The Visitor

Man, abducted forty years ago, is back on Earth, and on the run.

Miscellaneous Comments: 18:35, Saturday May 9th. I'd actually given up on The Visitor following a less than enjoyable opening two episodes. But, when RTE Guide (incorrectly, as it happens) listed Tammy Lauren (Homefront) as a guest in episode four, I thought I'd give it a try. As the credits were rolling, it occured to me that I should try something different. So, with "The Briefing" in mind, I grabbed my dictaphone and started talking...
Stream-of-Consciousness Review: "Dreams." The episode started in a top-secret lab, with a political big-wig being shown around and told about a message from space from something getting closer and closer to Earth. Cut to Adam, our hero, rolling around in pain, and then on to the opening credits, with so-so music and clips from the pilot.
  • Tedious so far. He's pretending to be a magician at a kid's party. Ha-ha. No surprise there. So far, we've met an obnoxious scientist whose son is "ten years old today," says Adam (the hero) reading it from the banner on the wall. "Mom! Mom! He can read my mind," gushes the kid. "The Amazing Adam," says the mum. Gag, says I.
  • I can't believe Randall Zisk is invovled with this.
  • I can't believe John Masius is involved with this.
  • I don't know who Ed Gold, the writer, is.
  • Okay. He's going to perform a magic trick of some time, using his powers, of course, And... I'm supposed to be entertained by this?
  • Now, the father arrives in. Of course, he's completely and utterly absorbed in his work, and he's neglecting his son. Gee, I wonder where this episode is going.
  • Okay. Now we've got back to the fact that there's 'something' coming from space. So, we're going back to the space/sci-fi angle. And I must admit: I'm interested again.
  • My problem with the father-neglects-son plotline in this episode is that it's so over-played/over-written. So obvious. I've seen it done a million times. And I wasn't interested then, either.
  • Okay. The scientist phoned the bad-guy, Steve Railsback. And then he crashed his car. Meanwhile, our hero is rolling around on the beach, screaming and convulsing. And, I think, I saw him try to pick his nose as his hands flailed about. Honest injun.
  • Okay, the dad is in hospital, it looks like he's going to die, and mother looks very upset. My guess? Our hero saves him. The man learns something from the experience and bonds with his son. [deep sigh] Two hours from now, Dawson's Creek is on. Thank god!.
  • Now, Col. Bad Guy has shown up. Our hero and the dad are in hospital beds, side-by-side. Luckily, a screen seperates them, preventing Col. Bad Guy from seeing our hero. Whew!
  • Steve Railsback, the baddie, is overacting. And it's terrible.
  • The camera angle nicely caught a bedside clock, reminding us that we are in a countdown situation, towards the launch of the scientist's rocket. It was a nice bit of directing, subtle almost, I liked it.
  • Okay, now we're in a surreal dream sequence where the two guys are side by side in a car. Ah, I'm not sure what words, ah, come to mind... "Bad" is one.
  • The dream sequence was very long and, although I didn't like it, I must admit that I admired it, in the same way that I admired, but didn't actually like, China Beach. It's certainly different. Not my thing. And, I suppose, I can understand how it got itself a dedicated fan following. Northern Exposure was like that, as well. I watched the first two seasons, the short ones. And, liked it less and less. But I could see how it's own particularly quirkyness was going to appeal to people. Obviously, John Corbett has a talent was appearing in this type of programme.
  • Okay, we're back in another dream sequence, later in the episode, and the dad is... Starting. To. Realise. That. He's. Neglecting. His. Son. And the hero, of course, is picturing his son, as well. This, I imagine, is what's supposed to tug at our heart-strings. It's not.
  • Steve Railsback's character is evidently a bad-guy, at least based on the three episodes I've seen. The thing with The Incredible Hulk was you actually liked McGee. A lot. The thing with The Pretender is you like Miss Parker. A lot. The thing with Starman was you also liked Fox. I mean, isn't that supposed to be the thing with these shows? Two good people trapped on opposite sites by a mis-understanding? Col. Bad-Guy keeps telling us that Adam is danger to mankind. But, instead of curing fate for giving him this idea, you kinda feel he'd be a bastard no matter what he thought about Adam.
