You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
404 lines
24 KiB
404 lines
24 KiB
|
|
[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Contents:_ [6]Overview - [7]Backplot - [8]Questions - [9]Analysis -
|
|
[10]Notes - [11]JMS
|
|
|
|
_________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Overview
|
|
|
|
No plot information is available. Takes place twenty years after
|
|
the end of the rest of the series.
|
|
|
|
Production number: 522a (see [12]Notes)
|
|
Original air date: ???
|
|
|
|
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
|
|
Directed by J. Michael Straczynski
|
|
|
|
_________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Backplot
|
|
|
|
Unanswered Questions
|
|
|
|
* NOW what?
|
|
|
|
Analysis
|
|
|
|
* 20 years after season four is the end of Sheridan's predicted
|
|
lifespan ([13]"Falling Toward Apotheosis.") Presumably that ties
|
|
into the plot of the episode.
|
|
|
|
Notes
|
|
|
|
* Shooting ended May 5, 1997.
|
|
* Although this is the final episode of the series, and airs at the
|
|
end of season five, it was actually shot during the fourth-season
|
|
production run, and originally carried a production number of 422.
|
|
At the time, it wasn't clear whether the show would be renewed for
|
|
a fifth season, and JMS wanted this episode to close the series
|
|
whether it ended after four or five years. Since it's set 20 years
|
|
after the rest of the story, it works equally well as an epilogue
|
|
to [14]"Rising Star" or to the last regular season-five episode.
|
|
* Several B5 staff members have cameos in this episode, including
|
|
producer John Copeland and coproducer George Johnsen.
|
|
|
|
jms speaks
|
|
|
|
* _On GEnie, 11 April 1992:_
|
|
A few days ago, I sat down with our line producer, John Copeland,
|
|
and production designer John Iacovelli, and we were talking about
|
|
the need to move quickly on some stuff, and how painful the
|
|
process is to have the whole story in your head, already told,
|
|
really, and then have to make it all over again so we can put it
|
|
on film. "You think you've got it bad," I noted, "I've already
|
|
worked out the last scene in the last episode of the last season
|
|
(#5)...and I've still got to make Movie #1." They called me on it
|
|
and asked what that scene was. Just to see their reaction, I told
|
|
them. They looked at me as if I'd suddenly sprouted three heads
|
|
and feathers. It was worth it. (Happily, they're sworn to
|
|
secrecy.) It was also good because I think that, even without
|
|
filling in the beats in between, it gave them a good sense of
|
|
where the series was going to go.
|
|
* What will be revealed over the course of the series? All of it.
|
|
By the time the series has run its five-year course (Neilsen
|
|
willing), there will only be ONE unanswered question left: "NOW
|
|
what?"
|
|
* My titles are often in a state of flux; "Signs and Portents" was
|
|
originally titled "Raiding Party" in my notes, as the B5 FAQ notes
|
|
somewhere. So it may change, but for the time being, in my notes
|
|
for the series, the last episode of year five has this note:
|
|
Title? -- "Farewell" or "Sleeping in Light."
|
|
* The Babylon 5 story ends at the final episode of year five.
|
|
* And there will never be a Babylon 6.
|
|
* If I didn't have a good, solid, consistent ending, I wouldn't have
|
|
started the story. I always have the ending before I begin writing
|
|
the beginning.
|
|
* "What this boils down to is... is the ending you envisioned at the
|
|
start of Babylon 5 the same today as it was then?"
|
|
For the most part, yeah...it's gotten a bit refined over time, the
|
|
way it always does the closer you get to it...it's like seeing a
|
|
mountain from a great distance, then closing in until you can make
|
|
out the details. But basically, yeah.
|
|
* "Are you at all concerned that, when it's all said and done, that
|
|
some fans will scratch their heads and wonder: "You mean thats
|
|
it?""
|
|
No, I don't think so. The story for "Sleeping in Light," the last
|
|
B5 episode, is such that it is completely moveable, and
|
|
self-contained, and buttons down the arc in what I think is a very
|
|
moving fashin. I think that when it's all said and done, the
|
|
average reaction will be to sit back and say, "That was a good
|
|
story." Obviously you can't please everyone, and you can't expect
|
|
to. But basically, yeah, I think it's going to end well.
