The Deconstruction of Falling Stars
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| “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars” | |
|---|---|
| Babylon 5 episode | |
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| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 22 |
| Guest stars | Roy Brocksmith (Brother Alwyn Macomber) Alastair Duncan (Latimere) Eric Pierpoint (Daniel) Neil Roberts (Brother Michael) |
| Written by | J. Michael Straczynski |
| Directed by | Stephen Furst |
| Production no. | 422/501 |
| Original airdate | 27 October 1997 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Rising Star" | "No Compromises" |
| List of Babylon 5 episodes | |
"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" is the final episode of the fourth season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
This episode takes place after the events of the rest of the series. It shows the effect that the Interstellar Alliance had on history from the point of view of the far future. The episode shows certain pivotal events 100, 500, 1,000, and one million years after the founding of the Alliance.
At the end of the episode, humanity leaves Earth for the last time and goes to a new homeworld called New Earth. Humanity has evolved into energy beings similar to First Ones, and use encounter suits similar to the Vorlon but with two glowing 'eyes' instead of one. (According to creator J. Michael Strazcynski, the Minbari have also reached this point, while the Narn and Centauri have not; they have not died out, just not evolved to First One-like status.)
[edit] Arc significance
- Delenn is still alive 100 years after the events of Babylon 5, at which time she is extremely old even by Minbari standards.
- 100 years after the formation of the Interstellar Alliance, the events of Sheridan's life and death are often dismissed as legend.
- 500 years after the events of Babylon 5, a faction of humans attempts to break away from the Alliance, leading to a devastating war.
- 1,000 years after the events of Babylon 5, the Rangers are still trying to rebuild a devastated Earth.
- One million years after the events of Babylon 5, humanity is depicted as having finally evolved beyond its crude "physical" bodies, and into beings of pure energy, similar to the Vorlons. They appear to wear encounter suits almost identical to the Vorlons, except for the head, which instead of being a block-shaped head, is closer to the shape of the human head.
[edit] Production details
The episode has an unusual history. During the filming of the fourth season, the show appeared destined for cancellation. As a result, plotlines were shortened and resolved ahead of schedule. After the completion of the final episode, but before its airing, the cable network TNT approached the creators of the show with an offer of cable distribution and funding for a fifth season.
The show's creator, JMS, insisted that the final episode not be seen prematurely. As a result, a new fourth-season finale had to be composed. The episode was filmed as part of the fifth-season production run, and hurriedly composed for airing in its proper place before the switchover from PTEN to TNT.
As the episode was not originally planned for, its form is substantially different from most episodes of Babylon 5. All other episodes were shot as unified storylines; however, Deconstruction exists as a series of vignettes examining society's views of the events of the series from increasingly distant future viewpoints: one year, one hundred years, five hundred years, one thousand years, and eventually one million years in the future.
The episode ends with a dedication:
"DEDICATED TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO PREDICTED THAT THE BABYLON PROJECT WOULD FAIL IN ITS MISSION. FAITH MANAGES."
On Usenet, JMS described this message thus:
"...for the reviewers and the pundits and the critics and the net-stalkers who have done nothing but rag on this show for five years straight, it is also a giant middle finger composed of red neon fifty stories tall, that will burn forever in the night."
[edit] Trivia
The vignette that takes place one thousand years later in a monastery is almost identical (contextually) to Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. While writing the episode, series creator J. Michael Straczynski noted the similarities:
| “ | It was only when I was about halfway into the act that I thought, "Oh, crud, this is the same area Canticle explored." And for several days I set it aside and strongly considered dropping it, or changing the venue (at one point considered setting it in the ruins of a university, but I couldn't make that work realistically...who'd be supporting a university in the ruins of a major nuclear war? Who'd have the *resources* I needed? The church, or what would at least LOOK like the church. My sense of backstory here is that the Anla-shok moved in and started little "abbeys" all over the place, using the church as cover, but rarely actually a part of it, which was why they had not gotten their recognition, and would never get it. Rome probably didn't even know about them, or knew them only distantly.)
Anyway...at the end of the day, I decided to leave it as it was, since I'd gotten there on an independent road, we'd already had a number of monks on B5, and there's been a LOT of theocratic science fiction written beyond Canticle...Gather Darkness, aspects of Foundation, others. |
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