A scientist has found a way to create completely new humans using Taelon energy, but his methods are impossible to countenance.

Firstly, this episode seems as if it should have appeared second in the running order, as it features Hubble Urick and the ratification of the Atlantic National Alliance, a group which seems to be in action in episode two. However, this promising subplot gets lost amidst the story of the doctor and his bio-surrogates.

After returning to this concept a couple of times in the series before now, this one is really just overkill. Okay, so we’ve now moved on and human cloning is possible, but what we want to see is the technology put to use, not a woman falling in love with a nicer version of the doctor which is really a clone. Four seasons in and E:FC has plenty of possible plotlines it can follow. Like Babylon 5, this should be an arc-intensive year, rather than pussyfooting around all the time in the hope that the whole thing can be dragged out for at least seven years. It’s getting to the point where constant alterations in the set-up aren’t enough to keep viewer interest: we’ve been waiting for the actual conflict to start for four years. The resistance still hasn’t done a damn thing to hurt the Taelons, their secrets remain fairly unrevealed and humanity, like the watcher, doesn’t really care anymore. There should be Jaridians everywhere, fights, interspatial battles. Something. Anything.

What we’ve got is Liam running around ineffectively, Renee being reunited with an old friend, who once again she appears to not have any affection, or even (in the early stages of the episode) any loathing for. Jayne Heitmeyer seems singularly unable to emote anything, rendering her an extremely dull character to watch. Even Sandoval doesn’t have much to do beyond acting as assassin, with most of the time spent on searching for the doctor’s clone. A better approach would have been to leave him in charge and see what happened, but that idea seems to have been passed by, just like every other decent one this show has ever had.

**

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