So to mutate means to gain instant god-like powers, huh?
Interesting.
In that case, why aren't there any such mutations on Earth? Humans, plants and animals undergo mutations continually, have been doing so for billions of years, yet not one single solitary specimen has ever acquired even one god-like power for even a second, yet this one mutant gets several - just because he is on a distant planet.
I call this phenomenon "the exotic factor privilege" or "the distant galaxy bonus", a staple of cheesy sci-fi. In other words, the rest of the universe is susceptible to all sorts of forms of magic, whereas here on little ol' Earth magic is impossible, or much more rare. Grass is greener and all that... in sci-fi terms.
I know that this is just cheesy sci-fi pulp, but they're laying it a bit too thick. Oates the mutant not only reads minds, he kills by touch alone - and not just kills but entirely dematerializes a body. For all practical purposes he is a god, not "just" a powerful alien mutant thing. I half-expected him to start flying, to stop time, and to create black holes on a whim.
In the realm of fantasy fiction, there is a real problem with giving the antagonist(s) too much power, because they logically shouldn't be defeatable. Especially this one: he can easily detect any conspiracy aimed at harming him, hence he can instantly punish the "guilty". This means he is undefeatable, hence we have no story, hence there is no real point to all of this.
Nevertheless, even before the episode reached its half-way mark I knew he would be defeated, and because of what I previously explained I knew he'd have to be defeated in a dumb and unconvincing way. Because that's what happens when you set up a story this way: you have to break your own logic in order to move the plot in the usual, cliche way.
Which is what happens. The laughably far-fetched ploy is to hypnotize hunkman so he can forget whatever he found about the dangerous, telepathic mutant. However, the obvious logic hole is that Oates could find out about the hypnosis itself by reading the midget's mind. Yup, one of the scientists is a quasi-dwarf. No idea why the casting director considered this a wise choice. "Reese": the choice of word to de-hypnotize hunkman is idiotic. Choosing the antagonist's name as the "code-word" is just plain asinine. Out of a million words/names to pick from? These people aren't scientists, they are morons.
For some reason, the writer of this hooey thought it clever to suddenly have Oates dedicated to saying AND hearing his own name (which he achieves with a dodgy plot-device), which in turn leads to a laughable scene in which Oates/Reese actually SUSPECTS dwarfman of hiding something just because he isn't addressing him with Reese! This is the kind of plot-device or shtick one uses in comedy, normally.
In the end, they beat Oates by sheer dumb luck - through Oates's bafflingly illogical decision to venture inside the dark cave, instead of just waiting for the couple to come out, which eventually they would have to have done. Unless there was a Swedish buffet waiting for them in there with supplies for the next 30 years. This is unconvincing and poor writing because it means that the supposed hero savior actually contributed nothing to freeing/saving the colonists; Oates basically undid everything himself, which begs the question why he didn't self-destruct earlier. Hunkman ended up being a mere observer rather than an active participant and liberator, hence his arrival merely precipitated a series of fortunate circumstances (aside from the murders) that lead to Oates's demise. Hunkman's hypnosis plan failed, and he had no plan B, so I guess plan C - the writer's plan - had to be put into effect. Plan C is to let the heavy ruin himself.
I found it absolutely ridiculous that the newcomer:
a) arrived alone to inspect a fishy situation,
b) didn't know about the protective glasses, and
c) just happens to be the ex of the (very small) colony's only female. (An actress that looks crap btw, which doesn't help either.) Naturally, the writer just HAD to find a romantic angle to bore sci-fi fans with, once again. Because what is a murder investigation slash space exploration story without the subject of penis and vagina? A pile of nothing - obviously. At least according to lousy Hollywood writers.
Yes, in a way I am glad that TOL was canceled after just two seasons. Perhaps a just punishment for catering too much to housewives - plus leaving the writing to people not sufficiently committed to sci-fi. The several conversations between hunk and his female are both stupid and dreary.
And what a smart investigative hunk, huh? "Suicide is always accidental", he says idiotically. Some shrink he is... Yeah, people simply trip over the sides of buildings, accidentally fire bullets into their own heads and purely by chance obtain cyanide and stuff it into their drinks. The leading cause of death among victims of "accidental suicide" is slitting yer wrist - but only because knives accidentally fall on wrists. Happens all the time.
Several of the premises are very dodgy. A distant planet with perpetual daylight that requires glasses at all times is actually deemed suitable for colonization? Yeah, millions of volunteers must have been breaking down the doors of NASA to populate this dump.
The basic premise of Oates keeping the newcomer alive is shaky too. Instead of worrying so much whether anyone will betray Oates by telling everything to hunkman, why not just kill him instead? Or, since the writer claims Oates needs human company and slaves, why not simply destroy or sabotage the rocket?
There is also a strange illogic in Oates preventing the crew from escaping the planet when he became a mutant. Instead of stopping them, why didn't he simply join them? He was after all seeking for a cure, and on Earth finding this cure would have been far more likely. Considering his god-like powers he could have easily bossed around everyone at this future (incompetent) NASA.
A messy script clumsily directed makes for a crappy episode. Even the narrator seems confused as he blabbers some meaningless piffle about man needing to solve insanity first before starting to colonize other planets. Good luck with that! This is the kind of almost random non-sequitur mumbo-jumbo that many intro and especially outro narrations in TOL consist of.
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