You're dead to me.
Was "Deconstruction of Falling Stars an Alternative Ending?
- Thread starter Mistral
- Start date
You're dead to me.
Although it was as good of an end to the series as any I've seen (and probably better), I felt like everything was wrapped up better in "Objects at Rest" and, frankly everything that needed to have been said (or done) by that point in time was handled pretty well throughout that final season. SIL was certainly a touching coda to the series but I guess it never quite had the emotional impact on me that it had on a lot of people. We already knew Sheridan was going to die, we already knew Londo and G'Kar were gone, and by the end of OAR and the transition of the IA to Minbar, it was apparent that B5 was going to eventually become less relevant to the galactic powers in time, so it's destruction (as a result of de-commissioning) was somewhat anti-climactic IMHO. I will say, however, that the music composed by Christopher Franke for that final episode was superb!
In the far future, humans and Minbari are on the same level as the "First Ones", but not the same species, as such. They have simply moved on to that "level".
The Narn and Centauri, OTOH, did not make it that far. They haven't died out, they just remain as they are, and not 'evolved' to First One-ish status.
Well, obviously planets don't just go away. That's not what I meant. But with nobody there to maintain the Vorlon Homeworld, with it essentially abandoned, it seems crazy that after a million years that anything worth having would still be around.
Or maybe I'm just frustrated because I never got to see it!
^ I'm sure the Vorlons placed very effective automated defense systems to protect their old world, when they left.
Plus of course all their buildings and technology are organic, so as long as they'd put in place a self sustaining biosphere it should still be more or less how they left it. Failing that all the REALLY important stuff could be buried miles underground for safe keeping. Indeed, the one time we got to see the Vorlon homeworld (aside from the Lost Tales titles) it was a HUGE cavernous chamber thal looked like it went on for miles, so most of their stuff could very well have been underground by that stage. It's also possible they have a technology similar to the nullentropy bins in the later Dune books that can preserve things indefinably.
That wasn't established either way and though it sounds familiar, I haven't come across a JMS post to that effect.
That wasn't established either way and though it sounds familiar, I haven't come across a JMS post to that effect.
I thought I'd seen that before, but a quick search didn't turn it up.
Interesting, so the Narn & Centauri are still around but their evolution dead ended before getting to the First One/Ralgan/Ironheart level? You have to wonder what it's like for a civilisation to get left behind like that.
The reason I wondered about Humans & Minbari merging was partly down to the design of the encounter suit havong what looked like a Minbari crest.
Interesting, so the Narn & Centauri are still around but their evolution dead ended before getting to the First One/Ralgan/Ironheart level? You have to wonder what it's like for a civilisation to get left behind like that.
The reason I wondered about Humans & Minbari merging was partly down to the design of the encounter suit havong what looked like a Minbari crest.
Well... that's because...
They did (have the crest), the symbol you saw was that of the Rangers.
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Because the show was about the Rangers, at least in spirit. TH ecombining of different races technologies. But I took Deconstruction as the ending or coda JM might have written as an after thought-like, oh, damn, I get another season? Well, we need to tell them about my million-year-vision. Which is why I posted the question. But please-keep going...
Yes, I know. Hence my pondering if the two races had become one and/or they were now entierly "Anla'Shok".
There's no such thing as an evolutionary dead end in that sense, because evolution isn't a ladder toward progressively "higher" stages. That's a complete and utter myth. Evolution is simply a process of adaptation to the demands of a species' environment. Since different species have different environments, different lifestyles, and thus different survival needs, there's no single "right" path for evolution to take.
Indeed, it's seriously questionable whether the transformation into an incorporeal energy being represents a viable evolutionary adaptation at all, since it's not exactly the sort of thing that promotes the successful reproduction of DNA molecules. Rather the opposite, in fact. From a biological standpoint, that's the dead end.
There is a commentary track on the DVD where he says something like (from my memory) "Now that the show was renewed, I was trying to think of something I could do that was outside of the 5-year arc, and came up with the idea of an "anthology" of sorts from different time periods."
But the Vorlons were not incorporeal energy beings according to Joe. Presumably, the same is true of the future humans:
jms said:
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I'd like to cut it slack because JMS directed, but maybe that is part of the problem, along with it being so anticlimactic. The other being, for me, that it is about Sheridan and not Sinclair (who is dead to most B5 viewers, apparently.)
Not dead, but he's already fulfilled his destiny. His story is over.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
And yet it seemed screamingly obvious to me that Ww/oE was supposed to be the finale of the series, that Sinclari as V was the big wrapup, assuming Warner et. al. didn't have O'hare canned.
Plus Bruce Boxleitner to me is Roger Moore as Bond -- leading man lite -- so no matter how hard he tries to be Bill Shatner it just ain't flyin'. He did about as well as he could in the aids allegory ep and in the torture show 4th season, but h'es just a competent tv actor who can hit his marks, not somebody I find rewatchable or compelling.
I found "Sleeping in Light" somewhat disappointing, largely because it had been so hugely hyped up for a full year or more before it aired that it couldn't possibly live up to the expectations that had been raised for it. Maybe it would've worked better if the show had ended after the fourth season and it had been aired then, without so much lead time to build up this myth around the episode. But then we wouldn't have gotten "Deconstruction," and that would've been a real loss.
Not according to the 5-year memo that was published in the script book series. In fact, to discover the original fate JMS planned for Sinclair, you'd have to look at the sequel portion of that memo which says quite clearly that the final scene is of Sinclair alone, fishing. That memo was written between the filming of "The Gathering" and the start of filming of the series proper.
In fact, there's no mention of Sinclair becoming Valen at all so I think it's probable that the Sinclair-becomes-Valen idea came along well into the first season.
Jan
He has gone beyond, though some belive he will one day return.
Exactly. I do know in general how evolution works and if you read 'Nautilus Coil' (one of the short stories) it goes into this in some detail in regards to how sentient telepaths cannot naturally evolve. However, evolution through natural selection isn't the only factor in play. The Vorlons artificially introduced telepathic and telekinetic abilities into the genome of sentient races, which puts off all bets as to how a species will continue to evolve, especially if they keep tinkering on their own.
^Which just reinforces my actual point: that there's no mystery to the fact that not every species "ascends" to Vorlon level. If it's a matter of artificial self-modification, then it's a matter of choice, and it's therefore no surprise that different species don't develop the same way.
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