Episode 5 - Upon Awakening

SPOILERS




I was looking forward to this episode because of Gail Nordic's return and the looming showdown on Terminus between the Empire's forces and the Anacreons and the possibility of some advancements in the story. But apart from the simple facts of those two things happening the episode was otherwise uneventful.

The first 20 minutes were given over to Gail Nordic's back story and how she came to rebel against her strict religious upbringing. But this was all redundant information because we already knew that. And worse the twenty minutes added nothing new to her story so it was pointless.

The rest of Gail's time in the present was spent trying to get information from the AI running her rescue station and proving again that she's quite the smarty pants. And of course we already knew that too.

Meanwhile on Terminus the tense stand off between the Anacreons and the Termites continued. The Anacreons turned off the barrier and stormed the settlement amid a hail of blaster fire without actually seeming to hurt anyone.

The Empire battle ship Commander decided it would be a good idea to hover a thousand metres above the settlement and read the riot act to the Anacreons which gave them plenty of time to take aim and fire a missile at his ship. Oops-a-daisy ! The tactical equivalent of Daenerys blindly flying her dragon into range of a scorpion cross bow.

The other notable thing about this episode was that the Emperors and Demerzel didn't appear in it. And the absence of the most interesting characters and the best actors on the show left the episode underpowered in terms of how interesting it was, or in this case wasn't.

There used to be an old saying about sport " bad kicking is bad football ". Stating the obvious but no less true for that. You might also say " bad writing is bad television " and that is also true with regard to this show.