Earth: Final Conflict

The pilot episode written by Gene Roddenberry is excellent, but the show goes nowhere, all hugger mugger and no real story. Roddenberry's basic idea, that contact between humans and superior aliens will not be all black and white but will be filled with ambiguities, is a good one. Later writers, however, think in terms of good aliens and bad aliens. The use of female actors to play androgynous aliens was a good idea, but in later seasons everybody except Da'an overdoes it. In the third season, there are a number of scripts by Howard Cheykin, who is an excellent writer, and who wrote some memorable episodes of The Flash TV series, as well as some great graphic novels. However, he is unable to do anything here, because he is locked in to what is really not a workable story line. I have not watched the fifth season, but I have read that it throws out most of what was established in the first four. For scifi completists only.

When Kevin Kilner left at the end of the first season, the show lost it's heart. They killed off the principal character and his drive and the show shriveled up for a while. Leeshock and his character eventually adjusted but the story still suffered, with the Taelons having so many twists and turns that they lost all mystique; now Leeshock's character is presumably dead and now there's Heitymeyer and her character with an almost Buffy:the Vampire Slayer storyline. The show has lost it's direction more than once in 5 years-what else would you expect since Rodenberry's notes could only last so long and hack writers take over? and it's time that they brought things to a merciful end.

I really enjoyed this series when it first came out. Although the idea of benevolent-seeming aliens with ulterior motives is not new (see the original Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man"), EFC gave it a new and fresh approach. Add to that the intrigue between Da'an and Zo'or and the other Taelons, the power struggles within the Resistance, and the Machiavellian Sandoval, and you had a story with some real promise.

Unfortunately, the loss of Kevin Kilner as Boone towards the end of the first season, signaled the beginning of a string of cast changes that disrupted the continuity of the series and the story line (to paraphrase a line from "The Outlaw Josey Wales": when I get to liking a character, they don't stay around very long). Robert Leeshock put in a fine performance as Liam Kincaid; but I felt Liam became less interesting the more "human" he became. As part alien, he straddled both sides of the fence and could bond with Da'an in ways that no human ever could; but as a human, he was just one more resistance fighter.

Another disturbing trend--and maybe it's my own imagination--was the tendency to cast women based on their brassiere sizes. I thought nothing of it with Lisa Howard--I thought her portrayal of Lili Marquette was first-rate--but then with the introduction, shortly after Lili's disappearance, of Jayne Heitmeyer as Renee Palmer, I became more suspicious. The final straw was Lori Alter's well-endowed and scantily-camisoled Ehrengraf wrestling with Liam in the final moments of "Emancipation". All we needed was the Jell-O. Were they TRYING for the adolescent male audience? I'm not criticizing the acting abilities of any of these women; I'm just saying that it was hard to take the series seriously after that.

Finally, would it have been rocket science to choose a less transparent name than Doors International? Jonathan DOORS--Bill GATES??? (Not to mention Microsoft WINDOWS(R)!)

I can't comment at all on the fifth season--once I saw the Atavus appear and started reading some of the story lines, it just became too painful to bear.

It was clear from the beginning of the series that the story had been fairly carefully mapped out. The early ambiguous characterization of the Taelons became clearer as their motivations were revealed, and the righteous fear of the Resistance was confirmed; such gradual exploration of a complex storyline is one of the best elements of Sci-Fi television (I have no idea what semantic distinction is supposed to exist between "science fiction" and "SciFi"--fanatics are always inventing new layers of obfuscation to objectify their opinions). Unfortunately, E:FC has suffered from apparently unplanned cast changes: the departures of Kevin Kilner after the first season and Robert Leeshock after the fourth (though both have made brief return appearances) have plainly disrupted the story. The latter disruption has sapped the drama of its narrative drive, unfortunately; Jayne Heitmeyer's Renee was fine as a secondary character, but just doesn't have the stuff to carry the show. The introduction of the Atavus has the feel of last-minute scrambling too. The Taelons were a deft, sophisticated creation of a fascinating mind, while the atavistic hybrid that succeeded them would be more at home in a cheap horror story. If I'm wrong about the ad hoc storytelling, then Gene Roddenberry's bible wasn't as good as I had thought. In either case, the final season of Final Conflict has been a distinct disappointment.

Well, WHAT have they done to my favorite show?? Earth: Final Conflict used to be a wonderful series. In the first season, it was about a contact with a truly _different_ alien race, called the Taelons. Outwardly peaceful and benevolent, secretly altering the future of humanity. They weren't evil, just desperate (although we didn't know it). They weren't good, because they did bad things to us. Then came the second season. Lots of action. Little thought. Liam. Liam is a hybrid. Half Kimeran (another alien race), half human. He quickly became Mr. Superman-like-character. This was _BAD_ TV. Now we are presented with season 3. Pretty good, although Liam is as stiff as ever, Renee is his sidekick (both characters are so flat they could practically interchange lines at any point). Perhaps season 4 will be better. I doubt it though. There is something wrong with the writers on this show. Unless you are looking for disappointment when s4 gets here, don't get too involved.