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The long-running, Emmy-winning TV series launches onto DVD with two feature-length adventures about an outer-space weigh station. In the series pilot "The Gathering" (1993, 89 min.), an interstellar summit strives to negotiate a lasting truce, if an assassin's agenda doesn't have the site effect. Set primarily in the decade before the orbital station existed, the prequel "In the Beginning" (1998, 100 min.) depicts the tumultuous events of the Earth-Minbari War, which shaped interstellar events and paved the way for the construction of the universal safeport. .com ---- In spring 1993, a year before the Babylon 5 series was launched, the two-hour movie and series pilot "The Gathering" staked out the initial territory, introducing primary characters (some of whom would never appear again) and sketching the alliances and rifts in interplanetary diplomacy. The central story involves the attempted assassination of the newly arrived Vorlon, the mysterious Ambassador Kosh, at the hands of (perhaps) Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare). This is the reedited cut released on video, a stronger, more engaging film than the original, but still a broad first stab at characters that would be redefined through the course of the show's run. "In the Beginning," produced between the fourth and fifth seasons, packs all the history alluded to in "The Gathering"--and more--into a prequel stuffed to the hatches with the epic doings of Earth, Minbar, Narn, and Centauri in the days before the Babylon stations were built. Infused with epic sweep and storytelling confidence by producer-writer Michael J. Straczynski and his cast and crew, it's an elegant, compelling addition to the Babylon 5 universe and a dramatic highlight of the series. It's not an ideal introduction, though, as it gives away the shadowy history slowly revealed through the first three seasons. --Sean Axmaker