This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" was never intended to be the finale for Babylon 5. In fact, "Sleeping in Light" was filmed during the fourth season so that it could be showed as the series finale at the end of the fourth season if the show didn't get picked up for a fifth season. When it was picked up, "Sleeping in Light" was held until the end of the fifth season. — Devil's Advocate
DDG: Do you guys think this trope was subverted in the finales for Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager? Both of them presented a vision of the future and mentions what happens to the cast, but the events are changed through Time Travel.
Devil's Advocate: No, I don't think those are subversions of the Distant Finale. If anything, those are just Set Right What Once Went Wrong Time Travel episodes, which happen to be series finales. The crucial distinction, IMO, is that parts of those episodes are set in the "present day" of the series, while the Distant Finale takes place entirely in a period well after the rest of the series.
Ununnilium: I'd argue slightly differently, at least in the TNG case. It's not a Distant Finale because you don't get a sense of the future shown being the *real* future; at the end, the characters are in the present, playing cards, and commenting on how the future's wide-open.
Caswin: All the same, it shows the cast - or big chunks of it - in the future, well after the events of the series proper. I saw the Voyager one not long ago; a lot of the "future" segments are spent setting up the plot of the rest of the episode, but it also spends a good amount of time on the cast 10 years after escaping the Delta Quadrant and about 25 after we last saw them. I think that's close enough to be noted.
Lord Seth: Deleted:
- Literary example: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ends nineteen years after Harry defeats Voldemort: Harry and Ginny are married with three kids; Ron and Hermione have two. Neville is the Herbology professor. Oddly enough, since the other events of the book are set in 1997/1998, this epilogue takes place in our future.
I think DBGT is a relatively iconic one, right?
Document N: Dragonball GT? Not to me; I thought it was mainly iconic for being a massive Franchise Zombie.
