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Earth 2 Pilot - First Contact (two parts)
I do love the credits. That's not applicable in this episode, of course...
Devon voiceovers about the stories of Earth she grew up with. Only stories, because she's third-generation Station born. But the stories are handy, because tomorrow she and her son and a thousand other people are heading out to colonise a new world in an attempt to battle the dreaded Syndrome.
Devon is cute with Uly(sses) and his tutor Yale, to establish that she is a loving mother. The other half of her characterisation, the workaholic, raises its head when her communicator – Gear – beeps. She pulls a lens in front of her eye and is able to see a real time display of the man she's talking to, Broderick O'Neill, her second in command.
I think the effects have held up very well, considering the show's fifteen years old. They look pretty good, IMO. I mean, I still can't figure out where the camera is to get that full face shot, but...
Devon heads for the bridge, musing about her mission to save the Syndrome children by finding a new planet for them along the way. On the bridge O'Neill shows her an intercepted newscast meant for the next day. It says that her group died when the ship exploded on leaving port. Devon decides that they have to run, right now. Alonzo, her pilot, is thrilled and immediately starts lining them up. Meanwhile O'Neill sets the crew's Techies on a bomb search. There are 97 suspicious readings on the ship.
There are several very nice shots of Advance, Colony, and the inside of the stations. It’s a bit like ST: TMP, but not dull.
Head Techie Danziger is found by his daughter True working on something and the pair talk for a minute before he heads off on his search. Danziger is sarcastic in O’Neill’s general direction, but not actually rude.
Aww, it's True! She's so cute....
Morgan, the government liason to the ship, practises how to give out on his way to the bridge.
Hee! Morgan practising!
As soon as he gets there he folds, of course, blithering in a corner while Alonzo tries to fly without any kind of guidance.
The Techies tear apart various parts of the ship, including, for some reason, Bess’s luggage.
Bess's accent is very strong today. I wonder why that is.
A Council member called Blalock calls to try and talk Devon out of it. He calls her Devon a lot. Mostly she ignores him. He tries to persuade her he’s only thinking of her, because the planet might be unsafe. She’s not buying.
Good old Devon not backing down. She was the first ever female Sci Fi commander, did you know that? Way before Captain Janeway.
Danziger arrives on the bridge. O’Neill signals Devon to keep talking while Danziger runs his scans, carefully staying out of the camera’s field of view. Eventually he loosens the screen, draws it out of its’ housing and exposes what looks like a very old fashioned bomb on top.
Alonzo, meanwhile, has got them through the station doors and is pulling away.
Devon keeps talking while Danziger carries the screen through the ship – it’s quite amusing to watch the one-sided conversation, because of course the screen only shows Blalock. It’s flung out an airlock and explodes somewhere behind them as they draw away from the station.
That was a very big explosion for such a little screen...what happened to the other 96 suspicious things? Were they all phonies except that one?
No one comes after them from the stations. The crew celebrate their escape. And by ‘celebrate’ I mostly mean ‘argue about money’.
Devon asks for Dr Vasquez. Yale breaks the bad news; Dr Vasquez is still on Colony and out of reach. They’ll be relying on Dr Julia Heller, his intern. Dr Heller is barely qualified and very young.
In true sitcom fashion, Devon complains about this as Dr Heller walks up behind her.
Oooh, burn!
Devon and Dr Heller are very cold at each other. Dr Heller heads off to check on Uly.
Advance disengages from Colony. Colony will travel a little slower than Advance, taking twenty four years to cover the distance. Advance will make it in twenty two and have the place ready when Colony arrives.
Devon and Uly helpfully talk about cold sleep for us; it’ll last twenty-two years, but to them it’ll feel like any other night’s sleep. This is apparently the accepted way to travel long distances.
As the most fragile person on board, Uly is put into cold sleep first. Julia injects him with her very cool hypo-thingy and he drifts off. Devon voiceovers about all the questions they have.
Twenty two years later, the ship starts to power back up. Julia’s sleep chamber is the first to open, as it’s important to have your medic on hand. Julia stirs, obviously very disoriented.
A little later, wearing a very fetching robe, she staggers up to the bridge
Wow, look at the sleepy head on her. It usually takes a lot of alcohol to get that look...
to find Alonzo already there and wide awake, checking out the readings. He flirts absently with her as she checks him out with her diaglove. Danziger arrives, Julia checks him and then heads off to check on Uly. Danziger helpfully tells us that Alonzo has made a lot of sleep runs and is considerably older than he looks. Alonzo refuses to say how old, though. He also tells us that he never dreams anymore.
