TV Talk - Earth: Final Conflict Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my look at Earth: Final Conflict. Here, I'll go into the myriad of issues the show had. I'll also list some episodes to check out if you're curious. 

CONS

Ah, the Atavus... they suck so much that it's not even funny. It's actually kinda sad.

So… this show had issues. While there are things to enjoy, it has problems. The biggest issue it faced was its constant revamping. I don’t know all of what was going on behind the scenes, but it apparently wasn’t that good. I’ve tried to see what was going on, but I can barely find anything. I did read that Majel Barrett wasn’t happy with how the show got revamped in Season 2. That’s probably why she was barely on it after that first season.

Also, the way they got rid of Boone’s character was pretty bad. It’s one reason why I don’t like Season 2 all that much. That first half just felt like a mess. Liam wasn’t that likable at first, and the show heavily relied on is alien powers to save the day. He was pretty much a 'deux ex machina.' Luckily, the show cut that out  after a while. It also started to get better in that latter half of the season.

While I did like Liam, his his intro with the show was pretty rough.

Another thing that didn’t help was that more and more of the cast was being let go or thrown into smaller roles. By season 4, the only originals left were the Taelons and Sandavol. Then, Season 5 came and pretty much crapped on the show. The interesting Taelons were replaced with the oversexed, overpowered, and over-annoying Atavus. I can honestly say that they were straight-up crap (wish I could use a harsher word there)! Their leader, Howelyn, was annoying as well. While there could’ve been some intrigue there, the Atavus soaked all that up in a bad way.

This was probably Robert Leeshock's reaction when he found out he was out of a job.

It also didn’t help that we went through another change in lead characters. While Jamie Heitmeyer was okay as Renee Palmer, she couldn’t carry the show by herself with the pretty craptastic villains. Not even Sandavol could save this. The return of William Boone (Kevin Kliner came back for two episodes) couldn’t even save this, and guess what happens to him towards the end of the season? He dies off-screen… Again! Thankfully, the show was put out of its misery at the end.

Even though I railed on about Season 5 being crap and other stuff, it still had issues. I can see why someone thought the show needed to be spruced up after Season 1. I like that season, but it could be dull at times. It was either the human characters ,the plotting, or a mix of both. As I said above, the human characters weren’t that interesting. They just had the Resistance stuff and that’s it. There wasn’t much else to them. You’d also get stories that weren’t good.  It seemed like they were lacking a certain something, and that spark rarely showed up. I see why it ultimately petered out after five years.

I guess the creators wanted to mime Star Trek a bit with their new look for the Jeridian Replicant. Reisistance ain't futile here!

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Before I go, I do want to list off some important episodes from each season. If you do watch the show, these would give you an idea. While most of these are pretty good, some ain’t. I’ll even throw a couple of Season 5 episodes in… ugh.

Season 1

• Decision – The Pilot of the show.
• Float like a Butterfly – A weird alien probe makes the life of an Amish community hard.
• Miracle – Religion and the Taelons collide in a big way as they provide a way to help an amputee regain the use of her hands.
• Sandavol’s Run – Sandavol’s CVI (a nerual implant that makes Protectors serve the Taelons) goes haywire, and he goes on the run from everyone.
• The Secret of Strandhill – It’s revealed that a Taelon named Ma’el visited Earth over 2,000 years ago.
• The Joining – A Taelon ancestor causes some problems for the Taelons and the Resistance.

Season 2

• First of Its Kind – William Boone “dies”, and Liam Kincaid takes his place as the lead.
• Atavus – Da’an gets split from the Commenality (it joins all Taelons together) and ends up turning into an Atavus… not as bad as Season 5, though.
• Gauntlet – Lili is taken hostage by a male Jeridian and Liam tracks them down to an ancient alien spacecraft.
• Crossfire – A lot of stuff happens to the Resistance since Jonathan Doors is running for President.

Season 3

• Crackdown – The Resistance is on the run as the Taelons issue a big crackdown on them.
• The Once and Future World – The chase is on as the Taelons and Resistance search for the hidden ship of Ma’el.
• In Memory – Lili Marquette gets pulled into a plot involving the Jeridians.
• Time Bomb – Liam and Renee get trapped on Ma’el’s ship as it starts to activate and become a possible threat to the world.
• Arrival – Lili Marquette returns to Earth pregnant with a Jeridian’s child.

Season 4

• The Forge of Creation – Lili’s child is born. We also see the exit of a few characters.
• The Second Wave – The Taelons decide to leave Earth when they sense a Jeridian fleet coming their way.
• The Summit – While Liam gets a CVI installed in him, Da’an undertakes a secret mission that could help both the Taelons and Jeridians.
• Dark Matter – A piece of dark matter hits the Taelon mothership, and the only one who can save the ship is Liam.
• Epiphany – Things get pretty bad for the Taelons as they start to run out of energy.
• Point of No Return – Things come to a head involving Liam, the Taelons, and the Jeridians.

Season 5

• Unearthed – In the aftermath of the last episode, a new threat comes to Earth in the form of the Atavus.
• Boone’s Awakening – Sandavol revives William Boone from his stasis in order to draw out Renee.
• Boone’s Assassin – Sandavol is able to revive Zo’or and has him ( in a new Atavus body) hunt Renee and William Boone.
• Art of War – Things turn for the better as a way to kill the Atavus is  revealed.
• Subversion – Renee is put on trial by a rogue military group for unleashing the Atavus.
• Final Conflict – It all thankfully comes to an end here with the series finale.

…………………………………………………

In the end, I guess the best description for the show would be “wasted potential.” It had a good concept and even did well with it at times. I guess studio meddling can really bring a show down because it did hurt it, and you can tell at times. Overall, Earth: Final Conflict was fine. It was nice to revisit the show after all this time. I don’t know if I can recommend it, but I say give it a shot. You may get more from it than I did. Well, I gotta end this long post somewhere. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.