Earth: Final Conflict

[Trubinator]

Is this show any good? I saw the first season at Best Buy a while ago, but was hesitant to purchase it without having seen it first. The YouTube season intros look interesting, but I can't find the actual program on Hulu or any of the other alternative viewing sites.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

It begins off very good, but quickly degenerates. Sort of like what happened with Andromeda.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I thought the first season was great. The show was then deliberately retooled and dumbed down for season 2 and it wasn't so good anymore. I was told that it got better around season 4, but I had already stopped watching by then. I jumped back in for season 5, because a certain character was supposed to be back, but the show was worse than it ever was. This show could probably have been the next Babylon 5 had it not been for that second season retool.

 

[od0_ital]

The first (and as far as I'm concerned, only) season of E:FC is great. I picked up the season set the day of release, and marathonned in in just over a week.

Still need to go back through for the commentary tracks.

I showed a couple of episodes, the pilot and 'Sandoval's Run', to some friends of mine that like scifi but hadn't seen the series, and they really enjoyed it, too.

I already know not to worry about the rest of the series, but if you're one of those completionists, you're already too late - the third, fourth & fifth seasons seem to be out of print, and ya can pay a few hundred dollars for used copies on Amazon.

The first season, though, is well worth the thirty bucks Best Buy is chargin'.

 

[Daneel]

Yeah, the first season was pretty damn good. The subsequent seasons were a very mixed bag -- some okay, some mind-numbingly bad. So I can't really recommend the series in its entirety, but there is some decent stuff in there, mostly at the beginning.

 

[Mal]

Is this show any good? I saw the first season at Best Buy a while ago, but was hesitant to purchase it without having seen it first. The YouTube season intros look interesting, but I can't find the actual program on Hulu or any of the other alternative viewing sites.

season 1 is pretty damn good (better than B5 S1, or even it's sibling DROM S1, though maybe not as successful at nBSG was - remember the hype S1?!?). unfortunately you won't find EFC S1 online very easily (there is always itBay-orrentTay...).

sadly, S2 is a steep steep downgrade. while the show picks up to a fairly decent level during S's 3&4 (at least it is watchable, unlike DROM), it never rises to anything near B5, or for that matter, S:AaB (which was only 1 season).

anyway, to answer your question, if in this economy you have a few extra hours and a few extra bucks, there are certainly worse ways to spend them than S1 of E:FC. (i really like E:FC - especially Siobhan Beckett!!!). that said, there are also better ways: have you seen Jericho?!?! You can watch the whole thing FREE!!!

 

[Lindley]

Season 1 is strong, thoughtful SF.
Season 2 tries without success to "action it up", and the first half of the year brings out just about every SF cliche you can think of. The second half of the year shows significant improvement, leading up to a strong finale.
Season 3 is decent but nothing really stands out about it.
Season 4 sees the show, although now very different from season 1, become approximately as good once again.
Season 5 takes a nose-dive off a cliff. Most people pretend it doesn't exist, since S4 has a pretty decent series-ending if you want to look at it that way.

So, to summarize:
S1, S4 = Excellent
S2.5, S3 = Good
S2.0 = Bad
S5 = Terrible

 

[Goji]

I basically concur with Lindley, but I do like some of the episodes in early season 2. The season premiere is decent, and a couple episodes that set up the presidential election arc in the second half of the season are worthwhile.

 

[Mr Light]

Only Season 1 is available on DVD unless you get the mucho expensive out of print versions. And yeah, Season 1 good, rest bad. Though Season 4 was actually decent.

 

[Marc]

Still need to go back through for the commentary tracks.

Who did they get for the commentary tracks?

 

[Holoaddict]

I must agree with most of the above posters.

Season 1 - Great
Season 2 - A mixed bag but hardly terrible.
Seasons 3, 4, - Almost if not as good as season 1.
Season 5 - aka Renee the Ativus Slayer -Watch if you must. But be warned this season is weird. Heck it even features Margot Kidder as an insane doctor.

 

[Trubinator]

Cool. Thanks for the advice. I'll see about checking out season 1 and then carefully treading into future seasons.

 

[od0_ital]

Still need to go back through for the commentary tracks.

Who did they get for the commentary tracks?

