Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,067
Written 7/16/99, Revised 9/9/08
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Buy it... only if you consider yourself an avid fan of the "Babylon
5" series and maintain a healthy collection of the episodic score
releases for the show.
Avoid it... if you expect the quality of this final episode's score
to meet expectations in its summary of series themes or convincing
melodramatic depth.
Babylon 5: Sleeping in Light: (Christopher Franke)
One of the great disappointments of the ground-breaking science fiction
show "Babylon 5" was its love and hate relationship with the TNT network
in the late 1990's, a problem that plagued the concept for years. One
way in which it ironically helped the show was in its conclusive
episode. At the end of the fourth season, there was no expectation that
the show would be picked up by TNT for another year, so an epilogue was
shot and intended for use as the final episode. When the fifth season
ensued, it turned out to be somewhat of an orphaned year, and it was
refreshing to see the assembled cast from the second through fourth
seasons finally close out the series. By then, "Babylon 5" had made
itself known worldwide through trademark innovations in special effects,
make-up, and music. The unconventional music of "Babylon 5" worked so
well in context because the show's production was also somewhat
unconventional. Instead of building models for space sequences and
contracting a full orchestra to perform for each episode, J. Michael
Straczynski created a concept that became more of a political space
fantasy than a typical, technically interpersonal sci-fi production.
Tackling the duties of scoring "Babylon 5" was former Tangerine Dream
member and Sonic Images Records founder Christopher Franke, whose
electronically creative music for each and every episode (as well as the
majority of television films) added another dimension of mystery,
suspense, and excitement to the show, with an easily distinguishable
character that separates "Babylon 5" from other sci-fi television
entries of the era. In these regards, Franke's contribution was a
perfect match for the style of special effects that may now look
simplistic in retrospect, but were, at the very least, another extremely
identifiable aspect of the show. On album, however, some of Franke's
episodic scores for "Babylon 5" remain more enjoyable than others. The
music, interestingly, sometimes lacks three-dimensional character when
heard without those distinct visuals, a problem complicated by the fact
that Franke's own label released so many of the episodic scores on
albums that generally ranged from 25 to 36 minutes in length.
The episodic score albums were definitely products that
required an appreciation of the individual episode represented, and thus
appealed to a more narrow audience than the two compilations that had
existed at the time. One entry in a later batch of episodic releases
from March of 1999 was "Sleeping in Light," the episode that was held
back a year and serving as the final identity of the dying space station
and lead character. Franke's music for this episode does not run as long
as many of the others, and is devoid of the usual title theme sequence
(on screen and on album), a disappointment given the strength of the
fifth season's theme (if it would even be applicable here).
Unfortunately, while Franke's style matured through the years of
"Babylon 5," the more romantic and sensitive nature of "Sleeping in
Light" makes for a comparatively dull listening experience. It's the
type of episodic score that would have been much better suited for suite
format on a compilation of important music from "Babylon 5." The
assembly of characters in the story allows Franke the opportunity to
briefly explore individual stylistic motifs that he used for each one,
though nothing can compete with the overwhelming sense of melancholy
that prevails in the understated approach that Franke took with this
whole episode. The tragedy of the first four tracks, making up the vast
majority of the music in this entry, is so subtle and subdued compared
to the vibrant personality of the rest of the show's music that it seems
like something of a disservice to the characters and the larger concept.
Franke does offer up a recapitulation of the station's death theme from
the episode "Objects at Rest," and it is this noble and melodramatic
farewell that accompanies the extended "End Title" sequence that
delighted fans of the show with a prolonged goodbye to the characters
and crew of "Babylon 5." Otherwise, "Sleeping in Light" is surprisingly
dull. The lead character's choral death cue, "The White Light," is
underwhelming, and the remainder of the score is anchored by strings and
acoustic guitar that never attain convincing depth. The score works in
the episode simply because of the inherent sadness at the end of the
show, and the lack of any attempt by Franke to work in the earlier title
themes of the show into this last entry is a missed opportunity.
Overall, stick with the compilations for "Babylon 5," or at least a few
of the accomplished and longer episodic releases.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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