Customer Reviews

Earth Final Conflict - Face the Horizon (Season 5)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I watched every single episode of EFC, and I followed all the plot lines carefully, so believe me when I tell you that season 5 is an insulting slap in the face. Season 4 ended with the Taelons and Jaridians merging in some volcanic chamber, and then bang.

Ok, so now we have season 5. Augur is mysteriously gone for good after barely making an appearance in season 4. Instead we have Street, who just wasn't given the right material. But whatever. Here's the kicker.

THE ENTIRE STORYLINE set up in the first 4 seasons is tossed aside without a thought. All the work done with the Taelons and the Jaridians, gone without any meaning. Done, gone, the end. No more Taelons (except the one guy who got away somehow), no more Jaridians. No more Liam till the last episode where he just shows up without explanation.

What happened to the Jaridians that got away? From the website "When the Jaridians board the Mothership, they find themselves trapped in a force field set by Ronald Sandoval (Von Flores). He strikes a deal, promising to lead them to the Taelons if they spare Earth and elect him ruler of the planet. Sandoval and the Jardians make their way to a portal, just as Hubble opens fire on the ship. As Sandoval collapses, badly wounded, Vorjak and the others escape." If they escaped, where are they??

Instead they go on with this ridiculous plotline about the Atavus, who look NOTHING like the way they did when Da'an turned into one, instead they come across as leather freaks into S&M and vampirism. Yes we get to see Zo'or in a catsuit. Wow. And then she dies stupidly. Yes Boone comes back. But he dies. Stupidly. Off screen. He gets a one liner about how he died heroically, blah blah blah.

Every other story set up over the 4 years, gone. This season attempts to create a whole new story arc and fails miserably. Go ahead and buy it, its cheap. But don't expect to be happy.

Most reviews I've scanned for this product take fire at the storylines like the writers just woke up one day and decided to change everything. Whereas in fact, business got in the way.

E:FC suffered over the years due to budgetary constraints, but season five had very, very tight constraints. Hence most of the cast are removed to make way for cheaper alternatives, and even some of those don't see the whole season through.

And the writers tried, they really did, to keep this show going in terms of quality. Against very tough conditions, they created a season that isn't too bad. It has some interesting aliens in form of the Atavus, and has some great guest appearances (of particular note is Margot Kidder). It also has some nice continuity with the preceeding four seasons.

But the writers weren't miracle workers, and as a fifth season of E:FC it is hard to stomach; it feels very much like a new show. Plus the reinvention of Rene, and supposedly old-time friends of hers coming out of nowhere soon grows tired.

In the US, 100 episodes is key. This way the show can be sold into syndication. Is is blatantly obvious that season five is there just to get to that figure. I think the writers tried their best, and I would recommend this box set to any E:FC fan so that they see how the show ends (and the end episode is very good, and fitting of E:FC). But please, don't just attack the fifth season. Go in open minded, but go in bearing in mind there were so many limitations, the writers did the best they could and as a season of entertaining sci-fi you could do worse.

The storyline for season five was set way back in season 2. When we discover that the Jaridian and taelons were once 1 race, the Atavus.
The Atavus themselves had a civil war as is discovered in Season 5 episode Bad Genes. If you listen carefully you discover that millions of years ago, just prior to the Atavus coming to earth, Howlyn rebelled against his father, the ruler of their race and took those loyal to him, his wife and child to a new world, Earth, to set himself up as ruler.
Like the Taelons and the Jaridians after them, they soon discovered that something about the earth was not allowing them to survive properly so they resorted to feeding on the life forces of Mamals (humans) <just as the Taelons used humans to create Kris to allow them to survive on earth>.
After a few centuries the Atavus were forced into Stasis, and their Ship forced to land with its inhabitants forced into stasis by meteor showers and Earths collision with an asteroid. Which created an Ice Age (too cold for the Atavus).

Meanwhile back on the Atavus Homeworld, the Kimera Arrive and start messing with the Genetic make up of the Atavus. The Atavus rebel and almost force the Kimera into extinction. However the damage was done. The surviving Atavus flee their world and set up colonies. And then the Split occurs. Some Atavus become Taelons, shrugging of their emotional ties and with the aid of Kimera genetic manipulations become an entity composed of primarily energy. The other Atavus become Jaridians, Holding onto the passion for life and their Carbon based existence. The Jaridians like most carbon based life forms are born grow old and die. and have substantially shorter lives as apposed to their Cousins the Taelons who live for Centuries. The 2 species took seperate evolutionary paths. Making them totally incompatible.

Thanks to the Kimera the Energy cleaves that the Atuvus once had were replaced by the Shakarava, A inheritance gained from the genetic manipulations done by the Kimera. Whilst the Jaridians retained the ability to use Shakarava, the taelons in the quest for Spiritual perfection lost the use of the Shakarava which was primarily used by emotions and passion. Since the Taelons had no emotion or passion they could no longer use Shakarava.