Uly has not woken up. Julia isn’t worried. They helpfully tell us that Julia’s parents had her chromosomes shifted towards the medical sciences. Medicine is literally in her blood. Devon tries to override her and get a stimulant, but Uly wakes before she can do it. He’s fine. Devon smiles at Julia, all arguments forgotten.
Danziger happens on True, somewhere deep in the ship and apparently asleep standing up. She tells him in no uncertain terms that when they get back to the stations he’s buying her a cat – ‘A real cat, not a cheapo synth one. No discussion.’ Danziger, wise enough to know when he’s beat, agrees.
I love True. 'No discussion!'
Morgan and Bess discuss whether she’s actually older or not. Bess feels older, whatever the medical science says. Morgan yells about it.
Morgan's very patronising, isn't he?
In the bowels of the ship somewhere True is testing connections when Uly lumbers by in his immunosuit. True stares at him and says she isn’t.
Yale arrives to collect Uly and True helpfully tells us that the Yales were criminals who’ve been reprogrammed into tutors, and some have gone crazy. Yale assures her that he hasn’t before saying how sad it is that she’s not landing with them – she and Uly could have been friends.
Oh, True. Tact! Learn some!
Devon sees G889 through a porthole. It’s coloured quite like Earth, lots of blues and greens.
They drop a communications dish right on target. O’Neill leaves Alonzo to continue dropping cargo and heads for the toilet where he pulls out a cigar.
Aw, dude, smoking on a space ship? A space ship with a sick kid? You're gonna get smote.
He doesn’t have much time to enjoy it, though, because the ship starts shaking, trying to throw them off. He staggers back out onto the bridge where Alonzo tells him the cargo pods have refused to release and are dragging the ship down. The backup release and the backup to the backup have both failed. The ship is going to crash.
Morgan and Bess stagger through the corridors to an escape pod. Danziger, desperately searching for True, watches as Morgan pulls the release, sending a pod built for twenty away with only two in it. He staggers off to find True. She’s hiding in a desk. Danziger scoops her up and heads back to the pods.
Most of the bridge crew make it into a pod with Devon and Uly. Danziger, having already been turned away from a full pod, settles in with them with True on his knee. Alonzo finds Julia desperately packing medical supplies into a bag and bodily hauls her along, verbally checking everyone’s restraints before cutting them loose. Inertia sends him flying into Julia.
Alonzo, falling for the doctor? Hee hee.
The pod tumbles around a bit. Those with sensitive stomachs should not watch.
A little later the pod has landed, mostly right side up. Dust is drifting through the light coming from the window in the door. Unfortunately the sensors, designed to tell them whether the air outside is breathable, are not working. Devon orders the door opened anyway.
I love Danziger with True. They're so sweet together.
O’Neill opens it and climbs out, followed by the others. They’re standing in a meadow, surrounded by cliffs and rivers and trees and all manner of nice things. It’s very pretty and obviously fairly overwhelming for them.
Oooh! Theme tune!
A little later everyone is busy with...stuff. You know, moving things, chatting busily, looking like they’re working every time Devon glances in their direction...stuff.
Julia checks on Uly. Yale has not picked up any signals from the other pods. They have no idea where anyone is.
O’Neill offers Yale a gun. Yale helpfully tells us that his reprogramming includes weapons aversion; he can barely touch the thing and definitely couldn’t fire it.
Julia checks Alonzo’s leg. He’s in mild shock over the crash, as he’s never lost a vessel before. Oh, and his leg’s broken in several places. Since he didn’t take the vaccines before the trip, he’s going to be out of commission for a while. (Yes, they have a ‘bone healer vaccine’. How does that even work?)
Poor Alonzo. The woobiefication begins...
Danziger comes to check on True, who’s fascinated by the dirt.
Two moons are full that evening. Bess and Morgan, somewhere a long way from everyone else, have lit a fire. Morgan is very nervous about it. Bess reminds us that she grew up on Earth.
Morgan has told Bess that the pod just broke away, hiding his guilty secret.
Yale has found a cargo pod’s signal. Devon plans to go after it the next morning, if she can tear herself away from looking at the scenery. Which admittedly is very nice.
O’Neill offers Uly and True a buffalo head nickel for good luck. When he wanders off, True asks Uly for the rations he doesn’t want. She adds that someone choked to death on it.
True, you are nasty. Good on Uly, though.
Uly isn’t putting up with that and throws the packet into some trees. True goes in after it. She finds it, and also a small, reptile looking creatures. It’s mildly intelligent – enough to echo her movements – and True feeds it, making friends.
First contact with an alien life form and it’s a ten year old girl looking for a pet...
