In this episode we see the return of Robert Patrick as Major John Skokes and it would seem that his appearance in this episode is more/less a continuation from his appearance in the episode, "Quality of Mercy". Some really great acting and top-notch actors in this one, Robert Patrick, Graham Greene, Wil Wheaton and more. Major Skokes is aboard a ship that is, "Our last hope" against alien invaders. The ship is attacked and many on board die due to radiation leaks, so it is up to Wil Wheaton as a cadet and the Major to continue the mission as planned. During the episode the Major talks about the enemy as if he had some first hand knowledge about them. If you watch the episode, "Quality of Mercy" first then it makes more sense because I really think they are connected. Eventually, Wil Wheaton, the cadet (sorry Wil, no pun intended) makes his way through the battered ship to where a nuclear device is. He then makes a terrible mistake and that's all I'll say about this one. You gotta see it.
4 Reviews
Futuristic War with Aliens... in space.
dickielynch19 October 2006
Humanity is at war with an alien species, when a lone ship is sent out to the alien home world with a final solution to the conflict. A weapon of massive destructive capabilities, capable of annihilating life from the entire planet. However, the ship is intercepted en route and the crew rendered unconscious. Upon awakening, several members of the crew realise that the enemy have boarded the ship and endangered the mission. Suffering from increasing radiation poisoning, Wil Wheaton and several other crew members engage in a last ditch attempt to save the mission. Cut off from their chain of command, and knowing that they will not survive the radiation sickness that is slowly killing them, they must face one final shocking twist that will blow you away in true Outer Limits style. This episode will not disappoint!
Not All That Well Conceived
Hitchcoc12 April 2014
Wil Wheaton must have done this pretty close to his Wesley Crusher days. This is a sequel to a previous episode which left us hanging (just a bit). A crew is on its way to a planet, populated by those who have conquered earth. They are going to deliver a weapon and destroy the planet. However, it is a suicide mission. Somehow, word of their mission was intercepted and they are attacked. Unfortunately, the few that are left receive lethal doses of radiation and will die soon. The agree to carry out the mission, despite the fact they will never see the results. The obstacles are presented by the damage to the ship and the difficulty of arming the bomb. There is the usual macho stuff going on. Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" becomes a part of the plot though I never really understood. Of course, the poem is about the brigade of six hundred in the Crimean war, who went on a similar suicide mission ("Ours not to reason why
..etc.) Anyway, through courageous maneuvers they come to the crisis point and must act. It just seemed a bit trite for me.
Clichéd
Sandsquish9 February 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This episode was all about its twist ending, which the writers didn't even bother to set up until the last act of the show.
Up until the final "revelations" the audience saw nothing more than improbably tough, brave crewmen desperately trying to sacrifice themselves for a war the audience knows nothing about, other than that the unseen lizard monsters are winning and the four characters seem to really hate that.
So, after a half hour of pushing levers and control rods and crawling through a radiation-filled spaceship, the writers spring their two surprises on the audience. First, one of the characters isn't who he said he was, and, second, the other characters weren't where they thought they were. Oops!
I would have felt cheated, but, frankly, the characters weren't very believable in the first place, and their situation never seemed overly compelling because no one bothered to set it up for the audience. There were several interesting tid-bits thrown in the mix, but the filmmakers just treated them as window dressing and concentrated, instead, on the least interesting, and most clichéd, aspects of the story. Oh, well.
Up until the final "revelations" the audience saw nothing more than improbably tough, brave crewmen desperately trying to sacrifice themselves for a war the audience knows nothing about, other than that the unseen lizard monsters are winning and the four characters seem to really hate that.
So, after a half hour of pushing levers and control rods and crawling through a radiation-filled spaceship, the writers spring their two surprises on the audience. First, one of the characters isn't who he said he was, and, second, the other characters weren't where they thought they were. Oops!
I would have felt cheated, but, frankly, the characters weren't very believable in the first place, and their situation never seemed overly compelling because no one bothered to set it up for the audience. There were several interesting tid-bits thrown in the mix, but the filmmakers just treated them as window dressing and concentrated, instead, on the least interesting, and most clichéd, aspects of the story. Oh, well.
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