One year after the Visitors have been driven from Earth by the red-dust toxin, Diana escapes from custody and attempts to signal their return, while Elizabeth undergoes a strange metamorphosis.  First of two parts.

Detailed Review -

• The episode initially begins immediately after the doomsday device has been deactivated aboard the Mothership.  While Martin begins to pilot the ship back to Earth, Diana's fighter is noticed hurtling away.  Mike runs to the shuttle bay, takes another fighter, and pursues her to Earth.  He manages to land several shots on her ship, forcing her to crash land.  Mike lands his fighter nearby and tackles Diana.  During the struggle he attempts to choke her, but she uses her strength to knock his hands away and hits him on the head with a large rock.  Before she can escape or do any more damage, two hunters arrive to help.

• One year later, news crews celebrate "Liberation Day" with Elias at his newly opened restaurant, Club Creole, where Willie is also employed.   He sends a message out to his old friends in the Resistance, saying that if they ever need his help they know where to find him.

• News crews are also on hand at the Mothership, now on land in the desert, where Nathan Bates' company, Science Frontiers, has been working to unlock the secrets of the Visitors technology.  It was Science Frontiers that manufactured the red-dust toxin that Julie discovered.   Mike and Julie take part in a televised interview with Nathan, while Martin acts as Mike's assistant and soundman.

• Robin, living with her father and Elizabeth at Robert's ranch, confides to her father that she is worried about Elizabeth.  Robert encourages Robin to take a break from her responsibilities with a visit to Santa Cruz.  As they are talking, a helicopter news crew arrives in an attempt to speak to Elizabeth.  As Robert and Robin head toward the corral, Elizabeth uses her powers to push the helicopter away.

• Mike, who the network has been trying to convince to work as an anchorman, shows Juliet his jealousy over her relationship with Nathan. Julie tries to allay his fears by explaining that Nathan is merely worried, as Diana will not reveal the codes that will allow Science Frontiers to continue their research.  Mike is also worried because he had sent his son Sean away to a state school, where he is making little progress.  Mike and Julie resolve their differences and he whisks her away for a private moment.

• In his office, Nathan watches the news report on Elizabeth's powers, followed by an update on Diana's upcoming trial.  He is interrupted by the arrival of Ham Tyler, now the owner of a high-tech security agency.  Nathan reveals that he knows much of Ham's past, and offers Ham a job "providing security".  He offers Ham $500,000 to take the job.

• En route to the courthouse to cover Diana's trial, Mike tries to convince Martin that the trial is necessary - Martin believes that Diana should simply be killed.  Martin take an anti-toxin pill (which Nathan also markets) to control the effects of the red dust in the atmosphere; he has only one pill left and must get more later in the day, as each pill only lasts for 12 hours.

• Robin decides to go to Santa Cruz for a few days, leaving Elizabeth in the care of her father.

• Diana arrives for her trial with a full police escort, extra security guards, and wearing a gas mask.   Groups of protesters vie with the cameramen covering the trial for the best view.  From the edge of the crowd a man pulls a gun and shoots Diana.  As pandemonium ensues, Diana is taken by stretcher to an ambulance.  Mike and Martin attempt to follow, but all access is blocked by a convenient car accident in the parking lot.  Spotting a helicopter, Mike and Martin hop inside and manage to take to the air before the rightful owner can reach them.

• Martin and Mike scour the city for the ambulance, and finally spot it entering an underpass.  When the ambulance does not exit the underpass, Mike realizes that a large transport truck did not enter from the other side - he concludes that the ambulance is inside the truck, and they continue to follow the truck.

• While Robert watches the attempt on Diana's life replayed on the news, Elizabeth comes to him complaining that her arm hurts.  When Robert checks it out, he notices that a small portion of her skin has pulled away, revealing whitish scales underneath.  Trying to remain calm for Elizabeth's sake, Robert calls Juliet.  By the time Julie arrives, the skin on Elizabeth's entire arm has pulled away to reveal pulsing white scales.

• The transport truck arrives at a remote cabin, where it is met by Ham.  The ambulance is unloaded, and Ham orders that Diana be brought inside the cabin before she can be spotted by the distant helicopter.

• Diana is placed in an isolation chamber where she remains when Nathan arrives to offer her a deal - her co-operation with the Mothership and Visitor technology in return for the anti-toxin and partial freedom.  While Diana considers the offer inside, Ham and Nathan go outside where Ham reminds Nathan of their own bargain - when Nathan is finished with Diana, Ham gets her.