Next morning the group trudge through a forest. Devon and Yale haul Uly along in a wheelchair, until Danziger swoops in to carry him piggy back. True doesn’t like that much. Alonzo is stuck in a stretcher, though, so Uly probably has the better part of the deal.
True steps around to the other side of a rock, still in plain view of half the group, and opens her bag. Her little friend is along for the ride, apparently perfectly happy.
Not very sneaky, True.
Forests give way to rocky cliffs and plateaus, looking like something on the Moon. The theme tune plays again as they see their lost pod.
You've got to love the landscapes. Seriously. Is New Mexico really like that?
On reaching the pod, however, they realise it’s been broken into and ransacked. Someone else is on the planet.
End of part 1
Danziger and Yale find one bay picked clean. The other door is jammed shut. Danziger hooks out a robot head. ZERO is designed for construction but his body is still trapped inside.
Danziger boosts True inside and she finds the body.
'Nice to be small!'
Once it’s turned on ZERO clears the bay doors and pulls out a huge HumVee like vehicle and a couple of smaller ones, including a one person model that Danziger gives Uly so he can ‘help’. True doesn’t like that much.
Poor True. Jealousy is an ugly emotion.
Yale and Devon discuss the possibility of intelligent life. Yale’s against hunting down their thieves, but O’Neill is all for it.
True’s pet has made it into the Rail, a small recon vessel. Before she can dig it out, O’Neill and Danziger take the Rail and head off to look for their thieves.
Alonzo, sleeping fitfully, is dreaming about the crash. He runs through the ship and into a system of tunnels inhabited by tall, bipedal creatures. He gropes his way along the walls – I guess maybe it’s dark in there or something? – before suddenly coming face-to-sternum with a very tall alien.
Alonzo, you're dreaming! but at least your leg isn't broken.
Alonzo jerks himself awake, panting.
Julia is checking on Uly again. He’s not getting worse, but the planet has not been the miracle cure Devon was hoping for.
Danziger and O’Neill are examining the area through binoculars. True’s pet, in the back of the Rail, manages to accidentally fire O’Neill’s gun. O’Neill fires back. The little animal shoots a nail into his neck.
He staggers around for a minute and then dies.
...ouch.
Yale officiates over a burial they’ve cobbled together.
Aw. Sad theme tune. Wouldn't Bess be a better choice to lead the service? She grew up on Earth, after all. Presumably they're still burying people down there.
When the group disperses the kids stay to peer into the grave, fascinated, as there’s no such thing as burial on the stations. Yale comes back to warn them about taking anything for granted here on this new world and reminds them that even a tiny animal can be deadly, and they must remember to tell a grownup if they see one. Both kids promise, but True noticeably hesitates.
True, you liar.
Yale and Devon study a map of the planet. Devon’s plan is to cross the continent and get to the planned landing point.
Danziger is listening. True asks him about going home, but he walks past her
John, don't ignore your daughter when she's talking to you!
to face off against Devon. His argument is that she can’t expect this whole group, most of whom were never even supposed to land, to travel across terrain she knows nothing about and can’t possibly be prepared for. Devon’s argument is that they signed up and she’s the boss. Suck it up. Danziger suggests a vote. She’s not having it. She dismisses him to his work.
Julia sees something on the ridge above camp, two bipedal figures. Camp erupts into chaos. Danziger locks True into a vehicle where she promptly uses the surveillance features to get a close up on the aliens. Alonzo uses binoculars to get a similar close up.
Handy that Alonzo happened to have binoculars right there on his sick bed.
They're the same aliens he dreamed about.
The aliens are carrying staffs which they touch together to produce intense light. When everyone can focus again, they’ve vanished, though ZERO is scanning movements over the ridge. He heads up to check.
It’s Bess and Morgan, heading apparently at random towards the camp.
Wow, a whole planet and they happened to head in this direction...nice of the aliens to point them out, though.
Bess and Morgan run through their story while eating a lot. Danziger is not impressed.
Julia wants to talk about the aliens. John says animals. Someone says optical illusion. Devon wants to leave it alone for now until they learn more.
True is sleeping when her pet turns back up. She attempts to resist him, for three seconds, until he waves at her.
Alonzo is dreaming again. You can tell because everything is blurry and overexposed. Three of the aliens rise up out of the ground around him, circling but making no other aggressive movements. He stumbles and falls, landing on the ground beside his bed. Julia hurries to help him and he tells her firmly that he *doesn’t* *have* *dreams.*
True sneaks off very obviously
True, the way to be inconspicuous is *not* to creep. Sneaking around like that only draws attention.
followed by Uly in his go cart thing. She’s trying to release her pet, but it doesn’t seem to grasp the concept and she gives up, turning to go back to camp. Uly is watching her.
