My wife cried at the last ep. of Babylon 5!
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I wouldn't have been a Babylon 5 fan if I'd waited that long. There's just no way I would have put up with the first season. And it does work rather well as an introduction to the series (which JMS has recognized as such).
Yes, it was produced after season four, but does that mean it should be watched after Sleeping in Light, which was one of season four's last episodes production-wise?
It's an old discussion, but yes, ITB can be viewed first, though I think what JMS actually said was that that should really only be done if the person in question is hard to sell on the idea of watching the show. If they're willing to watch regardless than any time after 'Atonement' is just fine.
As for 'Sleeping in Light', while I won't admit to crying (honest your honour) but for me the "emotional apex" was just after Sheridan says goodbye. The bit where he stops and almost looks back and then carries on because he can't look back. If he did, then he wouldn't have been able to leave. It's something you might see quite often at airports. My late uncle did the same thing when he went back home to Australia after his first visit in ages.
I think the sun rising and Delenn alone is the part that still gets me after all of the viewings of the series. When Sheridan walks away, though, is mighty powerful. He's(the OP) right, though-there should be a scifi husband award! 
I got my wife into S:AAB, DS9, Voyager, and B5 right after we got married(I had to find out if the marriage was going to last!
) and I don't know what broke her up more-The Visitor from DS9 or Sleeping In Light. Although, the last episode with Marcus tore her up pretty good-she really loved that character. She still wanders around saying, "I spie, with my little eye..." and grinning from time to time.
I got my wife into S:AAB, DS9, Voyager, and B5 right after we got married(I had to find out if the marriage was going to last! ) and I don't know what broke her up more-The Visitor from DS9 or Sleeping In Light. Although, the last episode with Marcus tore her up pretty good-she really loved that character. She still wanders around saying, "I spie, with my little eye..." and grinning from time to time.
This is pretty similar to a couple of weeks ago for us. My wife had never given even a hint of emotional response to this episode, even though she is a fan of the series. Then one day as I am watching it to prepare for a panel I am to moderate at an upcoming convention ... she sat down to watch it with me. And I heard the unmistakable sounds of sniffling. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of her dabbing her eyes and wiping away her tears.
"Sleeping In Light" still has power in our family. All of the scenes mentioned above resonate. For me there is at least one other than those, which breaks me down. Just after Sheridan has left B5 on his last visit there, as his private ship arrives at Coriana 6... we switch to an overhead shot of Delenn in their empty bed. She rolls over to touch Sheridan's pillow, slowly pulls it to her and curls up fetally around, clutching the pillow as tightly as she can. This simple gesture that I think was Mira's instinct, edited to play as Sheridan is basically taking his last breaths......
(damn......
)
"Sleeping In Light" still has power in our family. All of the scenes mentioned above resonate. For me there is at least one other than those, which breaks me down. Just after Sheridan has left B5 on his last visit there, as his private ship arrives at Coriana 6... we switch to an overhead shot of Delenn in their empty bed. She rolls over to touch Sheridan's pillow, slowly pulls it to her and curls up fetally around, clutching the pillow as tightly as she can. This simple gesture that I think was Mira's instinct, edited to play as Sheridan is basically taking his last breaths......
(damn......
)
I cried watching "Sleeping in Light" the first time. The only two scenes were I start loosing it now on repeated viewings are the aforementioned destruction of the station it's self...especially when the camera lingers for a couple of seconds on the tech who pulls the level (knowing of course that is JMS you can sort of see him sigh and really not want to do this which makes the scene even more convincing) and the scene where Sheridan and Delenn are outside talking about Sunday's and watching the sunrise.
I believe his words to Chris Franke were to simply "make us cry".
Actually, you both may be right. In the commentary for "Sleeping in Light", jms mentions how he told Chris Franke when it came time to score the scene of the station's death, "I said, 'Chris... break my heart'". And that's pretty much what he said to Franke when scoring the entire episode.
Ironically, if you watch the series in broadcast order, you get that music in the penultimate episode "Objects At Rest", even though it was originally scored much earlier than OAR's creation.
Ironically, if you watch the series in broadcast order, you get that music in the penultimate episode "Objects At Rest", even though it was originally scored much earlier than OAR's creation.
I believe that they were probably scored quite close together. Remember, JMS said that he 'banked' Sleeping in Light in the editing bay and didn't complete it, partly because he didn't want it to be over and partly because he didn't want to have to hand it over to WB for fear of it leaking. Christopher Franke wouldn't have been able to score the episode until all of the effects were done and JMS's final edit was complete. He may well have done that as though SiL had been filmed right after OaR.
Jan
We switch to an overhead shot of Delenn in their empty bed. She rolls over to touch Sheridan's pillow, slowly pulls it to her and curls up fetally around, clutching the pillow as tightly as she can. This simple gesture that I think was Mira's instinct, edited to play as Sheridan is basically taking his last breaths......
(damn......
Yeah that was the bit that absolutely destroyed me. It was sobbing from there on out.
Not really cry, but I was sad when the station was destroyed and Ivanova had said something about "There would never be another" and when she mentioned that every morning, for the rest of her life, Delenn watched the sunrise, and there was a brief shot of Sheirdan leaning forward.
The "goodbye" scene where Sheridan and Delenn never actually say "goodbye" is extremely powerful to me. That's always the part where I lose it. The station blowing up doesn't get to me nearly as much...yeah, it was an important place, but it was the people who really made it what it was. I feel the same way in ST III when the Enterprise bites it...the ship itself blowing up isn't really that big of a deal...but McCoy's line to Kirk about giving death a fighting chance to live hits home. It's about the people for me, not the station/ship/whatever.
Oh, and Vir's speech at the dinner party about Londo and the pak'ma'ra is unbelievably well done. I wouldn't say it makes me cry, but it's among the best of the very numerous B5 monologues, and quite possibly the best Vir moment of the series for me.
Oh, and Vir's speech at the dinner party about Londo and the pak'ma'ra is unbelievably well done. I wouldn't say it makes me cry, but it's among the best of the very numerous B5 monologues, and quite possibly the best Vir moment of the series for me.
I get choked up a bit during the scene with Sheridan and Lorian but I wouldn't call it crying. There really is only two things that has made me actually cry: The entire episode of DS9's The Visitor, and the end of The Inner Light.
I just finished watching Sleeping in Light. I didn't cry, I'm not a hardhearted individual either. I'm also not unmoved by SiL. I feel a deep sadness that echoes in my bones. Like I've lost an old and dear friend and I just want to go back to the last moment I've spent with him but I can't get time to roll back the way I want it to. The moment is gone and can't be gone back to. So all I'm left with is the memories. Echoing in my heart and mind for all eternity or however long I've got left. Be it twenty years or a thousand.
I'm guessing that was the point of the episode.
I'm guessing that was the point of the episode.
Beautifully put.
It's just that script writing and on-camera production was done in the fourth season for Sleeping in Light so mostly that story was done in his head already. All the post-production (music, CGI) was held to the end of the show. That's how Sleeping in Light ended up with a production code of 523.
As for crying, the scene in the series that gets me most is at the end of Objects at Rest, when Delenn suggest to walk the length of the station with Sheridan. Not really a sad moment, but those nostalgic type things get to me. My girlfriend cried twice in the series - in Sleeping in Light at the moment Sheridan and Delenn are discussing the Sunday drive in the hallway and they say their final goodbyes, and the other one was the end of Endgame when Marcus hooks himself up to the machine to heal Ivanova.
