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Much loved by the Sci-Fi geeks like me for Zack Allan on Babylon 5. RIP Jeff :(

I must admit I didn't know much about him, right when I got on the internet it was on my homepage AOL.com so thats how I learned of it. What movies did he act in, all it said he was in on AOL was "Grease" and "Taxi"?

Hey played Kinniki in the original Grease film. Hey also played as second in command of security in seasons 2 and 3 of babylon 5 and then security chief for most of the 4th season and the 5th season.

Damn fine actor.

A sad tale indeed. An actor with so much potential, but he could never conquer his personal demons which ended up destroying him in the end. I think I'll have to watch some B5 in his honor tonight.

don't know the guy so i guess i cannot really contribute to the thread. but i do remember his face from greese.

anyhow
is bablylon five good? seen single episode TKO just few days ago there was Muy Thai and Liu Kang so i was a bit weirded out....
and writting for this episode was weak.

should i bother with the series?

He was an okay actor, nothing amazing. Unfortunately he destroyed himself with substance abuse issues.

Babylon 5 is great, but with conditions. The acting is pretty much horrible (with a few very notable exceptions) and the effects are laughable by today's standards, but the story is amazing. It is intended to be watched from beginning to end, so jumping in on a mid-season episode is not a good idea. Think of each season of the show as a novel in a series of novels with each episode being a chapter in the book. If you can ignore the often hammy acting and occasionally cheesy dialog with special effects that look like a 10 year old PC game, it's a really great show.

TKO is considered one of if not the weakest episode of the show, you got REALLY unlucky if that's the only episode you've seen.

Babylon 5 is an amazing show if you watch it in order from the beginning. Season 1 and 5 are a bit rough, but the shadow war plot in seasons 2-4 is some of the best TV Sci-Fi I've seen. Don't skip season 1 though, and be careful what order you watch the movies in.

My recommended watch order is

Movie 1 - The Gathering
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4 - Through Episode 8 The Illusion of Truth
Movie 2 - Thirdspace
Season 4 - Episode 9 until the end.
Movie 3 - In the Beginning (No matter what do NOT watch this early, major plot spoiling in this movie if you watch it before this point)
Season 5 - Though episode 21 Objects at rest (Save the very last episode for later)
Movie 4 - The River of Souls
Movie 5 - Legend of the Rangers
Movie 6 - A Call to Arms
Crusade Series
Movie 7 - The Lost Tales
Season 5 - Final Episode Sleeping in Light (Very very last thing to watch, very emotional) While I will agree that the Special Effects are cheesy by today's standards, back in the early 90's they were amazing for a TV show. And the acting isn't any worse than Star Trek or the like. :)

But yes, the story was amazing, especially the major arcs that flow through the entire series, in fact one doesn't get resolved until the books after the show ended. (PsyCorp and <cut to avoid spoilers>)

It's not a movie, it's the 2 hour long pilot episode. Like a lot of new hour long series do.

But you don't need it; I didn't know about it and jumped right in without any problems; it was a bit confusing, but it straightens itself out really quick in a couple episodes.

Movie 1 - The Gathering is really just the pilot for the show, they filmed a 2 hour (minus commercials) to see how it would do before launching the series.

When the show finally came out on DVD, rather than boxing it in with Season 1 they released it on it's own so that people could try out the show without having to buy a whole season. When they released Box sets of B5 they bundled it in with the first 4 movies (all that was made at the time) and started referring to it as the first B5 movie.

TL:DR - Think of it as the Pilot episode/Special.

The movie is the pilot for the show, and it wasn't included in the Season 1 box set.

I just finished watching Babylon 5 for the first time last month. Wonderful series. Season 1 is a bit painful at times, but season 2 is where things start to get interesting. Plus the main actor is replaced by someone who can actually act. The acting does improve over the course of the series. The layout Sielle isn't absolutely necessary, I've only seen the 5 seasons and got along just fine. I think all 5 seasons are on instant on Netflix.

A lot of actors and scenery changed between the pilot and first episode too. They came out like a year apart.

RIP Jeff. :(

Joining Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas and Tim Choate in a place where no shadows fall, hopefully.