Earth: Final Conflict - 1st time watch thread

[Enterprise is Great]

Killing Boone off screen was probably the stupidest thing ever done on EFC...and that's saying a lot! I guess that they couldn't get Kilner back and they wanted to provide some closure for the character so they killed him off. Damn stupid if that's so.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Final Conflict

Liam returns from beyond to guide Renee on the Final Conflict by taking her to Howlyn's ship filled with Atavus warriors. However, when Howlyn discovers the ships location, Liam and Renee must put their lives on the line to end the Atavus threat once and for all.

Here I am, at the end of the long journey that is EFC. Actually it feels more like the end of the Atavus journey rather than the end of EFC which still feels like happened in Point Of No Return. Yes, this is technically the series finale of EFC but it works more as the finale of season 5 rather than the finale of the entire series.

I was kind of hoping for all the old characters to come back this episode: Boone (sadly died off screen last episode), Lili (died offscreen in season 4 I think?), Augur (he's somewhere around), Jonathan Doors (dead), Joshua Doors (presumed dead), and Liam (missing). Yes, I realize that most of these characters are dead, but with the way EFC seemed to resurrect every character at will this season, it's possible. Unfortunately, only Liam returned which I guess is better than nothing. Street didn't even appear, so I guess I was right in assuming that Street Wise was her final episode.

Of course, Liam's return isn't really explained save for some metaphysical mumbo jumbo spouted by him and Ra'jel. Speaking of Ra'jel, his character turned out to be the most useless character this season. After appearing in the season premiere and seeming to be important to the new storyline, she was reduced to a useless Taelon imprisoned on the mothership who's sole purpose was to display clips from past episodes. And I guess to magically resurrect Liam.

Then there's the matter of Sandoval. I would be shocked at how horrible his last scene was if it wasn't for the fact that this is season 5 of EFC. Horrible seems to be the theme this year. To me, the perfect way for the season to end would be with Sandoval undergoing some sort of redemption and joining Liam and Renee to explore the universe together. Okay, maybe not that far but anything is better than Sandoval randomly falling to his death with help from Renee. It's like the writers wanted to kill Sandoval but had no idea how to do it. So they killed him in the easiest, most stupid way possible that didn't serve the character at all. I guess the character of Sandoval reached its climax in the episode Atonement.

I'm not even going to talk about the Atavus storyline because really, who cares? Howlyn dies, Yulyn lives, that's it.

But overall I have to give this episode a passing grade, if only for the last scene. The final scene of Liam convincing Renee to explore the universe with him (and Yulyn and Ra'jel), was really good in my opinion and almost made me wish there was a season 6.

RATING: 3/5


Overall I enjoyed EFC, but it's certainly a strange show. I haven't watched any show that goes through as many main cast changes as this one does. Every single season has a change to the main cast which takes some getting used to. Also, each season feels like a different show than the season previous. This is most evident in season 5, and to make matters worse the season 5 storyline sucks (but still worth a watch if you made it all the way to season 4).

Here's how I rank the seasons from worst to best:
5) Season 5 - By far the worst season.
4) Season 3 - Too many scifi plots of the week, though I did like all of the Lili episodes and Time Bomb.
3) Season 2 - The first half of the season was a lot like season 3, but the second half with the election storyline was great.
2) Season 4 - Overall a great season and tied up a lot of storylines from season 1.
1) Season 1 - The best season, slightly better than season 4. This is the closest the show came to realizing its potential.

The worst episode:
Death Suite (Season 5)

The best episode:
Atonement (Season 4)

And for those wondering, I liked Andromeda's season 5 more than EFC's season 5 for the simple fact that Andromeda had at least 3-4 excellent episodes that season whereas EFC had none. Overall, I like EFC as a series more than Andromeda.

Thank you so much all of you who read and contributed to this thread. It certainly took me longer to watch this show than I first anticipated, but life got in the way at times. It made the experience much more enjoyable for me that I was able to share my first-time viewing experiences with all of you and reading all of your comments.

 

[The Wormhole]

My understanding is that yes they wanted Boone for the finale but Kevin Kilner was unavailable so Boone was killed off screen and Liam was hand-waved in for the finale.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Killing Boone off screen was probably the stupidest thing ever done on EFC...and that's saying a lot!

I'm changing that statement. Killing Boone offscreen was probably the second most stupid thing ever done on EFC. The stupidest thing ever on EFC was killing Boone off in the first place.

 

[The Habs Fan]

My understanding is that yes they wanted Boone for the finale but Kevin Kilner was unavailable so Boone was killed off screen and Liam was hand-waved in for the finale.

Well at least we got Liam. I don't want to picture a series finale with Renee and no one else.