Uly’s prepared to go back and report her. True scrambles onto the cart, fighting him for control. Uly falls out, rolling down a hill.
I wonder if Uly's suit was heavy to wear? All the tubes and stuff.
True gets the cart under control and goes back to find him, but she’s just in time to see several arms come up from underground and wrap around him, dragging him away.
The whole group turns out to help dig and search, but there’s nothing apart from his belt. Danziger sends everyone bar ZERO, Devon and Yale away. Yale finds an entrance to a cave system.
Danziger rappels down, ordering ZERO to yank him up if he hears anything happen. Inside, he unclips his rope and starts searching.
How's ZERO supposed to yank him out if he unclips his rope? I'm betting he'd still blame the robot...
Back at camp Bess attempts to make friends with True. It doesn’t take.
The group realise the aliens have surrounded them, two on each side on a height and very impressively backlit.
You gotta wonder what's casting the light.
Morgan fires at one set. They vanish and Morgan is triumphant, touting it as the first sign of their mastery over the planet. Julia’s not impressed, heading up to discover a patch of disturbed soil and no sign of the aliens.
Danziger wanders around below ground calling for Uly.
In camp True calls Julia to come talk to Alonzo. Alonzo looks relatively stoned, focusing on something just beyond Julia. They’re Terrians, he tells her, the ones who swim up from the earth. Julia waves a hand to check his awareness, and without looking he catches it in his. He’s seen them in his dreams, they talk to him there, he says.
Yale attempts to send Devon back to camp. She refuses and they discuss destiny for a few minutes before Julia interrupts with Alonzo’s news.
Her suggestion is to put Alonzo to sleep and try again. Devon agrees, except that she wants to take the sedative. She snatches it from Julia and injects herself, falling veeeeerrrrrryyyyy slllloooooowwwwwllllllyyyy and landing in the caves somewhere.
It's a cool effect.
Outside, Julia heckles Alonzo into also taking a sedative.
In the real caves, Danziger can hear echoes of Dream!Devon’s yells.
Dream!Devon is joined by Dream!Alonzo. Terrians appear around them. Devon demands Uly and the Terrians show him to her, taking him away again before she can touch him. Devon finds herself on the ship just before cold sleep, then in the desert where Alonzo met them before. The Terrians reappear.
Alonzo tells her the Terrians are afraid of them, that they were attempting to understand them by taking Uly. This Dream Plane is the only way for them to make contact, but it’s also real somehow.
They sound like whales. It's cool.
In the Dream!Caves, Devon begs for Uly’s return. Alonzo warns her that there will be a price and he has no idea what it will be. Devon doesn’t care, she just wants him back. The Terrians have met humans before and don’t like them much. Devon doesn’t understand; her group is the first colonisation attempt ever.
The Terrians back away, but one beckons Devon to follow, holding out a hand. She takes about seven years to lift her hand, but as soon as she’s close enough he grabs her and tugs her through the wall.
Danziger, in the real caves, finds Uly on the ground. He picks him up and prepares to go out the way he came until he sees a Terrian watching from above. He follows it.
Why is he following the Terrian? He doesn't know they've made a deal, he just knows they kidnapped Uly...
Devon wakes in the real world with Julia sitting beside her. Ignoring the questions, she heads through the trees to a meadow. Uly is running towards her from the other end of it, no immunosuit, dirty and tired but healthy.
Oh, it's very Little House...
They meet in the centre of the meadow, collapsing into a heap. Julia starts forward to examine him and then catches herself, dropping to her knees. Danziger tries not to watch them from the other end of the meadow.
Devon lays out the situation for the group. Her projected timetable has them reaching New Pacifica in nine months, but it will be a hard trip. Morgan protests, asking if they're just supposed to leave.
No. Devon looks at Danziger. 'We're going to put it to a vote.' He smiles, recognising the gesture.
Julia raises her hand. Alonzo, Danziger, True, Yale all follow suit, as do various others. The Martins don't vote, but they are clearly outnumbered.
The convey heads out across a rocky plateau while Devon muses on the fact that four days ago aliens landed on a distant planet...and it was them. Alonzo, riding in the go cart thing, appears to remind her that they've made a promise to the Terrians and they don't know what will be asked of them. Devon agrees but says she'd do it again anyway.
Meanwhile, cleverly hiding by standing in plain view on a height approximately ten metres away, a human male watches them go. And laughs. Or...something. Look, he's Tim Curry, it's hard to tell exactly what he's doing. He's certainly pleased about something, though.
