Title: Welcome The The Revolution
Director: Steve DiMarco
Writers: Create by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. Written by Joseph Mallozzi
Starring: Melissa O’Neil, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr., Jodelle Ferland, Roger Cross, Zoie Palmer, Melanie Liburd
Episode length: 42 minutes
Network: Syfy
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My what a tangled web we weave! A simple effort to help out some colonists turns into a series of escalating problems.
Like most episodes of any given series, this week’s episode of the show had some interesting developments and some things that seemed less so. In fact, parts of this edition seemed almost generic in quality, put into place to as a needed part of a narrative meant to be part of what I have referred to in the past as a filler episode. It felt like it was put in place to serve as a segue, as part of a show in transition. It lacked any feeling of being given the quality of writing we become accustomed to in this series.
Some somewhat intriguing developments almost made up for the lackluster storyline and cookie cutter characters this time around, and two or three in particular that were quite surprising and intriguing.
Here’s a recap with some comments (*warning spoilers follow*):
Welcome To The Revolution started out with a bang before settling into the somewhat muddled mess of a plot that became a little confusing the more it developed. Not only that, but the story’s lack of heart and generic feel never gave me a reason to care about the colonists involved. The Traugott colony on Cepheus 5 seemed a great deal like some we have seen before, not only in this series but in some westerns and other versions of this story about small backwater towns with a population that can’t seem to decide what it is they want when a decision is needed. The story’s familiarity and that of its characters is what led to my comments about the episode’s generic look and feel. It all seemed a bit cliched.
As always in stories like this, there’s one hothead that ruins things for everyone else by stubbornly resisting a more reasonable solution to the problem at hand and turns to violence to solve what’s annoying him. Not only that but this stereotype character always seems to choose the wrong side as a partner.
The episode starts out with a bang with the colony being threatened by a Ferrous Corporation ship in orbit which decides to nuke the colony below. In swoops the Raza and shoots the nuke exploding it before it can kill everyone on the surface. It turns out the Raza and her crew are responding to call for help from their old acquaintance Tabor Calchek (David Hewlett). Instead of him, they find his apprentice Adrian Maro (Mishka Thebaud) who announces he’s taking over Tabor’s business in his absence; It seems Tabor had the good sense to beat a hasty retreat at the first signs of war.
At this point, Two (Melissa O’Neil) and Three (Anthony Lemke) are ready to call it a day and leave, but it’s Six who insists on getting involved in the local situation. The locals want independence as a colony, and that’s where things start to get complicated.
One almost feels sorry for the Traugott soldiers assigned to this sad excuse of a colony because they end up getting screwed the most in this situation and their leader who seemed like a reasonable guy makes a deal to talk things over and is the first to get killed.
Things take an unexpected turn with the arrival of the General (Andrew Jackson – no joke) The same General that set up Six (Roger Cross) to take the fall for the killing of thousands of people. The General immediately starts implementing his brand of restoring order by killing a lot of people including the former guardians of the colony the Traugott soldiers.The General’s visit is brought to an abrupt close when Six shoots him in the head killing him. That was a moment that almost made up for the rest of this somewhat bland episode.
After the dust had settled and peace was restored, and as the Raza crew is readying to depart it turns out that Six has decided to stay and try to help the loser colonists get their sh*t together. It made absolutely no sense to me, why Six would choose this place as his place to settle but maybe Cross has an obligation elsewhere that requires him to take a break from the show, I am hoping it’s not permanent. Three makes a comment about being the last man standing because he’s now the only male member of the Raza crew left.
As they leave the Tabor’s apprentice, Maro and his bodyguard leave with them, and he announces he plans to stay on the Raza for awhile. Are we seeing a change in the show’s cast taking place?
Much more fascinating was the Android’s (Zoie Palmer) discovery, back on the Raza while troubleshooting the blink drive, of an encrypted batch of code in the ship’s database. The VR environment we were introduced to at the end of last week’s episode now takes shape as a crude living space for what amounts to an artificial intelligence created from a downloaded human consciousness. Now we’re talking intriguing. The fact that it’s Sarah (Natalie Brown), the love of Three’s (or at least Boone’s) life, ups the ante as well. It was a small part of the episode, but it packed much more punch than the main plot.
The episode also included a brief visit with Ryo in his palace that seemed to be of no consequence to the development of the series’ narrative. I neglected to mention The bat-shit crazy homicidal Misaki (Ellen Wong) in last week’s review. It’s obvious to me that she will play a major role in the show’s events again at some point. She’s a time bomb just waiting to go off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpFAyCAukKc
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