TV Show – Earth 2

TV Show – Earth 2
Score : 7/10
Multiple directors
Country : USA
Language : English
Duration 17 hours 05 minutes total. 1 season, comprised of 22 episodes, each between 43 and 47 minutes.  

Earth 2 was a short-lived, one season science-fiction show which initially aired in 1994-95, but out of order. This is clearly seen with the voice logs in each episode, setting a different real chronology – but I’ll get back to the proper viewing order later.

The year is 2192; Earth is mostly uninhabitable. The majority of the human population lives on space stations and many children are sick with a deadly illness, ‘’the Syndrome’’, which the government and medical authorities don’t acknowledge. Devon Adair is a billionaire, and her 8 years old son Ulysses has contracted the Syndrome, and would normally die by age 9. 

Seeking for a cure and against orders from their superiors, the Eden project launches and escapes into space, towards G889, an Earth-like planet which they reach after a 22 years travel as the entire crew is put in cold-sleep. 

Once on this new Earth, the crew has to face insurmountable odds to reach their final destination, fraught with many dangers. 

I liked the overall story, especially both ecological and mystical aspects portrayed through one of the local inhabitant races – albeit with a far too easy name of ‘’Terrians’’- in deep connection to the very planet, which unfortunately aren’t fully explained due to the show’s cancellation as its audiences dropped in its short run. 

At first, I didn’t really like the dreams these terrians and one of the characters share, as they were over exposed, and shot with a shaky camera, and a bit of a cliché. As these evolved, their content won over their execution – which had actually improved over the course of the show. 

In this only season, there were a few local inhabitant races – I hope that a second season would’ve expanded their numbers to an even richer story. 

The show managed to deal with topics comprising political lies,  connection to earth with an ecological message, crime and criminal rehabilitation, virtual reality, and as often on science-fiction, the human condition and the quest for a new home to populate...  

The overall cinematography was made well, and apart for a couple jazz segments in virtual reality, the music usually matched the tone of the show. 

I really hated a short, virtual reality segment, in which someone was eating lamb in a disgusting manner. Luckily, this didn’t last and later on, the show actually dealt with the topic of eating a local creature as a commentary on human’s habits of eating animals ; that episode could’ve been really gross, but it limited what was shown and for that, I thank the producers. I hope this will be heard by omnis who ask themselves the same questions, and listen to the answer given at the very end of ‘’ survival of the fittest’’. 

One season wasn’t enough to fully develop and evolve each character, which is very unfortunate; in the meantime, it stands as a draft show, with enough material to make it worthwhile to check it, at least once. The overall acting was good, even though at first it seemed to be limit corny. Most of the cast got at least one good episode to shine in. 

Earth 2 stars Debrah Farentino, Joey Zimmerman, Clancy Brown, J. Madison Wright, Sullivan Walker, Jessica Steen, Rebecca Gayheart, John Gegenhuber , Antonio Sabàto, Jr.

 

Recurring and notable guest stars comprise : Richard Bradford, Terry O'Quinn, Tim Curry, Roy Dotrice, Kelli Williams, Virginia Madsen… 

In each episode, one or two characters’ voice log start and end the story, this helps to situate each episode in its proper chorological order, as the days are counted. This gives us the following order of viewing this show, so not to be totally lost. I indicate the US dvd numbers and sides

1.     First Contact-parts 1 and 2 ; (on disc 1, side A)

2.     The Man Who Fell To Earth (disc 1, side A),

3.     Life's Lessons (1, B)

4.     Promises (1, B)

5.     Memory Play (1,B)

6.     Natural Born Grendlers (4, A)

7.     Water (2, A)

8.     The Church of Morgan (2, A)

9.     The Enemy Within (2, A)

10.  Redemption (2, B)

11.  Moon Cross (2, B)

12.  Better Living through morganite-part 1 (2,B)

13.  Better Living… part2 (3, A)

14.  Grendlers in the Myst (3, A)

15.  The Greatest Love Story never told (3, A)

16.  Brave New Pacifica (3; B)

17.  The Boy Who Would Be Terrain King (3, B, but placed before the next episode)

18.  After the Thaw (3, B – don’t reverse this with the boy…)

19.  Survival of the Fittest (4, A)

20.  Flower Child (4, B)

21.  All About Eve (4,A) 

This will make you change dvds more often, but it’s better to do it this way. Some titles are interesting puns, as you can see…

This brings me to …Earth 2… in the media:

I bought the US region 1 dvd boxset on second hand, mainly because it was much cheaper than the French edition which divided the show into 2 boxsets…

EAN 025192780325. The show is in full frame 1.33:1 image format, sound : Dolby digital 2.0, original English. Subtitles : English (in captions ; these are displayed on the side rather just under the image), and Spanish. 

The series is spread on 4 double-sides dvds, with 3 episodes per side, except DVD4 face B, which contains only episode ‘’flower child’’, deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, and previews to the shows Cleopatra 2525 (episode a quest for firepower) and Sliders (season 3 episode rules of the game).

The advantage to this format is the gain of space, but the downside is that any kind of mark can compromise reading a side…

Actually, I ran into 2 problems on episode ‘’all about Eve’’. On first watch, during the end of chapter 2, at about 24 or 25 minutes into the episode, it froze and then jumped to about 27 minutes, skipping about 2-3 minutes of key scenes, and into chapter 3.

I then ejected the disc, checked it for scratches, which it hadn’t, put it back and skipped to chapter 3 and backtracked a bit to where I had left it. This time, it played the end of chapter 2 properly, but it got stuck at the change to chapter 3, precisely at 26’26’’ into the episode, and then jumped between 30 and 60 seconds both times I tried. Then, I just finished the story. I have to try this again a few times – maybe clean the disc, as I might’ve missed a mark somewhere. It could also be a glitch either of my copy, or the entire pressing… I don’t know more about it at this moment.