1.17: Follow the Leader

[Tabitha]

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Episode 17 - UK Sky One Airdate 29/01/03

 

[Tabitha]

I don't really understand what the title of this episode is referring to.

I didn't take notes, so I can't offer a blow-by-blow account of what happened, but this week the major plotline revolves around a class of schoolchildren who are involved in the activities of a sentient and under some kind of mind control they construct a device which the Odyssey 5 crew theorise is a transporter of some kind. In the finale the transporter is activated, and although most of the children are saved, one is transported away, along with several of an enemy sentient's synthetics.

The mind-control/sentient plot business seemed a little repetitive to me - it seemed like a variation on things we had seen before, although I admit I am intrigued by the device the children built - was it a transporter? What was the purpose of transporting those children away? What did the sentient want with them? What are the consequences of the enemy synthetics' transportation?
Lots of questions, with only three episodes left of this season, and the future of the show in doubt, wil they ever be answered?

Sub-plotlines included Sarah's work troubles - more a comedy diversion than anything else!

 

[RangerOne SG13 SOR]

Follow the leader is a childs game. It fits with the fact the sentient was leading the children in some way.

The mind-control/sentient plot business seemed a little repetitive to me - it seemed like a variation on things we had seen before

You felt that too. I really dont see this show lasting 5 years if it is going to be the same ingredients...

Sentient+mind control+ victim+ detective work= dead sentient and a trip to the resturaunt.

I see the mind control of children plausable, Adults can just as easily be brainwashed and offer flexability (the can move freely etc) I mean where did those kids buy that stuff from or if it was delivered by the sentient surely parents would be suspisious.

The device itself was strange. I can understand it floating in the water so it can move (the pieces were wrapped in clear boyancy type plastic) as for its use well as a transportation device i had my doubts but Kurt and chuck sumised the same.

Chuck:where does the dam thing take you
Kurt: Who knows maybe another place or another planet

This made me think BINGO is this the weak link as to how the sentients leave Earth and destroy the other worlds. In all my theorys the credability often falls at the "how did the other 50 worlds die in the same way upto 500 years earlier" This always points at some sort of dimension/time travel which I hope isnt true becuase it will make the story naff.

We then come to the other sentients at the end. What were they doing? attacking the sentient kids or protecting them. They dived into the pool and Flash they were all gone.

The best bit for me...no it wasnt the start with the girl in the pool, although it comes in a close second. The best part was Chuck with the captured sentient LOL he really worked on his bereavement therapy then hehe. That had me smiling watching Kurt trying to stop him.

So rather dull episode. This show started so strong is it going to fade away?

Ranger

 

[Dave]

That pretty much covered it all, but I have a few more questions:

Did Kurt and Chuck's discussion in the restaurant (re: the light from the swimming pool device was the same as the flash of light before the Earth exploded) mean that the whole Earth was transported away?

Was the 'Bright Sky' satellite supposed to be the same device as the one in the pool?

Was the synthetic that Chuck killed really trying to stop the Sentient control the children, or was he just lying to save his skin?

Originally posted by RangerOne SG13 SOR
where did those kids buy that stuff from or if it was delivered by the sentient surely parents would be suspisious.

The Showtime review of the episode which is copied verbatum by Sky says that the children are taking part in a "science experiment." I don't see an 'Internet Club' as being a "science experiment", so I assumed that the electronic machines were the science project.

The Headmaster said that all the hardware was donated by an anonymous benefactor, who he presumed was a parent of a prospective pupil, but who was obviously a Sentient instead. Some parents were suspicious, several were in fact, and one pulled there son out of the school. In a class of 10 kids (??), I think that makes sense.

Maybe the message is that we ought to be more careful where schools get sponsorship money from -- this is a bone of contention at the moment, so quite relevant.

 

[Tabitha]

Yes, I did find the donated computers issue quite interesting - for the reasons you mention, and also because it actually played on real life fears of parents about what computers might be doing to their children.

One thing that my flatmate was complaining about was the effect where the children's faces were lit up with the pattern that was on their computer screens - like that happens in real life!!!!



I find it hard to believe the entire Earth was transported - but to be honest, this is only because of that car they saw floating past. On the other hand, in the pilot episode there certainly didn't seem like enough debris from an entire planet - however I rationalised this as some kind of digestion process of whatever was enveloping the earth BEFORE the flash.
Too many alternatives...

To throw time travel into the mix is interesting too - but I think an added layer that is somewhat unwelcome. We already have our time travel element, and I think I would be uncomfortable with the idea that the sentients' had both teleported to the other planets AND time traveled into the last five hundred years.
Although.... and perhaps my dim memory of space travel physics is a bit rusty here, but perhaps if the sentients' transporter was able to take them somewhere else instantly, this still might work, depending on what speed the Seeker was actually travelling at - and we know his speed must be an issue, as he arrived at all those other worlds late, and at Earth just in time.

Arrggghhh. This is why I changed my degree to an arts subject


At one point in the ep, Chuck mentions that the linking factor between what they had seen, and what happened in the future was that the satellite they put up was called "Bright Sky". Was the only link the bright light? Surely the Leviathan link is something closer?

I am going to have to pin down some transcripts for this show, as I don't have the earlier ones on tape anymore. I wonder will sky rerun it once the eps finish in a few weeks.




And thanks for the explanation of Follow the Leader, Ranger.