Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Michael Vejar

Procrastination has its advantages, although my mother would likely disagree with that. For various reasons, I put off getting back to my Babylon 5 reviews. In light of watching a few episodes where I last left off, I’m glad I did. J. Michael Straczynski was quite prescient with many of the storylines in the show; either that or human history is a case of “All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again,” to quote another science fiction television show.

Messages from Earth begins with Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian), Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) having breakfast together. Garibaldi is complaining about the Station’s food when Ivanova receives a delivery of fresh bacon and eggs from Marcus Cole (Jason Carter). Meanwhile, Marcus is involved in a fight elsewhere on the Station.

There is an ISN news broadcast that updates the Station on the investigation into President Santiago’s death, as well as a caution about the “new alien race” (The Shadows) and what measures might have to be taken. Garibaldi visits the former Narn Ambassador, G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas), in prison, where he’s serving a sentence for his attack on Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). Garibaldi is struck by G’Kar’s temperament while being incarcerated. He learns G’Kar is writing a book about all that he has observed, that he plans to have finished by the time he is freed.

It turns out the woman Marcus was trying to protect is Dr. Mary Kirkish (Nancy Stafford), someone Garibaldi has been trying to bring to the Station for a while. She works for Interplanetary Expeditions as an archaeologist who is collecting artifacts on various worlds. Kirkish tells them the story of uncovering a Shadow vessel on Mars. This is in direct contrast to what Earth’s government is claiming on ISN. She tells them that everyone who knew about the find has been killed or disappeared, and she is the only one left. She wants to make sure other people know before the same happens to her.\

She tells them that as they were digging around the ship, one of her coworkers accidentally touched the ship with their bare hands and died instantly. After that, they were all directed back to the base, where they watched shuttles move in around the ship. Suddenly, another ship arrived and finished digging out the ship trapped on Mars, and both ships left. Garibaldi states he was piloting one of the shuttles and can corroborate some of what she is saying. They were told by the Earth government to forget what they saw and tell no one. It seems to indicates an alliance between The Shadows, President Clark, and Psy Corps.

Minbari Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) and her assistant, Lennier (Bill Mumy), move to protect Kirkish by sending her to Minbar. Sheridan asks Delenn to meet him. They want to stop President Clark and Psy Corps from being able to use the Shadow technology. He volunteers to enter Earth space on the White Star and destroy the technology. They take precautions so it doesn’t come back to bite everyone on the Station should their plan fail.

Meanwhile, Nightwatch is having a meeting. Zak (Jeff Conaway) is becoming uncomfortable being involved with them. The head of Nightwatch at the station tells them there is a great conspiracy against the Earth government that includes many higher-ups in the military. One of the Nightwatch asks if anyone knows where Captain Sheridan is.

Lennier urges Sheridan to rest so he is clear-headed when they arrive. He finds the Minbari beds near impossible to sleep on.

Ivanova meets with Marcus and ends up arguing with him that it’s Marcus’s fault that Sheridan is doing this and might not come back.

The White Star enters Earth space, where they intercept a transmission as the Shadow vessel awakens on Ganymede. They prepare to attack the vessel. There’s a battle, but they seem to have little effect on the ship. Sheridan lures the ship to follow the White Star into Jupiter’s atmosphere. He’s hoping that it can’t handle the pressure of the atmosphere and gravity. The Shadow vessel cannot maneuver the way the White Star does and ends up breaking apart in the atmosphere.

Just as they are preparing to jump, the Earth vessel Agememnon turns up. The Agememnon was Sheridan’s former posting. He doesn’t want to fire on them. Delenn has them move closer to the atmosphere and then open a jump point. The Agememnon cannot follow them as the White Star makes the first-ever atmospheric jump.

Back on Babylon 5, the ISN broadcast reports that an unknown ship attacked Ganymede and was destroyed by the Agememnon. It would appear that they got away with it, even if the reporting isn’t accurate. Zak is confronted by the head of Nightwatch. He knows Sheridan wasn’t around and wants Zak to use his friendship with Garibaldi to learn what’s going on. Zak is even more uncomfortable as it’s presented as a choice of whether he is loyal to Earth or not.

Marcus is attempting to cheer up Ivanova when they learn from ISN that Earth is now under Martial Law.

The machinations that have taken place up until this point to set things in motion are eerily similar to what we are going through in the United States at the time I write this review. Here, we have a President who may have used technology to give him false victories, while on Earth, in this time, the President might have been behind the assassination of his predecessor. Both Presidencies could be considered illegitimate, and once these men are in the office, they are grabbing power way beyond what the office is supposed to have. Nightwatch will develop more in the next episode, but from here, their parallels to ICE are obvious. Keep in mind, ICE didn’t even exist at the time this story was written. They are being given authority well beyond what they initially said they were there for. With the Earth Government declaring Martial Law on Earth, it seems likely that Nightwatch will be their enforcers on Earth as well as on Babylon 5.

Sheridan and Delenn are going against this illegitimate power-grab by trying to prevent the Shadow technology from being used against those who oppose President Clark. It’s a risky mission in many ways. The White Star is still an unknown entity to the Earth Government. Sheridan only wants to take out the Shadow vessel. The Agememnon‘s arrival is a complication for him. There are people on that ship he served with. He knows they are good people who are just following orders based on what they’ve been told is going on. This is indicative of any Civil War where people are fighting people they have known in their lives up until this point.

The story is so hard to watch again right now. I’ve always enjoyed binging this show, but right now it hits too close to home, with the exception of the technology and aliens. Instead of being a cautionary tale about what could happen, it seems to bemore of a companion to what is happening currently in the world, particularly the United States. Straczynski is a brilliant writer. I doubt he thought this was where we were headed at the time he created the series. Rather, I think he was basing a lot of it on what had happened with Germany prior to World War II. We’re just repeating history, unfortunately.

I love seeing a warming between Susan Ivanova and Marcus Cole. He loves her, of course, as has been the case almost from the beginning of his appearance on the show. It’s largely an unrequited love. Ivanova has been downright hostile to him at times. Bacon and eggs seems to be the way to break down her walls a bit. This kind of character arc while the universe is going to hell is exactly what makes the show great. Neither of them are derelict in their duties, and it is fun to watch the two of them together.

Delenn and Sheridan are also becoming closer as well. There’s an affection in their relationship that is evident at times. They are all business in front of the crew of the White Star, but given time alone even during this serious mission they manage to bolster each other without dwelling on the path they’ve taken.

The remastered special effects are really good. I think you’d have to have seen the original DVD realease to appreciate how well it’s been cleaned up. There were times it was difficult to decipher what was going on because the effects blurred out when they were shown on today’s larger, high-definition screens. Messages From Earth has that going for it as there are a number of scenes with the Shadow vessel and the White Star in space that are so much easier viewing now.

Messages From Earth isn’t quite a turning point for the series, but it’s propelling along a lot of what has been set-up in the series so far. There are many payoffs coming. I watch this series again and again because there are so many small details Straczynski included in earlier episodes that have a payoff coming that I didn’t catch the first time through. This is one of the best episodes of the series and there is more coming now that going to war against Earth seems inevitable. I only wish it didn’t feel like I was currently caught up in the same story with less technology.

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