• Having tracked down the truck, Mike and Martin arrive at the cabin on foot.  Mike insists that they get proof that Diana is alive, then go for the police - but Martin knows that Diana must pay the final price for her crimes.  Martin knocks Mike unconscious with his camera and heads to the house.  He lures one guard outside and knocks him unconscious as well, then rushes inside and forces the second guard to drop his gun.  Martin rips open Diana's isolation tent and holds the gun on her.  Before he can fire he is distracted by the second guard, and in the ensuing scramble Diana gets the gun.

• Mike awakens to find the cabin burning and Martin crawling towards him.  After warning him that Diana will signal the fleet, Martin tells Mike that Diana took his final anti-toxin pill.  Martin attempts to say more but is overcome and dies in Mike's arms.

• At Robert's cabin, Julie confides that she cannot control whatever is happening to Elizabeth.  She fears that Elizabeth may be gaining the Visitor's true appearance.  While they are talking, Elizabeth gets out of bed and leaves the ranch on her horse - Julie and Robert quickly follow.

• The next morning Diana, clad in civilian clothing, is stopped by the roadside with car trouble when a trucker pulls over to assist.  Diana accepts a ride heading towards the Southwestern Tracking Station, a fully automated facility.

• Ham informs Nathan of Diana's escape, and refuses to work for Nathan any longer.  Ham heads out to search for Diana himself, knowing that she will attempt to contact the fleet.  Nathan sends his own man out after Ham.

• When the truck driver who picked Diana up pulls over on a side road and attempts to get amorous, Diana pretends to play along - then kills him.  Heading towards the tracking station on foot, she blasts the locked gate with her laser pistol.  Mike, meanwhile, spots Diana's abandoned car and realizes where she is headed.

• Elizabeth finds a cave in the hills which is surrounded by rattlers and other snakes.  Unconcerned, she heads inside.  Juliet and Robert track Elizabeth there, where they see a strange green light coming from the cave mouth.  They hear Elizabeth screaming, but are forced to clear away the rattlers before they can get to her.  Inside, Elizabeth is in what appears to be a huge pod.  Julie realizes that Elizabeth is going through another metabolic change, and refuses to let Robert interfere.

• At the Tracking Station, Mike hears someone walking through the halls and attacks - though it turns out to be Ham.  The men hear a homing signal and realize that Diana has succeeded in calling the fleet.  They find the device and, as Mike attempts to turn it off, Diana fires a laser blast at him.  Mike warns Diana that her 12 hours of safety from the red dust are almost up - as she runs out, Ham blasts the homing computer.  Mike and Ham decide to split up to find Diana.

• When Mike arrives outside he finds himself on a raised platform, with Diana below holding a gun on him.  She forces him to drop his weapon, but when her watch goes off (to let her know that her protection against the red dust is up), Mike takes advantage of her distraction by jumping off the platform.

• Diana's shuttle arrives just as Mike lands from his jump, and limping, he runs after her.  She is almost to the shuttle when she turns - Mike shoots her several times in the chest, but her armour protects her.  As Diana boards the shuttle Mike shoots her twice more in the back, but again she is protected by her armour.  One of the shuttle troopers fires at Mike, and he is knocked backwards by the blast.  Ham arrives in time to see Diana's shuttle take off.

• In the cave, Robert and Juliet watch in horror as the pod containing Elizabeth begins to split in two.

• Safely away from Earth and heading towards the amassed Motherships hiding behind the Earth's moon, Diana's pulls the bullets from Mike's gun out of her vest and plans her next move.

Bloopers and Nitpicks -

• When Mike rushes to board the shuttle to chase Diana, the view of the Landing Bay shows no Visitor bodies and the crews working as normal.  Thanks to Jon for this nitpick!  Neil points out that this is also reused footage from Mike's rescue of Robin and Sancho in the first miniseries.

• The Mothership is still in deep space when Mike takes off to chase Diana, yet their ensuing chase takes place on Earth.  This footage is also reused from the miniseries.

• During Mike and Diana's struggle, Diana's eyes turn briefly to "lizard" eyes.  It has been shown that the only way this can happen is if the Visitors remove their "human" eyeballs!

• Martin knocks Mike out near the tree line, at least 50 feet from the cabin where Diana is being held.  When Mike comes to, he is only about 20 feet away with nary a tree in sight.

• The truck driver who assists Diana doesn't recognize her, despite the fact that she's surely been on every newscast for the past year!  Putting her hair in a ponytail is simply not enough of a disguise.

