"Sleeping in light"
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I watched the final B5 episode, “Sleeping in Light” for only the third time this weekend (it is really hard to watch if you are a fan – too much reminder of how hard it was to watch the FIRST time! ) But I had a fan over to visit who had never seen it….
Some things struck me that I hadn’t noticed in the first two viewings:
1. Of the 16 charactors (I looked it up!) that got “star” billing in the previous 5 seasons (ignoring only Tracy Scoggins, whose part wasn’t “arc’), 9 were dead at the end of the series, and one was “missing.” Six survived. How long has it been since a show has been so profligate with its “stars?” Maybe “Danger UXB” had a worse casualty rate.
2. There was no intro sequence. The show just started and went on. This, now that I have recognized it, seems very cool. JMS just told us “we don’t need to introduce the cast at this point, you know who they are – and if you don’t, turn the knob and find another show.”
3. On the other hand, the closing credits were extended to do three things:
a. to let us see each charactor as he/she was when we first saw them, and then again as we last saw them. Extraordinarily effective, especially for the charactors that “hadn’t made it” like Londo and G’Kar.
b. to show the entire crew (in rapid succesion, for sure, but then we had been warned by JMS to tape this show), which is the first time I can think of that the crew (as opposed to the cast) was shown visually in the credits.
c. To allow Chris Franke to give us the full-throttle B5 theme. Moving as the rest of the score is (and his orders from JMS were, according to JMS, “just make me cry”) his final, triumphant heme is really breathtaking. I bought the music CD based on that alone.On the other hand, what a letdown when the final credits ended and the music trailed off….
As we already know, a condition of JMS for this show is that the final credits cannot be “stepped on” by showing ads for other shows, etc. The final credits are to remain untouched, including the music. Another cool JMS touch. According to the boards, this is a permanent part of the sales agreement for B5.
Discuss? Best series ending EVER?
Yep, I’ve never seen a better ending. I remember it took me six months to have the nerve to watch the episode again so that I could review it.The thing I liked best though, was the point that you didn’t make. It was JMS who truned off the lights of Babylon 5 at the end. I thought that was really fitting (though he didn’t look very tearful 😉 )
I’ve only watched the episode a few times, and while it does get a little easier to swallow, its still a very bittersweet ending. I would agree with you that it is the best finale (that I’ve ever seen), which is fitting considering its one of the finest shows ever produced.
The music made it that much better, or tragic, or both! And as SadGeezer pointed out, JMS shutting off the lights and being the last one to leave the station is very symbolic.
Thanks, for the info on the finale, much of this I wasn’t aware of.
[quote=”grumbler”]1. Of the 16 characters (I looked it up!) that got “star” billing in the previous 5 seasons (ignoring only Tracy Scoggins, whose part wasn’t “arc’), 9 were dead at the end of the series, and one was “missing.” Six survived. How long has it been since a show has been so profligate with its “stars?” Maybe “Danger UXB” had a worse casualty rate.[/quote]
I think Sliders finished with a whole different cast, and Seaquest had a pretty large turnover rate. I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but Buffy seems to also be up there. Non-scifi shows like Law and Order, and Homicide: Life on the Street also had an ever-changing cast.
B5’s “problem” is that is has a huge cast. And many of the actors wanted to go off to do other things. So those characters naturally had to leave the series. I tend to ignore what happened with larger characters like Londo, G’kAr, and Kosh, because their endings had to do with a story arc that JMS set up years in advance.
I’m not sure if I’d count “Sleeping in light” as the end of the story, per se. It’s more of an epilogue like “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars”. One should count the number of deaths after “Objects at Rest”, because drawn out long enough, all the characters will die. No matter what its labeled its still a most excellent series finale!
Yeah, JMS himself shutting out the lights (and NOT escaping, according to some! 😀 ) was a gret feature, but foreshadowed by JMS himself and so not that surprising to me.
Charactors disappearing aren’t unusual in a show (and we never saw why bester disappeared, for instance, or a whole bunch of others) but killing off the stars is kinda rare. In the most famous such case (“Dallas”), they had to decide that an entire season and a half of the show was a dream to bring back somebody they had killed off.
No, JMS’s killings-off were homicide premeditated. None of the “stars’ just disappeared with lame excuses, they were executed right in front of us.
The only charactor that died after “Objects at Rest” (at least, those that we didn’t know were doomed, like Londo and G’Kar and Sheridan) was Lita Alexander, and we pretty much knew her fate after season 5, so I am not sure the caveat is significant. My point was simply that the plot arc doomed a whole bunch of charactors, and that was both moving and significant (both from the standpoint of JMS’s vision and the standpoint of reviving the series).
Personally, I like the series per se to be finished, and want any future eps/movies to expand on it, not reflect on it.
I’ll tell you what I really liked about this ep. Lorien.
Sure, he’s only in one tiny scene but that scene is fantastic, and every fans dream when you know the main character is going to die. Ambiguity pays off sometimes.
I loved his line too, something like “You didn’t think we were done with you yet, did you?” like did you really think we were going to let you die?
I still find Lexxs finale much more sad even though series 4 was kinda a stinker. And EFC(Earth Final Conflict) falls into the “new cast” catagory as not a single character other than Sandoval made it through all 4 years (and he dies in the finale).
As for my favorite ending, Cleopatra 2525 takes the cake, a show that didn’t wuss out and ends with the destruction of the human race.
Don’t get me wrong though, of all the Sci-Fi series I’ve ever seen, B5 is not my favorite, but it is without a doubt the most well thought out long-term arc of any show, probably ever. Every piece fit together like a puzzle from season 1 to the end. Each season also had a distinct flavor. Londo for example was without a doubt my favorite through season 1, but by season 3 I turned against em. Whereas Girabaldi(Sadgeezers favorite, har har.) I hated in season 1 and came to be irreplacable by the fourth season.
And is it just me or was the Doctor moving in on Girabaldis daughter? =p
[quote=”grumbler”]
No, JMS’s killings-off were homicide premeditated. None of the “stars’ just disappeared with lame excuses, they were executed right in front of us.[/quote]
Missed your post before I posted!
I recently listened to a backtrack during an Andrea Thompson episode and JMS did not beat around the bush with how easily he killed her off when she started demanding more screentime(although we don’t actually see her die dang!). He explained he told her to be patient as the story was already written and not open for debate, but she was so insistant he not only killed her off but had her “dissec…examinated!”
Interesting note from JMS on the usenet 1/12/2004 about this episode:
[quote]For S5 I did commentaries on The Fall of Centauri Prime and Sleeping in Light. The latter was the hardest, since it was the first time I’d seen the episode since it aired. (I just couldn’t, it was too hard.)
I should have done so, though, because when we got to B5’s destruction, I’m ashamed to admit that my voice broke, it just hit me so hard. After we were done, i wanted to go back and do it again, to fix that, which I thought was unprofessional, but the WB boys prevailed upon me to leave it alone. I just hope it doesn’t come across as dumb or something.
jms[/quote]
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