Earth: Final Conflict

[Broccoli]

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.

As the female lead, yeah, she kinda did. But I think they could still have worked Lili in. At least, the writers thought they could as they offered to have her come back. Considering the position she was in by the end of "The Forge of Creation", her character could have taken on a whole new purpose within the show.

 

[Daneel]

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.

You mean you think that's why Howard didn't return? Are you suggesting that might have been her line of thinking, or the producers?

I don't think the presence of Renee would have factored into Howard's decision in any way -- I'm sure she knew when she left that they'd create a new female lead to replace her with. And as Broccoli says, they certainly could've found a new, different role for Lili given her circumstances when we last see her. So I tend to think the decision not to bring Lili back on a more regular basis was mostly Howard's, and done for personal reasons. IIRC, she had a baby shortly after wrapping Season 2, and at the time she said that was the reason she was taking time off from the series; of course, now it seems likely that she was also not too keen on the direction the show was taking, so that was probably also a big factor in her decision not to return.

 

[Marc]

I don't think the presence of Renee would have factored into Howard's decision in any way -- I'm sure she knew when she left that they'd create a new female lead to replace her with. And as Broccoli says, they certainly could've found a new, different role for Lili given her circumstances when we last see her. So I tend to think the decision not to bring Lili back on a more regular basis was mostly Howard's, and done for personal reasons. IIRC, she had a baby shortly after wrapping Season 2, and at the time she said that was the reason she was taking time off from the series; of course, now it seems likely that she was also not too keen on the direction the show was taking, so that was probably also a big factor in her decision not to return.

At least she got the option. The story goes that Kilner didn't know he wasn't returning until the until his agent (or Kilner himself) chased along why the scripts for S2 hadn't been received.

 

[od0_ital]

^

Spoiler: Kilner

He didn't watch the season finale?

 

[Marc]

^

Spoiler: Kilner

He didn't watch the season finale?

Guess not - a lot of actors don't like to watch their own work while others don't get much time to if they do another project between seasons.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^

Spoiler: Kilner

He didn't watch the season finale?

Spoiler: The end of season 1

That could have been a cliffhanger and not necessarily the end of Boone.

 

[Broccoli]

Spoiler: what everyone else is talking about

^ True. When I first saw "The Joining" I didn't fully realize that was the "end" of Boone. Imagine my surprise when I learned sometime over the summer that he was no more.

Spoiler: more thoughts

Come to think about it, Boone got to die like three times on the show. "The Joining", "Moonscape" (as Lazarus was implied to be Boone), and finally, off screen, in "The Journey".

 

[Daneel]

Spoiler: the same issues as the last few posts, since everyone apparently wants to put it in spoiler code for some reason. :P

I knew Boone was going to be gone before I even saw "The Joining" -- here in Canada, the station that was airing E:FC put it on hiatus for several months about halfway through Season 1. It didn't resume until summer of 1998, and by then I had already read that Boone wasn't going to be in Season 2, and that some guy named Robert Leeshock was being brought in to play a new character, Liam Kincaid. Thus, when I finally saw "The Joining", what happened to Boone didn't really surprise me all that much.

As for Kilner, I've heard conflicting reports about what happened with him. One story said that he wasn't notified by the producers that Boone was being written out, which really screwed him as he expected to have regular work for the coming TV season -- and then all of a sudden he didn't. Consequently, he missed out on potential work during the new pilot season, as he didn't expect he would need to find anything. I expect this hurt him financially; if this is true, I'm a little surprised he would agree to come back for those Season 5 episodes, but I suppose it's likely he just needed the money.

It's entirely possible that he didn't know what was going to happen at the end of "The Joining" -- Boone being disintegrated in the tank may have been a last-minute visual effects addition, possibly not even included in the episode script. It may have originally ended, in typical cliffhanger fashion, with Boone's fate unresolved.

 

[Mal]

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

Spoiler: first rule of E:FC - there is no Season after 4

5

 

[Sakrysta]

Spoiler: The Boone thing

Oh, I remember being SO ticked at the end of "The Joining"! My parents thought I was crazy, because there was quite the verbal explosion from my bedroom when the credits rolled. In fact, that ending was a major impetus in my getting comfortable with web research, fan sites, bulletin boards, etc. I went on a tear trying to find out if Boone was really dead. I wish now I'd had the foresight to save some of the stuff that came out online about Kilner's departure. By all accounts he was very gracious about it and didn't go around giving interviews and talking down the show runners, but the story in Daneel's post is the one I remember as well. Kevin was upset and frustrated by his treatment, but determined to just move on.

So yeah, the spoilers are all about the Season 1 finale, for anyone wondering. If you haven't seen the first season through and don't know the show's history, you really don't want to read the spoilers until you have/do.

 

[GalaxyX]

Saw all of Season 1. Everything about it was great.

S2 it went horribly downhill.

I caught the odd episode of S3-S4 only because I thought both Renee and "Street" were hotties.

I'd buy S1 in an atom-split second. I wouldn't watch the other seasons even if they payed me $100 (for $1000 or more I'd consider it work lol)