Disc One
'Decision' (series premiere)
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Exective Producer David Kirschner and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

'Truth'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and stars Von Flores and Lisa Howard

Disc Two
'Float Like a Butterfly'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and stars Von Flores and Lisa Howard

Disc Three
'Sandoval's Run'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and star Von Flores

Disc Four
No Commentaries

Disc Five
'Infection'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

'The Joining' (season finale)
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Exective Producer David Kirschner and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

 

[Sakrysta]

But be warned this season is weird. Heck it even features Margot Kidder as an insane doctor.

That was one of the few episodes I thought was decent in Season 5. By then, the show was such a train wreck, I guess anything marginally un-bad looked like Shakespeare.

Really, all you need is Season 1. Once you finish it, you'll know why not to bother with the rest of the show. Others might disagree, but as has been mentioned, the other seasons are virtually unavailable now anyway. And as far as I'm concerned, they're really not worth your time.

Season 1 was quite good. There is no absolute black and white in EFC. Are the Taelons good? Are they bad? Yes. They do good things and bad things. The whole point is the mystery of why they do the things they do. I would love to have seen the show in different hands post Season 1. Ah, missed opportunities.

Oh, and the commentaries are ... a bit frustrating, to be honest. I know it's been a long time since they worked on the show, but I found myself getting quite annoyed at how often they said just wrong things about the plots and workings of the show.

 

[Broccoli]

I own seasons 3-5 from the previous release. I want to get season 1, but I am going to wait until season 2 is released (maybe get it in a bundle deal, if possible). Hopefully it will be released.

So, to summarize:
S1, S4 = Excellent
S2.5, S3 = Good
S2.0 = Bad
S5 = Terrible

I agree mostly with this, but I would knock season 2.0 up a little bit. It seemed like they were finding their footing again and was seeing what worked and what didn't. I felt the first two or three episodes were really strong, then they dipped a bit, but by the midpoint, they found their footing.

Season 5 is pretty bad. The stories and execution were decent, but it was jut so contradictory to pretty much what was established before. It was very hard to mesh the two.

Disc One
'Decision' (series premiere)
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Exective Producer David Kirschner and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

'Truth'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and stars Von Flores and Lisa Howard

Disc Two
'Float Like a Butterfly'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and stars Von Flores and Lisa Howard

Disc Three
'Sandoval's Run'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and star Von Flores

Disc Four
No Commentaries

Disc Five
'Infection'
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

'The Joining' (season finale)
Commentary by Technical Adviser Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Exective Producer David Kirschner and Executive Producer Paul Gertz

WOW! I heard there were going to be commentaries, but I figured it was mostly going to be Rod. I'm impressed they got Kirschner (basically the series' "creator") and a few of the actors. I'm surprised Von Flores was willing to do it as he always seemed negative about his time on the show (though, I could be wrong on this). Too bad no Kevin Kilner.

 

[Marc]

WOW! I heard there were going to be commentaries, but I figured it was mostly going to be Rod. I'm impressed they got Kirschner (basically the series' "creator") and a few of the actors. I'm surprised Von Flores was willing to do it as he always seemed negative about his time on the show (though, I could be wrong on this). Too bad no Kevin Kilner.

Never read much about Von Flores time on the show but I gather that Lisa Howard enjoyed it at the start of the series. Though after she left, her comment about the show was it wasn't the show they had originally signed on for and that she was saddened by that.

 

[Sakrysta]

^Von and Lisa both talked like they really enjoyed working on the show, especially the specific episodes they got to comment on.

 

[Broccoli]

WOW! I heard there were going to be commentaries, but I figured it was mostly going to be Rod. I'm impressed they got Kirschner (basically the series' "creator") and a few of the actors. I'm surprised Von Flores was willing to do it as he always seemed negative about his time on the show (though, I could be wrong on this). Too bad no Kevin Kilner.

Never read much about Von Flores time on the show but I gather that Lisa Howard enjoyed it at the start of the series. Though after she left, her comment about the show was it wasn't the show they had originally signed on for and that she was saddened by that.

I think Flores was upset at what the series turned into over the course of 5 years.

I remember Howard saying something like that at the beginning of season 4. They wanted her to be back on a more recurring basis, but she felt where the show was at that point was a very different show on where it was at season one and declined.

 

[Admiral Rem]

THere are two additional extras on the Season 1 DVD set that do feature Kevin Kilner (Boone) along with Lisa Howard, and Von Flores. I would have loved to see them all together again.

 

[Goji]

I have no evidence to back this up, but I always suspected that might have had something to do with the fact that the Renee Palmer character basically took over her role on the show.