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Welcome to Show #191!
And finally, we’ve made it to Season 5 of the podcast, complete with the new season opener for the podcast. Many thanks to Gary for collecting the various clips, and to Tim for editing them together, with Summer finishing off the music cleanup.
Those many clips and happy memories are just a small sampling of all the fun and informative moments we’ve had on this show.
Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer, Jeffrey, and Bret embark on the emotional journey that is “Sleeping In Light”.
Even after 12 years, the emotional impact of Sheridan realizing that his time is up, and that he has to say goodbye to Delenn still stings us.
We talk about the character changes that we have to imagine happened during the interim 18 years, the evolution of the friendships that might have occurred over time and over the separation of everyone across the galaxy.
Summer disagrees with Tim and Bret about the reasons behind the uncertainty over whether or not Garibaldi would have made the trip to that final dinner. If that had still been an issue, would they have worked that closely together five years after the end of “Objects at Rest” to create the Excalibur class explorer ships we have in “A Call to Arms”?
The gang also discusses how “Sleeping in Light” stacks up as a series finale compared to other series finales in years and shows gone by, the spots in the episode where the tears will always fall, and the impact the music had.
Feedback Wanted: Don’t forget to let us know if you want to submit your formal theories about “Day of the Dead”, pro or con, for a final theoretical debate on what really happened in that episode.
Lurker’s Guide 2.0: Summer is expanding the documentation to be covered at Lurker’s Guide 2.0, the major change being converting the episode guide into a full Wiki with cross-referenced topics, tidbits and everything you’d want in a Wiki. She’s also still searching for pictures of rare collectibles, photos of magazine covers and toys, and all sorts of other B5 goodies that didn’t get included in the original guide during the years after Crusade. Let her know if you want to lend a hand.
Babylon Podcast Social Communities:
Twitter: @babylonpodcast
Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.
If you can, Please Donate to the show!
Promo: Tuning Into Scifi Television
Promo: Car-ology
Summer, if you hadn’t said that Zack would’ve mentioned Lyta, I would’ve called it in. I’ve been saying that to my family for years, but only my Mom ever agreed with me. 😉
I loved the new opening!
With this episode, I think it’s time for me to say goodbye to The Babylon Podcast. I may look for the remaining episodes if I get around to reading some of the novels or watching Crusade in the next few years. Thanks for keeping me entertained on so many road trips, long days at work, and lazy weekends at home. I hope to see/hear y’all around sometime in the future.
Keep checking back, because you never know when another cool interview will come along.
Remember, we’ve always been here.
It’s a good thing I’m unemployed again (unbelievable!) so I can catch up on the show episodes as well as this podcast.
I’m glad the deep geeking for the B5 episodes is done with, so I can rewatch the series again. 4 years without a B5 viewing…at least the withdrawl wasn’t that bad with the podcast.
‘day of the dead’ it is so obviously neil gaimen – it has his fictional trademarks in there. But as a B5 episode it doeasn’t really stack up very well. It could have. Penn & teller are an odd addition (i like them but not their politics) The episode was a missed opportunity. The background for Lockley didn’t really go anywhere arc wise. It was great to see past guest stars appear again (Londo’s girlfriend, garbaldi’s girlfriend (but nothing was made of the appearances other than it being a cool idea. Lennier and Mr Mordern was the only interesting story and to be honest much more should have been made of that one.
Kosh leaving Sheridan a message was a bit by the by via lockley – again a missed opportunity. This should have been a great episode but just wasn’t. For that reason it stands out like a sore thumb with its supernatural leanings it just didn’t fit the series.
Will do, Summer! Will do!
On the closing music; JMS said In the commentary that he had told the composer to “… ‘Break my heart’, and he did.”
On blowing up the station, I thought the excuse of it being a navigation hazard was hokey. Millions of little pieces-parts whizzing around won’t be? Guess NASA moves the International Station out of the way of such bits just for the fun of it.
Wish I had come across this years earlier, so I could have weighed in on more of the shows.
I agree with Rick – the debris field is a much greater hazard than having B5 there. You either send it down to a planet or you put it somewhere no one will go.
Am I the only one who assumed that the detonation was much like the controlled implosion of a building? Really?
You demo the structure, then send in the cleanup crew afterwards to clear the site. We’ve already seen the automated bots cleaning up and helping out with maintenance during B5’s heyday, so it’s no big stretch to assume that those might have advanced technologically in those 20 years, and that they may not need a massive crew to collect the demolished parts. Hell, they’d be worth their weight in scrap, no?
Really? Y’all just thought they’d leave the pieces floating and zooming around in orbit of Epsilon 3? Really? 🙂
By 2281, B5 isn’t a major route of travel. It’s like the closed roads in Centralia, PA due to the coal fire. The EA isn’t in any rush to waste money on sending cleaner bots to clean it up
Aw, I just stopped by to read the comments on the show since I probably won’t be listening to it any time soon – I managed to avoid watching SIL for over ten years after all. I am not planning on avoiding this podcast ep for that long, though. But did you really have to put that second screenie of John and Delenn in the post? You just broke my heart, Summer, just like that. I still can’t watch/talk/read about SIL without getting all emotional.
Anyhow, I am waiting for Amazon UK to deliver the Crusade box to me so I will be able to follow along, otherwise I won’t have a clue what you guys are geeking about.
Keep it up and see/hear you beyond the Rim.
How could I *not* include that shot?
There’s a time limit on when spoilers are no longer spoilers.
Agreed. I myself follow the Scalzi standard; one week for TV, one year for movies, five years for books.
One quote that I don’t think was in the opening, but I thought should have been is Summer’s frequent “I got nothin’ “
Neil, there were even more moments that never made it. Boohkie, “I got nothin”, Jeffrey on the Freeway, Robin Atkin Downes living in a cardboard box, Brad having to fix something in editing, Jarsto, Tim’s disagreeing with a caller, and much, more.
Thanks though, it certainly shows your dedication as a fan of the show that you have even more memorable moments then we were able to jam into the opening.
So, what are you gonna do for next year’s intro? 😉
Babylon 5 meets Monty Python
I think it would be based on Crusade, but that’s for Summer and the gang to decide. I figure the close music for season 6 if we reach it would be the pak’ma’ra porn song.
I was totally going to go with the Crusade theme as our Season 6 opener, but I was going to save the pak’ma’ra porn theme for our in-show breaks and rejoiners.
Or would that be a little much? 🙂
Or maybe you could spoof the voice over intro to Thirdspace.
When is the next show? I am jonesing over here.
Are you guys doing Crusade next? Or the B5 movies? I want to be sure I’m up to date. I found a few Crusade eps online.
Apparently there was a live feed on Wednesday, so that means the pipeline is open again.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this finale. It is poignant in the UK at the moment as this episode was screened this evening on FX TV. I have to watch this episode alone as it always gets me right where it hurts most. When i first saw this 12 years or so ago it really felt like saying goodbye to family.
Easily the best finale ever made because it was so understated and we had spent 5 years investing in the characters and were given such a beautiful pay off by people who really cared for the art form.
Most other show finales just wane beside this one.
Great podcast for this great episode. It wasn’t as weepy as you might have made it. I’m proud of y’all.