S08	Choice or Chance
Vansen: You're Brando, babe... Damphousse: You're De Niro, girl...		Plot After escaping to the ship's life pod, the 58th crash land near the Kazbek Penal Facility where they are captured by AIs. Wang, Vansen, Damphousse and West each undergo their own ordeal at the hands of the AIs, some fairing better than others...
	Personal Comments A brilliant episode, really bringing out the most from each character. Joel's portrayal of Wang's torture made a particularly potent impression... great acting. Following the run of Chig traits, we discover some more emotional responses including hatred and repugnance. Yep, the Chigs do have a weakness - they can't stand the smell of human blood! Perhaps that's why they desecrate human bodies? The AIs in this episode triggered some thoughts. Barring their tatty dress sense, which makes me look reasonably smart and tidy in comparison, they have an awful lot of scars and exposed electronics. You could argue that it's due to them having to wander space in exile, seeing a lot of action and being away from a good source of spares (and plastic surgery?). However, I get this feeling it might be some kind of initiation ceremony - defacing themselves to make them look less human and more sinister. Though you'd think they'd be happy enough with the crosshair eyes... I'm a little curious about Kylen's appearance at the facility though. It even made me wonder if the Chigs knew West and the 58th would be turning up... hmmm, perhaps they even let the Saratoga have access to the ship in the first place. After all, AeroTech were dropping plenty of hints about the 58th's survival and so on. The first hints that AeroTech have had more contact with Chigs than they want to admit. Anyway, my point is that if the Tellus colonists were there, why weren't they rescued by the marines at the end? If they weren't really colonists, what were they? The Kylen 'clone' seemed afraid of blood, and knew a lot about the 58th and their mission, suggesting she was a Chig agent. In fact, she even ended up turning to green goo as with all the other Chig's we've encountered (see the goof below, for something related to this). Yet in later episodes we've never encountered anything like her - Chigs don't seem to possess shapeshifting abilities (at least, not naturally). Has Chig technology allowed them to alter their bodies through some kind of treatment, or can they grow/clone agents made to look like known people - a scary thought because they could infiltrate Earth with these agents! However, we know later that they don't turn to goo naturally, which leads me nicely into the goof... Production Goofs The post-death, green goo phenomenon seems to be some kind of self-destruct/suicide option on Chig suits, judging from later evidence. So why did Kylen turn to goo after dying? Okay, if they can adapt their bodies by some "shapeshifting treatment", perhaps it's a side-effect. If they grow their own agents, perhaps it's a problem with that... but it just doesn't seem right to me. Any thoughts from you out there?