Defying Gravity: Fear

It’s Halloween and for the crew of the Antares that means more tricks than treats as their hallucinations become more realistic and more frequent. Bad news for Mission Control, as they’re hoping to get a ten million dollar payoff from a candy company for producing the first commercial from outer space.

The idea behind this one is genius in that I can easily see this being the future of the space program. With government funds drying up, private resources will have to be tapped and what better resource than a large retail corporation. In this case, it’s the company behind Comet Candy. They’ve bought live airtime all over the world for their commercial featuring astronauts trick or treating in space. One problem, nearly everyone on the ship is experiencing hallucinations so real that they’re unable to function. Paula runs off to save her injured dog, Evram is haunted by a young girl he couldn’t save during the war, Zoe is still hearing that baby cry, Donner’s seeing Mars red dust everywhere and Ted is seeing Mars! Even level-headed cynic Nadia is chasing ghosts (and did I miss it. . do we know who this guy is because he looks like her but with a beard.)

With everyone cracking up just minutes before the commercial, I thought for sure that Jen would take the space walk on her own. She was fine and could have gone out, even with Donner, maybe as he seemed to be dealing with his issues better than the others. I’m sure it would have gone against protocol as well as good sense, but I thought that’s where it was headed with her so insistent on earning that money for her science programs. In the end, it was probably best that they had to abandon the commercial as this was the one time I agreed with Goss. The only thing embarrassing about the whole incident was the idea of highly trained astronauts floating around in space with plastic pumpkin pails!

As usual, I paid little mind to the flashback sequences but I did get a kick out of Ted’s costume, that little Ted also wore at the end. It looked like some Vulcan character out of a future Star Trek episode. Little Ted was adorable and I enjoyed the final shots of him trick or treating at mission control. What did Donner say in his voice over this week? Something to the effect of, sometimes you gotta put it out there, if you want to come home with the bucket full of candy.

Ain’t it the truth.

(ABC/SERGEI BACHLAKOV) RON LIVINGSTON, LAURA HARRIS

(ABC/SERGEI BACHLAKOV) CHRISTINA COX, LAURA HARRIS