If you had a choice between ending the series with Season 4 and replacing the last episode with Sleeping in Light and ending the series the way it did with Season 5, which would you choose and why?
Babylon 5: Season 4 or Season 5?
- Thread starter Joe Washington
- Start date
Season 5. It's been ages since I've watched through the show, but I think the closure provided by Season 5, especially for the Centauri and Lono, is crucial to the arc of the story.
Sure, the Telepath arc didn't work too well for a variety of reasons. But, the rest more than makes up for it, IMO. The season just feels like more of an ending to the show, as was intended.
Tough call, but I would keep season 5 around, the Centauri War stuff is solid stuff, worth watching. The last time I watched Babylon 5 I think I just started watching season 5 with "The Ragged Edge"
I would take Season 4 plus "Sleeping in Light" minus "Deconstruction of Falling Stars." Sure, there are some nice episodes and moments in the fifth season, but Season 4 is such a high note to go out on. I'd like to think that most of the best Centauri material would have made it into revised versions of Peter David's Legions of Fire trilogy.
I'll take season four, with "Sleeping in Light" instead of "Deconstruction of Falling Stars" as originally filmed. Lochley never worked for me as a character on Babylon 5 (I thought she was a much better fit on Crusade), the telepath arc is really belabored beyond necessity, and as good as some of the material with Londo and G'Kar is, I'd rather lose Lennier's awkward betrayal and the feeling of unresolution with the Keeper that ends the series. Just tell those stories in full in the books, where most of the story can be found already.
Given how disappointing Season Five was, I would have gone with the S4/Sleeping Light ending. While it's unfortunate you don't get the resolution of the Londo/G'Kar story, it would also erase Byron and Lochley and Lennier/Judas and we wouldn't have lost Ivanova and Marcus just about my two favorite characters.
To me, it's similar to saying, "Would you rather the show started with season one or season two," in that the show needed all of the seasons to be what it is, even with the poor episodes/arcs.
As others have stated, the back half of season 5 is damned good and I enjoyed the episodes post-"The Fall of Centauri Prime" for giving us closure on the characters in the "current time," before the jump forward 20 years for "Sleeping in Light."
Without it, we'd lose the last part of Londo's character arc. Also, I think Garibaldi falling off the wagon is important, too, as it allows him to change from the character he was, into the character he becomes.
The season also gives us a glimpse at the first year of the Interstellar Alliance, which I think is important, to further show how tough it was to keep those races together and focused on a specific goal.
As others have stated, the back half of season 5 is damned good and I enjoyed the episodes post-"The Fall of Centauri Prime" for giving us closure on the characters in the "current time," before the jump forward 20 years for "Sleeping in Light."
Without it, we'd lose the last part of Londo's character arc. Also, I think Garibaldi falling off the wagon is important, too, as it allows him to change from the character he was, into the character he becomes.
The season also gives us a glimpse at the first year of the Interstellar Alliance, which I think is important, to further show how tough it was to keep those races together and focused on a specific goal.
Marcus died in "Endgame", episode 20 of Season 4. That wouldn't have changed. Except...JMS has said that if he'd known that Claudia was going to leave the show he never would have killed off Marcus.
Jan
Versus a whole season. Same with Ivanova. I wasn't thinking of altering events in this scenario.
I'm not sure if they would have been the same scenes but yes, JMS has said that he'd considered replacing Ivanova with Lochley but decided against it since it had been filmed the way he'd always visualized it.
Jan
End it in Season 4. The show had a much better build up to the end, and the Centauri story bored me something chronic so I would gladly get rid of that.
Now if they had used the plague storyline from Crusade for the last season, that might've grabbed my attention, but as it stands I don't care for it at all.
Now if they had used the plague storyline from Crusade for the last season, that might've grabbed my attention, but as it stands I don't care for it at all.
Yes, his body was placed in stasis but we also saw what could be interpreted from the way Ivanova looked at it as his sheet-covered body in the scene where Ivanova is crying in Medlab and Franklin consoles her.
That said, in the script for "Rising Star" there's a scene that didn't make it into the episode where a med-tech meets Franklin in Customs and reported that the machine had completely drained Marcus' life energy and transferred it to Ivanova but that there was still some residual brain activity which is why they put him in stasis.
Jan
If you gutted S5, S1 and Crusade, you'd probably have about one season left worth of really good material.
As it is, you may as well keep S5, since there is some good stuff in there. If the rest bothers you that much, you can just never watch the Byron heavy eps again.
As it is, you may as well keep S5, since there is some good stuff in there. If the rest bothers you that much, you can just never watch the Byron heavy eps again.
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