|
|
Movie Review by The Gravedigger
|
01.08.07
|
I never caught this tv series when it originally aired, but watched the dvd set over a period of a few weeks. The premise is solid-- few hundred years in the future Earth is so overpopulated that there are space stations in orbit about the planet to temporarily deal with the problem. When a habitable planet is discovered twenty-light years away a group of people decide to take the chance and colonize it. The majority of these individuals include families who have children with a syndrome that has weakened their immune system, a condition probably brought on by generations of people not being linked to the planet's ecosystem. Unfortunately the government doesn't want them to do and tries to sabotage the mission. They barely escape-and put themselves into suspended animation.
A smaller ship precedes the larger one, which has the majority of the people.
They awaken to find that the ship is in danger of crashing and they eject in the escape pods. They find that the planet is very Earth-like-and that the sentient species, the Terrians, are connected to the planet, getting their nourishment through it by osmosis. These are among the coolest aliens I've seen, as they look like a cross between a plant and those dried-up South American mummies. Another creature is called a Grendler, which slobber a lot and resemble man-sized frog muppets.
Among the characters are Devon Adair (Debrah Farrentino), who is the leader of the group, her ten-year old son, Ulysses, John Danzinger (Clancy Brown of CARNIVALE, THE BRIDE), a construction-type guy along for the ride, the pilot, Alonzo (Antonio Saboto, Jr.) and Dr. Julia Heller (Jessica Steen), who is the most interesting character as she's torn between being a doctor and a double-agent.
What ruins the series is that they keep on introducing more people, such as convicts that have been living there for twenty-years-and members of a government agency which is supposedly already established on the planet. What would have worked is if this was more like the recent show LOST, with them totally isolated and having to fend for themselves. It also needed to be weirder, not so family-friendly.
Also, the last three episodes presented on the last dvd are out of order, most likely as to not make it seem as if the series ends on such a "downer". As science-fiction series go this is just "okay".
|
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.0 - 2 votes cast total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|