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 |  | Earth: Final Conflict To Get Back on Track
posted: 05:11 pm ET
08 October 1999
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Earth: Final Conflict To Get Back on Track
After an unsteady second season, Earth: Final Conflict promises to get back on track this year - at least, if executive producers David Kirschner and Majel Barrett Roddenberry have anything to say about it.
Neither Roddenberry nor Kirschner was pleased at the way the series evolved from the somber cloak-and-dagger intrigue and social commentary of its first episodes to the more mainstream "superpowers and explosions" tone adopted last season. Kirschner in particular seems to want to pretend the second season never happened.
"I'm not happy," he told British genre magazine SFX. " This year I've made it my business to make sure we can hold our heads proud, because last year we couldn't."
This year, he promises viewers, EFC will return to its roots and go back to being the kind of show that he would like to see.
To this end, he is stripping the series' protagonist Liam Kincaid of his once-limitless superpowers, the legacy of his half-human heritage and unusually speedy maturation process. In doing so, Kirschner hopes to re-endow EFC with an everyday person's perspective, and with a sense of wonder and awe at the alien Taelons and their civilization.
"I'll go with what I feel, what gives me goosebumps and brings tears to my eyes," he told SFX.
Roddenberry has also promised that Kincaid will lose his powers to give the show back the ability to provoke suspense and surprise.
"We'd like to make him more human," she has stated in internet chat sessions. "Last season, the audience had nothing to relate to. We tried to stay believable, but lightning coming from someone's hand is sort of on the edge."
Among the specific plot points scheduled for this season, Kirschner said we'll see more of the Taelon explorer Ma'el, who first encountered humanity millennia ago and warned his species to treat the people of Earth as equals. In particular, Jonathan Doors, the leader of the anti-Taelon Resistance, will find Ma'el's ship this year -- a discovery sure to stir up confusion and soul-searching among the aliens.
Elsewhere in the Taelon camp, cast members and crew have hinted that Zo'or may actually be Da'an's child, while we also learn where the Skrills come from. On a more earthly tack, the self-centered computer genius Augur will be forced to take Dr. Belman as a not-so-silent partner in his nightclub, the Flat Planet, after he loses his fortune.
The exact status of Sandoval's loyalties (if any) will become a bit more clear, with rumors indicating that he isn't working for either the Taelons or the Resistance, but some third faction. Lili Marquette may undergo some kind of physical transformation while actress Lisa Howard, who plays her, sits out the first few episodes of the season on maternity leave, and so when she returns she may be "no longer human."
To fill out the show's estrogen contingent while Marquette is offstage, Kirschner and Roddenberry have introduced a new character, Doors' security officer Renee Palmer (Jayne Heitmeyer). Among other new faces, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Marina Sirtis is set for a guest appearance, while rumor has it the original Trek's Grace Lee Whitney (who played Yeoman Rand) is also negotiating to appear.
Finally, fans who have stuck with Earth: Final Conflict over the years will be pleased to know that at least another season -- a fourth -- is in the works, meaning there is plenty of time left to see the show recover its former glories.
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