Sleeping in Light ( *Spoilers* )

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: Scott Rainey <scottr at hevanet.com>
Date: 29 Nov 1998 15:12:05 -0700
Lines: 121

Spoilers for Sleeping in Light

























I liked SIL, with the exception of scrapping the station.

Blowing up B5 Didn't make any sense to me when the plot item leaked 
out in TV Guide last year.  It still doesn't.

OK, it makes sense for JMS to write it that way to make the point of THIS
IS THE END OF THE STORY DAMMIT!!!  I certainly understand that and almost 
agree.  Almost. 

Hollywierd has a long history of blowing up expensive sets at the end of
movies, but I have always wondered if it was more fun for the producers
than the viewer. I love orange-fireball cinematic kabooms, but always
hated seeing hollywood blowing up the big expensive set at the end of a 
movie - unless it was needed for the plot, which was rare. 

		--------------------

A single 5-mile long chunk of station is a hell of a lot Less of a 
hazzard to navigation  in the vastness of space than a tillion small chunks.
Yes, most will in 100 years de-orbit into the planet below, but surely not all.

   One ending which would requre less suspension of disbelief (for me) would 
have beren to de-orbit the station, then blowing it up, as it hits the 
atmosphere.
   This would fully consume the material of the station as small chunks burn
in the atmosphere, eliminating free-space and orbital debris, and no big
chunks hitting the planet.   
   Coulda been a cool FX to watch the debris showering down with a camera
POV on the planet's surface.  

A less spectacular,but more realistic, ending has earth selling the 
station to either Edgars Industries for a warehouse, or some 
developing sentient species for an orbiting hotel/amusement park.  

In both of these scenario's the station can get pushed through the jump
gates, and a fairly nice FX could be concocted cheaply as it takes some
screen time to stretch it's bulk through the jump gate.  

THIS plotline could fork in a number of ways: 
    The station's bulk overloads a frammis on the jumpgate and b5 exits 
    hyperspace at it's destination with insufficiant velocity to maintain 
    orbit over planet Viagra.  Our hero's have to sweat bullets to try 
    saving it.  

    This end-plot could fork to a couple of nice last acts: 

        B5 is now a seedy amusement park orbiting planet Viagra awaiting it's 
        now out of fashion furnishings to become chic again - in 30-100 years.

        or 

        Our hero's fail to push the station fast enough to prevent entry to
        the planetary biosphere.  This forces the use of a plot-surprise 
	self-destruct system in place for just this potentiality.  

        This destruction could use the same FX we saw, or my de-orbiting
	rain of space debris meteor shower above; but the motive is
        now to prevent a 5-mile long object from crashing to the planet
        below - avoiding a species extinction event - rather than simple
        kaboom for the bureaucratic testosterone thrill of blasting it.

As a final thought, this was JMS' universe to bend or destroy as he
wished.  Recall his destroying 2 billion Markab's in a single episode in
"Confessions and Lamentations," lest we forget that. 

As JMS has often stated, he only produced this series to ensure that HIS 
vision as a writer to end up on the screen.  I respect that greatly. 

For all the hours of pleasure this series brought us all, mine is a tiny
quibble.  

None of my scenario's would have had the same mood of SIL. That mood is, 
I'm sure, exactly what JMS wanted to say. 

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Three years ago, whilst cleaning my yard and meditating on reading JMS's
reports of people's reactions to reading the script for SIL I thought: 

        "Oh My God! He's going to blow up the Earth to make the point that
        we'd better get moving to plant our descendants off world if we
        want our species to survive." 

	<insert evil machination by your choice of bad guy to cause the kaboom>

This speculation was based on a first season episode.  In an interview
with a reporter for earth news, Captain Sheridan made the point that the
human race had to go to the stars because someday Earth will be consumed
by our sun as it expands in death. 

Needless to say, I disbelieved those reports in TV-Guide where cast 
members said they'd blow up the station.  I presumed JMS was crafty 
enough to create a cover story for the crew, then make a change in the 
edit suite.


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 30 Nov 1998 16:49:11 -0700
Lines: 64


























>A single 5-mile long chunk of station is a hell of a lot Less of a 
>hazzard to navigation  in the vastness of space than a tillion small chunks.
>Yes, most will in 100 years de-orbit into the planet below, but surely not
>all.

There are weapons systems on board that station, computer systems, other stuff
that would be too much of a hassle to dig out, and you don't want squatters
setting up residence there, or raiding the place for what they can get, and
maintaining a military presence there to prevent it would be expensive.  With
trade no longer coming through, the money to keep the station operating was
gone.

>One ending which would requre less suspension of disbelief (for me) would 
>have beren to de-orbit the station, then blowing it up, as it hits the 
>atmosphere.
>   This would fully consume the material of the station as small chunks burn
>in the atmosphere, eliminating
>free-space and orbital debris, and no big
>chunks hitting the planet.   
>   Coulda been a cool FX to watch the debris showering down with a camera
>POV on the planet's surface.  

I don't see how sending a 5 mile long station plummeting into the atmosphere of
Epsilon 3 is any more or less real than blowing it up in space, where salvage
crews can come in and take the metal.  We already *saw* bits of the debris
burning up in the atmospher in the second shot... and as for sending the whole
thing hurtling down, well, I think Draal might have a thing or two to say about
that....


 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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