With the Exception of those in stasis chambers on earth. There are now no wholey pure Atavus left in the universe. The Earth based Atuvus remain in stasis for millions of years. Until the end of season four which saw the merging of the Taelons and Jaridians. However this Merging failed and the energy reconstituted the Atavus. The Atavus then discover what has happened and try once again to rule earth.

Why 3 different Atavus ?
The first Atavus seen in Season 2 was a purely Taelon Atavus. No Jaridian DNA at all. The Atavus in season 4 was a combinationi of Taelon and Jaridian, Since they were genitically linked to the Kimera they had Shakarava and looked different. The Season 4 Atavus is what happened to the Original Atavus (Season 5 Atavus) after the Kimera Genetic manipulation and that was what the Atavus looked like just before the Taelon and Jaridian split.
The Season 5 Atavus are the Original Atavus. This is what they looked like before the comming of the Kimera. since there was no genetic manipulation by the Kimera these original Atavus do not posess shakarava. Instead they have energy Cleaves on their fingers. Which essentially was a defensive tool much like the claws of a Cat. However Howlyn and his followers used it offensively to feed of sentient life force. They did not need to do this on their home world.

If you look closely at the Atavus you can see they share a similar bone structure to both Taelon and Jaridian.
It is also learned that due to the obsession Howlyn had with the visit of Renee Palmer to the pre-historic past which he rulled. He spent the years before going into stasis genetically modifying Humans in an effort to quickly bring about Renee Palmer. (isn't this exactly what the Kimera did to his species ..?) funny how irony works.

Anyway the story is there if you look hard enough for the links. and it is a flow on story. There is only so much information that can fit into a 45min episode. if every episode was 2 - 3 hours long then maybe more of the story would have been explained. but enough of the story is there for anyone with a good mind can fill in the obvious missing pieces.

So do not beat down Season 5 it has it merits and leaves open at the end for an entire new series. (the search for the original Atavus home world...?) Following Clues left behind by ancient Jaridian and Taelons? So many possibilities to continue the story. Maybe see a resurgence of Taelons and Jaridians? who know.. Anyway Enjoy it it is a good end to a great series. And ignore the negativity of a few feeble minded people without much imagination and forsight to read a little deeper into the overall picture.

I hope my explanation above brings forth some enlightenment.

Earth final conflict was one of my favourite shows on TV, and even I must admit that something went terrible wrong in the way, a clear example of that is the last season: the acting is extremely poor, you can't even buy the Taelon act because is too cheesy, the Atavus are a terrible replacement for the Taelons and even the main characters look tired and acting just because they get paid for that.
I definitely don't recommend this set box if you are a hard core fan, the fourth season was a lot better and still has that spark that made the show interesting on early seasons.

This is what the show should have been re-named, "Renee The Atavus Slayer", because all the story lines are basically the same thing: Renee trying to hunt down and kill these vampire-like aliens (similar to Buffy The Vampire Slayer). So many things about this season didn't even make sense I don't know where to begin, but one which I thought was pretty obvious is: how does the Taelon mothership manage to stay in orbit for a whole year if it had no core energy left and it got nuked? At the end of Season 4 we are told the ship is in a decaying orbit, which means it should be crashing into the atmosphere sometime soon.

I believe this is Season Five. It's hard to understand, but for some reason the first two seasons are not being released as of yet, something to do with ownership, if I am not mistaken. This is a great set, but there are so many extras which could have been included on this set, but considering its low price, we got a deal.

How come there is not even an English subtitle? Though it doesn't quite stand in the way of my understanding, it still almost drove me mad while I was watching.Many of my friends, who are also hot EFC fans, withdrew their decision of buying it when they knew there wasn't a subtitle. Not everyone's English(I mean people from non-English speaking countries like me) is good enough to understand the show without any means of assistance.

Really don't know how to rate this item. I purchased Seasons 3,4,&5 a couple of years ago, but haven't even watched them yet, because I was waiting for Seasons 1&2 to come out. Does anyone know if they are out or if they are coming out? It kind of stinks if not. I'd rather watch it from the beginning, or I wasted money buying 3,4,&5.

like in almost every sci-fi serials the last season is the worst one. babylon 5 etc. and we don't have an exception in this one.

i couldn'tbelive it when i read the reviews of the others. luckily they were cheap, cause i bought the seasons 3,4 and 5 and i have to admit, that the 4th one is the best one.

still hoping to get the first two season to complete the whole series, but if you want to preservate your eyes, don't buy this season!!!

EFC is not the greatest show ever made, but it is one of the top shows. Ignore reviews that just nit pick about things that aren't even about the show it self. Although initally I was mad that Liam died in the privious season, the Atuvus more than makes up for the lost character - who i believe makes a comeback at some point ^^.
This isn't Star Trek, its a low budget Canadian show, like Andromeda - but unlike Andromeda this show is so good you don't notice the odd SFX, but by this time in the show the creators got into their groove and the sfx flows much better.
I was greatly pleased when i found out that this was a Canadian show, although most of it was controlled by an American company.
I would buy every season if i had the money!