• And where did Diana get the civilian clothes that she is wearing?  The car could have been stolen from one of the guards at the cabin - maybe one of them was a cross dresser? :-)

• Nick wonders:  why do the Visitors voices no longer reverberate?  My answer:  it was a climate thing.  They just needed to get used to our weather... (!!)

• Nick also believes that Willie's hair grew in the year following the Visitors defeat - how can this be possible if their hair is artificial?  We can ask the same thing about Diana's new 'do.  My answer:  the human 'skin' and 'hair' is actually grown to suit each Visitor - this would explain why those that are considered beautiful with their natural bodies are also beautiful in their human "skins".

• And a general comment about Visitor technology:  Nick figures that if the Visitor home planet  is 8.7 years away, then it should take 8.7 years for any messages to reach them.  How is it that the Visitors can send and receive messages so quickly?  But Kevin has a reply: Since light has no weight or mass, it is theoretically possible to make it travel faster than 186,000 miles per second.   The Visitors messages could not have travelled at light speed - if that was the case the Leader would have had to leave Sirius eight years before they arrived on Earth to stop a war that hadn't even started yet.

• Jackie believes that the Visitor shuttle pilot who rescues Diana is played by none other than Frank       Ashmore.  Jackie also corrects a plot point - the news station where Mike works only wants him to                 take an anchorman position, but he wants to stay where he is! It's been corrected, Jackie!  Thanks!

• Deb thinks that Martin looks sunburned in this episode.  And if so, wonders how pseudo-skin could be effected by sunlight!

• Astute "Diana" noticed that the stock footage of Mike's shuttle chase of Diana also shows Diana's hand and arm piloting the shuttle.  Now that I was tipped off, I looked for it and noticed it as well.  Diana's three black command stripes are shown, while the uniform that Mike is wearing has no stripes on the arms.

• While looking for the above blooper, I found a new one!  Mike's uniform changes both colour and design!  In the first scene on the Mothership, Mike is wearing a dark red uniform with the Visitor insignia in bold black, with all parts of the insignia "connected".  When he is fighting with Diana on the ground, his uniform is more orange in colour, and the insignia is more of a patch, with spaces between the symbols.

• Scott says that Diana shouldn't even be alive at the beginning of this episode.  He notes:  The Red Dust was just released, so there's no place for her to run there. When she crashes, she should be dying, but shows no ill effects of the red dust. Since they tell us in the next episode that the entire planet was covered, there's just no way Diana should be alive.

• Scott also notes a small blooper at the end of the episode:  Donovan chases Diana and calles her name as she approaches the shuttle. Donovan cockes the gun, putting a bullet into the chamber. So, Donovan was chasing Diana with a gun which had no round in the chamber? Then he fires a few shots and is blown back by a Visitor shot. He gets up and re-cocks the gun. This is done automatically as you fire the weapon, so all Donovan is doing is wasting a bullet by ejecting it out of the chamber before it is fired.

• Jon says:  When Diana's red dust watch bleeps at the tracking centre and distracts her, Donovan jumps down over a railing above and lands on the same level as her (only a few feet away!).  *But* for some unknown reason Diana just stands there choking and gets away easily as Mike jumps over yet more railings!

• Jon also comments:  As Diana boards the awaiting shuttle to escape Mike's gun shots at the communication centre, the padding used to protect Jane Badler in the stunt is clearly shown beneath Diana's uniform as she hurries aboard the shuttle.

• (Nathan offers Ham a deal)                                                                                                                                 Nathan:  Tell me, Mr. Tyler, what would you do with Diana?                                                                           Ham:  I'd use her for target practice.                                                                                                             Nathan:  Then you reject the argument that she can atone for her crimes by helping us in our fight against disease?                                                                                                                                                              Ham:  Diana is the disease.

• (Martin and Mike take off after Diana)                                                                                                          Martin:  What do you think you're gonna get for stealing a helicopter?                                                       Mike:    Two years.  Or a pulitzer prize!  Now where's that ambulance?

• (Ham rejoins the Resistance)                                                                                                                           Ham:     No amateurs.  I do this my way.                                                                                                           Nathan: You work for me.                                                                                                                               Ham:     Wrong.  I'm a free agent from now on.  (cocks pistol)                                                                      Nathan: Then I'd say I'm entitled to a refund.                                                                                                Ham:     I'd tell you what to do with your money but that'd be rude.                                                              Nathan: How will I know if you've killed Diana?                                                                                             Ham:     I'll let you live.

Next Episode:  Dreadnought

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