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Next to Lexx, EFC has/had the finest plots. Like Lexx there is a clear short term, long term, season term, series term arc.
Except this season….
This season they said “Well ****, lets just pretend the other 4 seasons never happened”
They took the plot of Liam “Saviour of Humanity” and now say that he was the “Bringer of Darkness” and Renee is the one to “Lead them into the Light”
This was never hinted at or mentioned in the last 4 seasons. In fact it was said very clearly about 150 times that Liam was the key to everything, that he would lead Humanity into a Golden Age with the Taelons.
What is even worse is that at the end of last season, in the final 5 episodes they started a long term plot with Liam.
His Father a Kimera, appeared and told him that the beginning of his grand destiny was approaching, he later had to give up his Kimera genes in order to save the Taelons. After doing this again his father the Kimera, Ma-El
explained to him that the was the first great step, and that much later he would take greater steps. Within 3 episodes Liam was dead. He died after a volcano erupted when he was uniting Taelon with Jaridian. Ok heres when it gets wierd. See the Atavus ARE NOT new. The Atavus were in several episodes of EFC from the first season to the last. Only in the 5th season, we have new Atavus. A creature that appears to have nothing to do with the Taelons. They are just a side effect of the Regeneration Chamber. Since their residual energy was there it awakened, eating Liam and the Taelons and Jaridians.
To make matters worse they have transformed an Executive of a “Microsoft” like organization called Doors International into Lara Croft. Suddenly she is the baddest fighter in all of humanity.
The biggest problem with the series is that the writers have without a doubt contradicted everything that happened in Seasons 1-4 just so that they could milk a final 5th season. In retrospect had they ended the series with Liam uniting the Taelon/Jaridian and proclaiming that the future is unkown and for good or ill I will unite these two species into something new.
That woulda been a great ending. Keep in mind the Atavus are explained this season as being a “mistake” that they are actually a nice race of aliens that helped humanity evolve and then died out/or were destroyed by the Taelons.
Season1-4 Atavus? These were Vampire-like Aliens that were the protorace of both the Jaridian and Taelon until the Taelons created the commonality. A Taelon seperated from the Commonality becomes once again an Atavus as we saw several times, even with Da’an.
So I sit here now watching this show only because I watched the first damn 100 episodes and I dont want to miss the last 10 even if they suck worse than being forced tied to a chair to watch Farscape.
On the same topic if they make another damn Roddenbery series Im gonna puke. The first series “Star Trek” contained all and I mean ALL of Roddenbery’s ideas. They just became more and move evolved over series’s.
Examples: The Vulcans werent explained in Star Trek as fully as could’ve been. Taking the Vulcans to the next step he created the Taelons.
(Remember EFC was Roddenbery’s second series, it was created in 1979, but he ended up doing the ST Movie instead)
The Taelons were human like until they gave up emotion for logic, sound familiar? Even the Nietzchians of Andromeda are based from vulcans or rather vulcans from Nietzche philosophy. Sure, its not exact but its without a doubt the model.
So in summation:
EFC sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks.
So, LexxLurker, tell us how you really feel!
J/KI have to agree with you, EFC got to be very confusing and strayed to far from what I think Gene wanted it to be. I stopped watching about mid-way. I couldn’t keep up with the character changes.
possibly the best place to commiserate the protracted demise of efc is here
http://www.philosophysphere.com/%5B/url%5D (go to postings)this is a GR site who discuss his ‘philosophy’, and each week fans get to together to publicly mourn the show. by the way, liam returns in the last episode’s (apparently)
Thanks Bonnee
I knew there had to be other people, a lot of other people annoyed at the direction they went.
PS: Heh, yeah I can see Liam coming back and exclaiming “What the hell have you done to this show!?!”
[ 21-01-2002: Message edited by: LexxLurker ]
I always thought EFC started going down hill ever since Boone left. The producers really destroyed that show.
I’ve heard that from a lot of people. I didnt start watching it religously until the very end of the first season, so I was always more of a Liam fan. Having seen the Boone eps it’s a real shame they didnt keep him around and make Liams character more true to what his role in this series was. Not so much as a companion protector and resistance fighter as the link between Human, Taelon and Kimera. The above role was always Boons first and foremost. Liam never even had a CVI or Skrill, more of a plainclothesman protector.
Its a good thing you stopped watching then, my god if you think it went downhill then tune in now. You’ll see a hot blonde woman running around in sleeveless t-shirts killing everything and making trips through Time!
quote:
Originally posted by LexxLurker:
You’ll see a hot blonde woman running around in sleeveless t-shirts killing everything and making trips through Time!
