Earth: Final Conflict: Deportation

A friend of Renee's who once saved her life, Chase McBride, allows himself to be taken to a secret government internment camp for Atavus hybrids to seek out the one who killed his family.

However hard I try, I really can't manage to become involved in the stories that E:FC is putting out this year. I don't know what it is, but there never seems to be enough motivation on the part of the characters to do whatever they do, and eventually, as here, it all seems to come down to a lot of running about in place of any kind of plot development.

The regulars slide into their now regular roles: Sandoval and Street are sidelined (Sandoval being banished from the mothership for a second time, Howlyn evidently having forgotten he's already done this once), Renee goes in as a one-person army and Howlyn sits on the mothership and gets annoyed. Plus we have Hubble back, whose relationship with Renee seems to have reverted back to the hate-hate one it's been before, and after 15 episodes of 'hybrids aren't human, they must all die', this week it's 'they didn't decide to become hybrids so we have to be nice to them'. When did this compassion become relevant? There's no way of making the hybrids human again, so what can we do? Just keep sending in animals for them to kill?

There's nothing to latch onto here. More should be made of Chase's sorrow and his death wish, the entire story consists of Chase being captured, Renee rescuing him, Renee being captured, Chase rescuing her and so on, and if Howlyn knows where the secret base is that's holding the hybrids, why doesn't he storm the damn thing? Or fire on it to overload and bring the shield down? He's got the resources of the whole mothership, for God's sake! There's characterization missing everywhere, there's no sub-plotting and there's still no sign of this series actually going anywhere. If there's meant to be a point being made about compassion it's lost and I couldn't care less about Chase, who's at no point painted as a brave or heroic character; even the news that it was his brother that killed his family should bring some degree of sympathy, but with poor emotional acting there's nothing to relate to. It comes across as if no-one cares about this series any more.

**

Would you like to go to the Earth: Final Conflict Season Five guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?

1