Date of airing: May 28, 1995 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 5.1 million viewers, 3.6/8 in Households
Remember this hour as one of two episodes of the series, and one of a few on broadcast television, that was burned away on NBC in the weeks after the official end of the 1994/95 TV season and the cancellation of the show, because airing a slightly serialized show, or at least one proving development for and progress with the characters, was still an impossible thing for broadcast network television in the 1990s (and it still is). The episode itself happened to deliver a preamble to something that came later in the season's narrative arc, but that arc aired earlier in the show’s broadcast history without the preamble from this episode. This episode introduced the geolock device to the character and the audience, which would become a major plot point in the show’s two-part event halfway through the season, but for NBC it seemed like they didn’t get much out of the trading story, so its planned airing in December 1994 was canceled.
And because the episode was still dealing with Alonzo’s leg, as well as the introduction of a later plot device, it was only natural that the network would burn this episode after the end of the broadcast season, right in the middle of summer, where network executives believe no one is watching television. You can probably thank the high price tag and Steven Spielberg’s involvement in the show that the episode even found an airdate, judging by how fast the ratings were sinking for EARTH 2 and how cancellation was very much an option a month into the show’s existence. NBC had every reason to quickly forget about everything EARTH 2 delivered, including an episode about dreams and a young woman trading tech and fruit and bracelets with a salivating extraterrestrial who must have figured that the VR gear was just a headdress and not a technological device Earthlings used to waste time on.
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Because this episode wasn’t heavy on a story, it needed to focus on the characters, potentially alienating some of the sci-fi-hungry audiences in the process. Alonzo was still having dreamscape connections with the Terrians who seemingly don’t want him dead while also going through the motions of a depressed man who has never been awake for this long. Bess was taking charge of her life on this planet and she did so without the backing or permission of group leader Devon Adair, essentially putting her into a silent conflict with Project Eden, even if I believe that this is a story that won’t find fruition throughout the show, or would I consider it to be a logical story since Bess was never indicated as someone who would want to break the rules as established by the leader of her group.
However, Bess being thrust into the spotlight for this hour was quite enjoyable, and I don’t necessarily say that as someone who wants to see a little more of Rebecca Gayheart in general. At the end of the day though, these 42 minutes had about five minutes worth of story, noticeable in Bess’s arc, who was returning to the Grendler for various trades multiple times. The settlement of an alien planet can be tedious sometimes, and EARTH 2 definitely tried to bring some realism into the sci-fi genre by making this journey tedious and head-scratching at times. Sometimes it’s hard to co-exist with an intelligent species of a planet, even though the Grendlers seem pretty stupid. I mean, it took a necklace of utensils and figured them of some worth. Maybe you should give Grendlers fire, and you could get everything they stole from the cargo pod.
There was one aspect about this episode that I found hilarious, even if I don’t know if it was intended by the writers: The Grendler looked to have been attracted to Bess. First of all, I loved that this was Bess’s episode, and I liked that she decided to take charge of the situation and do something for herself (and Morgan), although her decision to not tell the group about the geolock device she “acquired” was a convenient one, as it came out of nowhere and was also a self-centered one (Bess turned into a selfish person, so I guess her husband’s behavior is rubbing off on her). Secondly, the story felt like the Grendler had some kind of obvious affection for Bess, which is why it decided to get right into her face the first time around, putting a certain tone to the story that could have made things a little more fun (contrasting the emotional seriousness of Alonzo’s story). Thirdly, I need to remember that Grendlers were very easy to be fooled by shiny-looking objects. Just in case I happen to land on an alien planet and have to trade with an alien creature, I will remind myself of the necklace made out of utensils, so I can make a better trade and save my life in the process.
By the way, it was nice to see that some of the Eden Project’s cargo pod belongings turned up in the show – I certainly forgot about it before Devon mentioned it, but the little moment of disappointment and shock during the pilot, when the characters found the cargo ship empty, has turned out to be a recurring element on EARTH 2. Now I wonder if that one lonely Grendler ripped apart the cargo pod and stole the things, or if there is a Grendler trading community on this planet, ready to be interrupted by humankind.
In the meantime, Morgan was still an annoying character. He may have been going through VR withdrawal, but his bitching and moaning were going on my nerves, and I was starting to hope for Bess to slap her husband for his selfish behavior. Besides, I would have loved for the writers to focus a little more on the aspect of normal life having stopped for the characters. They are all on a strange alien planet, dealing with the unknown. It must put a strain on them, but for this episode, it was only Morgan, and only because his VR device was taken away.
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| Terrians and Terrans are slowly becoming friends... |
Okay, maybe Alonzo was affected by the tediousness of it all, too, as he was going through some emotional troubles. But those were coming more from his injury and the fact that he has been out of cryo-sleep for so long (interesting backstory tidbit: Pilots apparently spend a lot of time cryo-sleeping, making them five times older than they really are). But was he contemplating suicide in this episode like Devon may have thought? Because looking at how he wanted to drive over the cliff into his death (and how he was saved by the Terrians) certainly seemed like he wanted to kill himself, but I don’t think NBC was accepting that kind of storytelling from a science-fiction show in 1994, which could mean that EARTH 2 was hindered to become a special-kind of science-fiction drama by the network brass who just wanted a spectacular and visually striking show. I would have loved for the episode to have focused a little more on the disturbing reality of the situation Alonzo was in: Alone, on a strange planet, communicating with the Terrians in a dreamscape, yearning to fly off a planet that has nothing to fly on. Yes, this looks like the network cut the writers off and streamlined the episode, giving me yet another reason why it wasn’t aired when it should have been.