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

I was kind of hoping for all the old characters to come back this episode: Boone (sadly died off screen last episode), Lili (died offscreen in season 4 I think?), Augur (he's somewhere around), Jonathan Doors (dead), Joshua Doors (presumed dead), and Liam (missing). Yes, I realize that most of these characters are dead, but with the way EFC seemed to resurrect every character at will this season, it's possible. Unfortunately, only Liam returned which I guess is better than nothing. Street didn't even appear, so I guess I was right in assuming that Street Wise was her final episode.

With Tribune's obsession with actor costs, the viewers were lucky to even get Liam back. Fans were lucky they still felt returning faces would spike the ratings (thus 2 Boone episodes, 2 Zo'or episodes, and 1 Liam episode). Of course, why they didn't have Street in the finale was odd since she was around and was a cast member for 2 seasons.

Speaking of Ra'jel, his character turned out to be the most useless character this season. After appearing in the season premiere and seeming to be important to the new storyline, she was reduced to a useless Taelon imprisoned on the mothership who's sole purpose was to display clips from past episodes. And I guess to magically resurrect Liam.

Yeah, Ra'jel sucked. Should've been called Re'wind with all of his "This is Your Life" presentations. He seemed solely there to point to and claim the show is still about the Taelons... sort-of. They seemed like they would be important at the start of the season, but then they virtually disappeared or became relegated to useless scenes.

I'm not even going to talk about the Atavus storyline because really, who cares?

That is probably the most damning assessment of Season 5. Even ignoring the back-library of Seasons 1-4 and the jarring change, a whole season of episodes couldn't get the viewer who actually sat down to watch Season 5 to even care, let alone get into the Atavus storyline. Contrast it with Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3. The Xindi arc came out of nowhere, but quickly came to be highly regarded as a complex arc with many players and turns and a good story people were rivetted to. The ratings of every Star Trek season since DS9 S1 were down down down except for ENT S3. Its ratings were practically level throughout the season, with only a small drop down after their abominable nearly 2 month spring hiatus.

Here's how I rank the seasons from worst to best:
5) Season 5 - By far the worst season.
4) Season 3 - Too many scifi plots of the week, though I did like all of the Lili episodes and Time Bomb.
3) Season 2 - The first half of the season was a lot like season 3, but the second half with the election storyline was great.
2) Season 4 - Overall a great season and tied up a lot of storylines from season 1.
1) Season 1 - The best season, slightly better than season 4. This is the closest the show came to realizing its potential.

Interesting. Doing a little math, averaging your episode scores, this is how you ranked the seasons.
1.) Season 4- averaged 3.659
2T.) Season 1- averaged 3.477
2T.) Season 2- averaged 3.477
4.) Season 3- averaged 3.227
5.) Season 5- averaged 2.182

Quantitatively, you felt Season 4 was better. The intangibles would seem to be what made you put Season 1 higher now. I found it very interesting Season 1 & 2 averaged to the exact same number. I remember despite all the hate for EFC in Season 2 at the time (due to Boone leaving, the change of tone), I felt Season 2 was about equal to Season 1 because while the writing quality went down and it was too much like a sci-fi sampler of stories in the fall (time travel, alternate realities, B-movie bugs, devolution), Season 1 at times was dull and Season 2 did add more energy with the action, even if it was Zo'or twirling his/her core energy 'moustache'. Zo'or was hammy at times, but really added some great interactions with Da'an and chewed the scenery in an entertaining way. And Liam did eventually grow into the role of lead character in a series, at least sufficiently enough. Renee didn't really have it, though Liam wasn't too compelling, but he was enough to make the series watchable. Some actors have it, some don't (I've mentioned that before with series like Highlander, Xena). Boone had a better backstory certainly, though he was also rather wooden, only having a bit more charisma, likeability than Sinclair from Babylon 5. Lily & Augur overshadowed him in terms of personality.


Your comments about Season 2's first half being bad got me looking into the blocks episodes aired in (easy with the episode list), which was usually a fall block, a winter one, and a spring one. Best to worst by averaged ratings-
* Season 4 winter (yeah, I'd agree this was the best)
* Season 4 fall (... and this the 2nd best)
* Season 2 winter
* Season 1 spring (excludes "Infection", which aired in the summer)
* Season 2 spring & Season 3 spring (tied)
* Season 1 winter
* Season 1 fall
* Season 4 spring (surprisingly low based on your ratings, but it's because the episodes were rated very high or very low, no middle ground. I actually liked Season 4 the most and felt the road to the season finale for Season 4 was the best in the series)
* Season 3 fall
* Season 2 fall (yeah, you put it near the bottom in terms of episode by episode)
* Season 3 winter (I remember this stretch was a bit dull til "Time Bomb")
* Season 5 spring
* Season 5 fall
* Season 5 winter (no surprise given you gave 2 episodes 0s from here. Even though I watched this block, I zoned out and have few memories of my first-time viewing of it)

The worst episode:
Death Suite (Season 5)

Of all the sci-fi shows you've seen, how does this rank with other worst episodes?