|
|
* In theory, the final episodes would air in the summer of 1998.
|
|
* There's always been a side-story that could spin off from B5, but
|
|
the main core story is over at the five-year mark.
|
|
* I've always said that there's a side story that could follow the 5
|
|
year B5 storyline, which takes place in the B5 universe, and
|
|
follows on the heels of the events in B5...but who knows if that
|
|
would happen?
|
|
The one thing I would hate is for B5 to become any kind of
|
|
so-called "franchise." Because as soon as that happens, you're
|
|
prevented from making any changes, from doing anything that might
|
|
startle people, cutting into the piggy-bank. Once that happens,
|
|
you're dead.
|
|
I've also made no secret of my sense that, should B5 run its full
|
|
five year course (and assuming the side-story doesn't go, which I
|
|
would not exactly count on)...I plan to get out of TV. By that
|
|
point, I would have said pretty much everything I want to say in
|
|
TV, and it's time to get out, buy a small house somewhere outside
|
|
London, and spend the rest of my years writing novels, which is
|
|
kinda where this all began. (I've had 2 novels, 1 anthology, and a
|
|
bunch of short stories published, as well as 500 or so articles.)
|
|
I never got into this to make a ***FRANCHISE***, and never really
|
|
intended to become an executive producer. I just don't like being
|
|
rewritten...so I climbed higher, until finally there was nobody
|
|
over me messing with my scripts. Outside of the B5 reality, if
|
|
someone came to e and offered me *staff writer* on a show -- the
|
|
lowest position in the TV totem pole -- but with the guarantee
|
|
that I wouldn't be rewritten, they wouldn't change the words...I'd
|
|
take it in a hot second. I'm here, now, strictly out of
|
|
self-defense.
|
|
Two valuable social skills are knowing when to enter a room, and
|
|
when to leave a room. At some point, you have to get out or become
|
|
something you don't want to become. I've never really been part of
|
|
the Hollywood SYSTEM, and have no desire to do so.
|
|
In "The Velvet Alley," Rod Serling wrote of a young advertising
|
|
writer who becomes a success at writing television. At one point,
|
|
the character says (paraphrased from memory): "Here's the
|
|
trap...in TV they pay you lots of money for what you do...then,
|
|
slowly, your standard of living rises until you *need* that
|
|
constant flow to stay at that level. Then...they threaten to take
|
|
it away from you if you don't behave. And THAT'S when they've got
|
|
you."
|
|
* What happens at the end of the five year arc? The "Babylon 5"
|
|
series ends...if I have anything to say about it (and I do). If
|
|
something else follows, we'll see what that is, but it won't be
|
|
the same series, or the same title, or really the same characters.
|
|
Barring that very distant possibility, at the end of the five year
|
|
arc, I take a very, very, VERY long nap....
|
|
* I've mentioned before that there's a side-story that could go off,
|
|
within the B5 universe, with a few of our characters, once the
|
|
Babylon 5 story itself comes to an end in its fifth year, but
|
|
that's a long ways off, and I don't know if that's realistic.
|
|
You have to understand...I never came in wanting to be a producer.
|
|
I'm a *writer*, and I only got here because it was the only way to
|
|
protect the words...create and run the damned show so nobody can
|
|
mess with it. Once I've finished the Babylon story, assuming it
|
|
runs its full length, (5 years alone, more if there is that
|
|
doubtful spinoff), the story is over. Every story has a beginning,
|
|
middle and end, and the story's over when it's over.
|
|
I've also made no bones about the fact that, should the Babylon
|
|
story run its full term, I will have said just about everything I
|
|
want to say in television, and plan to get out, go back to writing
|
|
novels.
|
|
My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room,
|
|
say it, and get the hell out. (Second philosophy behind that one:
|
|
when in doubt, roll in a grenade and come in firing.)
|
|
* From the start, I've indicated that there's a side-story that
|
|
could go off in the B5 universe after the 5 year story is up, but
|
|
it wouldn't be B5. Frankly, however, given the current state of
|
|
the syndication market, I'd suggest that the odds of that
|
|
happening are slim and none.
|
|
So barring anything truly exceptional -- like someone handing me
|
|
an anthology series -- my plan at the moment is to retire from TV
|
|
at the end of the five years and go back to writing novels and
|
|
plays. At that point, I think I'll have said just about everything
|
|
I want to say for TV.
