Looking Back: Earth: Final Conflict

Originally posted September, 2017

I'm going to do this set in reverse order mostly because I want to get through the series I feel I know less about. It's not so much that I wasn't interested in Earth: Final Conflict, or EFC, for short, as much as it is that it went bad a lot quicker than it probably should have. I'll get into it in due time, but I should probably start out with a little explanation about what the show itself is about.

The basic premise of EFC is that an alien race known as the Taelons came to Earth in more or less modern times, circa the late 1990s or early 2000s, telling the human population of the world that they were coming in peace, in hopes of bettering not only our world, but theirs, as well. The Taelons shared virtually all their scientific and medical knowledge with the people of this Earth, seemingly wanting only to advance the species and learn about their own in the process.

While most of the planet was happy to accept these newcomers and the wonerous advances they were so generous to share with the world, there was a resistance movement, of sorts, that had serious doubts about the true motivations the Taelons had in helping humanity so much. In spite of the great things that had done in regards to improving the health and availablity of food, amongst other things, the resistance did have good reason to doubt.

In the series premier, a human businessman called Johnathan Doors is introducing a new Taelon representative named Da'an. This introduction shows us quite a bit about the technology, in that they have both really advanced organic, life-form style tech and mechanical things like interdimensional flight.

This intro is interrupted by an assassination attempt seemingly directed against Da'an, but is, in reality, meant as a means for Doors to go into hiding and lead the resistance. We also meet Captain William Boone of what I'll just call the Random Metro Police Department, who catches Da'an's interest with his attention to detail; Ronald Sandoval, Da'an's human attache, and Lilly Marquet, their pilot.

Quite a lot of this seems to happen within a few moments either side of the opening credits. It's really a lot to cram into not a lot of time, and I have a feeling it really worked against the show in the long run. I'd recently watched the first few episodes as I began writing this article, and it is still difficult to keep everything straight.

With that in mind, by the halfway point of the first episode, both the Taelons and the Doors Resistance have tried at least once to recruit Boone to their cause, unsuccessfully. A pivotal moment comes when the Taelons hire a hitman to kill off Boone's wife, who had only been introduced herself moments before, after Boone cited her as his reason to not join up with the Taelons, saying that starting a family with her was more important to him.

Ultimately, this drives Boone to take on the role of a double agent, joining Team Doors first, in order to learn what he needs to know to get revenge for the death of his wife. Once other infiltrators, including Marquet and a Doctor Bellman, hook Boone up with some re-engineered versions of supposedly required Taelon biological enhancements, we all begin learning that the Taelon presence on Earth does indeed have dire implications for humanity. These revelations take us through the first season and, at the very least, into the early second season.

Unfurtunately, all was not well behind the scenes of EFC, and this quickly became apparent in the show itself. From what I understand, there were issues between the producers and the actor plaing Boone, resulting in the character being written out as the main character, though he did cameo later on, as I understand. Whatever the issues were, however, they were aparently wide-spread enough that by the end of the series, virtually all of the original characters had been replaced for one reason or another.

Because of these and other issues coming together in the actual show itself, I pretty much bailed on it halfway throught the second season, with execution of the story being a big contributing factor.

See, after Boone was written out, the character was replaced with Liam Kincade, who was somehow the product of a Taelon and a human. I don't recall all of the details, but I do remember it being one of those deals where the character went from being born to being a full-grown adult with the ability to live as such in the course of a day or two. Worse yet, I don't recall the whole “half-alien” thing being used to terribly much effect otherwise.

I won't say that it wasn't, of course, mostly because, as previously noted, I'd pretty much abandoned the series by halfway through the second season. The last episode I remember watching on TV was one where this scientist guy, a physicist, if I recall, had invented a teleportation device using concepts and theories that human scientists had already devised but needed confirmation from Taelon science to be applied practically. The guy that came up with the way to actually do it didn't want to share it with the Taelons, partially out of fear of his invention getting used against humanity and partially to prove that we didn't need the Taelons as much they said we did. By the end of the episode, the scientist had destroyed his device and killed himself in the process to keep it out of Taelon hands, after accidentally beaming himself into a shelf in an escape attempt.

I'm pretty sure there were three more seasons that came after this one. This comes from looking for clips every now and again, but it's been awhile since I've done that. As a result, this will probably be one of my less well done pieces, but still worth doing, I think.

As for weather this show is worth checking out, I'd say the first season or two might be, but after that, not so much. It was certainly a nice change from the more well-known stuff of the time, but under other circumstances, it could have been better. I might have better memories of it had it only lasted one season instead of having run long enough to apparently finish its story.