A Look at The Deconstruction of Falling Stars (Babylon 5)

"Oh sweet baby Orwell, here we go again."--The last, best catchphrase of 2023.

This episode has one of my favourite B5 quotes: "faith and reason are the shoes on your feet; you go further with both rather than one or the other".

"You came all this way just to say that?" "You came just as far to say less." Is one of the most fantastic burns in TV scripting.

"The boot stomping on a human face forever just got a nail in it" is an excellent line.

JMS managed to pack a lot into this episode. And Vir did a good job directing.

This episode, as with many episodes of Babylon 5, go to prove just how much that while JMS may be atheist, he understands the mechanisms of faith and belief better than those who are religious.

One of the best episodes of B5 for me, wraps up the story nicely and I love the reference to A Canticle for Leibowitz

Ok, as a NZer born in the early 80s... i was not expecting to see a screen shot of Bruno Lawrence in The Quite Earth pop up... Nice lol.

This Episode blew my mind. Cant think of a Star Trek Episode thats comparable.

If you haven't watch this episode with JMS commentary he crushes it when the dedication comes on

I love B5, but I have to say that this video sure seems more enjoyable than the episode. It’s great knowing that there’s more meaning to it. Watching it the first time seemed more like a collection of short stories that was unified by the general theme of history.

True story: this was the first B5 episode I saw. Man I was confused.

@16:45 You really ought to do "The Quiet Earth" sometime. I swear I thought I was the only person to see that one.

Honestly, as much as the episode goes out of its way to show how those historians and pundits a century later were biased, its not hard to see why those future scholars might take a different view of Sheridan's actions. Remember, they don't have the virtue of having seen the actions of Sheridan first-hand like the audience does. And when you take into account some of his actions, it's easy to see why others might think he was overrated. For example, despite ultimately turning against Clark, he did serve in the Earthforce Military for over a year after Clark began instituting ever-increasingly authoritarian rules, such as the Nightwatch and bullshit "anti-sedition" laws. Absent any other evidence, it would be pretty easy to interpret his ultimate choice to turn against Earth as opportunism, seeing a chance to seize power when Clark's actions became sufficiently unpopular outside of the core of the Earth Alliance to strike out on his own. After all, Clark's earlier actions to suppress dissent under the guise of "national security" didn't seem to bother him, so why should they believe that he suddenly "grew a conscience" at the last minute? Also, why should they just take Delenn's word regarding his character? She's not exactly what you might call an "objective source."

It is gratifying to hear a science fiction classic like "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. mentioned. I must point out, however, that Earth's sun will not become a supernova. Only extremely massive stars do that.

infinitely better and more engaging in one episode than anything the crap Star Trek or Doctor Who franchises have put on screen

The monastery scene is based on the classic sci Fi novel, "A Canticle For Lebinowitz"

I need to convince more people to watch Babylon 5.

This is one of the best episodes in the best Scifi series

Nicely done