Let’s list all the stuff that’s different real quick
Uniforms: No leather straps anywhere. this make me sad.
Weapons: Looks a lot like TNG stuff for the smaller PPGs. The bigger stuff’s generic.
Comlinks: bulkier, with straps. heh.
Alien Makeup: While our 4 major ambassadors are here (Delenn, Londo, G'Kar and Kosh) each one’s makeup is different from the series, Londo and G'Kar’s is more subtle (mind you G'Kar’s gills yeeerch) Delenn’s is definitely something heavy. I remember reading at one point that JMS wanted her to be even more mannish but relented, which strikes me as a good idea.
Also Londo’s coat, while purple, just isn’t as Fab as in the series.
Senior Staff: Takashima and the Doc are not characters I’ll miss. And Lyta of course will return…
Support Staff: No Lennier, Vir, Zach yet and of course you can’t not pass comment on a certain dark haired CiC officer without his trademark black hair gel or …associates.
Camera and Lighting: Standard 3:4 instead of the wide later used in the series and it does affect the overall feel of the show. The constant ligthshow in CiC was also distracting (blues and oranges from incoming ships).
Some thoughts:
- The story itself also pushes along but there’s something that always bugged me about the pacing and I’m not quite sure what it is. Sinclair feels a bit too stiff but that might be the actor just settling into the role.
- I love how JMS is able to retcon the disappearance (and reappearance ) of 3 key players from the pilot to the series partly linked to their seeing the Vorlon’s true nature.
- I love how in this pilot and in Midnight on the Firing Line Sinclair’s reporting to a senator, I seem to recall a certain speech of Sheridan’s later on about the chain of command…..
But the pilot overall has good qualities to it and enough to distinguish it from the then-powerhouse TNG and DS9 (even though the series won’t help but be compared to DS9 as it progresses and vice versa). There’s enough mystery about Sinclair to make it interesting.
