This week our protagonists have to deal with a memory virus, and also dating. It was a better episode than last week's. At least there's that.
My first problem with the main plot of this week's episode was that it had nothing to do with the setting. There's a big premise here, a cool one, but except for a few dinosaurs on the outskirts, this plot could have happened on almost any sci-fi show (maybe not even sci-fi). I know the various Star Trek shows used a form of it a few times, but better and connected to the space premise. All they had to do was say it came from some prehistoric plant the team stumbled across in the wetlands that they were studying. Boom, connected to the premise. Instead it's a rogue scientist messing with genes. The dinosaurs looked much better this week, I will give them that.
Secondly, we've hardly gotten to know these characters. Them losing their memories doesn't mean much to us if we don't know their base personalities very well. I especially look at Taylor's case. We all knew he was going to go all commando, but if we had already found out about some the horrors of war he had been through, it would mean more. We could all go, "he's flashing back to Somalia, this is going to be bad," instead of Taylor have to tell everything to Jim at knife-point. Then again, when he tries to commit suicide after learning that his wife is dead. It was shocking, sure, but it would carry much more weight if we had found out over weeks, or maybe even years if it lasted that long, what their life together was like and what happened to her. At least with Elisabeth and Malcolm's regression we had had some backstory into that from last week. I still don't think that whole triangle they're trying to push is compelling, but it was something we could latch onto there.
On the home front we had dating. I like Maddy, but her whole romance thing is boring. The guy is just so bland. It's not like I'm pushing for the horrible bad boy cliche, but we know nothing about this kid. His name is Mark Reynolds (first time we heard a first name), he's a soldier, he likes Maddy, that's it. That is the full extent of knowledge we have about him. How can I be invested in a romance where half of it has zero personality? It did lead to the nice little exchange about Jim's bad first date with Elisabeth. Once again, the niceness of Jim being a father lasts for two seconds.
Then we have the Josh-Skye romance. He likes Skye, she likes him. She has a personality, even, and I like the character. However, Josh's girlfriend, that for all he knows he may never see again, looms over it all. He promised her he'd try to get her to Terra Nova. I like the honor of this situation, but it feels rushed. Skye knowing a guy, that's how we get from A to B in this plot? It just feels really lazy. I shouldn't complain, because this plot finally got the Sixers back in the mix. I may not be crazy about how we got there, but I am really happy about Mira wanting to use Josh somehow. I don't know how, especially since she already has a person on the inside, but I like that I have no idea.
Maybe next week we'll get some good Sixer action instead of a recycled sci-fi plot.
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