Suns & Shadows

Sci-Fi Friday Presents - Space : Above and Beyond ; Choice or Chance

“When the 58th crash land on a moon deep in enemy territory and Shane, Damphousse and Wang are captured by Silicates. West discovers one of the other prisoners is Kylen.”

We come back hot in this second part episode of Choice or Chance. McQueen and Hawkes, escape from the wreck and patrols and provide some great character building between the two of them. I honestly could see a series just centered around them. Hawkes & McQueen has a nice ring to it! Especially with all the great moments between them, my personal favorite is when McQueen talks about his time in the AI war and then rips an arm off a dead Silicate. Hawkes responds simply with, “Cool.” His inflection is that of the audience and totally captures the spirit of them as a duo.

The rest of the 58th are pretty spread out with their own arcs going on and none of them feel thin. West finds Kylen and subsequently gets a jail break from her. However, West showing he's grown as a Marine and a person doesn't take long to start second guessing if this is really Kylen. Early on, he kisses her but then pauses to look at her but carries on. It could have been a bit more overt that he was catching on, but it drove the point home when needed. Vansen and Damphousse carried on like bad asses when needed and I appreciated them working together to subdue and escape from the Silicates. Last and certainly not least was Wang. This is a curious move, because it felt a bit forced for some reason. I don't mean that by way of the actor, but breaking him so quickly and taping the confession. While I see where the plot will eventually turn with this and yes Wang was injured in the crash, I just have a hard time suspending my disbelief with this one.

The episode is well paced and the stories do show growth with the characters and story. At least this episode did not drag out into a third episode, though some subplots could have used it. Ultimately, the Chig's using the prison more as a lab for experiments with the Silicates was a nice touch. It still felt like a prison right up to that point that Vansen and Damphousse figured out the game plan. The Chigs were attempting to see where the real issues were between the humans and how to best exploit them. I really like that the Chigs are not so one dimensional and that they are playing mind games with humanity.

The line of the episode was definitely McQueen. “Then once, they were doing stuff to me. I hard screaming. Sounded far off, down the hall. I remember thinkin', 'That poor bastard. What must he be goin' through?' Then, when I came to. I realized the screams had come from me.” This is the moment of the episode that felt the most real and humanizing.

Overall, I liked Choice or Chance but I don't feel it really put an exclamation point on a two part story. I contribute this to the forced subplot with Wang. Outside of that, the episode is good and enjoyable. Choice or Chance did follow through for the most part and did flow with Hostile Visit nicely. You won't feel like your time was wasted and great moments are to be had. Choice or Chance gets a solid 7.5 / 10 Hammerheads. I do see the writing improving and I think the weird influx of forced aspects will settle down.