Finally finished the whole series . . .

[NotSoWize]

by watching "Sleeping In Light" last night. While I did not think season five was quite as strong as seasons three and four, it sure went out with a bang! I don't believe I've been through that much of an emotional roller-coaster since "Return of the King" on the big screen.

Although it is about 10 years late, a hearty "thank you" is due from me to JMS.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Yeah, I felt about the same way. But that makes sense in context of what Season 5 was. Season 4 was the climax and 5 was kinda the "heeerrre's the wrap-up," as it was supposed to be because of the novel format. It was only amplified by the fact that they thought they were cancelled so they wrapped up a lot of stuff in season 4 quickl that they were going to extend. That said...Sleeping In Light is by far the best ep I'm obsessed with the song that plays during the heavy parts and during the end credits.

[PMvanova]

Smile! Good to see you on here! I still have you on my buddy list oddly enough. (or someone who has your name)

Sleeping In Light was nominated for a Hugo if I'm not mistaken and the unfortunate issue with it not winning was that it had not played in Australia yet when Worldcon presented the awards.
Believe me, it would have been the winner by far if it had and JMS was rather disappointed by it, but you live and move on.

It took me almost a year before I could listen to that music without choking up. I was at a difficult time in my life and ended up seeing it around midnight in a hotel room. The next morning, I woke early and stepped outside to see the sunrise.

By far, it is in the top ten with most fans for the best episode of the series. Very moving and poignant.
Season Five was..uncomfortable to watch at best. There was some mighty good stuff in there, but the whole Byron thing was kind of embarrassing to watch. It was necessary though, having to do with the evolution of Lyta to another stage.

As for the thank you... let's put it this way, I have stood in lines to get into his panel at Comicon, this year though I unfortunately had a 20 month old with me and couldn't. People did wait in line, and filled the room past capacity.
He is thanked every time someone like you discovers the series for the first time. (Besides getting the royalty checks, heehehe)

Welcome ...you've joined a special group of people in the world. The few, the proud, the enlightened. Nothing will be the same again.

[grumbler]

Congrats on "joining the club." Like many, I could not watch that final episode again for quite some time after seeing it the first time. Powerful stuff.

It really was a pity that SiL lost out to "The Truman Show" (by Australia's own Peter Weir). I liked TS well enough, but considered it a travesty that it won the Hugo. Still, that's why they have the Cons world-wide; to give voice to those who would otherwise not readily have it.

[Donald]

Congrats on "joining the club." Like many, I could not watch that final episode again for quite some time after seeing it the first time. Powerful stuff.

It really was a pity that SiL lost out to "The Truman Show" (by Australia's own Peter Weir). I liked TS well enough, but considered it a travesty that it won the Hugo. Still, that's why they have the Cons world-wide; to give voice to those who would otherwise not readily have it.

I, too, was shocked to see that SiL did not win the Hugo. It certainly deserved it more than The Truman Show (which I also enjoyed).

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I disagree. I think the reason The Truman show (which is one of my fave films) beat SiL to the Hugo is down to context.

The Truman Show could be viewed as it was, by itself, as an impressive piece of (vaguely) SF cinema drama. Sleeping in Light on the other hand can only be viewed as an impressive and very powerful piece of SF television by reference to the 109 episodes that went before it.

SiL is much less of a standalone piece, in that sense, than either The Coming Of Shadows or Severed Dreams, so whilst I would have preferred to see SiL win it, it was never a particular surprise to me that it didn't.

[Jan]

It was a little more complicated, it seems. This post from JMS explains it.

Jan

[Garibaldi's Hair]

OK ... now my brain hurts. SiL got more RAW votes but TS won due to the Australian balloting system. No wonder the Queen of of England is still head of state.

[Phil Harmonic]

I just watched it again tonight, though I'm considered by many to be rather emotions less, I cried for 15 minutes afterwards. I cannot begin to tell you what this universe and it's characters mean to me, real or not. I felt as if one of my dear friends actually passed. Seeing all of the main character old as well made see feel my own mortality, a silly thing is it not.

[Susitcha]

I just watched it again tonight, though I'm considered by many to be rather emotions less, I cried for 15 minutes afterwards. I cannot begin to tell you what this universe and it's characters mean to me, real or not. I felt as if one of my dear friends actually passed. Seeing all of the main character old as well made see feel my own mortality, a silly thing is it not.

At least your viewing ended at a very positive time for B5's future
And you know have the joy we all did of going back to the begining and realising just how damn clever JMS really is and how he really did have so much of the story planned out from the begining

[grumbler]

OK ... now my brain hurts. SiL got more RAW votes but TS won due to the Australian balloting system. No wonder the Queen of of England is still head of state.

The system the Aussies used was one I am told they use for regular voting as well, and it is a damn good system.

The way it works is this: you cast votes on your ballot for all candiates, ranked 1-X. If no candidate has 50%+1 of the initial votes, the lowest-scoring candidate is tossed out, and the ballots for that candidate go to the second choice on those ballots.

This contnues until a candidate has 50%+1 of the votes.

SiL had the most first-place votes (from what i understand), but not enough to win in the first ballot. It ended up finishing second. Fair dinkum.

Garibaldi'sHair, you are correct in that SiL only makes sense in context.

[Stunning_in_Purple]

That's actually very close to the German voting procedures. A candidate must get at least 50% of the vote. In situations where this is not the case (the previous election), a stalemate is created and one candidate must either step down or form a coalition with another candidate.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Ah yes, the joys of the Single Tranferrable Vote, as we Brits (who don't get to use it) call it. I do sometimes wonder what kind of government we would get if we used it over here.

I'm sure our politics would be much more interesting, that's for sure.

[grumbler]

Ah yes, the joys of the Single Tranferrable Vote...

Thank you. I knew it had a descriptive name, but couldn't recall it.

[ZenoParadoxus]

Instant-Runoff Voting has different names in different countries. What's interesting is that the Australian Ballot term actually is a broader recognition that the first secret ballots where all candidates were listed on a government printed form was in invented in Australia. Here in America (as in most countries), we all use the "Australian Ballot" but not Instant-Runoff Voting (which may or may not have been invented by an American).

John