1.07: The Choices We Make

[Dave]

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[Dave]

Neil sees a boy in swimming shorts who died 8 years ago as a result of his actions.
Kurt sees a man in dark glasses and a hat at a book signing who disappears.
Sarah sees a TV report on cancer treatment that doesn't exist, and visits a specialist who wants her to take her son to China.
Chuck meets an ex-fighter pilot then meets his dead father again.
Angela considers re-starting her relationship with Kurt, then they have a baby delivered.

Each person is told "Anything is possible!"

What does it all mean? This is more like "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits" than "The X-Files." A very different episode to what has come before.


It is explained by the fact that the man they all see is the same mysterious being. Another alien visitor, this time an alien who is not bound by time, and who noticed the anomaly of the Odyssey crew, jumping out of their proper time and travelling backwards. He came to investigate them, and wants to show them their personal dilemnas that, eventually, they would all have to face. He probes their minds and forces them to re-visit the personal choices they made in the most important moments of their past lives. This he does to prevent them being side-tracked later from their real purpose -- saving the world.

So, let's get on and save it again. Seriously, I liked the episode, but I don't want too many of these stories, and we've had quite a few now. I want to get back to the synthetics, mind-control, project big sky and leviathan. Otherwise, we might get side-tracked from the real purpose of the show.

The date question is finally settled (or is it?): It is 2002. Five years later the newspaper Angela, Kurt and their five year old son have, reads 2007 on the day of the original shuttle mission. That was a quick pregnancy by Angela though: It was her son's birthday. If you put that all together with the Windows XP and Sony Xbox information, even if it is very early 2002 and very late 2007, it still doesn't leave much room for a 9 month pregnancy.

 

[RangerOne SG13 SOR]

Yes a nice episode, the dead boy and dead father has been done before though and I found that a little obvious.

The real interesting plot was Angela and Kurt, thier past(future) all about to be replayed. Do they run through it again.

With the appearance of the baby and the realisation of what was on offer fitted well with thier characters to quote Angela

"F*ck the World"

Kurt pondering on the opportunity of "5 good years" with Angela and thier son Anthony.

Then the day of reckoning is played the shuttle crew on TV the blinding flash before the destruction of the Earth. Angela I felt was sold on the idea and I felt sorry for Kurt who instead of feeding his usual selfish needs broke away setting the future(past) apart.

Not sure about Sarah and her son. So far weve seen no sign of cancer in her boy. Is she the cuase of her sons death?

AS for the bieng himself, GRRR didnt like it one bit. Just becuase we know of the seeker and presume the synths are going to destroy the earth for thier alien masters doesnt mean we should see new Aliens weekly like some goddam Star trek episode...

what he said at the end had a strange implication to it.

"your all to become major players in galaxy survival" (something like that cant quite remember)

It gave an indication about this being more than "saving the Earth"

After what the seeker said maybe this war is bieng fought on more than one world.

But like Dave said

What happened to the storyline...

Ranger

 

[Krystal]

Originally posted by RangerOne SG13 SOR
The real interesting plot was Angela and Kurt, thier past(future) all about to be replayed. Do they run through it again.

Yeah, this was the more interesting plot of the episode. Also shows more of the past relationship of Angela and Kurt that we only till now have glimpses.

This episode was good. Specially because we see background of each characters and see them have some closure to the dilemas that affect them. Neil's guilt all that years have to be a big burden to him unconsciously, also Chuck's relationship with his dad and he thinking his dad don't love him. It was very touching. Also it was good to see Sarah confronting what her fear for her son illness was doing to his son. After all, could anyone blame her husband for trying to be a good father and protect his son. More when he doesn't see the future and for him the obsession of Sarah with their child "illness" have no reason to be.
But it was great to see backgrounds of all the characters. The being was an enigma, maybe we will learn more about him too in a future.

Krystal:rain:

 

[Tabitha]

Finally got around to watching this one last night, and although a synopsis of the episode might make me think I wouldn't like it, but suprisingly I really did.

I think Kurt and Angela's story was the most compelling - I had somehow missed that there was some kind of past between them. Had it been explicitly mentioned before?

My video's sound went a bit funny when the time traveller began explaining who he was, but I think I got the main gist of it. I thought he was going to turn out to be another of the seeker's inbuilt mechanisms to prevent them from becoming distracted from their mission - this would have been a more coherent explanation, but coming so soon after the 'reset button' episode it might have seemed a bit repetitive.

So, was this their 'epiphany' episode? Where they all realise their purpose and stop trying to change their own pasts, and get on with saving the world? On the one hand, I think you can relax Dave, as this would suggest to me that from Next week we will be getting back to conspiracy-land, but on the other, I kind of hope we still get more personal stories and development.


As I have said on several occasions this is rapidly becoming my favourite television show, and I will be mightily miffed if it gets cancelled.

Did you notice Peter Weller directed this one?

The mysterious black fella - the time traveller guy, is the 'charismatic jaffa' from the Stargate S5 episode The Warrior, in case you are wondering where you have seen him before.

The bookshop Kurt and Angela were in - I walked right past it when I was in Toronto in September, it is just a few blocks east of the train station. I know this is pointless information, but I just thought I would drop that in there

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Tabitha
The mysterious black fella - the time traveller guy, is the 'charismatic jaffa' from the Stargate S5 episode The Warrior, in case you are wondering where you have seen him before.

I did and I was, so thanks!

Originally posted by Tabitha
I think Kurt and Angela's story was the most compelling - I had somehow missed that there was some kind of past between them. Had it been explicitly mentioned before?

It was mentioned about their relationship before, but since we see Kurt with someone different every week, one week with three girls at the same time, and one week even getting married, I hadn't realised that this was a relationship that had lasted a whole summer, and so therefore something of a record for Kurt.

In the second part of the pilot, Kurt mentioned splitting with his fiancé because she would break up with him anyway, but I hadn't realised that relationship would have ended so soon either. If the book tour was taking place in the same timeline, and that is when he and Angela hook-up, then she must have walked out already. Unless, Angela had been the cause of the walk-out.