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Home Fires - Episode #208 (some spoilers below) (Click here for synopsis)

This weeks episode had only one story line, but executed it in such a choppy way that it still felt like they were pushed for time and cutting scenes out. It still had a lot to offer in terms of another look what the Commonwealth was like and a chance to reintroduce "Rhade" who was an interesting character.

Speaking of Rhade, I was glad to see the impossibility of "genetic reincarnation" discussed in the show. I was disappointed not to see an explanation for Rhade (cloning?) provided, given that the odds of exactly replicating someone's DNA 300 years later are poor. Of course even if it did happen they would be less alike than twins (who I know from experience can differ a lot) since they would not share a common upbringing.

Nonetheless I liked Telemachus and was glad to see Steve Bacic in the role again. His interactions with Dylan (as well as Dylan's memories of Gaheris) are generally well done. Somewhat like in "Double Helix" we see memories of his Nietzschean friend helping Dylan understand current day Nietzscheans better. While they can be interesting, they are also somewhat tragic characters, shackled by a self-centered and somewhat amoral philosophy. It is in rising above their background by acts of self-sacrifice that helps them (especially Tyr and Rhade) become such a complicated and interesting characters at times.

None of the regular cast but Dylan had much to do (I hope this is not a trend), but his character was handled well this week. Rekel (Francoise Yip) and Jamahl (Zahf Pardo) were in various ways less believable, though my impression is that it was the roles not the actors who were a problem here.

The episode featured a couple of fight scenes that were there for the story or action potential but did not make much sense. The first between Telemachus and Dylan nicely paralleled the previous one with Gaheris, but could have been very easily avoided. Dylan obviously knew what was coming and rather than risk one of them being killed he could have told Rhade who the "real criminal" was in advance. Also, it was nice to see them fight together against Rekel's guards, but since they appeared unarmed it did not make much sense.

Seeing the Commonwealth was a constitutional monarchy (similar to the UK) was interesting, although it was hard to believe they voted against the Commonwealth after 300 years of waiting to help restore it. In general there was a lot of good continuity this week, including the Castailians and the crew being justifiably suspicious of "Commonwealth" ships or bases. Seeing the message from Sara (Sam Sorbo) was also good and obviously paves the way for Dylan to "move on" in relationships with others in the future.

One surprising item was that they did not get any new crew. I know the show is based upon a small group of varied and at times incompatible crew members, but this was a golden opportunity to add in some "nameless" Commonwealth trained crew to make the running of the ship a bit more believable.

Overall, a good episode even uneven at times. However, on a sad note there has been an announcement of the forced departure of Robert Hewitt Wolfe. You can see my "News" page for my comments on this, but the gist is that I thought he had done a great job and have serious concerns about the direction the show will take.

The ratings for the episode are given below. For information on how my rating system works, click on this link.

Review 11/29/01 by Larry Kramer

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