Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Really good, emotional feature-length episode of Babylon 5 from the glory days of the show. I don't recommend starting with this, even though it's the the beginning of the story chronologically, because it spoils some of the show's best plot twists, but it is a good one to go back to as just a solid movie for the fans.

This isn't a movie to watch if you're completely unfamiliar with B5, but for fans its a must see. You finally get to see events that had been talked about for the whole series, and its just as good as B5's usually high standard of storytelling.

The best B5 film. Best viewed in proper sequence within the series.

Not a bad bit of sci-fi, although I have yet to really try Babylon 5 properly, so don't hate on me for not giving it 99 or something.

Feels like an episode of the series, and honestly, would've worked great as a 2-part opener to Season 5. The only B5 film that's a must-watch, as the rest mostly just serve to set up the failed spin-off. The appropriate place to watch this is between Seasons 4 and 5.

Top badass moment? Sheridan meeting his future sweetheart for the first time; on balance it probably could have gone better. This is a textbook example of how to pull together a great movie-length episode to give even the most jaded fanboy a moistness problem. Watched after the end of Season 4, it manages to deal with more lose ends than you’d find in a family-size pack of Tesco spaghetti that someone’s stamped on, twice. A sort of Dunkirk in space. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

This is a really good 'series filler flick' for fans of the series. There is a lot of time spent on getting deeper into the main characters. The production vales are decent, and the acting is very good as is the case in the main series.

Add 30 points if you're a fan of the show. Like all Babylon 5 films , it relies heavily on its audience being invested in the show. It's made for an existing audience, and for those it delivers the goods. As a standalone piece of cinema it's still better than a lot of sci-fi films. But ultimately it's fan-service for people already invested in the show's world.

A telling of the initial conflict between the Earthforce and Minbari, it isn't amazing, but for a show so steeped in its history and cultures it's still a good time.

It's by far the best of the Babylon 5 movies, but as with all of the B5 movies I'd say it's for fans only. I think you'd be hard pressed to figure out everything that's going on without any prior knowledge of the show. This being said, it has great action, it pulls many threads together into a cohesive and engaging story and it has remarkable CGI for a 90s TV movie. The down side is that some of the minor actors in this are pretty weak - Ivanova's brother... yikes!