Babylon 5 (TV Series) The Deconstruction of Falling Stars (1997) User Reviews

Why this episode as the last one of Season 4

[fabienmayer · 8/10 · 13 October 2015]

Although this episode is part of the fifth-season production run, it's actually the fourth-season finale. The fifth-season finale, "Sleeping in Light," was shot during the fourth-season production run because it wasn't clear that the show was being renewed; once the renewal was announced, another episode had to be substituted and it was this one.

The title sequence was changed slightly from the regular season four sequence. A clip of the Agamemnon flying through the explosion of the defense platform in "Endgame" was inserted just before the cast credits, and Claudia Christian's name was removed from the cast list.

For the persons who do not understand this episode as the last one of the season.

Thanks to midwinter

Probably the single best episode of B5

[sarastro7 · 9/10 · 18 January 2007]

I am not a big fan of Babylon 5, generally speaking. It strikes me as too grey and militaristic, with obvious story lines that just aren't interesting enough.

This final episode of the fourth season, however, is just superb. In fact, the final four or five episodes of this season are all significantly better than the rest, but this last one is the absolute icing on the cake. What happens is that we are shown what future history thought of the legacy of Sheridan. Through realistic political debates, biased media analyses and propagandistic fact manipulation, we are shown how the future reacts to the B5 events, 100, 500 and a 1000 years after the fact. Now, this, my friends, is science fiction! Great stuff.

My only complaint is the usual: that the general events are too obvious. In the future, we AGAIN have a development towards a totalitarian world government, and as we go further and further into the future, humanity apparently regresses, ending up under medieval conditions, with no space travel and hardly any technology! This, my friends, is not great science fiction. Sure, by problematizing the totalitarian condition, the writer of the show places himself squarely in the opposite (liberal) camp, and this is all good and well, but what about showing a bit of optimism about the future? What about believing a bit more in the good parts of human nature? Oh well, I suppose that's why we have Gene Roddenberry's utopian Star Trek future. Maybe Straczynski wanted to be diametrically opposed to Star Trek. It paints a really bleak picture of the future, though, and I can't say I prefer it to the strife-less wonder of a Star Trek type future.

So even this great episode of B5 could have been better - but not by much!

9 out of 10.

A fine episode, but a poor season finale

[InfiniteJesterII · 7/10 · 15 July 2022]

I am a huge fan of Babylon 5; from the get-go it grabbed me and cemented itself as one of my favorite television shows (aside from Star Trek Next Generation and Dr. Who.) I was, in particular, a fan of this season; it was filled to the brim with action and intrigue, each episode fast paced. The last couple of episodes of this season were, simply put, the most emotionally stirring and amazing episodes of television history, period. I feel like "Rising Star," the penultimate episode, was a stunningly profound episode and would have been a great conclusion. The end scene was good enough to wrap the season up. However, we got this episode instead as a season closer. I question why this was the choice for the final episode; I will say, the premise was good, but it would have been better placed somewhere else in the show, or not at all. It was bizarrely presented, taking place mostly on ISN, portraying debates between people as to wether John Sheridan was a good person or not. This was just strange, and hardly material for a finale. We jump 100 years into the future, where some more people are discussing whether Sheridan was good, when a 140-something-year-old Delenn just walks up to them and says he was and then goes into this speech and leaves. Again, very odd. We then go to my personal favorite segment of this episode, 2762, where a manipulative EarthForce officer is reconstructing different scenes from Babylon 5 via holography, and Garibaldi the hologram outsmarts him by transmitting data to the enemy earthers and blowing up the station on which the officer is located. This was pretty interesting, and probably the best part of the episode. In it, there is mention of Captain Lochley, who will come onto the show in Season 5, and of the station blowing up, but this foreshadowing is nothing like the subtlety Straczynski put on display for us in season 1-3, which was pure genius. This just felt odd and forced, and not at all like the foreshadowing of previous episodes/seasons. We then go to a millennium in the future of 2262, in which Earth has seemingly undergone a societal collapse as a result of things relating to the events which have taken place in the previous segment. We meet a monk guy who is played by the landlord from the Seinfeld episode "The Nose Job," who consults another monk who is having a crisis of faith, saying that the scriptures are wrong, that the Rangers will not return, when in fact the other guy is in secret a Ranger himself. This was pretty neat, I guess. The last segment, though, was a million years into the future; a man, who was behind all of these broadcasts, turns into some encounter-suited being, which was pretty awesome, but hardly a fitting ending to the season. This just felt like an anthology episode of things to come, which was very odd presentation-wise but, as a concept, worked, for the most part. Considering that JMS wasn't sure if the show would be canceled after season 4 and filmed "Sleeping in the Light" just in case, it is not his fault for this season outro; he had to rush to create an ending for the season. Overall, good episode, bad placement.

