I'm including the pilot in this review. First of all, I'm glad I watched every episode at least twice. I gained a new perspective on these episodes that I hadn't the first time around. How do I want to break this up? Starting off with the characters, patterns I noticed in the episodes themselves, and then finally the numbers.
THE CHARACTERS
Sinclair: I know it's his only season, but I liked the way they built up the mystery around him during it. He has a destiny, the Minbari see him as special, and he's trying to piece together what happened at the end of the Earth-Minbari War a decade earlier. He's strong, firm, but also understanding. The perfect combination for a station commander. Right as he's about to get married, that's when the shit hits the fan.
Ivanova: Whatever she's going through in life, she buries herself in work so has to not have to think about it. She doesn't suffer those who get in the way of station operation. She pulls off the touches of being Russian far better than Chekov ever did. Great one-liners. I like the storyline with her grieving the loss of her father. I also liked the delving into her dislike of telepaths because of what happened to her mother.
Garibaldi: Functionally, his role might be the Odo of Babylon 5, but as a person he's really more like O'Brien. He's the everyman kind of guy. I agree with those elsewhere who've said he could've been dropped right into a cop show, and he'd fit right in. He didn't have as much of an arc as Ivanova or especially Sinclair, but it was nice to get a glimpse into some of his life immediately before he was assigned to Babylon 5.
Talia: She didn't have an arc, but her telepathy is put to much better use than Troi's usually was. They really touch into telepaths having to keep themselves from reading people's minds who don't wish it. When she goes into people's minds, I like that we get to visually see her in someone's mind. At one point, when she's joining with the mind of a murderer, we see nothing but the two of them and a black background lit with red. The red, representing blood. I hope they get to do more with her in the future.
Franklin: He didn't have an arc either, but when an episode focused on him, he really delivered. He's a bold doctor who's not afraid to take a stand no matter what it might cost him. All he wants to do is heal people, and it tears him up when he can't.
Londo: A lot of the time he's comic relief, but when he's not he's in a situation where you feel bad for him and sometimes even in a situation where he's in way over his head, including in the season finale. His friendship with Garibaldi is a highlight of the show. His arguments with G'Kar are comedic gold.
G'Kar: At first, I thought he might be the Dukat of the series, they have similar mannerisms, but I see they're very different. G'Kar is content with being an Ambassador. He's also always got a trick up his sleeve, always trying to see where he can give the Narn an advantage. When Londo's not the comic relief, he's the comic relief.
Delenn: There's more to her than anyone would think. So much more that she doesn't even want her aide, Lennier to say that she was of the Gray Council. G'Kar tried to make an offer to her and she scared him away. The Minbari expected her to become leader of the Council and she turned it down. She has a vested interest in Humanity. And she knows about what happened to Sinclair during his black-out period. All I can say is that the more we find out about Delenn, the more questions it raises. I'll be interested to see what direction her character goes in, given how much she's entangled in and the metamorphosis she's about to go through.
PATTERNS AND TRENDS
What I had to get myself used to is the idea that certain things brought up aren't going to be revisited until later. Even though this series is serialized, it's still a '90s show. Another thing that surprised me is the season is more episodic than I would've expected. In retrospect, that makes sense. They want to take the time to develop all the different aspects of Babylon 5 in their own individual spotlight episodes before doing more with them in longer-form stories.
One major difference between B5 and DS9 is that DS9 starts off focusing mainly on the Bajorans and the Cardassians. It's a smaller focus. It doesn't begin to focus on the broader Alpha Quadrant (and Gamma Quadrant) until towards the end of the second season and into the third. Whereas with B5, it starts off with a large focus right from the beginning. Humans, Minbari, Centauri, Narn, and the Vorlons. They're all a major part right from the pilot. DS9 grew into a larger scope, but B5 had it to begin with.
I already knew that Bester was an adversary, only because I always knew Walter Koenig was in the show, but I was surprised that he only appeared once in this season. I'm guessing he shows up more later on.
Then there's Morden. He only shows up twice, but because of all the Narn lives he made sure were lost in Quadrant 37 and the way he has Londo underneath his thumb, I expect we'll see a LOT more of him. Or at least a lot more of who he works for!
I liked getting to know more of Downbelow. I imagine the more people who find their way to Babylon 5 and can't afford to leave, the more crowded Downbelow will eventually become. Maybe, maybe not. That's just me thinking out loud.
Earth Politics. Unlike on DS9, where it put a heavy emphasis on Bajor Politics early on, we didn't see that much of Earth Politics until towards the end of the season. After the assassination of President Santiago and the swearing in of President Clark, I expect there to be more of a focus in later seasons. I like how there's friction between Earth and Mars, as well as Earth itself not being as united as it is in Star Trek. They've laid out the broad strokes, now it's just a matter of seeing them be filled in more.
THE NUMBERS
Like I said, I re-watched and re-rated every episode of the first season. So here's how I rate them now:
"The Gathering" (counts twice) --> 7
"Midnight on the Firing Line" --> 7
"Soul Hunter" --> 6
"Born to the Purple" --> 8
"Infection" --> 4
"The Parliament of Dreams" --> 8
"Mind War" --> 9
"The War Prayer" --> 8
"And the Sky Full of Stars" --> 10
"Deathwalker" --> 8
"Believers" --> 10
"Survivors" --> 9
"By Any Means Necessary" --> 8
"Signs and Portents" --> 8
"TKO" --> 7
"Grail" --> 8
"Eyes" --> 10
"Legacies" --> 8
"A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I" --> 7
"A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II" --> 8
"Babylon Squared" --> 7
"The Quality of Mercy" --> 8
"Chrysalis" --> 10
I already explained my change of rating for "Deathwalker", but I should also explain my change of rating for "A Voice in the Wilderness". I thought a 6 was too harsh. I only rated it so low because I thought it dragged out, but the second part is pretty good, and I didn't most the first part taking its time when I re-visited it.
Let's see how this averages out... takes out the calculator ... I give the first season a 7.92.
That means I like the first season of Babylon 5 roughly as much as the first season of Deep Space Nine. A very good sign that my opinion of it went up on second viewing.
