B5 Rewatch: 1×01 "Midnight on the Firing Line"

The first broadcast episode of B5 after the pilot episode, it came out a year and a half after the pilot — unexpectedly.  In the interim, two cast members changed (a change which JMS managed to actually fit into the story over time), and everyone had forgotten what was going on …

… which made this a re-intro, and the motifs played are much the same: mysterious Vorlons, nassssty Narn, pathetic/sympathetic Centauri, resolute humans.  A nice setup for some elements that will change dramatically over time.

Sinclair is intense but clumsy. Garibaldi is everyman but, mysteriously, also a space pilot.  G'kar is genteel and nasssty. Ivanova is a poor public speaker but already kickass.  Talia is amazingly low-affect. And Kosh gets to deliver his first OMGcryptic lines.

Oh, and we get (albeit with mid=90s TV CG) reasonably accurate zero-G spacecraft fighting. Yay!

Certainly not the greatest first SF episode over, but a hell of a lot better than "Encounter at Farpoint".

Most Dramatic Moment: Ivanova infodumps her backstory to Talia.
Most Amusing Moment: Garibaldi shares "Duck Dodgers" (and popcorn) with Delenn.
Most Arc Moment:  Londo tells of his dream of dying while locked in mortal throttling with G'Kar. JMS proved for TV you could tell the end of the story and keep people fascinated as to how they got there.