Example of great scifi

[Maghtuira · 10/10 · 15 April 2007]

B5 is an almost-masterpiece, it would have been an plain and simple masterpiece had JMS not sped up the story and added more detail and overall depth (and better dialogue and effects) to the weekly episodes. But this one episode is in and of itself a masterpiece as far as scifi-on-TV is concerned. I reminds one of the great authors, Asimov, Miller (a bit too similar here but it's TV), Clarke, Card, etc. It captures moments from human history far into the future and looks back on how our heroes in the show had affected history. The last scene on humans turning into Vorlon-like first ones is just plain cool. Absolutely far out this episode was.

This is actually a great episode

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 27 May 2021]

This episode has everything, it has Londo and G'Kar (remember how G'Kar got very interested when Dr. Franklin told him that his eye didn't actually have to be in its socket for him to use it?), and then we get a kind of "future history" of Babylon 5 after the events of season four. This is the first place where he hear the name "Lochley", although the character had not been introduced yet. We also get a teaser from the upcoming "telepath incident" of S5, although that "war" does not exactly escalate in this series- we are just shown the beginnings of what will eventually be referred to as "the telepath war" (which will be expounded upon in the Crusade series), also JMS was trying to describe a brand new form of prejudice, and it makes us wonder if there will ever be a time when we will actually see it happen. There are no Telepaths now, but maybe, in the future... I have seen a lot of examples where I was thinking something and somebody came right out and said exactly what I was thinking at the exact same time I was thinking it. I have always wondered if this was a form of telepathy that was already in existence today. Actually a better word for it would be synchronicity, I have heard it also explained as when things occur in the future, sometimes they have repercussions that go backwards into the past. I can't remember exactly where I heard that. Nevertheless if telepathy does become a reality, there would have to be an explanation of how it is possible, it can't just be explained away as "magic".

There is one extremely funny story here consisting of a future hologram Garibaldi, being Garibaldi despite attempts at re-programming him.

But the best story in this little compilation of short stories, is the one that involves the Anla'Shok, with Roy Brocksmith and Neil Roberts. This little episode, despite the fact that the earth was recovering from "the burn" (where we got to see the Garibaldi-gram having fun), is actually a little shining spot of hope: I have never heard an exposition of how faith and reason can work together, to provide hope. In fact, Brother Alwyn's little speech to Brother Michael does more than just encourage brother Michael: he encourages us.

I have always felt that faith and reason are two sides of the same coin, they are intrinsically bound. I have always believed this and I was surprised to hear something come out in a television show which mirrored my beliefs so exactly.

And at the very end we get to see a possible result of this kind of hope, where humans get to rebuild their planet in a much better way. Hopefully it is not too late to save this planet as well. JMS seeded images of the "future man" into this episode in such a way where we have to ask ourselves what it is even though we already know.

I would just think 1 million years in the future, the futureman would not have to rely on 20th Century computer graphics, unless he was just having fun and he had a bent for nostalgia. But of course the imagery is not for the character, but for us.

An amazing conclusion to season 4

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 30 January 2007]

This is an absolutely amazing and totally unique episode of BABYLON 5. Unlike all the other episodes, this one is a look back at the impact of Sheridan and the space station from several different points in history and once again, the head writer/executive producer's cynical view of mankind shines through! One hundred years later, we see three "talking heads" discussing Sheridan and his impact on society and the galaxy. These incredibly smug people are professors leading an online class and they seem to have only a very superficial knowledge of Sheridan and his cause. While they THINK they are experts, they are in fact self-satisfied idiots who are more interested in hearing themselves talk and pontificate than knowing the truth. This all comes to a head when a very old and decrepit Delenn shows up and puts these idiots in their place! In a way, this seemed to be a slam at pseudo-intellectuals (such as SOME professors and TV commentators)--the "Deconstructionists" who tend to re-interpret history so much that the truth is no longer evident! Some might be offended by this, but I thought this was incredibly funny.