  • "Language is a subtle tool," says Adam during their psychic car ride. "It's easy to get the message wrong, even if you have the words right." This is in relation to the message-from-space that has all the military types uptight, and has the dad/scientist guy launching a dangerous rocket of some type. "Let me translate, I know the languge." "How? How do you know?" "Cos I've been there, with them." "What'd you do? Not pay for dinner?" "This isn't a joke. Alex, I was abducted. I came back cos choices are being made, by us, that will be catastrophic for our planet. I don't believe the future is set in stone. I can't stop the clock, but T minus zero doesn't have to happen the way you think. Now tell me, please, Alex." I'm not interested at all by this stage.
  • They just pulled the old FBI-agent-assumes-Doctor-is-a-man,-turns-out-to-be-a-woman gag. Oh. My. Lord.
  • The more I see these ongoing dream/surreal/whatever sequences it strikes me that they look really, really cheap.
  • The main thing here is: it's a first contact situation, and the humans are about to botch it up. But it's not a patch on the Outer Limits episode with Robert Foxworth. That was a masterpiece of television. This is tedious drivel.
  • Okay, the hero has been told what he needs to know to save the world and... he's stopping for a talk with the dad about his son and all that sort of... crap. The pilot and episode two brought the Visitor into contact with a young boy with a computer he used. I missed a week. And here I am in week four and he's in contact with a young boy whose computer he's using. All these young boys he meets make it easy for him to be reminded of his own lost son, who can then appear in flashbacks. Blah! Interesting, too, that the mothers in these episodes are ineffectual-stand-around-and-look-worried-and-helpless kind of women. Hmm. The regular cast are all male. Hmm. Maybe that's why the Visitor came back! To get better written female roles in his series.
  • "Magic isn't real, Stevie, it's just what we call something we don't understand." Ah, "Who Watches The Watchers?" anyone?
  • The war is about to start, he's trying to abort the missile launch and, again, we're stopping for a scene where he hugs the little boy. For me, the mixture of sci-fi and heart-warming family fare doen't gel on this show.
  • Another flashback to the Visitor's own son. Who looks like a desperately cute waif (even if he doesn't actually maintain eye-contact when he delivers his lines. "I'm over here, son!! I'm over here!!" Still, he is cute.)
  • Okay, they've really lost me here, because the hero has gone back to the hospital, and (back in the surreal psychic link they share) he's telling the unconscious dad, that he's made a choice to re-unite the father and son, as opposed to stopping the rocket and saving planet Earth.
  • The rocket is taking off. Steve Railsback is grinning like crazy (Over-acting like crazy, I mean). But never mind the rocket, the dad is coming to again. Thank. Goodness.
  • What about the rocket? The war? "I'll find another way. There's always another way." Oh. My. Gawd. This is really bad.
  • On Sky One, they're running promos for their Wednesday night line-up (Stargate/Outer Limits/Millenium). Wow. I got more entertainment from watching those few clips, than I did over the past hour, sorry Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich.
    Type of Series: Sci-Fi. Man on run.
    Similar Shows: Starman would be the most obvious one, you'd imagine, but for me it's a glaring rip-off of the (vastly superior) Pretender.
    Impressive Characters:
    Impressive Actors:
    Impressive Episodes:
    Impressive Writers:
    Less-Than-Impressive Characters: As well as Col. Bad Guy, the show has a team of three agents chasing the Visitor. Their actual contribution to the show, eludes me.
    Less-Than-Impressive Actors: Steve Railsback does zilch for me.
    Less-Than-Impressive Episodes: The three I have seen.
    Less-Than-Impressive Writers: These are the guys behind Stargate the movie. I read that they are unhappy with Showtime's treatment of their idea. I look at The Visitor and shudder that they might have done this to Stargate. Aside from them you have Zisk, who was involved with one of the all time greats, Midnight Caller, and Masius, who was part of the St. Elsewhere team.
    Continuity: 1 and 2 had strong continuity.
    Reviews: I must look for some pages. I'd love to see inside the mind of a fan, see what I'm missing out on.
    Other Info:
    Three Things I Really Like About This Series:
  • -
  • -
  • -
    Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Series:
  • Nothing happens. Ep 2 was set almost entirely in a tool shed. This ep was confined to the dreamscape.
  • Adam accomplishes nothing. Sure he helped the dad reconcile with his son, but what will happen to their new-found love when the planet is blown up?
  • -

    GRADE: C-

    Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com

    Especially if you liked this episode and can tell me why.

    This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage