I'm not sure what was going on, but the episode moved along fast enough and purported to say so many things but that it was hard to come up with any other questions until well after the episode ended.
For instance, wasn't Martinez trying to help Ben in the asylum and battleship episodes? But he wasn't really helping him here.
Who started the nuclear winter? Was it Martinez, or Ben? If the latter, does that mean Martinez failed? And there's still going to be a nuclear winter? That's kind of a downer. How did Martinez and his backers start a nuclear winter initially? But if it wasn't them, why was Janis so determined to stop them?
Why were only three Ians involved with the mind-melding sequence? Shouldn't every Ian throughout time be helping? What about the Ian(s) before Ben arrived in the past and in the nuclear winter future?
Why was Jenn so tearfully overwhelmed by what was going on with Ben and Addison? Yes, it was very sad, but by I didn't burst into tears. Why would Jenn? The power of friendship?
In the earlier scenes, why were Ian and Jenn dressed like 60s hippies?
This and many more, could be explained by the second season so they didn't bother to explain it here. I got the impression the writer was using the rapid pace to cover the holes in the plot.
There were parts of this episode I liked, like the going through the three Jumps Ben and Martinez had shared before. Even those ended on a weird note, because it was filmed like a big heroic moment of Frankie killing Martinez. Frankie who? Yes, I remember her, but she didn't have a major part in the episode she appeared in, and it wasn't a payoff that she killed Martinez here. Although they made it seem like a big payoff for the character.
So overall it was an okay episode. It had the same flaws I've been complaining about throughout, that the production crew is more concerned about the timey-wimey nature of the show and the ongoing plot, rather than the character stuff. When they had decent characters, I thought the character-driven episodes were better than the timey-wimey ones. And isn't that what QL, at least the original one, was about? Granted the new show is going to something new, because it's all-new! All-different! Then why not just create a new time travel show? Timeless pulled it off, Flashforward pulled it off, Supernatural occasionally pulled it off, heck even Voyagers pulled it off back in the day. Invoking the old QL to make a sequel was nice and I suppose brought in an established fan base, but it still seemed like a gimmick and a way to hook in an established fan base, rather than something that had to be a sequel. And while the original QL did cry out for a sequel to give some closure and answer a few question... too much time has passed (alas, poor Dean Stockwell) and some people didn't want to be involved (*cough cough* Scott Bakula *cough*) for the new QL to work as a sequel.
And the new production team didn't seem that interested in doing a sequel. It's hard to put a finger on it, but for the most part the new show felt more like a cash grab and a way to bring in the original fans, rather than a heartfelt attempt to do justice to the original. I couldn't say why
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
For instance, wasn't Martinez trying to help Ben in the asylum and battleship episodes? But he wasn't really helping him here.
Who started the nuclear winter? Was it Martinez, or Ben? If the latter, does that mean Martinez failed? And there's still going to be a nuclear winter? That's kind of a downer. How did Martinez and his backers start a nuclear winter initially? But if it wasn't them, why was Janis so determined to stop them?
Why were only three Ians involved with the mind-melding sequence? Shouldn't every Ian throughout time be helping? What about the Ian(s) before Ben arrived in the past and in the nuclear winter future?
Why was Jenn so tearfully overwhelmed by what was going on with Ben and Addison? Yes, it was very sad, but by I didn't burst into tears. Why would Jenn? The power of friendship?
In the earlier scenes, why were Ian and Jenn dressed like 60s hippies?
This and many more, could be explained by the second season so they didn't bother to explain it here. I got the impression the writer was using the rapid pace to cover the holes in the plot.
There were parts of this episode I liked, like the going through the three Jumps Ben and Martinez had shared before. Even those ended on a weird note, because it was filmed like a big heroic moment of Frankie killing Martinez. Frankie who? Yes, I remember her, but she didn't have a major part in the episode she appeared in, and it wasn't a payoff that she killed Martinez here. Although they made it seem like a big payoff for the character.
So overall it was an okay episode. It had the same flaws I've been complaining about throughout, that the production crew is more concerned about the timey-wimey nature of the show and the ongoing plot, rather than the character stuff. When they had decent characters, I thought the character-driven episodes were better than the timey-wimey ones. And isn't that what QL, at least the original one, was about? Granted the new show is going to something new, because it's all-new! All-different! Then why not just create a new time travel show? Timeless pulled it off, Flashforward pulled it off, Supernatural occasionally pulled it off, heck even Voyagers pulled it off back in the day. Invoking the old QL to make a sequel was nice and I suppose brought in an established fan base, but it still seemed like a gimmick and a way to hook in an established fan base, rather than something that had to be a sequel. And while the original QL did cry out for a sequel to give some closure and answer a few question... too much time has passed (alas, poor Dean Stockwell) and some people didn't want to be involved (*cough cough* Scott Bakula *cough*) for the new QL to work as a sequel.
And the new production team didn't seem that interested in doing a sequel. It's hard to put a finger on it, but for the most part the new show felt more like a cash grab and a way to bring in the original fans, rather than a heartfelt attempt to do justice to the original. I couldn't say why
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?