I do love the credits. That's not applicable in this episode, of course...
Devon voiceovers about the stories of Earth she grew up with. Only stories, because she's third-generation Station born. But the stories are handy, because tomorrow she and her son and a thousand other people are heading out to colonise a new world in an attempt to battle the dreaded Syndrome.
Devon is cute with Uly(sses) and his tutor Yale, to establish that she is a loving mother. The other half of her characterisation, the workaholic, raises its head when her communicator – Gear – beeps. She pulls a lens in front of her eye and is able to see a real time display of the man she's talking to, Broderick O'Neill, her second in command.
I think the effects have held up very well, considering the show's fifteen years old. They look pretty good, IMO. I mean, I still can't figure out where the camera is to get that full face shot, but...
Devon heads for the bridge, musing about her mission to save the Syndrome children by finding a new planet for them along the way. On the bridge O'Neill shows her an intercepted newscast meant for the next day. It says that her group died when the ship exploded on leaving port. Devon decides that they have to run, right now. Alonzo, her pilot, is thrilled and immediately starts lining them up. Meanwhile O'Neill sets the crew's Techies on a bomb search. There are 97 suspicious readings on the ship.
There are several very nice shots of Advance, Colony, and the inside of the stations. It’s a bit like ST: TMP, but not dull.
Head Techie Danziger is found by his daughter True working on something and the pair talk for a minute before he heads off on his search. Danziger is sarcastic in O’Neill’s general direction, but not actually rude.
Aww, it's True! She's so cute....
Morgan, the government liason to the ship, practises how to give out on his way to the bridge.
Hee! Morgan practising!
As soon as he gets there he folds, of course, blithering in a corner while Alonzo tries to fly without any kind of guidance.
The Techies tear apart various parts of the ship, including, for some reason, Bess’s luggage.
Bess's accent is very strong today. I wonder why that is.
A Council member called Blalock calls to try and talk Devon out of it. He calls her Devon a lot. Mostly she ignores him. He tries to persuade her he’s only thinking of her, because the planet might be unsafe. She’s not buying.
Good old Devon not backing down. She was the first ever female Sci Fi commander, did you know that? Way before Captain Janeway.
Danziger arrives on the bridge. O’Neill signals Devon to keep talking while Danziger runs his scans, carefully staying out of the camera’s field of view. Eventually he loosens the screen, draws it out of its’ housing and exposes what looks like a very old fashioned bomb on top.
Alonzo, meanwhile, has got them through the station doors and is pulling away.
Devon keeps talking while Danziger carries the screen through the ship – it’s quite amusing to watch the one-sided conversation, because of course the screen only shows Blalock. It’s flung out an airlock and explodes somewhere behind them as they draw away from the station.
That was a very big explosion for such a little screen...what happened to the other 96 suspicious things? Were they all phonies except that one?
No one comes after them from the stations. The crew celebrate their escape. And by ‘celebrate’ I mostly mean ‘argue about money’.
Devon asks for Dr Vasquez. Yale breaks the bad news; Dr Vasquez is still on Colony and out of reach. They’ll be relying on Dr Julia Heller, his intern. Dr Heller is barely qualified and very young.
In true sitcom fashion, Devon complains about this as Dr Heller walks up behind her.
Oooh, burn!
Devon and Dr Heller are very cold at each other. Dr Heller heads off to check on Uly.
Advance disengages from Colony. Colony will travel a little slower than Advance, taking twenty four years to cover the distance. Advance will make it in twenty two and have the place ready when Colony arrives.
Devon and Uly helpfully talk about cold sleep for us; it’ll last twenty-two years, but to them it’ll feel like any other night’s sleep. This is apparently the accepted way to travel long distances.
As the most fragile person on board, Uly is put into cold sleep first. Julia injects him with her very cool hypo-thingy and he drifts off. Devon voiceovers about all the questions they have.
Twenty two years later, the ship starts to power back up. Julia’s sleep chamber is the first to open, as it’s important to have your medic on hand. Julia stirs, obviously very disoriented.
A little later, wearing a very fetching robe, she staggers up to the bridge
Wow, look at the sleepy head on her. It usually takes a lot of alcohol to get that look...
to find Alonzo already there and wide awake, checking out the readings. He flirts absently with her as she checks him out with her diaglove. Danziger arrives, Julia checks him and then heads off to check on Uly. Danziger helpfully tells us that Alonzo has made a lot of sleep runs and is considerably older than he looks. Alonzo refuses to say how old, though. He also tells us that he never dreams anymore.
