I so love this opener. As has been said, so many important plot arcs are introduced here, in addition to three new characters (Ivanova, Talia and Vir), and yet it doesn't feel overcrowded at all.

Observations upon rewatching: I had forgotten JMS even smuggled in a brief remark about Santiago's Vice President (as a reason not to vote for him). All the bits about Earth elections is neatly done. The first time I watched, I thought it was just to explain the Senator's order to Sinclair, but in retrospect it's of course part of the build up to the season finale and beyond.

I had a friend who had followed the bad advice of starting with s2 and who watched s1 only later, after she had seen the other seasons, and who felt disturbed and angry to see "G'Kar in the wrong, almost like a baddie" - she wanted the G'Kar of later seasons. Whereas to me the first season, as epitomized in this episode, is why JMS was so great with his character arcs for Londo and G'Kar. If G'Kar had started out as being the way she wanted, there would have been nearly no growth. Instead, you have the backstory - the Centauri occupation of a hundred years, liberation from slavery - introduced from the start, but you also see G'Kar arrogant as hell, bent on vengeance, enjoying every chance he has to humiliate Londo and looking forward to wiping out the Centauri. You see G'Kar being perfectly fine with sneak attacks on civilian planets and ensuing occupations, provided the Narn are the ones carrying them out. (The parallel between this and what happens in Coming of Shadows in s2 is obvious.) This is both why G'Kar has the possibility of growth (and why it's all themore impressive when he takes it) and, I think, a big reason why he eventually is able to forgive Londo. Because he understands him all too well. (As for the audience, I maintain that if you haven't seen where Lodno is coming from in season 1, then you will react completely differently in season 2.)

And Londo! There is so much important character stuff in this episode. The dream, of course, but more importantly his frustration about the fact his goverment isn't willing to do anything about the Narn attack and is prepared to sacrifice everyone on Ragesh III as lost. The sense of humiliation and helplessness boiling over in violence. The way this is all intensely personal for him. In one of the few continuity glitches for Londo, we never hear from his nephew Karn again (which is why my fanon is poor Karn committed suicide after being called back to Centauri Prime because of his forced speech), but I think it's important, character wise, that Londo is still concerned for him after the speech and the public humiliation, because as we later learn this isn't typical the Centauri, who put saving face first. Vir's uncle would have disowned his nephew at once.

Speaking of Vir, this is both where he gets introduced and where his relationship with Londo starts, which is going to become one of the most important of the show. At this point, they simply start off as yelling ambassador and bumbling assistant, but note Vir already keeps switching between addressing him as "Ambassador" and "Londo", and for the first time is asked to keep one of Londo's secrets, and does.

The Susan/Talia tension set up is great, and I think the only time Andrea Thompson didn't convince me as Talia was when she ran into Londo - that was a bit too theatrical. But she's great in her scenes with Garibaldi and Ivanova both.