Babylon 5 Season 3, Episode 8. Written by
J. Michael Straczynski, directed by
Mike Vejar. Originally aired on
February 19, 1996.
Primary Plot: An
archeologist from
Interplanetary Expeditions brings word that a
Shadow vessel is being excavated...on
Ganymede.
Secondary Plot: President Clark declares
martial law.
Commentary: So it turns out that when the Shadows went into hiding 1000 years ago, they hid their ships underground on foreign worlds...to remain there until they were needed again. EarthGov discovered one on
Mars about ten years ago, and now another one has been discovered on
Ganymede. And once again, they're sending the
Psi Corps in to see if they can recover the ship. This is enough to incite Sheridan and company to actually take non-passive action against
Earth for the first time--before this, all they had really done was investigate past events and pass the information back to
General Hague.
And so, Sheridan takes the
White Star into
Sol System, kicks some
Shadow butt, and narrowly escapes a shootout with his old ship (the
EAS Agamemnon) before hightailing it back to
Babylon 5. The consequences are immediately apparent--due to "heightened concerns about
planetary security," Clark declares
martial law.
Fun Fact: If you've got freeze-frame ability in whatever you're watching the episode on, take a close look at the sequence where the
White Star goes into
hyperspace after the battle. In one of the frames, while the White Star is heading towards the camera, an alien cityscape is superimposed over the hyperspace background. It is a shot from the children's
science fiction show
Hypernauts, which uses the same
special effects company as
Babylon 5 (JMS was not amused).
Return to the
Babylon 5 Episode Guide.