|
|
* If B5 goes its full five years, I think I'd probably prefer to get
|
|
out of TV and go back to writing novels and plays.
|
|
* Re: 422...this one is a stand-alone episode which I specifically
|
|
designed in order to have the flexibility to air it either as 422
|
|
or as 522, depending on what happens. This way if year 4 is all
|
|
there is, we get to where we need to get; if we get year 5, then
|
|
we shoot 501 and air it in 422's spot, and air 422 in place of
|
|
522.
|
|
* 501 isn't written yet, won't be until we get the final word. We
|
|
could certainly get it finished in time for the US airing in 422's
|
|
spot, and as for getting it done in the UK, assuming a mid-July
|
|
start for season 4, means you'd run episodes through late
|
|
October/early November so again you're okay.
|
|
* The final 4 would get aired in October. If there's no season 5,
|
|
then the fourth one aired is 422, "Sleeping in Light."
|
|
If there is a season 5, 422 is yanked out of the mix and moved
|
|
down to occupy 522's slot, and we shoot 501 and get it done in
|
|
time to air in place of 422 in October.
|
|
* To repeat what I've said here several times, we would move 501
|
|
into 422's slot and make that the cliffhanger ending, then 502
|
|
becomes the first episode of season 5, and 422 is the last. So
|
|
each season works out to 22 episodes.
|
|
* _Wouldn't season five take place after the final scene you
|
|
mentioned?_
|
|
Negative; season 5 would take place in 2262, 19 years before the
|
|
"final scene" you mention. And no, I wouldn't want season 5 to be
|
|
just a setup for the sequel; it was sketched out long before that
|
|
became any kind of possibility, and I have no interest in doing
|
|
that sort of thing. We'd do one or two small things, but no more
|
|
than that.
|
|
* There's no need for confusion. Season 4, as you know, takes place
|
|
in 2261. Season 5 would take place in 2262.
|
|
422, or 522, depending on the breaks, takes place in 2281. So it
|
|
plays just fine either way.
|
|
* _Was the story always intended to end in 2281?_
|
|
Yes, the final chapter in the series was always going to fall in
|
|
2281, 20 years after the events in 2261.
|
|
* "What are the chances of major spoilers being leaked from
|
|
"Sleeping in Light" over the next year?!?!?!?"
|
|
I'm sure some of that's bound to happen...but the reality of it is
|
|
that if you add up all the people who are online and might get
|
|
this information, you'd actually end up with only about 4% of the
|
|
viewing audience...so it'll still have its desired impact.
|
|
* "You have spent the last 4 years keeping your actors in the dark
|
|
as to their final fates (for the most part). Will their knowledge
|
|
of the ending have adverse effects on the acting from this point
|
|
forward? I expect the answer is they are good at their jobs and
|
|
will continue to be outstanding in their performances, but many of
|
|
them have mentioned that the lack of knowledge of their future had
|
|
played a part in their performances."
|
|
Not really, no more so than seeing G'Kar and Londo strangling each
|
|
other as early as year one...but we didn't know what that *meant*
|
|
until later. And there's still a long, long way between that
|
|
episode and where we leave off at 421. A lot happens there that
|
|
nobody else knows, inclusive of the cast.
|
|
"Also, if you've neatly tied everything up, what does that really
|
|
leave for season 5? Filler, non-arc stories? This has been my
|
|
biggest fear. That season 5 will now be farmed out to other
|
|
scriptwriters, who don't have the intimacy with the story that you
|
|
have, and that the quality of stories will take a nose dive with
|
|
filler material."
|
|
Without giving too much away, season 5 would be empire building.
|
|
It wouldn't be filler at all, but a logical extension of what has
|
|
gone before.
|
|
Basically...I often get messages from people worrying about what
|
|
might be...then they see what *is* and it's, "Oh...okay, got it."
|
|
Generally speaking, I think it's better to react to what is rather
|
|
than what might never in fact be an issue. I ain't let you down
|
|
yet....
|
|
* With great trepidation, and at the urging of Warner Bros., I've
|
|
decided to direct one episode this season...not because I have any
|
|
particular ambition to be a director, but because I think it will
|
|
help me become a better writer by more fully understanding that
|
|
side of the camera. Given how massively busy I am already, this
|
|
decision will almost certainly be called as evidence in any sanity
|
|
trial that might take place in future.
