What about The Lost Tales? Those effects were done in HD, weren't they?
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
Fyi, Kail, you're around the point now where season 4 was originally intended to end, before the slight compression of events due to the uncertain 5th season.
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Yes - and they were wonderful! And very necessary since the budget didn't allow for much in sets.
"Can you tell I'm a convert?"
It's been fun watching you come around. The pace you've been watching at has accelerated a lot, too. Methinks perhaps a little addicted?
It's been fun watching you come around. The pace you've been watching at has accelerated a lot, too. Methinks perhaps a little addicted?
Yeah, I started out just watching on breaks at work, but last season I started to not be able to wait for what came next! So I binge on the week-ends. I'm torn, I don't want to wait to find out what happens, but not wanting to race to the end either.
One more note on the DVD's. I find it very disturbing watching Ivanova morph into Marcus on the menu screen.
One more note on the DVD's. I find it very disturbing watching Ivanova morph into Marcus on the menu screen.
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It's definitely a different episode. It was made right after TNT saved the show for a fifth season, so instead of airing the planned series finale, JMS created The Deconstruction of Falling Stars as a season finale and held off Sleeping in Light, which was already created, until the end of season 5. It has a few scenes that foreshadow what will happen in season 5, and of course scenes that go well beyond the shows run. I've never cared too much for it, but I do love the final shot of the Vorlon-like human!
Deconstruction didn't feel like a B5 episode. It felt like an epilogue one off based on the B5 universe. I've never really gotten it either.
Yeah the sun going nova only 1 million years in the future is interesting. Didn't JMS say that somebody was pissed at humans so they sped up the sun's decay?
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Not really.
Yes, there's a lot that shows how Londo and the Centauri get to where they were when Sheridan meets Emperor Mollari. It starts out awkwardly due to a new commander and having to get a story impetus moving from scratch that but it is worth watching. It has some of Londo and G'Kar's truly great stuff together, too.
You just have to bear with 'the hair' at the outset.
If you're going off my prescribed episode order, you have to expect some confusion.
Watching Sleeping in Light penultimately and then The Deconstruction of Falling Stars last, per my prescribed episode order, after everything else, has more personal impact, not just for the characters, but for yourself too, as you say goodbye to the show's characters and universe - in my opinion. But I consider Crusade optional.
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IIRC it's definitely mentioned that the sun's activity is abnormal, and I was under the impression that humans do take out the sun themselves, but the -why- element of it's a mystery to me. I get that they're doing the Vorlon thing, but blowing up their sun seems a bit over the top.
If we go by 'The Lost Tales', the humans might have decided to finish that job once and for all?
Yes, but you wouldn't know it
Other than Deconstruction, what were your thoughts on the end of season 4? The wrap up of the civil war and forming of the interstellar alliance.
Basically, it was a chance for JMS to do something experimental when the already-written and filmed 'Sleeping in Light' was moved to the end of the newly commissioned fifth season. Something not always noted is that the story of Babylon 5 is a documentary of sorts. It's really only noticeable in the fact that the opening sequences are always in the past tense and sometimes in the news specials. Like many documentaries, B5 is about 'how did X happen' so we're watching the process by which the station became a pivotal part of history. 'Deconstruction' takes that examination quite a bit into the future. Now you know why the folks who prefer a strictly chronological approach say to watch this one last.
Oh, yes. Granted, I'm generally a fan of the 'off format' episodes that take a breather from the usual adventure-story-blow-things-up sort of show, so take it as given that I love the fact that season five gave back the chance from JMS to do some of those episodes. Some worked better than others, of course. But most of all, if you care at all about the relationship between Londo and G'Kar, you don't want to skip season five.
Yes, yes you would....a lot. I can't say what without spoiling it, but lets just say several *major* characters get their story arcs resolved by the end of the season.
I think the way JMS described it, was that *someone* was intentionally opening jump points in the chromosphere, destabilising the mass/gravity balance and inducing the nova. Hence "atypical solar emissions". As to who that someone is and why they're doing it...who knows? A million years in the future it could be a new race or a very very old one.
Fun Fact: The planet they're all going to, "New Earth" isn't just some random world they're colonising, it's one already fit and ready for their purposes. It's the Vorlon homeworld.
You're seeing what happens when a show shoots it's season finale, then finds out they're getting another season after all.
"Deconstruction of Falling Stars" was actually produced as part of Season 5 and was sort of last minute and done for not a lot of money. Hence the sparse sets, minimal effects and story that's mostly removed from the main narrative. "Sleeping in Light" was already shot and the footage would sit "in the can" until the end of season 5.
At the time it certainly felt like a strange ending (I didn't know if the show was coming back or not) but in retrospect it's a very interesting episode and I class it as one of the "off format" shows like the ISN one in season 2 and....uh, well, you'll see.
If you're looking for a general overview on what happened: basically at some point a million years in the future, the last of humanity (an anla'shok) downloads the last of Earth's archives before the sun prematurely goes nova and then flies of to join the others in their new home.
From a storytelling POV it's a chance to see what impact out characters have had over the course of history. The first segment is the immediate reaction. The second is about how in academia, there's a tendency to deconstruct historical figures and imbue them with motivations and traits that suit the times. The third is obvious a very Orwellian world in which facts are moulded to suit the purposes of the state. The fourth is a pastiche on 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' and the coda reveals the (almost) ultimate fate of humanity (they're basically like the Vorlons once were.)
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