I too came very late to B5. I binge-watched most of it on Netflix around 2011, but they took it off of streaming before I finished season 5. They didn't have any of the movies, so I wound up watching them much later and completely out of order. It's kind of interesting to come back to the pilot, but it's never going to be my favorite installment and I don't have many strong feelings on it.
I do wish we had seen more of Takashima, though. Her actress got screwed over by executive meddling from the start. The producers found her delivery too cold or hard, and so made her redub her lines to make them 'softer', then they decided they couldn't take her seriously as a military officer, so she got replaced by Ivanvoa. There's some interesting kernels of characterization there, her "It's been a long time since I've broken the rules" speech when she just got done telling Kyle about her illicit coffee plants had a lot of potential. In some ways she seems more like a proto-Lochley than a proto-Ivanova.
Garibaldi is the only human character to make it from the pilot through all 5 seasons.
G'Kar and Londo at least are very much themselves right off the bat.
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I do wish we had seen more of Takashima, though. Her actress got screwed over by executive meddling from the start. The producers found her delivery too cold or hard, and so made her redub her lines to make them 'softer', then they decided they couldn't take her seriously as a military officer, so she got replaced by Ivanvoa. There's some interesting kernels of characterization there, her "It's been a long time since I've broken the rules" speech when she just got done telling Kyle about her illicit coffee plants had a lot of potential. In some ways she seems more like a proto-Lochley than a proto-Ivanova.
Garibaldi is the only human character to make it from the pilot through all 5 seasons.
G'Kar and Londo at least are very much themselves right off the bat.