mollari) helped make it more understandable.Furthermore, I also found the characters and story here to be very engaging and enjoyable.
In the Beginning is a good film which shows the history and background of the series.
It centers around a couple of episodes plotting the course of the Earth/Minbari war with some of the best CGI battle scenes I have seen..
The best Babylon 5 movie.
This is a good movie,it contains some long dialogues which might be boring to people who haven't seen Babylon 5 tv series.
If you haven't seen the series, you still might not want to watch this because you don't need any knowledge about the things that have happened in the series.So this could be a stand alone movie to attract new fans for the series..
Very nice to see how all things happened during the Earth-Minbari War. Lots of things are clear after seeing this movie.
I saw the complete series of Babylon 5 before seeing this movie.
In the series there's a lot of talk about the war, about what Sheridan did in the war, why was it stopped so strangely, what has Sinclair with this early story?
This movie fills in a lot of gaps from the series.
Jurasik is a fine actor and I've never seen him foul up a line yet.The Battle Of The Line is beautifully done, with Franke's harrowing minor scale progression once again making an excellent backdrop.I like how most of the show dovetails in this film although not overkeen with the Sheridan/Franklin/G'Kar meeting.
As far as the B5 arc goes, it feels contrived, but a movie must stand alone even if it's part of a bigger story and I think it was necessary for this movie to draw some of the key characters together.A nice start to the show, I think if any of my future kids are sad enough to watch Daddies TV shows, I think I'll show them B5 with "the Beginning" at the end.
Another poster here commented that as soon as B5 strays from it's 5-year arc it fails, I agree with that.(Though...truth be told, the pilot episode of B5 was horribly silly as well)In the Beginning is the story of how the Earth and Minbari went to war, and the stories of many of the people we know from the B5 show, all told by Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari.
A masterful choice since Jurasik has a charisma that to me is only matched by Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar.From the start the movie is a feast for fans of B5, the great war is explained in all it's horrible stupidity with leaders of both races too arrogant to see their own faults; The humans by sending an armed force of ships to Minbari space when advised against it by Londo "Send only one ship.", their folly is shown when they fire upon a minbari ship and kill the spiritual leader of the Minbari.
Some of the other characters are quite simply just fillers, the Earth officials that send the Expeditionary force to Minbari space feels too much like the 'crooked politician' to be of any real worth to the movie.
The greatest weakness with the movie is the feel that maybe..It is too much flirting with the fans, like "Look!
It is like an extra episode in Season 5.A Call to Arms (Year 2267) is a prequel to the Crusade series.
Produced between the fourth and fifth seasons of "Babylon 5", this is a superb prequel which ties together the events of the series very effectively.
It tells the story of the Earth-Minbari War (2245-2248), a major part of the series' backstory which is explored in numerous episodes, as is its legacy and aftermath.
It is a credit to both JMS and Vejar that the film is able to maintain such a high degree of tension and, particularly in its last 20 minutes, evoke such a strong emotional response in spite of the fact that many (though certainly not all) of the events depicted would have already been familiar to fans of the series.
The frame story takes place in 2278, sixteen years after the events of Season Five, on a devastated Centauri Prime and ties into the future sequences of the Season Three episode "War Without End, Part Two".
Londo Mollari, the elderly Emperor of the Centauri Republic who is rapidly approaching his prophesied death, tells the story of the war to two young children, Luc and Lyssa Deradi, and their nanny.
Played to perfection by Peter Jurasik, Londo is the most important and compelling character in the series as far as I'm concerned.
However, as Londo says in his beautifully written and moving speech towards the end of the film, the humans made the Minbari fight for every inch of space and faced their fate with bravery and dignity.Mira Furlan, who probably has the most screen time overall, is as excellent as ever as Delenn, a member of the Grey Council and the future ambassador to Babylon 5.
Robin Atkin Downes (who later played the deeply unpopular character Byron in Season Five) is very good as Morann, another warrior caste representative on the Grey Council who enthusiastically supports the holy war against Earth at its outset.
Even so, I would advise anyone planning on checking out the series not to watch this film first as it takes for granted that the viewers were already familiar with "Babylon 5" and therefore features "spoilers" concerning many important revelations during its first four seasons..
The special effects are great, and I think they might have broken the standing record for the most number of ships on screen at any given time (was held by Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi).The movie itself fits in very nicely with the Babylon 5 storyline.
If you haven't seen the series, I wouldn't recommend watching this movie quite yet.
After the first two seasons, watching the movie is O.K. but I'd wait until after the third season, so you sort of have an idea of what's going on.Beyond the minor spoilers, "In the Beginning" is an excellent stand-alone movie, and certainly the best of all the Babylon 5 movies.