| The First Sensational Babylon 5 Movie In The Beginning |
| "The first sensational Babylon 5 movie", according to the tagline, which suggests there are others, but they are not sensational. Sadly this one's not exactly the most exciting thing available on video either. In The Beginning is set about ten years before the series begins, and tells the story of the Earth-Minbari War. The Human Race has just begun expanding into space, and has won it's first interstellar conflict, against the Dilgar. Despite warnings from their closest allies, the Centauri Republic, EarthForce send some ships to investigate a race called the Minbari. Meanwhile, the MInbari Government, the Grey Council, are out on a trip to Z'Ha'Dum, the Shadow homeworld. This is part of the problem with this movie, it can't decide whether it's a war movie or a huge prologue to the whole series, and so makes a cock-up of both. There are so many elements from the series that are set up and really don't need to be, as they are introduced perfectly adequately in the series and have absolutely no bearing on the plot here. It seems to be aimed at a new initiate to Babylon 5, but any such person would be hopelessly lost. The story is told in retrospect by Emporer Molari, who has shut himself in his palace following his joint defeat with the Shadows, and just before he meet Delenn and Sheridan, the latter of whom has just travelled forwards in time from Babylon 4... It's pointless! Only an anorak could possibly appreciate all this, it adds nothing to the story. Anyway, the Earth vessels, led by the Prometheus and her ridiculously redneck Captain encounter the grey Council expedition. The Minbari have the daft tradition of meeting new people with their gunports open, so, perhaps inevitably, tragedy ensues. In the ensuing war the Humans get mashed by their technologically-superior foes. Until Commander Sheridan, future Captain on Babylon 5, takes command of the Lexington when her Captain is killed. He manages to destroy the Minbari flagship, the Black Star, and earns the nickname 'Star Killer.' After this he is sent on a secret mission with Doctor Franklin and Narn Ambassador G'Kar to try to broker peace with the Minbari head of the Rangers. This is another pointless and annoying part, seemingly only there to give Molari some access to the story, as he ordered delegation bombed. Presumably this gave them all amnesia, so they don't remember all going on an adventure together and getting captured by the Minbari. Another extraneous interlude is provided by a young Ivanova bidding farewell to her ill-fated brother. I always thought she had a fairly strong American accent for a Russian, but someone must have been taking the piss to cast such a stongly Russian-accented actor as her big brother. At the Battle of the Line, the Minbari's final assault on Earth, the human defenders are quickly being wiped out when the Minbari decide to bring one aboard for questionning.Delenn picks Jeffery Sinclair, future Commander of Babylon 5. They discover that he not only has a Minbari soul, but the soul of the greatet Minbari, Valen. This means that not only is the entire conflict resolved by a character not properly introduced, who turns up only fifteen minutes before the end of the movie, but ruins the entire mystery that underpins the first season of Babylon 5. This is a problem with the way the story is structured, instead of telling the story of the War, Staczinski has tried to shove all the characters in, and introduce things that are already introduced in the series. It would have been far better to make this a war movie. It was supposed to be a mystery why the Minbari surrendered on the eve of victory, and it would have been a much better ending to leave it as such. This would have given the revelation in Season Two much more impact and reatined the sense of mystery around the Minbari, while leaving the Season One arc intact. On the plus side, the special effects, especially during the battles, are up to Babylon 5's usual high standard. |