And for those wondering, I liked Andromeda's season 5 more than EFC's season 5 for the simple fact that Andromeda had at least 3-4 excellent episodes that season whereas EFC had none. Overall, I like EFC as a series more than Andromeda.

Have you seen any season of a sci-fi show that was worse than EFC Season 5? I've heard Battlestar Galactica 1980 was abysmal, obviously X-Files Season 9 was horrid. Some one-season show might be worse, the live-action Conan from 1997 (don't confuse with the great 1992 cartoon series), maybe Team Knight Rider? Stargate Universe was bad too. It alienated a huge bloc of fans from SG1 & SGA and attracted some new fans, but not nearly enough to save the series beyond the 2 year commitment Sci-Fi/Syfy came to regret.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Woah, thanks for all your work averaging out the scores DeepSpaceWine!

Interesting. Doing a little math, averaging your episode scores, this is how you ranked the seasons.
1.) Season 4- averaged 3.659
2T.) Season 1- averaged 3.477
2T.) Season 2- averaged 3.477
4.) Season 3- averaged 3.227
5.) Season 5- averaged 2.182

Quantitatively, you felt Season 4 was better. The intangibles would seem to be what made you put Season 1 higher now. I found it very interesting Season 1 & 2 averaged to the exact same number. I remember despite all the hate for EFC in Season 2 at the time (due to Boone leaving, the change of tone), I felt Season 2 was about equal to Season 1 because while the writing quality went down and it was too much like a sci-fi sampler of stories in the fall (time travel, alternate realities, B-movie bugs, devolution), Season 1 at times was dull and Season 2 did add more energy with the action, even if it was Zo'or twirling his/her core energy 'moustache'. Zo'or was hammy at times, but really added some great interactions with Da'an and chewed the scenery in an entertaining way. And Liam did eventually grow into the role of lead character in a series, at least sufficiently enough. Renee didn't really have it, though Liam wasn't too compelling, but he was enough to make the series watchable. Some actors have it, some don't (I've mentioned that before with series like Highlander, Xena). Boone had a better backstory certainly, though he was also rather wooden, only having a bit more charisma, likeability than Sinclair from Babylon 5. Lily & Augur overshadowed him in terms of personality.

Yeah, I didn't do the math myself but I had a feeling that I liked more episodes of Season 4 compared to Season 1. With that said, I felt Season 1 was the best season overall because this is where the show truly demonstrated its potential. Season 4 was great, but its ongoing storyline and big picture wasn't as good as Season 1.

The worst episode:
Death Suite (Season 5)

Of all the sci-fi shows you've seen, how does this rank with other worst episodes?

I can't really remember since I've seen most of the scifi shows from the 90s until now and I can't remember specific episodes. But I think Death Suite may be the worst. Babylon 5 had some bad episodes in its first season but nothing compared to Death Suite.

And for those wondering, I liked Andromeda's season 5 more than EFC's season 5 for the simple fact that Andromeda had at least 3-4 excellent episodes that season whereas EFC had none. Overall, I like EFC as a series more than Andromeda.

Have you seen any season of a sci-fi show that was worse than EFC Season 5? I've heard Battlestar Galactica 1980 was abysmal, obviously X-Files Season 9 was horrid. Some one-season show might be worse, the live-action Conan from 1997 (don't confuse with the great 1992 cartoon series), maybe Team Knight Rider? Stargate Universe was bad too. It alienated a huge bloc of fans from SG1 & SGA and attracted some new fans, but not nearly enough to save the series beyond the 2 year commitment Sci-Fi/Syfy came to regret.[/QUOTE]

I actually thought that Season 9 of X-Files was fine. The worst season of the series, but still good. Maybe it was because I watched all of the seasons quickly on DVD, but I thought the mythology held up well until the end.

I also felt that Stargate Universe was very good, especially the 2nd season (which was too little to late unfortunately). But I'd rank the 2nd season of SGU up with the best seasons of SGA and SG1.

As far as how does EFC Season 5 compare to other scifi show seasons? EFC's is definitely the worst, though I haven't seen BSG 1980 or the 1997 Conan, nor do I have any desire to.

 

[Surviving Red Shirt]

Sorry if commenting on this old thread is taboo. I just finished my 1st time watch now. That's nearly 10 years after The Habs Fan had finished his 1st watch, which was roughly 10 years years after the original airing. I followed along after every few episodes, starting somewhere in season 1. It was nice to share it with you all, in this little time capsule. Great accurate reviews and very entertaining. Perhaps I will see you all on some other treads. Thanks