Date of airing: March 12, 1995 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 10.5 million viewers, 6.6/10 in Households
So, this is what EARTH 2 would have been like if NBC had asked the writers to turn it into a STAR TREK-type series. The human colony underground sounded, felt, and looked like a colony on some random planet James T. Kirk discovered during his five-year mission, and even the relationship between Devon and Sheppard reminded me of all the women the Starfleet captain from the 1960s dated for a single episode, including the weird kiss and the somewhat difficult position the woman was in, having to serve the male character in a love story that does not pay respect to the woman in this relationship – EARTH 2 is different in that regard because the woman is the central character and the man is the guest character, so they are switching their roles in what has become a typical science-fiction episode that tried to be esoteric and deep, because the budget didn’t allow for hand-to-hand combat scenes or a thrilling and tense plotline. In a way, this was a gender-reversed STAR TREK episode, and one STAR TREK: VOYAGER probably had during its seven-year run. But I don’t know because I never watched the show, even though it’s ready to be watched, together with all the other STAR TREK shows that have existed. I’m scared to begin a franchise that puts me through more than 800 episodes though.
With this episode being more a STAR TREK episode than an episode of its own show, it kind of fell flat. Sheppard (a so-called ‘Governor’ with an eyepatch – I guess I know now where Robert Kirkman got inspired) was a weird character, and his story of falling in love with Devon, even though the two were 23 years and an entire galaxy separated from each other, was corny to watch, and not just because it pretty much was a story device from the 1960s. Devon also didn’t have a good portrayal in this episode, because when you think about it a little harder, she fell in love with a guy 23 years her senior now, though the guy was 23 years younger in her dreams only a couple of months ago, from her point of view. In addition, how can you even fall in love with someone you dream about? That’s a fantastic storyline that belongs in YA fantasy books about monsters and witches and vampires and teenage characters, but not in a science-fiction TV show that tried to be as real and serious as possible.
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| Happiness in the romantic dream realm. |
Not to mention how it was possible for Sheppard to use the Terrians in their winter sleep for an interplanetary exchange of dreams. If Sheppard and Devon were able to connect with one another in the dreamscape while being on different planets in different solar systems, then maybe there is a way for this show to bring the characters on this weird planet back home for a second. STARGATE UNIVERSE created this weird story device that returned the lost people back to Earth through a mind switch, and I get the feeling EARTH 2 originated the idea here, which does not make this plot device less weird.
The turn of events in the episode was surprisingly good, however. Sheppard was the good guy, which was an unexpected twist (since I was expecting him to go mad and reveal his true masterplan), and the story in the final act kind of went down the rabbit hole of jealousy and greed between siblings. Granted, that twist could have been worked on much better, and might have saved the episode above STAR TREK levels if it would have been the A story, instead of the Devon/Sheppard dreamscape romance. It made the episode less bad, because at the end of this tale, everyone was actually wrong about Sheppard and he truly was a chanced man who fell in love with a woman a galaxy away. It’s sort of a tragic love story that the writers never knew how to handle or put on paper. Especially since Sheppard was (I think) never mentioned before, even though there were ample opportunities for Devon to mention the dreams of the guy she had, in addition to her having some of those dreams as soon as she arrived on this planet. Sheppard turning out to be the good guy was a nice way to prove that everyone deserves a second chance in this series. Julia used that second chance and made good so far (it helps that the writers haven’t gone back to her connection to the council since then), and maybe Mary will get a second chance from the Terrians soon (continuing to hope she will appear once more). In this particular case, the writers did a good job.
And the rest of the episode? Well, Camp Mary’s Garden was extremely useless in this episode, as well as dumb. Alonzo received the dreams and affirmation about the safety of their friends, but after he sent Devon to where he thought she should go, to meet up with whoever had Danziger, they couldn’t go after them because Alonzo said they “will never find them.” Boy, you had the coordinates of the meet-up, the least you could have done was go to the spot and see what was up. Granted, everyone believed what Alonzo had to say about Danziger and Devon being away (them being safe), but it was convenient that the characters at Camp Mary’s Garden barely got any screentime, possibly due to the fact that the show was behind schedule and couldn’t get all of the actors at the same time.
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| The bullet wound is virtual. |
And here I was, thinking that the camp going after Devon and Danziger would be part of the story after Yale was asking about the mesa behind Devon during their virtual conversation. But the Eden Project was completely forgotten after that moment, and it was all just about the weird romance between two people who have only met each other in dreams.
By the way: Did Sheppard and Devon have sex after they shared a kiss? It certainly looked that way, considering they were lying there and having a conversation, as if to calm down and have a meaningful conversation in lieu of having a cigarette after a naughty session in bed. What were the Terrians, who had to stand as the middleman between the two dreamers, thinking about all of this? And what I just realized: Were the Terrians serving as a biological way into virtual reality? The characters used their headsets to get into VR to talk, but this episode established you could use the Terrians to have your very own VR, even if that kind of VR is comparable to dreams. Are dreams just another way to describe virtual realities?
