Babylon 5 - 18/12/97

Just to give an indication of the generally accepted format that these Babylon 5 reviews take, I'll do a mini one.

25 or so lines of "spoiler space" are generally placed below this intro bit for people who haven't seen the episode and don't wish to be 'spoiled'. In other words, don't look down if you don't want to know about the episode.

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And, yes I know it sounds silly, but there are many people out there (I'm one) that get very pissed off if they are told anything about future episodes before they see them. I trust we are all mature enough to respect their wishes.

Now, back to the plot...

The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

Wasn't that the oddest, back-to-front'est, bizarrest bloody episode you've ever seen. A few plot points worth mentioning.

1. The Interstellar Alliance isn't the 'absolute goodness and light' thing that it was set up as last week. Or at least, it isn't perceived that way by humans after a few years. This is one of the great things about B5 - there aren't any happy-ever-after bits - humans always cock things up, eventually.

2. There's going to be a colony of telepaths on B5. As soon as I heard it, I thought "It'll all end in tears". There'll turn against Sheridan and eventually there'll be a war.

3. Garibaldi gets kidnapped and (probably) gets shot. Maybe this has something to do with 2.

5. Sheridan will die (mysteriously) in 20 years time, the same year Babylon 5 is destroyed.

4. Garibaldi is still as crafty as ever, even 500 years in the future as a hologram. However, in so doing he triggers a massive mutually-destructive conflict which plunges earth back into the dark ages.

6. Over the next 500 years the rangers work in secret to bring earth back to the technology level it once had.

7. A million years later the rangers are still around and humans seem to have evolved into non-corporeal entities which use Vorlon-style encounter suits and organic ships. This, in a way, hints of the great cycle that has been indicated before in B5. Perhaps humans will then act as Vorlons to the younger races that are around then; which begs the question "who will be the shadows?"

8. Earth's sun will go nova in a million years. According to (today's) astrophysics, this is very premature.

At least that's my interpretation of the hundreds of bizarre images which made up this episode.

"How will it end?"
"In fire."

Any comments?

---

Matthew Houghton

Sorry Matt

My mail client keeps replying to the original sender, not the list. You'll
get two copies of this!


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one) that get very pissed off if they are >told anything about future
episodes before they see them. I trust we are all mature enough to respect
their wishes.
ever seen. A few plot points worth >mentioning.


It was a good way of explaining what happens in the future and why the
events in B5 where "The Dawn of the Third Age". It also reminded me a lot
of the style used in Herbert's Dune saga as well as Starmaker etc. The
grand sweeping history of the developement of Man over millions of years.

Question is, what are they going to cover in Season 5?
that it was set up as last week.

Utopias nearly always end up as Dystopias. One entities poison is anothers
meat and all that.
it, I thought "It'll all end in tears". There'll >turn against Sheridan
and eventually there'll be a war.

Bester get's his wish then? From point 7) below, the telepaths become the
Shadows? Possibly the Centauri?
something to do with 2.
Babylon 5 is destroyed.

No doubt Bester has a lot to do with it.
hologram. However, in so doing he triggers >a massive mutually-destructive
conflict which plunges earth back into the dark ages.
to the technology level it once had.

Is it just me or was this a direct take from Canticle for Leibowitz. Earth
gets destroyed in massive war, a small group of monks maintain the remnants
of knowledge from an earlier technological era. The monks are responsible
for the next industrial revolution, war happens again.
have evolved into non-corporeal entities >which use Vorlon-style encounter
suits and organic ships. This, in a way, hints of the great cycle that has
been >indicated before in B5. Perhaps humans will then act as Vorlons to
the younger races that are around then; which >begs the question "who will
be the shadows?"

I missed this due to an infant screaming down my lug hole, I'll see it
again tonight. What was with the Ranger sporting a Sheridan like goatee and
the last shot of Sheridan and Delenn? Where they implying they lived a
million years in the future.

On your last point, isn't that what Lorien says. In each era/age a new race
becomes the Guardians for emerging races. Lorien helped the First Ones,
they helped Humanity/Minbari and they in turn help the next generation.
astrophysics, this is very premature.

Very premature, the sun will go into a red giant phase in about 5 billion
(10^9) years, it may go through a nova phase but is unlikely. The scene
implied the Sun goes Supernova, naughty Mr Straczynski.
made up this episode.

