twister111 said:

Akwat Kbrana said:
As for The Gathering...well, I don't feel quite so strongly as Twister111 does. It works well enough as a pilot, but again I don't feel that it's quite on par with the bulk of the show (Seasons 2-5).

It's not that I feel strongly about it. I did type "You can watch Season 1 without seeing the Gathering. Since "Midnight on the Firing Line" does sort of allow a person to get introduced to the series but, if you can I do recommend watching The Gathering first." Afterall.

Oops, sorry. My mistake; didn't mean to misrepresent you. :)

Doubleofive

We're about to start B5 soon, so I should start with the pilot/movie then? Which one is that (have to make sure they have it)?

It's called "The Gathering." I wouldn't say "don't watch it," because it's not bad per se. My opinion is that it's just not quite as good as the series itself. But seeing it won't hurt anything, just so long as you know going into it that (a) there are a few character changes between the pilot and the series; (b) it's not absolutely essential to the plot of the series, though it does provide some interesting non-essential backstory; and (c) in the opinion of many Bab5 fans, the pilot and, to a slightly lesser degree, season 1, are a bit uninspired compared to seasons 2-5.

Additionally, if you do want to watch it, just be aware that it's not included in the Season 1 DVD set. As twister111 pointed out, you want to look for either the movie collection or the 2-dvd The Gathering/In the Beginning set.