“The Deconstruction of Falling Stars” is episode twenty-two of season four of Babylon 5 and the season finale.
This episode begins shortly before the end of the previous episode, “Rising Star”, and a shuttle with ‘Just Married’ is approaching Babylon 5. The shuttle pilot tells C&C that the package is on its way in. Now-president of the new Interstellar Alliance and his new wife Delenn disembark. To Dr Franklin and Garibaldi and a whole crowd of people applauding with banners congratulating them and welcoming home. Franklin and Garibaldi say that Sheridan would probably have preferred to keep a low profile. But according to Garibaldi there is a time and a place for everything – and this is the time and place for a party. There’s a lot to celebrate and Sheridan can’t avoid it. He promises to get Garibaldi back later if he can.
Londo and G’Kar disembark as well and Londo asks Franklin who died. For this is how the Centauri celebrate state funerals. Marriage ceremonies are far more solemn and much less enjoyable. For, once married, you know things can’t get any worse and you can just relax and celebrate the marriage. He doesn’t consider this a promising sign. Of course, Londo never married for love. Nor do the majority of high-ranking Centauri.
Delenn tells Sheridan she knew they should have gone to Minbar first. Sheridan replies that with Clark dead and Earth and Mars free, the people want to celebrate. Delenn feels that it’s somehow immodest. Sheridan tells her that in 100 years it won’t matter who they were and they will probably not even be remembered. It then switches to an ISN report on the marriage, but it starts breaking up. A computer announces that there are temporal distortions and a continuity error caused by high energy. It asks someone if they want to continue. This is confirmed, and the computer reloads ‘Sheridan & Delenn.’ With the option to select time period or go to auto play. Auto play is selected and it covers the range up to 1,000 years later.
The first date is 2nd January 2262, with an ISN report. The anchorman says that it’s time to pause and consider. He covers Sheridan’s unremarkable early life, until he joined Earthforce after the Dilgar War, and served with distinction during the Minbari War and the Mars Food Riots. The challenge is for Sheridan to hold together the new alliance.
There are three experts commenting on this. One, a political speech writer and pundit, says that Sheridan is not qualified to run the Interstellar Alliance. Sooner or later, Sheridan will have to use military force to keep the Alliance together. The other two experts, a senator and a Martian writer, are more positive. The Martian is the most positive but even the senator thinks the Alliance will work.
Next up is 2nd January 2362 and three doctors, of the academic kind, are hosting a special presentation for half a million students and faculty. One of the three is chairing it and the other two are giving their opinions. Neither of those two think Babylon 5 played a role in the 100 year peace. It was just a nexus. Nor were Sheridan and Delenn that special; they didn’t do anything and the records of their accomplishments are overstated. They were simply the nexus of historical forces and only the weight of history stopped the Alliance from collapsing under its own weight. So many people died in the first year.
A clip is shown and the experts claim that Sheridan was power hungry and a megalomaniac. Even his death was a cover story. And the notion that Delenn could still be alive, well past the normal lifespan of a Minbari, is nonsense; the Alliance is simply continuing the illusion for their own purposes. They do admit that the Alliance has been a force for good, but the motives of those who founded it were not as pure as thought.
The experts have really been ripping Sheridan apart and at this point there is a security breach in the building. And a, not dead, Delenn with Minbari escorts arrives and tells them that John Sheridan was a good, kind, decent man. That’s all she came to tell them. She manages to stop one of the experts from speaking simply by looking at him.
Next it’s 2762, and a man is creating a hologram of Babylon 5 before its destruction 480 years ago. Along with holograms of Sheridan, Delenn, Franklin and Garibaldi. With their personalities. The government has decided to reverse correct infospeak, and deconstruct historical figures to show that the Interstellar Alliance is bad. Replacing real fact with good facts. Orwellian historical rewriting. The four of them are going to be portrayed as bad guys. Unfortunately for the man running the simulation, he left Garibaldi with his real personality – and skill set – for too long. It does not go well.
3262, 500 years after the Great Burn, and Earth is not in great shape. Brother Alwyn Macomber sets up a recording as he speaks to a Brother Michael who is having a crisis of faith. Their job is to keep alive the knowledge of the past. The war left the place trashed.
Finally, one million years in the future, and people still know who Delenn and Sheridan are. So much for nobody remembering their names in 100 years. There isn’t really a plot to this episode; it’s just clips from different points in time showing how the Alliance progressed.
It’s recommended to watch “Babylon 5: In the Beginning” next before season five.