Robertson makes the discovery of the century - an alien being - yet he allows himself to be blackmailed by his inept wife into ABANDONING communication with this thing just so he can waste an hour on a ceremony intended to honour him (whatever for... after all, his non-supportive wife did call him a "nobody" just minutes earlier). This alone hampers the story's credibility and logic considerably.
The wife scolds him for not taking care of the business, clearly implying that he runs the radio station so badly that it borders on ruin - yet Cliff is a respected member of the town who is about to get his own honorary plaque!
In other words, his whiny wife serves as a total source of misinformation and contradictions. Through her we find out that Cliff allegedly gets "very angry" whenever someone challenges his experimental scientific work. Yet, there is zero evidence of this non-existent aggressive personality trait: Cliff doesn't even get mildly upset - while he is being disturbed and blackmailed - just as he is in the midst of his incredible discovery. Quite to the contrary: far be it for his wife to have to walk on eggshells around him; he appears instead to be a proper pushover, not at all a stubborn fanatical hobby astronomer as she suggests.
Ask ANY astrologist, cosmologist, astrophysicist or hobby UFOlogist whether this scenario seems remotely realistic and they'd laugh it off as ludicrous. Nobody on this entire planet would be coerced into leaving their lab under such circumstances. Of course, this banquet or whatever is just a dumb plot-device utilized by the writer in order to push the plot in the desired direction i.e. To allow the alien to unnecessarily (and illogically) cause havoc. What are the odds that Cliff stumbles upon the discovery of the century at THE EXACT day when there is a luncheon in his honour, which he "must" attend to? Almost as low as Sean Penn winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The interaction between Cliff and the alien isn't particularly well thought-out either. The alien tells Cliff that "matter time and space are all the same... infinity is God", which is the sort of vague claptrap that is acceptable in a sci-fi pulp comic-book, but appears somewhat childish on the screen. Nor is their conversation very logical: they communicate in English, through some hokey translation device I presume, yet the alien asks stuff like "what does nose mean?" But this is fairly minor stuff, and anyway fairly common in sci-fi.
Certainly very minor compared to the nonsense that "it is forbidden to communicate with Earth because you (Earthlings) are a danger to other galaxies". The alien is of course referring to nuclear bombs which Cliff had mentioned just prior. Question: if these aliens are electro-magnetically-nitrogenically immortal then what the hell have they got to fear bombs for?! Another question: how could Earth possibly be a danger to "other galaxies", when it's not even a threat to Neptune! (Try detonating a nuclear device there, and it would be like a mere firecracker exploding.) Nor even Mars, in fact. Does this writer even know what a galaxy is? Somehow I doubt it. He must have confused it with "solar system"; many hack sci-fi writers use "galaxy" and "universe" anyway as synonyms. 20th-century Earth being a threat to "other galaxies" is the kind of hooey that should be only in "Plan 9" and other such ultra-cheesy B-movie nonsense. ("Plan 9" is LITERALLY about Earth being a threat to the universe due to its weapons of mass destruction.)
Yet later on the alien in his clumsy speech to the military says: "You people of Earth, there are powers in the universe beyond anything you know." This kinda contradicts the stuff about humankind posing a threat to the galaxy. If humans are so technologically backward then surely their nuclear weaponry is a minor threat at best. One of several glaring contradictions in this sloppy script.
And, man, is that speech dumb or what: the alien - projecting Gandhi - warns humans to stop using force, yet this alien seems to happily ignore all the carnage which he caused in the small town. So is he a selfish dolt incapable of self-criticism or just a manipulative, deceiving spin-doctor? We already knew that he broke the laws of his world by contacting Earth, so who is this renegade to moralize to anybody? His decision to break his world's stringent law caused death and destruction, so he really has no high moral ground to stand on. He is a hypocrite, if anything. Either that, or an idiot.
Even dumber though is the crowd's utterly unrealistic reaction after the alien bids them farewell: both the civilians and the military CASUALLY disperse as if leaving a night-club or a garage sale! In fact, there is more excitement and animated reactions to be found among buyers of one-dollar books than among this bunch that had just witnessed a visitor from outer space! Laughable direction.
When all is said and done, Cliff's whiny wife basically caused the demise of at least 5 people, because she blackmailed her hubby to attend the luncheon at all cost. So the message must be this: keep your wife in submission, don't be a submissive beta like Cliff otherwise things will go South. The writer Stevens obviously never intended this, but hey, that's what all of this boils down to, whether he wanted it or not. Then again, maybe he did, because he had her shot.
Yes, shot. I mean by the dumb cop, not by Stevens. Shot point blank, execution style, and for no reason whatsoever. The cop even had ample time to figure out that it was a civilian woman appearing at the door, not a monster or Al Capone. That scene is so utterly idiotic, even Ed Wood might have had qualms about it. This too was just a dumb plot-device used only so the alien could display his healing power, proving what a goody-two-shoes he is after all. But where were those healing powers for the people he killed in the car and the radio station? Logic holes abound.
How about showing some of that "superior" brain power though? The alien waltzed through the town, causing devastation and death, which means either he just didn't give a hoot, or he's as thick as Cliff's wife.