Mother and Joseph, i HAVE missed out! But, man all mighty, it’s been hard as nails to catch that plot line!
AND, being the sad human that I am…i miss Augur…he had some personality. And… ahem… his looks didn’t hurt either.
Augur was the best character overall in the 5 seasons imho. Such a brilliant storyline for him too. He’s the Han Solo of the series, yet they pulled him slowly out last year and PROMISED that he would be a big part of the storyline.
Apparantly what they intended was for Augur to become the new Doors. He would become the person secretly financing the Resistance. This never happened. In fact they kinda turned him into a self centered dilatante before they just made him disapear.
They replaced him with Juliet Street, a hacker that looks like Kate Moss and can think 9-dimensionally. Getting confusing? Yeah it is. Especially since according the Taelons no human can think above 4-D let alone 9.
The only saving grace to EFC if there even is one(there really isnt) is that Von Flores is still around.
I always hoped his char would become the one who dies saving humanity in a last ditch effort to save his soul. Instead he’s sold out humanity 100% and wants to become Emperor of the world.
The actors playing the Atavii/Atvus’s are really good tho. Shame they didnt use em for the Jaridians.
PS> EFC is on now, this episode is about them taking baths and voyeurs and other sexy things that have nothing to do with the story other than trying to gain a few last fans with some gratitous sexy scenes.
ARGH, has any Sci-Fi series in the history of Television sold out so bad?
PS: Heh, yeah I can see Liam coming back and exclaiming “What the hell have you done to this show!?!”
actually lurker, that would be Boone’s question
Boone actually came back this season
And it sucked. He hooked up with Renee thus making his story into total Bull****. I mean heres a guy with a CVI, cant get over his wife, but once he’s brought back he gets with Renee.
Ugh.
And they added a sister to his character. I think I remember very clearly that Boone had no living relatives making him a perfect companion protector.
Then they promised a huge final showdown between Boone and Zo’or. Guess what?
Both lived through it. Ugh, get some cahones EFC writers, you killed them once, cant ya do it again?
edit:
I was wrong about his sister, apparantly there’s an episode from season1 I missed on tonight that claims “Boones sister returns and is part of an alien project” I’ve seen all but perhaps 5 EFC episodes so this should be a treat. Thank god for Sci-Fi Series1-4 repeats, although the bad side is they show just how cruddy the 5th season is.[ 29-01-2002: Message edited by: LexxLurker ]
This weeks episode?
Well on Saddys Lexx scale of 1-10 Id give it a -23,451
This episode was about a high school where the wrestling coach and all the jocks pick on this one kid. So what does he do?
1)Plan to blow up the HS? Nah
2)Plan to go on a rampage killing spree? nah
3)Take out the HS coach? NahHe becomes an Alien Hybrid instead!!
(Editorial)
Talk about your overplayed spins on Columbine which just about every sitcom/drama has done this year in the most terrible ways. I mean **** do we really want to relive this memory over and over again while writers try to put new spins and get creative? Not to mention making these kids look so cool to your average teen. Its totally irresponsible; Ally McBeal, EFC, that ****ing piece of **** show that FOX shows about High schools where every week a new tragedy happens, I mean come on this is what kids watch, they dont need more ideas. Be responsible for christs sake.
(End Editorial)
But this solves all his problems, now hes half Atavus half Human and all Goth. After the next 40 minutes of gratitious teens running around acting sexy he gets killed by his girlfriend who oh by the way happens to be the daughter of the HS wrestling coach.What does this have to do with the “FINAL CONFLICT” and final season of EFC? You ****ing tell me cause I cant figure out this piece of ****. Next episode this saturday….cant wait, oh boy.
Ugh this weeks ep was EFC meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. Re-using old visuals and sets from other “back-in-time” and pre-human ruled earth as their “Pyramid” sets was really lame. Even worse was bringing back one of my favorite chars from Season 1, but unfortunatly his role had nothing to do with his re-occuring role in Series 1.
What’s really starting to get annoying are all the girly conversations between Renee and Juliet. Juliet is similar to Xev/Zev from Lexx as she was given away at an early age. But in her case she was a freak because of her intelligence. So last season was full of eps about Juliet not trusting anyone but herself. Now they act this season as if they’ve been girlfriends for ages. And all traces of Juliets previous traits are gone. Now shes a confident, young, sexy, club hopping, math star or something rather than the hacker with an attitude.
Whats even stranger about this season, is that in the first 4 seasons the protaginist, never to rarely had any type of love interest. This season Renee has had 3-4 that I can think of off the top of my head, including Boone who never had a love interest save for one episode where he was being brainwashed by his CVI into thinking he was in love.
