t seems like a routine shuttle mission for Mission Commander Chuck Taggert (Weller) and his crew, until they suddenly lose all contact with Houston and their shuttle is thrown into a spin that nearly kills them. With one astronaut dead, another in a coma and the others trying to comprehend what has happened, one thing is certain. The Earth is gone.
After stabilizing the ship, the remaining members of the crew realize they don't have much time. With only a few hours of oxygen remaining, they wait for the end, knowing no one is left to rescue them. As they lie near death, an enormous spacecraft scoops them up. The crew wake up to find themselves alive, much to their surprise. However, even more surprising is the alien who greets them, a being who calls himself The Seeker (Sir John Neville).
The Seeker has been traveling through the universe looking for life. What he's found instead is world after world destroyed in the same way the Earth was. In fact, the members of the crew are the first survivors he's found. Even more shocking is his belief that the Earth's fate is still in question. The Seeker offers to send them back in time to try and prevent the disaster. Because of his advanced technology he says he can "download" their consciousness into their bodies in the past.
As one of the astronauts nears death, Taggert agrees to The Seeker's offer to send them back in time. The astronauts suddenly find themselves five years in the past, living the lives they lived years before. What they soon come to realize is that they do have the power to change things, but the results are not always what they had planned.
Taking the slim clues they have, based on what The Seeker has told them and what they know of their own mission, Taggert and the others begin to investigate the mystery. However, the stakes rise when a NASA official is killed in a car accident. It was an accident that never happened in the original timeline, and as they explore the accident it begins to look less and less like an accident at all. In fact, they soon discover that something or someone is indeed out there ready to kill to protect the secret, and it's up to Taggert and his crew to stop whoever or whatever is out to destroy the Earth.
An intriguing, all-too-human premise
The new Showtime series Odyssey 5 premieres with a two-hour movie that is a thoughtful, character-driven drama which asks sci-fi's favorite question, "What if?" If you had to live the last five years over again to save the Earth, could you also save yourself? Could you resist the temptation to fix things? To try and make life better? And, worse, what if you failed? The five astronauts at the center of the series face this dilemma, as well as the pesky little problem of stopping the Earth from being destroyed.
The question is intriguing enough, and the series premiere lays out the show's premise nicely. The Earth-destroying mystery is only hinted at as the microscope stays focused on the characters' reactions to the situation. Creator Manny Coto takes the five characters, puts them under a pressure cooker, and then lets the talented actors take over. The opening shots involving the space shuttle and the Earth's destruction offer some terrific visuals; however, the series comes to life because of the talented cast, led by Weller. Especially good are Roché as Dr. Kurt Mandel and Silva as reporter Sarah Forbes, who play polar opposites and come off as rich, full characters.
There are some minor quibbles to be had in the setup—the fact that the shuttle could have survived the Earth's destruction at all, the convenient alien who just happens to be passing by, who happens to have time travel, and who just happens to rescue them just at the moment the shuttle's air runs out. However, once the series shifts to the past, nothing seems convenient or easy in the story. The relationships are complex and the problems realistic, with one exception. It's hard to fathom why Taggert doesn't make convincing his wife a priority, especially considering his son (who is one of the five astronauts) would back up his story, and he would have knowledge about upcoming world events. While that one plot point seems out of character, the rest of the premiere is well written, focused and on target.