As good as any one elses. Problem I have is that I keep seeing bits of
plots from SF books I have read in B5. This does not detract from B5 but it
would be nice to see something unique, once in a while.

Dave "excellent episode" Barlow

On Friday, December 19, 1997 2:21 PM, Dave Barlow
[SMTP:Dave.Barlow@] wrote:
episode
According to the official B5 homepage (I forget the URL), there were
hints as to what is going to happen. There will be a telepath war,
lots about the inter-personal relations of the already known
characters (this is probably one of the reasons B5 is so good - the
characters are VERY well developed in a very realistic way), and
given what the last season 4 episode says, there is very likely to be
a lot about the political events on earth, because even though
everyone is (finally!) united, there are still two distinct factions
on Earth.
Of course - there is no absolute goodness. In B5 it was very nicely
put when it was shown that Vorlons were no better than the Shadows -
hust the two sides of the same coin, one no better than the other.
My bet goes to the Centauri as well. Other races are either
insignifficant (Drazi, etc...), or they have strong experionces
against the Shadows already (Minbari), so they are unlikely to follow
that path. The Humans probably had more connections with the Shadows
than anyone else, so it is, after all possible that some of them will
become shadows, but after the Earth's near destruction 500 years
later, given that it was the Rangers that helped them, they are
unlikely to turn against the "forces of light".
I think the Centauri are the only signifficant/powerful enough race
that had lots of contact with the shadows which remains that could
possibly follow that path.

Still, in the end - it doesn't really matter because there is little
difference between the Vorlons and the Shadows after all, despite the
single-sidedness of the earlier episodes in which the Shadows are
portraid as the bad guys simply because they were the opposite of
someone who was already known.

And besides, the first Kosh seemeed to be much kinder and more
supportive/understanding toward humans than the one who replaced
him...

Anyway...
year
Hmm... Not really... Sheridan's death was only to be expected (Lorien
said he could only live for another 20 years). And the telepath war
was probably over before he died. There is a big hint about this -
Delenn says 100 years later that "he cared about the rest of the
world even when the rest of the world stopped caring about him". This
may indicate that he died reasonably forgotten/discreddited.
Leibowitz.
lived
Hmm... Possibly holograms? Or perhaps just a something that happened
in the past? Or perhaps they have advanced enough technology to have
created the clones and programmed their brains with the old
personalities? Like they programmed the holograms? Possible, although
not very much like B5.
Not necessarily! Remember the episode when Ivanova orders the
WhiteStar to open a jump point in a jump point to destroy a pursuing
Shadown vessel? It looked very much like what happened... They may
have simply decided to go away whilst creating a big bang behimd
them, just for the effect. :)
images
B5
Is is, of course very difficult to come up with some ideas which are
conceptually new. The art is in the way the story is told. The idea
in B5 is based around the interraction of characters, thus renderring
the technical side of it being Sci-Fi unimportant. The whole story
could have just as well been happening in, say, ancient Rome.

Gordan

Maybe. I have a feeling though that the Centauri, certainly Londo have
grown up an awful lot over the past 4 years. Admittedly Londo's new outlook
will not necessarily drive the future of the whole Centauri race but given
that he's about to become Emporer, it's fairly likely.
This maybe just me but my impression about the structure of the episode was
that it started in the present, following on from last week. Just before
this flowed into the timeline story that made up the rest of the episode
Delenn and Sheridan were saying that it didn't matter that they were being
celebrated as the do'ers in the recent struggles as no-one would remeber in
100 years anyway. For the rest of the episode we were shown just how much
they would be remembered, from the 100 years they cited through to
1,000,000. Once we saw that final scene we cut back to the present day with
them in bed. Just before the episode finished they again commented that
they wouldn't be remebered. To my mind that was one of the main points of
the episode. I'll watch it again but I don't think it was meant to be
implied that they were still around in 1,000,000 years. If so, then the
episode was even weirder than I though :-)
I know it's picky but it was actually Sheridan who destroyed the Shadow
ship by collapsing the Markab jump gate. Unless there was another such
encounter I've forgotten.

BTW If people are interested in some of the ideas behind B5 as well as lots
of things you probably missed in episodes, take a look at the Lurker's
Guide to Babylon 5 (http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html). This is
generally recognised at the premier source for B5 info and includes deatils
interviews with JMS about each episode.

Richard