|
|
* "Why were they [Warner Bros.] so interested in you directing?"
|
|
Well, they know the show is really my vision, and they're curious
|
|
what it would look like if it was also followed through behind the
|
|
camera. And as our liaison with WB said, "We like it when our
|
|
creative people spread their wings a little." They like the show,
|
|
and it does well for them, and they're just generally supportive
|
|
that way.
|
|
* "I'm sincerely curious about how you found the experience of
|
|
directing your baby -- of being responsible for creating, writing,
|
|
producing *and* directing it."
|
|
My main goal was not to embarrass myself overmuch. I think I came
|
|
out okay. I've now seen an editor's assembly of the material, and
|
|
it plays real nice. Now I get to go in and make the director's
|
|
cut, which will to all intents and purposes also stand as the
|
|
producer's cut.
|
|
The main thing is...this one is *exactly* the way I saw it in my
|
|
head. It has a somewhat different feel than prior episodes, though
|
|
hard to quantify. But I think it came out nicely.
|
|
* "Having read through this months edition of Starburst (I think),
|
|
Claudia Christian mentions that you enjoyed directing. My question
|
|
is a very simple one: would you do it again, and what part of the
|
|
directing the episode did you find the most enjoyable/rewarding?"
|
|
I really don't know if I'd say that I *enjoyed* it...my main
|
|
concern every day was somehow getting through it without
|
|
embarrassing myself, or letting down the crew or the cast or,
|
|
ultimately, the viewers. I wanted the direction to the the equal
|
|
to the performances I knew were waiting to be unlocked. I haven't
|
|
commented on it much for the same reason you rarely see me saying
|
|
that a given script of mine is good...I'm too close to it and too
|
|
critical of everydamnthing I do. But so far everyone of the crew
|
|
who's seen it, and a few others, were very much moved and
|
|
satisfied by it.
|
|
I don't know if I'll do it again or not...my gut says probably
|
|
not. If I *were* to even try it again, it couldn't be anything
|
|
other than a final episode of a season, given how much is involved
|
|
in prep if you're going to have a chance to get it right.
|
|
* _Did you do anything special on the last day of shooting?_
|
|
Around lunchtime, I began to notice people filtering out -- crew
|
|
and others -- wearing white t-shirts with blue lettering that
|
|
read, on front, "Shhh...the Great Maker is Directing." And on the
|
|
back, "...and on the seventh day we wrapped." JMS 4:22 May 5,
|
|
1997. It was a nice thing, and we're considering making the shirts
|
|
available via the fan club.
|
|
Since it's customary for directors to bring in food on the last
|
|
day of an episode shoot, I brought in food at the end of the day,
|
|
and folks stayed around until late in the evening, just hanging
|
|
around, chatting, eating, and the like. (I headed home around 7
|
|
mainly because I was just bushed.) We also took a big family
|
|
picture that will go into the end credits of the episode, whenever
|
|
it will finally air. A lot of our past directors, crew, actors and
|
|
others showed up for the thing, and stayed for the party, knowing
|
|
that either way, this was going to be the last episode of the
|
|
series, whether it's 4 or 5 years.
|
|
Then everybody went away for a few days, and now we're back
|
|
shooting movie #1, "Thirdspace."
|
|
* "But seriously, what kind of responses do you expect to see in
|
|
this newsgroup the week following the last episode?"
|
|
In a way you're kind of asking the wrong person, as I'm inside the
|
|
fishbowl and can't see the show the way anyone outside can see it.
|
|
The only gauge I have is the reaction the script got around the
|
|
stage when people on the crew and cast read it. (With a note
|
|
attached explaining the possibility of airing it as 522 or 422,
|
|
but that either way this would end up the story.)
|
|
Pretty much everybody cried. I came home to a message on my
|
|
machine from Mira, who was almost unable to speak, and another
|
|
from Claudia who said she was honored and proud to be a part of
|
|
this, and the script had made her cry. Bruce, Richard, big beefy
|
|
guys on the crew...all said the same thing. And there I have to
|
|
concur; I lost is several times as I was writing it, due to the
|
|
content; there's one scene in particular...you'll know it when you
|
|
see it...that put me away for an hour when I finished writing it.
