Babylon 5: In The Beginning

great series AND from the standpoint of the "storyteller" the year 2776 is correct. Londo is recounting "past events". So the story takes place in the correct year, but is being told well in the future as Centauri have rather long life spans.

A great one-off that shows that a prequel can be done very right when handled properly. In addition to filling out the backstory of one of the pivotal events in Babylon 5's history, In The Beginning is a showcase of how great the storytelling and world building was for this severely underappreciated series. Even though I know "The Gathering" is the pilot and meant to be the intro to the series, I always point people to this instead as their first entry point as it gets people up to speed on the Earth-Minbari War and the reason Babylon 5 was created, and shows just how great these characters eventually become (something you can't see from the pilot and the first half of season one) while laying the groundwork for the rest of the series arc plot. If Babylon 5 was a novel written for TV, then In The Beginning serves well as it's prelude.

After finishing season 4, I was afraid this was going to feel like a rehash, but they did a great job of telling what really happened in the lead up to the Human-Minbari war. Note that the Google info is wrong about the year the story is being told from, it should list 2276.