[REVIEWS] 2x02 - "The End of Eden" (2)

[Tony O'Stark]

by A. J. Black

Escaping the forces of the Paradox, Rhade and what's left of his crew seek salvation on perilous soil. Meanwhile, Bow and Qulana become embroiled in a historic moment in the Premonition's past that may be key to all their futures...

Guest Starring

Lola Glaudini | Ken Leung | Krister Henriksson | Rick Worthy | Maury Sterling

and Peter Capaldi

Special Guest Stars

Terry O'Quinn and Christina Hendricks

(Airdate: January 22nd, 2012)

[Tony O'Stark]

And the second part of the premiere is now live - fully setting up the path of Season Two to come.

Do enjoy and please leave any comments, they would be extremely welcome. 

[Monster Zero]

I’m starting to think I’m going to need an Idiot’s Guide to this show already. There have been many alterations and tweaks to the show’s own timeline since it began, let alone the Evil Empire version of the Federation and the 20-year time-hopping we do throughout this episode, and it’s all starting to give me a right headache! Whereas Pt. I managed to tell a fast-paced, engaging story throwing up lots of good beats and setting the slate for S2, here we spend most of it flip-flopping through time at dizzying speed, and while the final scenes of the new Premonition crew are the perfect setup for the rest of S2, I’m actually left a little confused about many of the finer details. Qulana and Franklin are bigger anomalies than ever, the timeline-altering new memories plot device made my head hurt, and I felt like I needed a flipchart to monitor which versions of the characters we were seeing at any given moment! I think if you compare the already dense, shifting continuity of this show to another recent time travel series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that succeeded by having very clear, very fixed rules about time travel and also a small, focused core of characters so any shifts and changes were easier to follow. There’s perhaps too much going on in this episode for the average reader to keep up with – not without an extensive knowledge of the preceeding 21 episodes, anyway – and while I’m sure it’ll settle down and straighten out as the year goes on I was left more squinty than I’d have liked with this. Well written, strong characters and great action as always, though – those elements never in doubt.

[Jay]

2x01/2x02

(click to show/hide)

I'm going to review these as one episode since they essentially were. I was expecting to have trouble remembering certain details of s1, but I actually didn't. I picked up on every reference and returning character. I have to say, these eps were a bit hard to follow, but that's time travel for you. 2x01 started off slowly, but built to a great close and 2x02 picked up just as strong.

Where these eps lose me a bit is near the end when Bow 'makes his deal' with the President. Not sure I get the notion of Bow being Captain of the Premonition, or the ship being allowed to continue with a crew of known 'terrorists' but I suspect when the President of the Federation is working for the bad guys the Starfleet protocol we're used to can be bent a little - if not broken.

Interesting to see another 'Gary Seven' type of agent, which makes a lot of sense. I suspect we'll be seeing Marcus Twelve a lot more. In the end, it was a good opening story, but I admit to being baffled by the direction things have taken and where it could be headed.

[aaron2310]

Well...I don’t know how I feel about all this. I find it very hard to believe they’d ever let them keep the Premonition. I also find it difficult to believe that the condition would be Bow being Captain. Maybe let them live and give them some rubbish little rust bucket ship...but keep a flagship? Still mystery left behind...Franklin and his presence in the future and I do want to see how this situation does pan out.

[Pete D. Gaskell]

And now the conclusion of the premiere!

This was a game-changer in every sense of the word. In fact, it may have gone a little too far in my view, but I'll get into that later.

First up - Tony's uber-confident epic description really kicks this episode up in terms of style - the teaser is extremely stylish, and the crash sequence, albeit a little inspired by Generations, is stunningly written, with great attention to detail as well as the all-important adrenaline rush.

There's a lot of temporal hopping and playing around in this episode in an almost Steven Moffat-esque manner, which may be confusing upon first read, but is delightfully bonkers at the same time, and something that I believe is quite fresh and different for Trek.

Characterisation-wise, I was most intrigued by the cracks in the new Federation setup itself - Franklin is much more of a nuanced character than at first blush, and are there doubts in his mind now?

And now it's time to discuss the ending - and it came out of nowhere. A rapid shifting of the status quo. Now I'm normally very keen on having each series shook up from the previous, but there were a couple of points here that concerned me. Firstly, the strange decision to promote Bow to captain - it was always going to happen eventually, but it felt like an odd move in terms of the story, at least to me. This also leaves Rhade very much in the lurch, which is a shame, as these two episodes gave him the depth that he had been lacking previously. I'd have liked to have seen more of his style of command.

What concerns me more is the new limitation on the time-travel aspect of the show. Whilst it's now a show set in the 29th century, with the assorted altered politics and whatnot, there's a part of me that feels the show is moving too far away from its initial brief. The idea that this is a series that can literally go anywhere, any time in the Trek universe was a fascinating one, and one that deserved more time, I feel. And what makes this even more of a blow in my mind is how well the time-travel stuff was played over the last few eps of S1 and this two-parter here. It felt like a show getting to grips with its style, and now that has fundamentally shifted.

BUT

Despite those reservations, I'm definitely intrigued as to where the show is going to go from here on out. I'm confident Tony knows exactly what he's doing, and I'm sure there'll be more surprises in store.

Let's just hope that this quality remains - as, ending aside, this was a blisteringly good two-parter to kick off the season!

[Tony O'Stark]

Lee!