Uly has not woken up. Julia isn’t worried. They helpfully tell us that Julia’s parents had her chromosomes shifted towards the medical sciences. Medicine is literally in her blood. Devon tries to override her and get a stimulant, but Uly wakes before she can do it. He’s fine. Devon smiles at Julia, all arguments forgotten.
Danziger happens on True, somewhere deep in the ship and apparently asleep standing up. She tells him in no uncertain terms that when they get back to the stations he’s buying her a cat – ‘A real cat, not a cheapo synth one. No discussion.’ Danziger, wise enough to know when he’s beat, agrees.
I love True. 'No discussion!'
Morgan and Bess discuss whether she’s actually older or not. Bess feels older, whatever the medical science says. Morgan yells about it.
Morgan's very patronising, isn't he?
In the bowels of the ship somewhere True is testing connections when Uly lumbers by in his immunosuit. True stares at him and says she isn’t.
Yale arrives to collect Uly and True helpfully tells us that the Yales were criminals who’ve been reprogrammed into tutors, and some have gone crazy. Yale assures her that he hasn’t before saying how sad it is that she’s not landing with them – she and Uly could have been friends.
Oh, True. Tact! Learn some!
Devon sees G889 through a porthole. It’s coloured quite like Earth, lots of blues and greens.
They drop a communications dish right on target. O’Neill leaves Alonzo to continue dropping cargo and heads for the toilet where he pulls out a cigar.
Aw, dude, smoking on a space ship? A space ship with a sick kid? You're gonna get smote.
He doesn’t have much time to enjoy it, though, because the ship starts shaking, trying to throw them off. He staggers back out onto the bridge where Alonzo tells him the cargo pods have refused to release and are dragging the ship down. The backup release and the backup to the backup have both failed. The ship is going to crash.
Morgan and Bess stagger through the corridors to an escape pod. Danziger, desperately searching for True, watches as Morgan pulls the release, sending a pod built for twenty away with only two in it. He staggers off to find True. She’s hiding in a desk. Danziger scoops her up and heads back to the pods.
Most of the bridge crew make it into a pod with Devon and Uly. Danziger, having already been turned away from a full pod, settles in with them with True on his knee. Alonzo finds Julia desperately packing medical supplies into a bag and bodily hauls her along, verbally checking everyone’s restraints before cutting them loose. Inertia sends him flying into Julia.
Alonzo, falling for the doctor? Hee hee.
The pod tumbles around a bit. Those with sensitive stomachs should not watch.
A little later the pod has landed, mostly right side up. Dust is drifting through the light coming from the window in the door. Unfortunately the sensors, designed to tell them whether the air outside is breathable, are not working. Devon orders the door opened anyway.
I love Danziger with True. They're so sweet together.
O’Neill opens it and climbs out, followed by the others. They’re standing in a meadow, surrounded by cliffs and rivers and trees and all manner of nice things. It’s very pretty and obviously fairly overwhelming for them.
Oooh! Theme tune!
A little later everyone is busy with...stuff. You know, moving things, chatting busily, looking like they’re working every time Devon glances in their direction...stuff.
Julia checks on Uly. Yale has not picked up any signals from the other pods. They have no idea where anyone is.
O’Neill offers Yale a gun. Yale helpfully tells us that his reprogramming includes weapons aversion; he can barely touch the thing and definitely couldn’t fire it.
Julia checks Alonzo’s leg. He’s in mild shock over the crash, as he’s never lost a vessel before. Oh, and his leg’s broken in several places. Since he didn’t take the vaccines before the trip, he’s going to be out of commission for a while. (Yes, they have a ‘bone healer vaccine’. How does that even work?)
Poor Alonzo. The woobiefication begins...
Danziger comes to check on True, who’s fascinated by the dirt.
Two moons are full that evening. Bess and Morgan, somewhere a long way from everyone else, have lit a fire. Morgan is very nervous about it. Bess reminds us that she grew up on Earth.
Morgan has told Bess that the pod just broke away, hiding his guilty secret.
Yale has found a cargo pod’s signal. Devon plans to go after it the next morning, if she can tear herself away from looking at the scenery. Which admittedly is very nice.
O’Neill offers Uly and True a buffalo head nickel for good luck. When he wanders off, True asks Uly for the rations he doesn’t want. She adds that someone choked to death on it.
True, you are nasty. Good on Uly, though.
Uly isn’t putting up with that and throws the packet into some trees. True goes in after it. She finds it, and also a small, reptile looking creatures. It’s mildly intelligent – enough to echo her movements – and True feeds it, making friends.
First contact with an alien life form and it’s a ten year old girl looking for a pet...