Additionally, there are other jumps forward in time--some well after the Earth has destroyed itself and is now in a new technological Dark Age and even a scene in the very distant future when humans are leaving the Earth before it forever dies and they head "beyond the rim" like the Vorlons and Shadows did quite a few episodes earlier.

All in all, this is an amazingly creative episode that won't bore you unless you are unfamiliar with the series. Great and one of the better episodes they made.

Out of place

[Mischief810 · 3/10 · 23 September 2014]

I respectfully disagree with the other reviewers. While this episode is decent, it is badly out of place and should not have been a season- ender.

Stephen Furst shows his director's credentials--the episode is well acted and well directed. But it should have been buried as a filler sometime earlier in the season (or perhaps moved forward to the fifth and final season).

A good place for this episode to have aired was immediately before Rising Star, and let Rising Star be the season ending episode, with some unanswered questions left for viewers to be interested in tuning in the next fall.

The fact remains that this episode is nothing more than a filler, and filler episodes--even good ones like this one--should not conclude a season. You can skip it and come back to it later. As a standalone episode, it could have been expanded into a two hour feature film. It's good sci-fi. Just out of place.

The Deconstruction of TV Renewals

[bzo-18910 · 5/10 · 5 August 2023]

Continuing a rewatch along with someone watching for the first time. This episode is the most direct example of how season 4 and 5 storytelling was compromised by behind the scenes business wrangling. Watching it without understanding the "inside baseball" that lead to its creation is going to confuse and frustrate viewers.

This episode was created in a rush after the intended season and series finale "Sleeping In Light" was already produced to finish season 4. Then as PTN dissolved, WBTV sister company TNT picked up Babylon 5 for Season 5. This episode was hastily whipped up to close out the season so the desired series finale could be held back.. As a result what we get is the single most experimental episode of Babylon 5.

The plot device for this episode is a far future human looking back at historical records from 2262 and forward. The first few are the same type of dreadful faux newcasts the show has previously choked on. Why the writer thinks its both creative and entertaining to viewers to watch pretend future newcasts with irritating talking heads just like current day I'll never understand. These are far too predictable, devoid of subtlety, and utterly "on-the-nose" to work as satire. If this aired in 2023 we'd ask if AI wrote it . Even the reappearance of Delenn can not redeem these cringeworthy segments.

I have mixed feelings on the next segment featuring holographic recreations of the crew 500 years in the future. The idea that an ultra high tech holo-recreation of Garibaldi could turn the table on its programmer is a fun creative idea. But the obvious Orwellian 1984 slant of the future earth researcher and society is problematic. To have an entire scene run like a riff on one of the most well-known sci-fi novels of all-time and not address it directly detracts from the creativity. I found myself wanting more details on the warring earth factions and alien enemies. Seeing literally reprogrammed holo-Sheridan and Franklin act totally out of character served no purpose. Once again, there's no subtlety. The "Star Trek: Voyager - Living Witness" episode produced a year later treats a similar idea much better albeit from a different angle.

The "post-burn" segment is similarly problematic. The plot about a secret religious order preserving the past after an apocalypse is highly reminiscent of a less known work "A Canticle for Leibowitz". What is more problematic for this segment is it seems to be that Holo-Garibaldi's actions of the previous segment triggered this Earth collapse, with one Brother continually bemoaning how they can't go to the stars. But what happened to the humans and their alliance allies on other planets? They just abandoned earth?

The final brief far future segment is the most worthwhile one. It loosely ties together various earlier themes dating back to season one, and gives hope that humanity survives and ultimately transcends its problems. It is interesting to think that had the show actually ended after 4 seasons, this episode would never have been filmed, and this scene would never have existed.

Overall this episode feels sort of like a Simpson's Halloween Episode - a patchwork of parody, satire,and homage with an intro and ending framing device, executed clumsily. Not at all what I expect from Babylon 5.