Cheap Babylon 5 - The Gathering (TV Premiere DVD) (DVD) (Richard Compton) Price

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Customer Reviews of Babylon 5 - The Gathering (TV Premiere DVD)

Not the best, but still an intriguing start to Babylon 5
This series pilot does a very good job introducing the major alien races, their history with the Earth Alliance, and their diplomats, all of whom will play an important part in the unfolding Babylon 5 saga. This updated, revised edition of the pilot gives a darker, more sinister edge to some of the plot and main characters, most notably, Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima (Tamlyn Tomita) and Minbari ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan). Anyone who expects "Star Trek" may be disappointed, since the story is far more complex and thoughtful than almost anything I have seen in all the versions of "Star Trek". While this is not "Babylon 5" at its best, it offers the viewer much promise, along with tantalizing hints as to what will follow over the course of the five year-long saga.

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Not as advertised, not the best
As you have no doubt already read, this is *not* the premiere movie from 1993 but rather the 1998 TNT version. That irked me, and I hope that the distributors of this movie and amazon.com correct this mistake.

This DVD literally contains an ad for Season 1 on DVD and the TNT version of "The Gathering". Nothing else. There's not even a menu on this DVD. This is as bare-bones as it gets, but then again, you are paying a few bucks for it so you get what you pay for.

The only reason this merits two stars is literally the content. This is a editing of the movie that started it all for Babylon 5, laying the groundwork for a five year storyline. While it can seem a bit drab and drawn out, if you watch the show you will return to this movie and see things you never saw before.

For completists, get this. For everyone else, wait until the Babylon 5 movies set comes out and buy that instead. You will get a much better experience with the same movie as part of that set.

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Babylon 5's pilot TV Movie The Gathering now in WIDESCREEN!
I bought this DVD in the store even though I have the original two-story release DVD The Gathering/In the Beginning and am planning to get the movie box set.

The reason I did so was because that it said on the label that it was the original pilot episode from March 8, 1993. That version was only ever released on VHS not DVD. I was skeptical but for a few dollars I decided to take a chance.

Not to my surprise it was the TNT Special Edition not the original. The Gathering Special Edition much like the Star Wars Special Editions added scenes, deleted scenes and redid effects and dialogue. Strangely the creator of B5 J. Michael Straczynski was praised by his fans for doing so whereas Lucas was condemned for his changes.

The thing though that made this DVD worth getting after all was that they have reformatted the movie which was only made in 1:33:1 fullscreen to a widescreen presentation like they did the Kung Fu TV series DVD's even though the labeling on the back says it is in standard format like it's original exhibition.