In the Beginning

An *Opinionated Babylon 5 Episode Guide* review.

Review of *In the Beginning*, a *Babylon 5* television special first broadcast in 1998, between seasons 4 and 5. It acts mainly as a prequel to most events in the TV series.

## Episode information

* **Season:** N/A (B5 films)
* **No. of episodes:** single film (two-parter episode length)
* **Original airdate:** 4 January 1998
* *In the Beginning* at The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, the longest-running fansite
* *In the Beginning* at The Babylon Project, a canon *Babylon 5* wiki
* *In the Beginning* at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* *In the Beginning* at the Internet Movie Database

## Review information

* Review link
* Published: May 25, 2016

## SF Debris synopsis

*This special prequel looks at the events leading up to and during the Earth-Minbari War. Basically, if people would just listen to Sheridan crap like this wouldn't happen.*

## Post-Episode Follow-Up

### Stamp: *None awarded*

"'In the Beginning' was in many ways not just a *Babylon 5* movie, but a second pilot. A chance to reintroduce the show to the world thanks to the promotion that TNT gave it, and thus introducing people to that world with facts about the Centauri, Narn, Minbari and the future of humanity, as well as introducing a number of characters.

At the same time, it gave seasoned fans a chance to witness events that we had only heard about, or seen through little snippets, rather than in this completion. So, it's a little of Column A and a little of Column B. Something to introduce the new viewers - though with limited success, more on that in a second - while still exciting veteran fans.

The use of Londo as the framing device of the work is effective. His narration having kicked things off with 'The Gathering', now leaving him as this work's narrator. Something that a work like this *really needed*. The use of a narrator, in this fashion, took this collection of individual and often abbreviated stories, and gave them a sense of overall unity, as well as carrying the emotional weight of the film.

Indeed, I'm wondering if 'The Gathering', with its excess info-dumping, might have benefitted from something similar. To expand the narrator role, and that. But, this is just idle musing. 'In the Beginning' had the benefit of both years of JMS' experience with crafting the show, plus, having demonstrated the effectiveness of his novel-in-television form, allowing him to have a bit more freedom with 'In the Beginning', than he likely had for 'The Gathering'.

In fact, considering the overall technique, it's surprising that the film turned out as well as it did. The film reveals everyone's role during the conflict, but due to those numbers, many are given the short end of the stick. Ivanova, for instance, has a single scene, with a brother who dies as one of many nameless mooks, so she's just kind of this blip that appears and is gone. Or Sinclair, having no appearance unrelated to the battle, so it doesn't convey the importance of the character. Indeed, the story seems to unwittingly imply, that he's just another nameless mook. It is rather surprising, given that we often have the mood left in the hands of the extras, rather than having the established characters of this, returning in the case of Ivanova, or introducing in the case of Sinclair. Though I understand the budget limitations in the latter case, it just simply wasn't practical.

But my point is, those are things that push the film away from the new viewers, because, without context, they just seem to be these story fragments. That's why I agree this is not really the work to watch before 'The Gathering'. It's best to view it between seasons 4 and 5, to allow your connection to the series to help fully appreciate the events that, otherwise, would feel incomplete. Because within context, it is far, far stronger for that, and these quibbles are not meant to suggest, that the work isn't up to snuff. It's *very enjoyable* and effective. I'm just showing where I think there were areas to improve it, for the benefit of new viewers, which is going to prove to be a substantial percentage of the audience, thanks to TNT's relentless promotion. And, of course, I'm speaking with the benefit of hindsight too. I mean, they had no way of knowing, going in, that such a large percentage of the audience would probably be people who have never seen *B5* before. For someone who's a fan of the series, though, this was a chance to stop with the tantalising scraps of this era and get a much larger, and yet often intimate, view of crucial events to the backstory of *Babylon 5*."

## See also

* Opinionated Babylon 5 Episode Guide
* Reviews of Babylon 5 films