This overly theatrical mono-setting story is based - at least initially - on the absurd premise that Earth would keep sending its troops to a completely unknown enemy planet where each previous ship had disappeared without a trace. This seems a very daft strategy. Couldn't they just send robotic exploratory missions?
This absurdity is later resolved when it turns out that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, a test. Of course, none of the soldiers ever asks WHY each new crew is being given secret info about the NEXT mission, or WHY robotic missions aren't sent instead. That would be too logical for this goofy premise.
A very dumb, far-fetched plot-twist. Apparently, the Ebonites' attack on Earth was an ACCIDENT. How did this happen? Why? How much damage? It's rather far-fetched to have an advanced alien species attack another planet by accident. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to. Sometimes we get a little confused. The planets are all so similar: all of them are round!" The writer predictably avoided explaining this, because he had no clue how he could pull it off.
In return for their mistake, the aliens decide to help out Earth's military by conducting a series of experiments on the behaviour of prisoners of war. It is a plot-twist as dumb as it is completely silly. An example of overly eccentric writing. Just how many more crews were they going to check for loyalty? Millions? This futuristic US military sure is paranoid about their own soldiers, doubting their loyalty to the extent that they'd go through such an elaborate scheme. Don't they have anything better to do with their time?
Martin Sheen plays Private Dicks (spelled Dixx) and I can't help but wonder whether this was a private joke or something, or unintentional. He hams it up badly, but so do some of the other actors too. The combination of awkward, preachy dialogue and occasional overacting ruin the episode's potential before the great reveal even occurs. The interactions between the humans are so unrealistic that they seem more alien than the aliens themselves. No, this was NOT intentional irony.
The POWs instead of trying to attack the alien - and they get plenty of opportunity to do so - draw straws who will kill their Chinese colleague! They want to execute him for treason despite there being no evidence that he did it. In fact, he is the only one who underwent torture, so if anything he should be the least suspicious.
The military decides to TORTURE their own soldiers just for a few daft tests?! They couldn't test the soldiers WITHOUT inflicting physical pain and mental suffering on them? Really? With the upper echelon this sadistic and this eager to hurt their own army, these soldiers don't really need any enemies!
Muddled writing, bad acting, dumb dialogue, a stupid premise, and unconvincing characters sink this. Only at the end, when the aliens are just about to reveal the scam, do the POWs attempt to subdue one. What follows is a comedy of errors as in a dumb cartoon.
The fact that the soldiers almost killed an alien, and the fact that several people lost their lives in this shoddily conceived and almost pointless "controlled experiment" just proves how inept both the aliens and the human military are. Hence the story is utter garbage.
This absurdity is later resolved when it turns out that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, a test. Of course, none of the soldiers ever asks WHY each new crew is being given secret info about the NEXT mission, or WHY robotic missions aren't sent instead. That would be too logical for this goofy premise.
A very dumb, far-fetched plot-twist. Apparently, the Ebonites' attack on Earth was an ACCIDENT. How did this happen? Why? How much damage? It's rather far-fetched to have an advanced alien species attack another planet by accident. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to. Sometimes we get a little confused. The planets are all so similar: all of them are round!" The writer predictably avoided explaining this, because he had no clue how he could pull it off.
In return for their mistake, the aliens decide to help out Earth's military by conducting a series of experiments on the behaviour of prisoners of war. It is a plot-twist as dumb as it is completely silly. An example of overly eccentric writing. Just how many more crews were they going to check for loyalty? Millions? This futuristic US military sure is paranoid about their own soldiers, doubting their loyalty to the extent that they'd go through such an elaborate scheme. Don't they have anything better to do with their time?
Martin Sheen plays Private Dicks (spelled Dixx) and I can't help but wonder whether this was a private joke or something, or unintentional. He hams it up badly, but so do some of the other actors too. The combination of awkward, preachy dialogue and occasional overacting ruin the episode's potential before the great reveal even occurs. The interactions between the humans are so unrealistic that they seem more alien than the aliens themselves. No, this was NOT intentional irony.
The POWs instead of trying to attack the alien - and they get plenty of opportunity to do so - draw straws who will kill their Chinese colleague! They want to execute him for treason despite there being no evidence that he did it. In fact, he is the only one who underwent torture, so if anything he should be the least suspicious.
The military decides to TORTURE their own soldiers just for a few daft tests?! They couldn't test the soldiers WITHOUT inflicting physical pain and mental suffering on them? Really? With the upper echelon this sadistic and this eager to hurt their own army, these soldiers don't really need any enemies!
Muddled writing, bad acting, dumb dialogue, a stupid premise, and unconvincing characters sink this. Only at the end, when the aliens are just about to reveal the scam, do the POWs attempt to subdue one. What follows is a comedy of errors as in a dumb cartoon.
The fact that the soldiers almost killed an alien, and the fact that several people lost their lives in this shoddily conceived and almost pointless "controlled experiment" just proves how inept both the aliens and the human military are. Hence the story is utter garbage.