I’m starting to think I’m going to need an Idiot’s Guide to this show already. There have been many alterations and tweaks to the show’s own timeline since it began, let alone the Evil Empire version of the Federation and the 20-year time-hopping we do throughout this episode, and it’s all starting to give me a right headache! Whereas Pt. I managed to tell a fast-paced, engaging story throwing up lots of good beats and setting the slate for S2, here we spend most of it flip-flopping through time at dizzying speed, and while the final scenes of the new Premonition crew are the perfect setup for the rest of S2, I’m actually left a little confused about many of the finer details. Qulana and Franklin are bigger anomalies than ever, the timeline-altering new memories plot device made my head hurt, and I felt like I needed a flipchart to monitor which versions of the characters we were seeing at any given moment! I think if you compare the already dense, shifting continuity of this show to another recent time travel series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that succeeded by having very clear, very fixed rules about time travel and also a small, focused core of characters so any shifts and changes were easier to follow. There’s perhaps too much going on in this episode for the average reader to keep up with – not without an extensive knowledge of the preceeding 21 episodes, anyway – and while I’m sure it’ll settle down and straighten out as the year goes on I was left more squinty than I’d have liked with this. Well written, strong characters and great action as always, though – those elements never in doubt.

Fair point here, I can't argue really with what you're saying.

I can say that things will straighten out a little and the 'rules' will become clearer, but I reckon this timey-wimey stuff is a little bit of personal preference in terms of density - so fair enough you're not so keen.

Glad you enjoyed elements though. 

[Tony O'Stark]

2x01/2x02

I'm going to review these as one episode since they essentially were. I was expecting to have trouble remembering certain details of s1, but I actually didn't. I picked up on every reference and returning character.

Win! That's good to know.

Where these eps lose me a bit is near the end when Bow 'makes his deal' with the President. Not sure I get the notion of Bow being Captain of the Premonition, or the ship being allowed to continue with a crew of known 'terrorists' but I suspect when the President of the Federation is working for the bad guys the Starfleet protocol we're used to can be bent a little - if not broken.

It's meant to be a glaring WTF, don't worry - this really shouldn't have happened and there will be BIG repercussions as to Bow's deal through the season. Don't think for a minute this will end up taking a traditional Trek Captain route...

Interesting to see another 'Gary Seven' type of agent, which makes a lot of sense. I suspect we'll be seeing Marcus Twelve a lot more. In the end, it was a good opening story, but I admit to being baffled by the direction things have taken and where it could be headed.

Eeeeeexcellent. I have you just where I want you!

Thanks for reading mate. 

[Tony O'Stark]

Well...I don’t know how I feel about all this. I find it very hard to believe they’d ever let them keep the Premonition. I also find it difficult to believe that the condition would be Bow being Captain. Maybe let them live and give them some rubbish little rust bucket ship...but keep a flagship? Still mystery left behind...Franklin and his presence in the future and I do want to see how this situation does pan out.

As I say above, it's all intentional and I promise will make sense in time... keep the faith.

Thanks Aaron. 

[Tony O'Stark]

Pete!

First up - Tony's uber-confident epic description really kicks this episode up in terms of style - the teaser is extremely stylish, and the crash sequence, albeit a little inspired by Generations, is stunningly written, with great attention to detail as well as the all-important adrenaline rush.

You know, Generations wasn't all that in my head here, but I can see what you mean.

There's a lot of temporal hopping and playing around in this episode in an almost Steven Moffat-esque manner, which may be confusing upon first read, but is delightfully bonkers at the same time, and something that I believe is quite fresh and different for Trek.

It is, which I like - Trek never did this kind of thing. And it should all add up, in the long term.

Characterisation-wise, I was most intrigued by the cracks in the new Federation setup itself - Franklin is much more of a nuanced character than at first blush, and are there doubts in his mind now?

At some point we'll get into who Franklin really is, we've just had a dash of that so far.

And now it's time to discuss the ending - and it came out of nowhere. A rapid shifting of the status quo. Now I'm normally very keen on having each series shook up from the previous, but there were a couple of points here that concerned me. Firstly, the strange decision to promote Bow to captain - it was always going to happen eventually, but it felt like an odd move in terms of the story, at least to me. This also leaves Rhade very much in the lurch, which is a shame, as these two episodes gave him the depth that he had been lacking previously. I'd have liked to have seen more of his style of command.

As I say, don't expect this to be as seamless as it appears. This puts Bow & Rhade in a very interesting place this season, all intentionally. It's not much of a defence, but trust me on this one...

What concerns me more is the new limitation on the time-travel aspect of the show. Whilst it's now a show set in the 29th century, with the assorted altered politics and whatnot, there's a part of me that feels the show is moving too far away from its initial brief. The idea that this is a series that can literally go anywhere, any time in the Trek universe was a fascinating one, and one that deserved more time, I feel. And what makes this even more of a blow in my mind is how well the time-travel stuff was played over the last few eps of S1 and this two-parter here. It felt like a show getting to grips with its style, and now that has fundamentally shifted.

Admittedly the next one doesn't involve time travel BUT we've got some inventive ways of zipping between time zones even with Premonition in this state, so it won't just be 29th century fear not.

However... given a season of build up, we need to get into the 29th century in a big way this season and I think people will be satisfied with that.

BUT

Despite those reservations, I'm definitely intrigued as to where the show is going to go from here on out. I'm confident Tony knows exactly what he's doing, and I'm sure there'll be more surprises in store.

Let's just hope that this quality remains - as, ending aside, this was a blisteringly good two-parter to kick off the season!

Thanks Pete - keep going with it, there's some exciting stuff ahead.