The follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Ice" (which I personally enjoyed quite a bit without loving), "Space" is often regarded as one of the low points of the series and I can see why. It is a slow, uneventful, frustrating and empty hour of television. It isn't intended to be like Kubrick's "2001" or anything for that matter and the simplest requirement that it should meet is one that I find it desperately failing to reach: to entertain.
There's no suspense generated through an ever present sense of danger, nor is the mystery at all fascinating. The episode doesn't seem as much concerned about generating a mystery as the opening sequence reveals that Ed Lauter's character is either a host to an alien specimen or at the very least, struggling from PTSD from a past alien encounter. The suspense should at the very least be alleviated, as this is very much a case of Hitchcock's classic bomb under the table example. Lauter's performance ranges from fine to bad and neither his character nor the other central character in this episode, Michelle, are interesting. They are at the forefront of this episode, and unfortunately, the episode does not have much leg room to work some interesting Mulder/Scully interactions.
That's the biggest issue I had with this episode. Mulder and Scully are almost entirely inconsequential to this episode bar Mulder coming to terms with the fact that a childhood hero of his may not quite be the person that he knew. For once, Mulder is more the skeptic and Scully the believer that Lauter's character may not be who everyone thinks he is. That's an interesting shift in dynamic but the episode goes nowhere with it. There's not an ounce of interesting mystery and the episode is deflated by having to spend too much time with uninteresting characters, like those of Ed Lauter and Susanna Thompson.
"Space" is certainly a very weak episode and the first episode so far of the series that I have failed to find any real enjoyment. If this is as bad as the show gets, then it certainly isn't too bad.
There's no suspense generated through an ever present sense of danger, nor is the mystery at all fascinating. The episode doesn't seem as much concerned about generating a mystery as the opening sequence reveals that Ed Lauter's character is either a host to an alien specimen or at the very least, struggling from PTSD from a past alien encounter. The suspense should at the very least be alleviated, as this is very much a case of Hitchcock's classic bomb under the table example. Lauter's performance ranges from fine to bad and neither his character nor the other central character in this episode, Michelle, are interesting. They are at the forefront of this episode, and unfortunately, the episode does not have much leg room to work some interesting Mulder/Scully interactions.
That's the biggest issue I had with this episode. Mulder and Scully are almost entirely inconsequential to this episode bar Mulder coming to terms with the fact that a childhood hero of his may not quite be the person that he knew. For once, Mulder is more the skeptic and Scully the believer that Lauter's character may not be who everyone thinks he is. That's an interesting shift in dynamic but the episode goes nowhere with it. There's not an ounce of interesting mystery and the episode is deflated by having to spend too much time with uninteresting characters, like those of Ed Lauter and Susanna Thompson.
"Space" is certainly a very weak episode and the first episode so far of the series that I have failed to find any real enjoyment. If this is as bad as the show gets, then it certainly isn't too bad.