Sci-Fi Friday Presents - Space : Above and Beyond ; Hostile Visit
“After the 58th capture an alien bomber, McQueen suggests that it would help raise troop moral if they use the vessel to attach the alien's home planet – a plan that goes horribly wrong.”
I have to say, this is one of the more interesting of episodes that contained a pretty basic plot but wrapped with a lot of development character and plot wise and mostly hits all the marks. Hostile Visit can be a give or take on name value alone, as it doesn't seem much went their way as planned. It's a Trojan horse story and once they got to Cerus, the alien home planet they took out a sentry satellite base but completely missed the target of the base or city in an interesting curve ball. However, it wasn't for whatever the target was. It seemed all by itself, in the middle of no where with a lack of surrounding cities. I mean this could have been a limitation on the CGI, but it's nothing a matte painting couldn't have fixed to a point. However, the fact is this basic plot drove the point home that not everything goes as planned and train the audience to expect the unexpected. I, honestly, forgot this was a two part episode and had lost track of time up to the end.
What really helped this episode was the key character and story developments. I loved seeing Wang get an opportunity to really grow in his role within the 58th and the overall story. He is quite the Joker, especially with his spot on impersonation of McQueen. It made me wonder if the actors had been goofing off in between takes and someone said, “Let's use that in an episode!” It was downright hilarious and of course covering his butt with McQueen was perfect as well. Wang was able to further his love of Chicago and also develop a love interest. This was an interesting step to take since romance went off the table with West in the first handful of episode with Kylen. McQueen and Ross continue to develop their on screen acting chops giving both much needed exposition for their individual characters and between each other. Honestly, what's not to like about the 58th ? They are a well oiled unit evidenced by the shenanigans they put the tech's through to assist McQueen with his plans. Hawkes and Wang were the duo to watch in that scene.
The overall plot was nicely furthered with the Aero-Tech shady business and with the Chigs in the war effort. I mean with this character Sewell and Aero-Tech, we have a reminder that corporate interests are very much at play here. Even though Sewell swiped the data, the 58th and other Saratoga officers were able to make up for it. It's appropriate that the 58th are very much aware of his duplicitous nature and question his integrity. I look forward to seeing karma get him. However at the end of the episode, he's the one who advises Ross to go after the 58th. He clearly knows something and has plans; Ross is keenly aware of the questionable nature but proceeds anyways. We are still in the dark about the Chigs but the small hints keep on coming. This comes mostly from observations the 58th make while studying the bomber. The ship designs, exterior and interior are fascinating and detailed but the CGI doesn't do it justice.
Overall, Hostile Visit is a very solid episode. It was an interesting choice to play a two-parter, so full judgment will wait until Choice or Chance plays out. In the future, two-parters will be reviewed together and we may bump to reviewing two episodes at a crack. The premise was basic, but the characters and sprinkle of plot development made this a promising start to a bigger story. I'm going to give this 8 / 10 Hammerheads.
No comments:
Post a Comment