EARTH 2 (Street Date 7/19/05) (contains spoilers) (1 Viewer)

[Katherine_K]

I just wanted to comment that though I found the first few of the regular season episodes really off putting I really thought it improved ... unfortunately I remember having given up the show by that point when it was originally airing. I thought it was rather ... dirge like if I recall correctly.

I do wish they'd looked at the series continuity instead of the airdates on the episode order. The last disc is filled with episodes out of order. i also wish they'd not done a cliffhanger when, again as I recall correctly from being involved with scifi at the time, it was very clear they weren't gettign a second season.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Correct order of episodes: Earth 2 Episode Guide

It was not crystal clear that Earth 2 would not be back. Earth 2 Season 2 Info. There's an interesting S2 promo at the site in the download section.

All About Eve is the real end of the series. To me, that isn't really a cliffhanger. Earth 2 stands as a nice concept with some really good moments that sometimes sailed rudderless and ultimately ran aground. I've watched it again on DVD and I ended up doing the same thing as I did during original broadcast -- blocking out the bad episodes and fondly remembering the good ones.

 

[Scott Kimball]

I love the show, but I wish Universal put some more effort into this set.

I hate 2-sided discs.
I hate 2-up packaging.

Most importantly - the transfers:
The previously mentioned "yellowing" isn't only in the sky (you can see it against the white tents, on occasion). I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have aired that way originally, and the same sequences in the "previouslies" don't always exhibit the same problem. I can't locate my original VHS recordings at the moment (packed in a moving box, somewhere), so I can't check - but I don't remember seeing that before.

Additionally, there are soundstage problems caused by what sounds like out-of-phase audio that pops up on occasion.

Sloppy job, overall. I've avoided other Universal releases that I was "on the fence" about - but I just had to have this show on DVD.

I haven't made it to the end of the set, yet, but I recall the airing of the last couple of episodes being out of order. This effectively softened the blow of the would-be cliffhanger, by having a major character's fate not left in question on the final epsiode. This show screamed for a two hour TV movie resolution after cancellation. It's too bad NBC couldn't oblige.

-Scott

 

[Douglas M]

As I said earlier, the yellow sky was in the original broadcast, I checked. Check the "Previously..." for episode two and you'll see it's there, too. It's even yellow on the box art!

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

To me, the ending didn't need softening. This show screams for presentation in chronological order. It's ridiculous to jump back to episodes that show people in an earlier state when it isn't a flashback. It's also ridiculous to show a character's fate, then have more episodes -- also not flashbacks -- the occur before that fate. Besides, even though the future was only one possible future, we've already seen the fate of some characters.

BTW, the girl who played True was adorable. She never screamed out "child actress" to me.

[ edited to remove spoilers as opposed to using spoiler tags ]

 

[Scott Kimball]

Mikah,
While I have seen the end, you might want to delete or spoilerize your last post. No need to give the whole thing away.

 

[Katherine_K]

I have to disagree, the ending was too abrupt and they did have a very good idea that they wouldn't get a second season. Just because they produced a promo material for a potential second season doesn't mean that was realistic.

And I most certainly found the idea of ending with the main character apparently dying of an unknown illness that she apparently knew was coming and without ever hinting at what the scientists had done that would forever make the planet reject humanity ...

 

[Scott Kimball]

I have no problem with the yellow color. It's the yellow sparkles that are so obviously an unintended artifact that I have a problem with. And for the yellow sparkles to reappear in the tent during the VR sequence a few episodes later... sorry. It's unacceptable. The sparkles, by the way, do NOT appear in the previouslies (I did a side-by-side test)... however, the worst seconds of the artifacts were cut from the scene in the previouslies.

Add to that the out of phase audio that has popped up about three times so far (I'm mid way through the episodes), and it adds up to disappointment. That doesn't even factor in the awful 2-up packaging and 2 sided discs.

I expect better for my money - and I get it from some other studios. Too bad... next to Firefly, this is my favorite short-lived sci-fi show.

