#001 - Babylon 5 Pilot TV Movie: "The Gathering"

Greetings, Discerning Listeners, and thank you for stepping through the portal with us for the very first episode of The Discerning Lurkers Portal: A Babylon 5 Podcast. Also, Happy Anniversary, as we release this episode on the 29th anniversary of the premiere of "The Gathering," the pilot TV movie, starting it all on 22 February 1993. Apparently, the modern gift for 29th anniversaries is furniture. I'll take a new bedroom suite, if anyone's buying.

We will be taking a discerning look, episode by episode, of Babylon 5, one of the best sci-fi TV shows ever and a favorite of the hosts, Dave & Todd. In our first episode, we'll talk a little about what drew us to Babylon 5 and about the structure & content of each of our episodes before diving in to our review of "The Gathering" itself.

We'll explain a little of that structure here...

Blue Sector: We start with a brief episode summary & logistical info like episode order, writer, and director.

Red Sector: This is open discussion about the episode's subplots, world-building, and things we generally liked.

Green Sector: This is a deeper focus into characters, performances, and quotable dialogue (three of the best aspects of Babylon 5).

Brown Sector: Even the best things in life aren't perfect. Here, we'll highlight flaws & nitpicks.

Grey Sector: We'll wrap up with trivia, behind-the-scenes info, and our scores for the episode (based on the Psi Corps P-rating system of P1 to P12). Then, we'll say a preliminary goodbye to newer viewers before delving into spoilers for future episodes as our very last item. Note: One of the co-hosts has not seen quite all of Babylon 5 himself, so even in the Spoiler Zone, our other co-host will be cautious of revealing certain big spoilers too much or too soon.

Thank you for joining us on this journey as we review one of our favorite shows. "The Gathering," a story of an assassination plot against the space station's most recently arrived alien ambassador, is just the beginning of our adventure. If all goes according to plan (and, there's no guarantee it will), we hope to commemorate the importance of the numbers 3 (among the Minbari) and 5 (for Babylon 5 itself) by releasing subsequent episodes on the 25th of February and the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th of March. Starting in April, we'll probably settle into a less nutty, weekly schedule.

If you'd like to contact us, our e-mail is [email protected].

We might have separate Facebook & Twitter accounts soon, but for now, you can also check us out at the sites for our "parent" podcast, The Discerning Geeks Portal, where we take a discerning look into other geeky topics with two additional co-hosts and with a frequent focus on movie reviews.

Facebook: Discerning Geeks Portal

Twitter: @DiscerningGeeks

(With this episode being released on 02/22/2022, I was tempted to schedule it to publish at 02:22 AM Eastern. But, I'll settle for midnight because I want to make sure it uploads okay before I settle down for the night.)

Public domain music used in this episode...

Intro / Transition Into Spoiler Zone / Outro: "Putin's Lullaby" by Alexander Nakarada via FreePD.com (Note: I know with current events going on around Ukraine in February 2022, a song with "Putin" in the title is unfortunate, but I can't help it. That's the name of the song, and the song was picked out weeks ago when the first half of it sounded perfect for a Babylon 5 intro (with a few "swoosh" sound effects added to the end of the intro for added punch).