The Gathering covers events which take place roughly one year before those of the first-season episode "Midnight on the Firing Line," providing a framework of backstories, political agendas, and personal relationships for some of the series' major characters.

Following the success of the movie, Warner Bros. Television commissioned the series for production in May 1993, as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN); the first season would premiere in the United States nearly a year later, on January 26, 1994.

In the Earth year 2257, a multitude of humans and non-humans gather deep in neutral space at a new station, Babylon 5, which has recently become operational.

Babylon 5 was built as a neutral venue for discussing and resolving issues between the five major spacefaring races of the galaxy, the humans, Narn, Centauri, Minbari, and Vorlons.

Ambassador Kosh arrives two days ahead of schedule, and is on board the station less than a minute when he suddenly falls ill, apparently from poisoning.

A meeting of Babylon 5's Council, made up of delegates from all five races, resolves to extradite the Commander to the Vorlon homeworld for trial.

Lyta enters the medical lab, where she begins adjusting some of the settings that are keeping Kosh alive; when Dr. Kyle realizes what she's doing, he tries to stop her, and she attacks him.

The original version was a TV movie aired in 1993 on the Prime Time Entertainment Network as a pilot for the series.

Scenes were edited to move at a faster pace, allowing the restoration of 14 minutes of footage adding exposition and character development.

Lost in the special edition is a trip through the station's alien sector that some viewers felt looked too much like a zoo.

The medical officer was Dr. Benjamin Kyle (played by Johnny Sekka), rather than Richard Biggs as Stephen Franklin.

[3] The first officer was Laurel Takashima (played by Tamlyn Tomita), replaced for the series by Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova.