a5c7b9f00b The Taelons, a race of aliens who came to earth three years ago, on, what they claim, a mission of benevolence. And so far that&#39;s exactly what they have done. Now the Taleons or Companionsthey are called have appointed one of their own to acttheir representative to each continent; Daan is the one, who is assigned to North America. Now Daan was making a public appearance and at this event is police Captain William Boone, assigned to the security detail. As Daan was speaking Boone saw a sniper&#39;s laser sighting trained on Daan, he called out for someone to get Daan to safety; Jonathan Doors, a billionaire industrialist, tried but was shot and died. Boone was able to determine where the shooter is, and cornered him but was shocked to discover that the shooter is an old friend. Boone&#39;s astonishment, gave his friend the opportunity to escape. Boone would later get a message from his friend asking him to keep an open mind. Boone would also be approached by Daan, who was impressed with his actions that they offer him a position working with the Companions, which most people would consider an honor but Boone turned them down cause he was concerned that it would take him away from his wife. But his wife told him that he should reconsider or at least speak to them. Later Boone&#39;s wife is killed in a vehicular accident. Boone, wanting to honor her last wish, goes to Daan, who tells him that if he accepts, he will implanted with a device they call a Cerebral Viral Implant or CVI, which enhances the brain&#39;s functions, which means that he will have better conceptualization and memory. Boone, still uncertain, wants to think about it first. Boone was about to leave when Lili Marquette, a marine, who pilots the Taelon&#39;s shuttlecraft, tells him that there is someone who wants to meet with him, someone who wants him to keep an open mind. Boone goes andexpected, his friend is there but so is the supposedly deceased Jonathan Doors. They tell Boone that they are probably the only individuals on the planet who has not forgotten the old warning, beware of stranger bearing gifts, which Taelons have been doing ever since they arrived. They are concerned that humanity&#39;s so pampered by the Companions that they no longer care to ask why are they here, which is what they want to know. They want Boone to be their inside man. Dr. Julia Bellman tells Boone that there&#39;s a quality of the CVI that Daan did and would not tell him about; that whoever is implanted with a CVI, their motivational imperative is altered that their priority is the Companions. He just has to look at Ronald Sandoval, who is fanatically loyal to the Companions and treats other humans especially anyone who opposes the Companions, sadistically. She tells him that she has re-engineered the CVI that Boone will be implanted with but uncertain of how it will affect him. Boone is still uncertain, they then tell him that his wife&#39;s death was not an accident but ordered by the Companions. Boone agrees on the condition that they allow him to find his wife&#39;s killer. Boone&#39;s implantation is a success. Boone then tries to find his wife&#39;s killer and discovers that Sandoval was the one who ordered it. It seems that when Sandoval chose to work for the Companions, his wife was not supportive, and did not want Boone to have that problem. Boone then goes to work, trying to find out what the Taelons are hiding from humanity and discovers they are among other things use the gratitude that humanity has for them to manipulate things to their advantage, and they also are keeping the projects that have failed a secret. Doors would eventually come outthe leader of the LIBERATION, an anti-Taelon movement. Boone does learn that some Taelons like Zoor look down on humanity, and there are others like Daan who though loyal to the Companions, believes they can get what they want through friendship and cooperation, and most notably Mael, one of their scientists who came to Earth 2000 years ago, on a secret mission but whose final message to the Taelons was that they should leave humanity alone and allow them time evolve on their own and one day they will be their equals. At the end of the first season, an alien named Hegel, whose race had an encounter with the Taelons, that ended with their race being wiped out, is on Earth and is running around killing people. So Boone and Sandoval are instructed to find him and destroy him. They are told that it&#39;s for the good of humanity but in reality, they are concerned that he might reveal among other things that the Taelons wiped out his race after they helped the Taelons, who were dying when they met. Boone managed to convince him that he wants to help Hegel with his battle against the Taelons but when some policemen barge in and Hegel was about to attack them Boone had no choice but to destroy Hegel and Boone was severely wounded. Boone was being kept in a Taelon life support tank when Zoor decided to eliminate him. The next season it was revealed that before he was destroyed Hegel managed to impregnate a woman, that woman was placed in the Liberation&#39;s custody and in a matter of hours she gave birth to a boy, who matured into a man in a matter of hours. The man took the name Liam Kincaid and at Boone&#39;s funeral saved Daan from an alien, who was sent by their enemies, the Jaridians. Daan would make Liam his new protector replacing Boone. And Liam would also help Doors with his movement. They discover that the Taelons don&#39;t have a fighting instinct, so are hoping that humanity will defend them against the Jaridians. In the show&#39;s third season, Liam would get a new partner when Lily Marquette was discovered to be working for the resistance, and Renee Palmer, one of Doors&#39; confidantes would be his new partner. During the fourth season, it would be revealed that the Taelons are close to being extinct, unless a new source of life sustaining energy can be found. And also that the Taelons and Jaridians were once one species. At the end they found what they believe is that source which was created by Mael, which calls for a Taelon and Jaridian to be fused together. In the following season, what resulted from this joining is a species called the Atavus who claim that the Earth is theirs and they will do what it takes to reclaim their world. And they are aided by Sandoval. And Renee is what stands in their way. The Taelon race, originally regarded with a mix of hostility and awkward acceptance by the humans, have started to reveal through accidents and espionage work, their eventual reasons and plans for the human race. They are at war with a species called the Jaridians, whom they are related to. However,Zo&#39;or, head of the senate prepares humanity to be the foot soldiers in a war to enslave the Jaridians, Da&#39;an, the only Taelon to side with humanity, assists a small group of freedom fighters attempting to decide where humanity should fit into this battle. I really enjoyed this series when it first came out. Although the idea of benevolent-seeming aliens with ulterior motives is not new (see the original Twilight Zone episode &quot;To Serve Man&quot;), EFC gave it a new and fresh approach. Add to that the intrigue between Da&#39;an and Zo&#39;or and the other Taelons, the power struggles within the Resistance, and the Machiavellian Sandoval, and you had a story with some real promise.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, the loss of Kevin KilnerBoone towards the end of the first season, signaled the beginning of a string of cast changes that disrupted the continuity of the series and the story line (to paraphrase a line from &quot;The Outlaw Josey Wales&quot;: when I get to liking a character, they don&#39;t stay around very long). Robert Leeshock put in a fine performanceLiam Kincaid; but I felt Liam became less interesting the more &quot;human&quot; he became. As part alien, he straddled both sides of the fence and could bond with Da&#39;an in ways that no human ever could; buta human, he was just one more resistance fighter.<br/><br/>Another disturbing trend–and maybe it&#39;s my own imagination–was the tendency to cast women based on their brassiere sizes. I thought nothing of it with Lisa Howard–I thought her portrayal of Lili Marquette was first-rate–but then with the introduction, shortly after Lili&#39;s disappearance, of Jayne HeitmeyerRenee Palmer, I became more suspicious. The final straw was Lori Alter&#39;s well-endowed and scantily-camisoled Ehrengraf wrestling with Liam in the final moments of &quot;Emancipation&quot;. All we needed was the Jell-O. Were they TRYING for the adolescent male audience? I&#39;m not criticizing the acting abilities of any of these women; I&#39;m just saying that it was hard to take the series seriously after that.<br/><br/>Finally, would it have been rocket science to choose a less transparent name than Doors International? Jonathan DOORS–Bill GATES??? (Not to mention Microsoft WINDOWS(R)!)<br/><br/>I can&#39;t comment at all on the fifth season–once I saw the Atavus appear and started reading some of the story lines, it just became too painful to bear. Be Warned–SPOILERS within<br/><br/>Okay–most of those who liked the show concede that the first season was, by far, the best. The plot was more cohesive and the direction seemed clearer. The acting was better. Unfortunately, Kliner wanted more of a personal vehicle. He left the show. This could have crippled it, and almost did, but they were able to construct an okay Liam Kincaid plot from just about nowhere and that held the show together–at least until Lisa Howard left. Then they seemed to be stumbling around in the dark. Taelons, Jaridians, Chimerae, it was a huge mess that the writers couldn&#39;t or wouldn&#39;t navigate (and the little aside with the Doctor&#39;s daughter Joyce becoming a Being of Power was just…annoying). The introduction of the true Attivi was a desperate stretch to keep the series alive. Mercifully, it failed. Reintroducing Boone was lame and long overdue. I was far more pleased with the series&#39; conclusion than I could have thought possible. Sandoval died an ultimately pointless death at the hands of one of the most boring sidekicks of all time (Renee)–Liam made a triumphant return and destroyed the Attivus population (only now he was considered a hybrid–if they could ever make up their minds about that character&#39;s nature, the series would have been helped immensely). Liam, Renee and the leftover Taelon going off into space was a fitting end. I will always regret the underuse of Lisa Howard, but there&#39;s nothing to be done about that now.
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346 weeks ago