Robertson is a very good actor, and the alien special effects are fairly nice, but this script was simply too generic and undisciplined to result in a good episode.
The wife scolds him for not taking care of the business, clearly implying that he runs the radio station so badly that it borders on ruin - yet Cliff is a respected member of the town who is about to get his own honorary plaque!
In other words, his whiny wife serves as a total source of misinformation and contradictions. Through her we find out that Cliff allegedly gets "very angry" whenever someone challenges his experimental scientific work. Yet, there is zero evidence of this non-existent aggressive personality trait: Cliff doesn't even get mildly upset - while he is being disturbed and blackmailed - just as he is in the midst of his incredible discovery. Quite to the contrary: far be it for his wife to have to walk on eggshells around him; he appears instead to be a proper pushover, not at all a stubborn fanatical hobby astronomer as she suggests.
Ask ANY astrologist, cosmologist, astrophysicist or hobby UFOlogist whether this scenario seems remotely realistic and they'd laugh it off as ludicrous. Nobody on this entire planet would be coerced into leaving their lab under such circumstances. Of course, this banquet or whatever is just a dumb plot-device utilized by the writer in order to push the plot in the desired direction i.e. To allow the alien to unnecessarily (and illogically) cause havoc. What are the odds that Cliff stumbles upon the discovery of the century at THE EXACT day when there is a luncheon in his honour, which he "must" attend to? Almost as low as Sean Penn winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The interaction between Cliff and the alien isn't particularly well thought-out either. The alien tells Cliff that "matter time and space are all the same... infinity is God", which is the sort of vague claptrap that is acceptable in a sci-fi pulp comic-book, but appears somewhat childish on the screen. Nor is their conversation very logical: they communicate in English, through some hokey translation device I presume, yet the alien asks stuff like "what does nose mean?" But this is fairly minor stuff, and anyway fairly common in sci-fi.
Certainly very minor compared to the nonsense that "it is forbidden to communicate with Earth because you (Earthlings) are a danger to other galaxies". The alien is of course referring to nuclear bombs which Cliff had mentioned just prior. Question: if these aliens are electro-magnetically-nitrogenically immortal then what the hell have they got to fear bombs for?! Another question: how could Earth possibly be a danger to "other galaxies", when it's not even a threat to Neptune! (Try detonating a nuclear device there, and it would be like a mere firecracker exploding.) Nor even Mars, in fact. Does this writer even know what a galaxy is? Somehow I doubt it. He must have confused it with "solar system"; many hack sci-fi writers use "galaxy" and "universe" anyway as synonyms. 20th-century Earth being a threat to "other galaxies" is the kind of hooey that should be only in "Plan 9" and other such ultra-cheesy B-movie nonsense. ("Plan 9" is LITERALLY about Earth being a threat to the universe due to its weapons of mass destruction.)
Yet later on the alien in his clumsy speech to the military says: "You people of Earth, there are powers in the universe beyond anything you know." This kinda contradicts the stuff about humankind posing a threat to the galaxy. If humans are so technologically backward then surely their nuclear weaponry is a minor threat at best. One of several glaring contradictions in this sloppy script.
And, man, is that speech dumb or what: the alien - projecting Gandhi - warns humans to stop using force, yet this alien seems to happily ignore all the carnage which he caused in the small town. So is he a selfish dolt incapable of self-criticism or just a manipulative, deceiving spin-doctor? We already knew that he broke the laws of his world by contacting Earth, so who is this renegade to moralize to anybody? His decision to break his world's stringent law caused death and destruction, so he really has no high moral ground to stand on. He is a hypocrite, if anything. Either that, or an idiot.
Even dumber though is the crowd's utterly unrealistic reaction after the alien bids them farewell: both the civilians and the military CASUALLY disperse as if leaving a night-club or a garage sale! In fact, there is more excitement and animated reactions to be found among buyers of one-dollar books than among this bunch that had just witnessed a visitor from outer space! Laughable direction.
When all is said and done, Cliff's whiny wife basically caused the demise of at least 5 people, because she blackmailed her hubby to attend the luncheon at all cost. So the message must be this: keep your wife in submission, don't be a submissive beta like Cliff otherwise things will go South. The writer Stevens obviously never intended this, but hey, that's what all of this boils down to, whether he wanted it or not. Then again, maybe he did, because he had her shot.
Yes, shot. I mean by the dumb cop, not by Stevens. Shot point blank, execution style, and for no reason whatsoever. The cop even had ample time to figure out that it was a civilian woman appearing at the door, not a monster or Al Capone. That scene is so utterly idiotic, even Ed Wood might have had qualms about it. This too was just a dumb plot-device used only so the alien could display his healing power, proving what a goody-two-shoes he is after all. But where were those healing powers for the people he killed in the car and the radio station? Logic holes abound.
How about showing some of that "superior" brain power though? The alien waltzed through the town, causing devastation and death, which means either he just didn't give a hoot, or he's as thick as Cliff's wife.
Robertson is a very good actor, and the alien special effects are fairly nice, but this script was simply too generic and undisciplined to result in a good episode.