-Scott

 

[Jeff Willis]

Hello, all. I haven't started watching this set yet but I don't think I understand the "eps out of seq" thing. Are the eps on the DVD set in different order from the originally-aired ep order? If so, why would the DVD set be put together in different order from the air dates?

On a different topic, I too thought this series was a very good one that stands out in the '90s. It sounds like, from reading this thread, that there are a lot of problems with this set (audio sync, transfer issues, etc). That's a real shame. I don't see the reason that the studio would allow this kind of thing to pass "QC" (or is there a QC Dept for TV/DVD's?). From other HTF'er inputs, how common are these type of problems with other TV/DVD sets? I've run across a couple of sets that I've bought in my collection that have similar problems, but the majority of my TV/DVD's are good quality.

 

[Katherine_K]

The problem is that the series was aired out of continuity. NBC wasn't particularly supportive to start with and they pre-empted the series regularly over the course of the run. So at the end of the show, after the "cliffhanger" ending All About Eve they aired more shows. IIRC correctly Natural Born Grendler and Flower Child are out of continity. They're on the fourth disc.

This wouldn't be such a huge problem but because the series was filmed outdoors the seasons were very important, and one of the characters had a broken leg at the start of the series that was healed halfway through... but one of the episodes on the last disc has him with a broken leg again.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Curiously I don't remember any out-of-continuity problems when I watched Earth 2 broadcast here. IIRC, it did indeed end with Devon in mortal peril: I remember thinking, "what a cliffhanger, main/lead character has her neck on the chopping block" -- and being rather miffed when the show never returned.

Having said that, the local station tends to air shows in production order, which in this case I guess worked to our advantage -- as another more jarring example, ST:TNG S4, in the aftermath of Best Of Both Worlds, "proper continuity" dictates that the next episode is Family, where Picard goes home to the family vineyard to recuperate after his ordeal, instead we got Suddenly Human first, then Family -- which was the production order, but clearly incorrect and in this instance air-date in the US would have been far better.

So, how's the set otherwise? I can live with wrong episode order, just printout the "proper order" and watch accordingly, one of the beauties of DVD is no fast-forward/rewind required if you don't like the order presented, after all...

 

[Scott Kimball]

If people are going to keep posting spoilers, perhaps a mod should add a warning to the thread title?

-Scott

 

[Katherine_K]

I'm going to echo Scott's request. Please do not post spoilers without tagging them. It's unfair to others.



The set is packaged on double sided discs stacked two to a tray, which has to be the combination of my least favorite aspects of a DVD package. I would have infinately preferred thinpacks or some other method. The extras were sparce, which is to be expected with Universal. There was a rather lengthy and amusing gag reele... which most prominately features Jessica Steen.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Thanks, Katherine and Mikah for the info and providing the episode link. Thanks, Yee-Ming for a great idea I'll print out the ep guide and watch the set that way (as soon as I can fit it into my "Watching" schedule. I doubt I'm the typical TV/DVD viewer; I have around 20 series in progress. Thank goodness for Excel "viewing status list" printouts )

 

[Frank Anderson]

Done

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[RogerH]

I want to get this but I recently saw the whole series on a local channel a few months ago so I'll probably wait until to get it until I want to see it again in a few months.

 

[David_Blackwell]

My review of the DVD set:
http://enterline2.tripod.com/earth2.html

 

[TroyMM]

Hi there,

Does anybody have the correct order that the episodes should be watched in.

I tried the link http://www.earth2tv.com/information/episodes.html that Mikah provided but that site seems to have been hacked.

Thanks
Troy

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

I found a post saying this was the production order....

Episode order:

First Contact
The Man Who Fell To Earth (Two)
Life Lessons
Promises, Promises
Natural Born Grendlers
A Memory Play
Water
The Church of Morgan
The Enemy Within
Redemption
Moon Cross
Better Living Through Morganite (Part 1)
Better Living Through Morganite (Part 2)
Grendlers In The Myst
Greatest Love Story Never Told
Brave New Pacifica
After the Thaw
The Boy Who Would Be Terrian King
Survival of the Fittest
Flower Child
All About Eve