Next morning the group trudge through a forest. Devon and Yale haul Uly along in a wheelchair, until Danziger swoops in to carry him piggy back. True doesn’t like that much. Alonzo is stuck in a stretcher, though, so Uly probably has the better part of the deal.
True steps around to the other side of a rock, still in plain view of half the group, and opens her bag. Her little friend is along for the ride, apparently perfectly happy.
Not very sneaky, True.
Forests give way to rocky cliffs and plateaus, looking like something on the Moon. The theme tune plays again as they see their lost pod.
You've got to love the landscapes. Seriously. Is New Mexico really like that?
On reaching the pod, however, they realise it’s been broken into and ransacked. Someone else is on the planet.
End of part 1
Danziger and Yale find one bay picked clean. The other door is jammed shut. Danziger hooks out a robot head. ZERO is designed for construction but his body is still trapped inside.
Danziger boosts True inside and she finds the body.
'Nice to be small!'
Once it’s turned on ZERO clears the bay doors and pulls out a huge HumVee like vehicle and a couple of smaller ones, including a one person model that Danziger gives Uly so he can ‘help’. True doesn’t like that much.
Poor True. Jealousy is an ugly emotion.
Yale and Devon discuss the possibility of intelligent life. Yale’s against hunting down their thieves, but O’Neill is all for it.
True’s pet has made it into the Rail, a small recon vessel. Before she can dig it out, O’Neill and Danziger take the Rail and head off to look for their thieves.
Alonzo, sleeping fitfully, is dreaming about the crash. He runs through the ship and into a system of tunnels inhabited by tall, bipedal creatures. He gropes his way along the walls – I guess maybe it’s dark in there or something? – before suddenly coming face-to-sternum with a very tall alien.
Alonzo, you're dreaming! but at least your leg isn't broken.
Alonzo jerks himself awake, panting.
Julia is checking on Uly again. He’s not getting worse, but the planet has not been the miracle cure Devon was hoping for.
Danziger and O’Neill are examining the area through binoculars. True’s pet, in the back of the Rail, manages to accidentally fire O’Neill’s gun. O’Neill fires back. The little animal shoots a nail into his neck.
He staggers around for a minute and then dies.
...ouch.
Yale officiates over a burial they’ve cobbled together.
Aw. Sad theme tune. Wouldn't Bess be a better choice to lead the service? She grew up on Earth, after all. Presumably they're still burying people down there.
When the group disperses the kids stay to peer into the grave, fascinated, as there’s no such thing as burial on the stations. Yale comes back to warn them about taking anything for granted here on this new world and reminds them that even a tiny animal can be deadly, and they must remember to tell a grownup if they see one. Both kids promise, but True noticeably hesitates.
True, you liar.
Yale and Devon study a map of the planet. Devon’s plan is to cross the continent and get to the planned landing point.
Danziger is listening. True asks him about going home, but he walks past her
John, don't ignore your daughter when she's talking to you!
to face off against Devon. His argument is that she can’t expect this whole group, most of whom were never even supposed to land, to travel across terrain she knows nothing about and can’t possibly be prepared for. Devon’s argument is that they signed up and she’s the boss. Suck it up. Danziger suggests a vote. She’s not having it. She dismisses him to his work.
Julia sees something on the ridge above camp, two bipedal figures. Camp erupts into chaos. Danziger locks True into a vehicle where she promptly uses the surveillance features to get a close up on the aliens. Alonzo uses binoculars to get a similar close up.
Handy that Alonzo happened to have binoculars right there on his sick bed.
They're the same aliens he dreamed about.
The aliens are carrying staffs which they touch together to produce intense light. When everyone can focus again, they’ve vanished, though ZERO is scanning movements over the ridge. He heads up to check.
It’s Bess and Morgan, heading apparently at random towards the camp.
Wow, a whole planet and they happened to head in this direction...nice of the aliens to point them out, though.
Bess and Morgan run through their story while eating a lot. Danziger is not impressed.
Julia wants to talk about the aliens. John says animals. Someone says optical illusion. Devon wants to leave it alone for now until they learn more.
True is sleeping when her pet turns back up. She attempts to resist him, for three seconds, until he waves at her.
Alonzo is dreaming again. You can tell because everything is blurry and overexposed. Three of the aliens rise up out of the ground around him, circling but making no other aggressive movements. He stumbles and falls, landing on the ground beside his bed. Julia hurries to help him and he tells her firmly that he *doesn’t* *have* *dreams.*
True sneaks off very obviously
True, the way to be inconspicuous is *not* to creep. Sneaking around like that only draws attention.
followed by Uly in his go cart thing. She’s trying to release her pet, but it doesn’t seem to grasp the concept and she gives up, turning to go back to camp. Uly is watching her.
