Having read and watched science fiction since childhood, I'm a pretty good judge of the genre, so perhaps I'm somewhat harsh, but I don't deliberately inflate or depress the ratings, which is why I seldom assign a 1 or a 10.
I gave this episode a 4 to acknowledge the quite good acting especially of Cat and Helena, two characters I like. It's the actors, not the writing or direction, that makes it watchable.
Lieutenant Lane, dude, why do you fight like a girl? Oh, excuse me, would that he could fight like a girl. On this show, the characters have to be female to fight. Well, there's Felix, but that's another story.
There were three opportunities to subdue skinny pale girl. Lane had a good vantage point in the storage room but got a broken nose and crumbled. Then, while Felix was fighting Marco, both guns were on the floor. Lane was on his feet and could've easily gotten to the guns to kick them out of the way and to kick Kelly in the head. His delay was blatant and contrived. Lastly, in the shuttle, Kelly pointed the gun at Angus and Lane was out of the line of fire and had both hands free. But again, no.
Let's all sing the refrain: "Plot Devices!"
How about that security? Lock down means what? Were the hatches all centrally locked from the inside so nobody could open them from the outside? Of course not. The hatches are just unlocked and anyone can enter at his pleasure.
In the airlock chamber, I counted 5 intruders, and 5 again in space. Where did that sixth body come from?
The best scene was between Helena and Cat. Ms. Wolfe is awesome! One thing though, why was she punching in the code to operate the intercom? Did she know the code? Was it changed? In any case, you don't need to open the door to use the intercom. She could've called the bridge or sick bay to get medical help. But, this show loves door pounding. As soon as Helena lost consciousness, a crew member opened the door. Rather than whisking her to sick bay for resuscitation, or to the Trust's cryopods for freezing, she was just let to die. Lame.
There is this cartoonishly evil Evelyn Maddox who is made to resemble Cruella Deville. Why does she want to kill all the puppies, uh, I mean, people? The writers didn't even bother to explain it in any but the lamest way.
An interesting idea that was clumsily written is that Ark 3 archives had data on the cure for Klampkins, which can be synthesized from the DNA of the Mediterranean recluse spider. I guess they had a DNA room with the spider DNA, as does Ark 1. So, everyone has to be killed and the arks destroyed to get the cure. Riiiight. Now, why do intelligent spacefarers, all part of a team of arks, have to act like pirates? How about saying, "Good news! There's a cure. You have an ingredient. Let's make the medicine"?
All this blatant absurdity could be avoided and suspension of disbelief made easier with clever writing.
Judging by the personnel on Ark 15, and the fact that the show is made in Serbia, is this a war of East Bloc against West Bloc?
Lastly, my least favorite character, Trust. Yeah, he'll move on just fine. After his wife's death, he's already forgotten her name and called her Helen. Yeesh!
I'll be surprised if the Syfy Channel wants to invest in a second season. But in the last two episodes, I want to see this "super electromagnet" (wow, corny Flash Gordon technobabble) spin up the planet.
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