I hope Andromeda doesent go along these lines, especially after hearing they are making some of the same changes EFC did with their content being too confusing as-is.
Earth’s Final Conflict Hinted
(from http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-02/25/11.00.sfc)
Paul Gertz, executive producer of the syndicated SF series Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, told SCI FI Wire that the final episodes will have some surprises, but he added that he believes fans will enjoy the way it ends. The storyline will pay off all the key players as they “get their moment to shine,” Gertz said in an interview.
While Kevin Kilner (William Boone) won’t return, other key players will. The syndicated series is in its fifth and final season. “It’s been great, but it hasn’t been the easiest show,” Gertz said. “Part of the challenge was everybody had a view of what they wanted the show to be, and since it was created by Gene Roddenberry, who is no longer with us, he wasn’t there to say, ‘Well, this is what I meant it to be.’ So actually the first year was the year that I felt was closest to what Mr. Roddenberry envisioned. So there’s been obviously a lot of tinkering with the premise over the last five years. I’ve had a great time, and you sit back and there are things you wish you could change. But you can’t look backward. You can only look forward [laughs]. We’ve already shot the last episode, and it was quite emotional. … Call up the people you know [at the SCI FI Channel] and tell them if we get a sixth season, we’ll finally get it right [laughs].” Earth: Final Conflict currently airs on SCI FI weeknights at 7 p.m. ET/PT and will move to weekdays at 2 p.m. ET/PT, beginning March 18.
[ 26-02-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]
dunno how long they’ve been showing it (i’m normally out shopping at that time) but i was in front of the TV yesterday when the SkyOne announcer said that all-new EFC would be on at 3pm (3pm on a Saturday afternoon? that says a lot about a show for a start. anything thats new that’s any good is usually shown by them between 8pm-10pm on a weekday)…anyway, i stopped in…and for some reason, i actually sat there and watched a whole episode. my verdict?
P A N T S ! ! ! it has got to have been the biggest pile of poo i have seen in a long time. i’ll be making sure to get out and do the shopping earlier next week. taking the dog for a walk in a howling gale would be more fun!!
quote:
Originally posted by snooklepie:
dunno how long they’ve been showing it (i’m normally out shopping at that time) but i was in front of the TV yesterday when the SkyOne announcer said that all-new EFC would be on at 3pm (3pm on a Saturday afternoon? that says a lot about a show for a start. anything thats new that’s any good is usually shown by them between 8pm-10pm on a weekday)…anyway, i stopped in…and for some reason, i actually sat there and watched a whole episode. my verdict?
P A N T S ! ! ! it has got to have been the biggest pile of poo i have seen in a long time. i’ll be making sure to get out and do the shopping earlier next week. taking the dog for a walk in a howling gale would be more fun!!
To be fair Snooklepie, it’s one of those series that you have to watch from the beginning to get what’s going on, otherwise it will seem like nonsensical rubbish.
I personally have enjoyed the programme, and although other’s here have judged the last season harshly, I’ve found it ok, but nowhere near as good as the previous seasons, but it’s still quite good.
ADMgenerally i’d agree with you, ADM- but the thing is with the ep i saw, it seemed pretty much like a stand-alone. the story made sense to me, i just plain thought it was crap. it wasn’t just the story, none of the characters (apart for Sandoval) from the early seasons were there and their replacements were about as shakey and wooden as an MFI kitchen unit built after a Saturday night on the p***!!! the show just seemed so radically different to the one i originally got into, i didn’t enjoy it at all. disappointed.
One of the things that’s odd is a ‘Sight and Sound’ article early this year. Next to the American ‘Film Comment’, Britian’s ‘Sight and Sound’ is the most authoritive and credible film magazine on the English marketSight and Sound (mag only – not the article)[/url]
Prior to the debut of the final EFC season, the show was championed as one of the most intelligent, sophisticated and mature shows on television – going so far as to favorably comparing it the hallowed names of The Sopranos and Homicide:Life on the Street. Although E.FC has been variable season 2 onwards (to say the least), that might have once been a defensible comparison. Or at least, something worth investigating if you didn’t know the show. If the article managed to turn readers onto E.FC for its final season, I wonder what they would have made of its likeness to an especially bad, extended Michael Jackson video. Talk about how the mighty have fallen, if only to satisfy what the makers thought would be more acceptable to sci-fi fans
[ 10-11-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]
Bonnee brings up why I was so ****ed when I first wrote this post. I never bothered editing it so there’s a few mistakes in there.