Uly’s prepared to go back and report her. True scrambles onto the cart, fighting him for control. Uly falls out, rolling down a hill.
I wonder if Uly's suit was heavy to wear? All the tubes and stuff.
True gets the cart under control and goes back to find him, but she’s just in time to see several arms come up from underground and wrap around him, dragging him away.
The whole group turns out to help dig and search, but there’s nothing apart from his belt. Danziger sends everyone bar ZERO, Devon and Yale away. Yale finds an entrance to a cave system.
Danziger rappels down, ordering ZERO to yank him up if he hears anything happen. Inside, he unclips his rope and starts searching.
How's ZERO supposed to yank him out if he unclips his rope? I'm betting he'd still blame the robot...
Back at camp Bess attempts to make friends with True. It doesn’t take.
The group realise the aliens have surrounded them, two on each side on a height and very impressively backlit.
You gotta wonder what's casting the light.
Morgan fires at one set. They vanish and Morgan is triumphant, touting it as the first sign of their mastery over the planet. Julia’s not impressed, heading up to discover a patch of disturbed soil and no sign of the aliens.
Danziger wanders around below ground calling for Uly.
In camp True calls Julia to come talk to Alonzo. Alonzo looks relatively stoned, focusing on something just beyond Julia. They’re Terrians, he tells her, the ones who swim up from the earth. Julia waves a hand to check his awareness, and without looking he catches it in his. He’s seen them in his dreams, they talk to him there, he says.
Yale attempts to send Devon back to camp. She refuses and they discuss destiny for a few minutes before Julia interrupts with Alonzo’s news.
Her suggestion is to put Alonzo to sleep and try again. Devon agrees, except that she wants to take the sedative. She snatches it from Julia and injects herself, falling veeeeerrrrrryyyyy slllloooooowwwwwllllllyyyy and landing in the caves somewhere.
It's a cool effect.
Outside, Julia heckles Alonzo into also taking a sedative.
In the real caves, Danziger can hear echoes of Dream!Devon’s yells.
Dream!Devon is joined by Dream!Alonzo. Terrians appear around them. Devon demands Uly and the Terrians show him to her, taking him away again before she can touch him. Devon finds herself on the ship just before cold sleep, then in the desert where Alonzo met them before. The Terrians reappear.
Alonzo tells her the Terrians are afraid of them, that they were attempting to understand them by taking Uly. This Dream Plane is the only way for them to make contact, but it’s also real somehow.
They sound like whales. It's cool.
In the Dream!Caves, Devon begs for Uly’s return. Alonzo warns her that there will be a price and he has no idea what it will be. Devon doesn’t care, she just wants him back. The Terrians have met humans before and don’t like them much. Devon doesn’t understand; her group is the first colonisation attempt ever.
The Terrians back away, but one beckons Devon to follow, holding out a hand. She takes about seven years to lift her hand, but as soon as she’s close enough he grabs her and tugs her through the wall.
Danziger, in the real caves, finds Uly on the ground. He picks him up and prepares to go out the way he came until he sees a Terrian watching from above. He follows it.
Why is he following the Terrian? He doesn't know they've made a deal, he just knows they kidnapped Uly...
Devon wakes in the real world with Julia sitting beside her. Ignoring the questions, she heads through the trees to a meadow. Uly is running towards her from the other end of it, no immunosuit, dirty and tired but healthy.
Oh, it's very Little House...
They meet in the centre of the meadow, collapsing into a heap. Julia starts forward to examine him and then catches herself, dropping to her knees. Danziger tries not to watch them from the other end of the meadow.
Devon lays out the situation for the group. Her projected timetable has them reaching New Pacifica in nine months, but it will be a hard trip. Morgan protests, asking if they're just supposed to leave.
No. Devon looks at Danziger. 'We're going to put it to a vote.' He smiles, recognising the gesture.
Julia raises her hand. Alonzo, Danziger, True, Yale all follow suit, as do various others. The Martins don't vote, but they are clearly outnumbered.
The convey heads out across a rocky plateau while Devon muses on the fact that four days ago aliens landed on a distant planet...and it was them. Alonzo, riding in the go cart thing, appears to remind her that they've made a promise to the Terrians and they don't know what will be asked of them. Devon agrees but says she'd do it again anyway.
Meanwhile, cleverly hiding by standing in plain view on a height approximately ten metres away, a human male watches them go. And laughs. Or...something. Look, he's Tim Curry, it's hard to tell exactly what he's doing. He's certainly pleased about something, though.
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