|
|
But here's the thing...*every single person* who cried at the
|
|
script, ended it feeling that it was not a sad script in the end,
|
|
or a down ending...that it left them feeling proud, and tall, and
|
|
*positive*...that life goes on...that it was a reaffirmation of
|
|
life itself, on its most primal level. They felt good about the
|
|
ending. And that was a great relief for me, because I was trying
|
|
something *very* difficult from a writing perspective, and at
|
|
first blush it looks as if I've pulled it off. (Now I get to go in
|
|
as director and *totally* screw it up.)
|
|
Only one fan has read the script...someone whose opinion I trust.
|
|
Because I was curious about the reaction from that side of the
|
|
screen. And the reaction was *exactly* the same.
|
|
So how do I think people will react?
|
|
I think a lot of people will cry.
|
|
But by the end of it, I think it will come around, and be all
|
|
right...and mainly, that people will then look back at the whole
|
|
story, through all these long years, and say, "It was a good
|
|
story." And close the cover, and put it on the shelf with the
|
|
other books that will be reread again down the years, and turn off
|
|
the lights, and go to bed feeling that the time was well spent.
|
|
Which is the most any writer can ever ask for. To tell a tale
|
|
worth telling To make people cry. To make people laugh. And even,
|
|
once in a while, make them think about things, and see the world
|
|
just a little differently than when they began.
|
|
And then they can centerpunch me on the freeway, or throw a plane
|
|
at me, and I won't even mind. Because everything I set out to
|
|
prove, I proved. Everything I set out to say, I said.
|
|
I've carried this story like a hermit crab carries its shell for
|
|
five long years, counting the pilot. It's been an *awfully* long
|
|
and difficult road, and no one will ever really know just how hard
|
|
this show was to make. Nor should they, because it isn't the
|
|
difficulty that makes the story, the *story* makes the story. But
|
|
one way or another, aired as 522 or 422, when it airs the burden
|
|
is off at last. Then it no longer belongs to me. It belongs to
|
|
you. As should be.
|
|
And, in the end, I think you'll be pleased.
|
|
* _[15]"Between the Darkness and the Light"_
|
|
"...as I am a visual artist, I tend to notice lighting and
|
|
structure,etc., especially on the second (or 3rd) viewing, and the
|
|
thorny crown was striking to my eyes, as was the sad,
|
|
dark-circles-under-the-eyes, immensely tired look on his face,
|
|
which lent to the illusion."
|
|
It's interesting when that happens. There's a halo around
|
|
Sheridan's head at one point when he's yelling at Delenn in the
|
|
big room in "Z'ha'dum," and, just as a pointer to something you
|
|
won't see for another year....
|
|
When I was directing "Sleeping in Light," there's a scene with
|
|
Sheridan and a mirror. (That's all I'll say about it, so there's
|
|
no spoiler info there.) As John Flinn lit the shot, and angled the
|
|
mirror...I froze at what I was seeing on the monitor. I called
|
|
John over, and pointed to it. "Do you see what I see?" It took him
|
|
a moment, but then his eyes went wide, and by his own reckoning,
|
|
"the skin on my arms crawled." He turned to the guys dressing the
|
|
set and said, in a very loud, clear voice, "NOBODY TOUCHES THAT
|
|
MIRROR! YOU HEAR ME!? NOBODY!"
|
|
It's not a big...but it's a pretty cool unintended illusion
|
|
(though once we saw it, we kept it).
|
|
|
|
|
|
[21][Next]
|
|
|
|
[22]Last update: February 12, 1998
|
|
|
|
References
|
|
|
|
1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
|
|
2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
|
|
3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
|
|
4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/109.html
|
|
5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/111.html
|
|
6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#OV
|
|
7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#BP
|
|
8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#UQ
|
|
9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#AN
|
|
10. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#NO
|
|
11. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#JS
|
|
12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#NO.prod
|
|
13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/070.html
|
|
14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/087.html
|
|
15. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/085.html
|
|
16. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
|
|
17. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/110.html#TOP
|
|
18. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
|
|
19. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
|
|
20. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/109.html
|
|
21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/111.html
|
|
22. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html
|