But like Bonnee mentioned this was a mature sci-fi series. It was not meant to be humorous or even that Sci-Fi’ish. It was about the philosophical question: What if an Alien race came to Earth, ended hunger, war, poverty, disease, etc..etc.. but the cost was Humanity unknowingly being their fodder for their war against the Jaridians. As well as being their last best chance at their own species finding an energy solution.
Meanwhile you have the Resistance who in many ways are the bad guys of series 1. They are the violent ones. The ones who will use any means necessary to evict the Taelons. They dont care about the truth.
Many humans put in Taelon shoes would do the same thing. It was a series with no bad guys, no good guys. Just a very human sci-fi series.
In Season 1, they introduced a police officer named Boone who unlike 99% of humanity has reservations about anyone who comes to Earth and claiming to only want to help us and having no agenda. Sure enough when Boone declines their offer to become a companion his wife is brutally murdered(Who is Bekka Valentine on Andromeda! And she played a cop on Forever Knight) Now Boone accepts their offer, but his real motivation is to find the Taelons agenda and bring them down.
I hated Season 1, but it was so fresh and new. Ronald Sandoval is still a conflicted character. And probably one of the best written and best played Chars in Sci-Fi history. Boone is killed at the end of the first series, beggining of second, and Liam is introduced and the series TOOK OFF. In my opinion 3 of the finest seasons of Sci-Fi took place. And a clear evolution of the truth behind the Taelons.
Series 5, was Tomb Raider. Plain and simple they said F&#$ the fan base and lets try and get a lot of viewers for the final season. Lets display a lot of skin and throw the history out the window.
Again my biggest problem with the final series isnt even that. Its the Atavus. Atavii were a BIG part of Seasons 1 and 2. We learn this is the race both the Taelons and Jaridians came from. The Taelons chose to form a comminaltity, sacrificing all their emotion and privacy to overcome their animal nature and become almost pure sentient energy (Btw the ‘skin’ of the Taelons is a suit, they have no physical form) The Jaridians refused to form the comminality but evolved as well into energy form while keeping their physical form(Which is why Jaridians explode upon death)
Before the Atavii split into Jaridian and Taelon they met a race called the Kimera/Chimera. This was a pure energy race with no physical form, its thought that this was the race the Taelons stole the idea from. In any event the Atavii betrayed the Kimera and genocided them, imprisoning the final Kimera named Ma-El.
Millions of years later Ma-El escaped and gave birth to Liam through Sandoval and Beckett. Liams role was to finish the Kimera agenda. The Kimera were like Angels, they really did not have an evil bone ..err particle in their bodies. Even eons later when the last of their kinda escapes, he’s still only concerned with *saving* them, hence Liam is born to fulfill that.
Eventually he does. In the end of Series 4 which was quite rushed they began an accelerated plot that the Taelons were all awakened from their energy saving slumber by the “Oracle of the Kimera” which is Liam. Liam now has 1 month to find a solution or the Taelons will all die, and humanity wont be far behind. Now one thing that was never explained is this: Its very clearly said that BOTH Taelons and Humans are doomed without each other.
Either way, in the final 2 episodes a secret underground regneration chamber is found, and Liam reunites both Taelon and Jaridian and uses himself as a Unifying field. Series shoulda been over right there.
From there they started Series 5. And while I wont continue to rant against it. They reintroduce a new Atavus race and Jayne turns into Tomb Raider to save the Earth.
I will say this though, the final episode of series 5 was quite incredible, and Im glad Liam came back.
What distinguished the series IMAO, was the palpable sense of mystery and intrigue – not to mention, the moral ambiguity characterising the initial situations and characters. Although these could still be found in the later seasons, the emphasis was upon ‘closure’ and tended to favor something more clear cut.
It was actually difficult to know what was *really* going on – what things meant, where they were headed, etc. The whole thing was initially very tantalising, and trying to determine the difference between right and wrong – who was right, what was wrong, etc – was without peer or precedent in my experience. Take the example of Sandoval – wow, what a complex character. The show actually dared suggest that a traitor might be Mankind’s Saviour – willing to sacrifice millions of lives (and as many values) for the Greater Good. And then Daan was arguably the most interesting alien we’re ever likely to see in a tv sci-fi. S/he was literally caught between two worlds, betraying each in order to honour both.
Season 2 was when it crash landed in my view, although some season 3 episodes saw it try and take off again. Generally speaking, E.FC appeared to remain caught in the gravitational pull of season 2 (haven’t seen 4 or 5 yet. And I’m not sure I want to see 5 either – the fans shock and disgust has certainly dissuaded me). The season 3 episode where Sandoval genetically engineers Lily and sends her hurtling off into space confused and terrified still takes my breath away.
[ 11-11-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]
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