Episode 073 – Messages from Earth
Earth and Psi Corps are discovered to be working with the Shadows, prompting a risky mission to Ganymede. Erika joins us to discuss episode 3×08 – “Messages from Earth”.
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Tags: a babylon 5 introcast, downbelow, episode 3x08, messages from earth
April 30th, 2015 at 3:42 pm
[Spoilers for Point of No Return]
The Coming of Shadows is my favorite B5 episode. The run of episodes that starts with Messages from Earth and extends through Point of No Return to [spoilers!] is my favorite *sequence* in all of B5.
One of many things that I like about Point of No Return is how much it communicates that our protagonists are not in control of events now that Clark has made his move, and those events are moving very, very fast. All Sheridan and company can do is try desperately to improvise ways to stay on top of things from moment to moment in their own little corner of the universe. This A-plot is all about the short term, and is nicely balanced by the Londo B-plot, in which Londo tries (just as desperately in his own way) to find a way to control events in the long term.
JMS said that B5 was what happened when he realized that two shows that he had in mind, one a grand sweeping space opera, the other an intimate little story of a single space station, were actually the same story. Point of No Return is maybe the single story which most effectively exploits the tension between those two.