V: 1.17 War of Illusions
1.17 – War of Illusions
Written by: John Simmons
Directed by: Earl Bellamy
Original air date: March 8th, 1985
Synopsis:
We open with Diana and James in bed together as they discuss the arrival of the Battlesphere, which will implements the Leader’s battle plan directly.
Philip meets with Donovan and Kyle and warns them of the plan for a blitzkrieg, whose goal is to completely destroy the southwest of the US, ending the resistance forever.
The attack is scheduled to begin in 36 hours and the only way to stop it is with another computer. Philip tells them he will get them a copy of the attack plan if they can get a computer expert and a sophisticated enough computer system to hack the Battlesphere.
Kyle mentions a Dr. Atkins who was an associate of his fathers and was a computer expert at Science Frontiers, where there is also computers that would suit their need. Kyle doesn’t trust Philip, but they go off to find Dr. Atkins.
Lt. James is patrolling Earth, looking for resistance.
Aboard the mothership, the Visitors are celebrating the holiday of Schluta and the arrival of the Battlesphere. Diana reveals that James is searching for a Earth-bound hacker who has been interfering with the main computer.
While a drunken Lydia hangs on Philip, there is a report about the battle plan arriving. James reports that the hacker hasn’t yet been found, but that the area is completely monitored. The hacker strikes again during transmission, but James says that he has been prepared for this and that right now they are triangulating the signal, hoping it will lead him to the tracker.
In a backroads general store we see Henry Atkins selling food to his customers. In a backroom, we see Dr. Atkins huddled over a small personal computer. He praises Henry for being able to tap into the Visitor computer. They go out to serve some more customers when Dr. Atkins sees a Visitor patrol heading right for them. Dr. Atkins, tells Henry to leave out the secret entrance with his computer. Henry wants him to go with him, but Dr. Atkins believes if the Visitors capture him, they won’t look further.
Lydia receives a communique from James, telling her that he has been unsuccessful again. Philip questions Diana’s actions and intimates that soon it would reflect on Lydia, who orders Diana to be sent to her quarters.
Diana is choosing a consort from among three males that Oswald has procured. Diana and Lydia discuss the capture of Dr. Atkins who has confessed to being the hacker. They both doubt his confession because it was so readily given.
Diana puts Dr. Atkins into some kind of torture device and orders him to show them how he hacked in. When he is unable to replicate Henry’s work, Diana orders him to tell them who he’s hiding. When he refuses she uses the machine to pluck the image of Henry from his mind. They give the information to James.
Philip takes advantage of Diana and Lydia being busy and sneaks in to steal a copy of the Leader’s battle plans.
Donovan and Kyle bring Elizabeth to the Atkins’ storefront and find it boarded up, and seemingly abandoned. Elizabeth senses that this was a recent develop. Donovan sends her back to the van with Willy and breaks into the store. Henry surprises Donovan and aims a gun at him, until Kyle comes in from the back, to stop him.
Henry then fills Kyle in while Donovan goes to fill Willy and Elizabeth in, and shows him what he accomplished. Directly after he connects again, Donovan bursts back in to say that James and his patrol are right outside. Henry shows them the secret way out and James is left empty handed again.
Henry agrees to help the resistance if they can spring his father. Donovan does some scoping and some digging and discovers that there are prisoners being held in an abandoned maintenance shed at an airfield.
They raid the shed and free the prisoners but Henry’s father is not among them.
The next morning, Philip meets with Donovan and hands over the Leader’s battle plans, telling him that the blitz is to start in the next 6 hours. Donovan asks about Dr. Atkins and Philip confirms that he is Diana’s prisoner. He promises to do everything he can to get him out.
Donovan reports back to Kyle and Henry, who goes ballistic and says he’s not going to trust a lizard turn coat. He feels that if he turns himself in, that the Visitors will let his father go. Donovan walks away angry but Kyle takes him aside and speaks to him about his father and what great expectations he had for Henry. He tells Henry that his father would want him to help, so Henry reluctantly agrees.
Diana and Lydia get a report of a unauthorized entry into the Battlesphere and they quickly summise that the plans have been stolen by the fifth column and orders James to guard Science Frontiers as the most likely spot the resistance would turn to to use the Battlesphere’s plan against it.
Donovan and company make it into Science Frontiers before they are ambushed by Lt. James and his men. They retreat to the elevator but it won’t work. Willy notes that the power was cut. James stalks his prey until suddenly Elizabeth shuts the door and brings the elevator back on line.
James, shocked, orders guards to stay and some to come with him as he heads for the stairs.
When they reach their destination, Donovan puts a grenade in the elevator and has Elizabeth send it back down where it kills the guards waiting for the return of the elevator.
Kyle, Henry, and Elizabeth make their way to the computers while Donovan and Willy head towards the stairways to stall James.
Henry hooks his computer up to the Science Frontiers servers, but he remembers that the power had been cut. Once again, Elizabeth uses her talents to power up the computers.
Henry is able to hack into the Visitor system, but can’t get into the Battlesphere.
On board the mothership both Diana and Lydia make very veiled accusations at Philip’s loyalty after receiving a report that Philip was not in his quarters at the time the Battlesphere was compromised. Philip counters by reminding them that such accusations could be grounds for immediate court martial. They let the matter drop and Philip leads the bridge. He manages to sneak Dr. Atkins onto a skyfighter, being piloted by a fifth column agent who will take him to the resistance.
Henry is able to break into the Battlesphere and completely disrupts the invasions causing all the skyfighters to crash and burn and make the plans pointless. Diana and Lydia can do nothing but watch.
Donovan and Willy stop James in the stairwell with some grenades, but realize they have to get out now, which they do. Back in the woods there is a van waiting for them with Dr. Atkins inside. Henry and Dr. Atkins are reunited and Kyle tells Donovan to give Philip his apologies for not trusting him.
Analysis:
I can sum up this episode in one name. Henry Atkins. I can simply not remember the last time I hated a character so much as this whiny, arrogant, and completely annoying kid. I have never wanted to slap anyone so hard in my life.
If the episode had much value, it would have been overdriven by my hate for this character. I really can’t judge this episode too fairly because of it. But I’ll try.
As Independence Day ripped off V years later for the concept, spaceships, etc. it shows here that it also ripped off another part. But it’s actually worse here than in Independence Day. To think that a computer from Earth in 1985 could actually hack into a computer from a completely alien species who is so technologically advanced that they can travel light years to reach us is simply laughable. I hated that concept in ID4 and I hate it here.
The use of stock footage has reached it’s highest peak (or lowest valley rather) as it simply becomes OVER distracting. I will get into the usage of stock footage throughout the saga in a different section, but I will say that usually it’s amusing and funny, but in this case it’s simply ridiculous. A whole scene is re-used from “The Return” (where James asks his men to check out a nearby van)…an episode that happened not four episodes ago. Then the scene of James pulling up to the storefront is used TWICE in the same episode. And of course the very end tag on of Lydia telling Diana, “Better luck next time” is taken from “Breakout” which hadn’t even technially aired yet but features Lydia with a completely different hair style and a different uniform top with the gold pillowy things on her shoulders. There is more too, I’d say at least 1/4 of the show was cobbled together from previous episodes.
Hooray for more cost cutting. OH and Julie gets another episode off….making it two in a row.
But we get Elizabeth this week because they needed some Jedi magic. Any character development that Elizabeth did have as the 3 year old trying to make her way in the world is COMPLETELY gone. Now she is a resistor just like the rest of them, just with Jedi powers. That is her only point in existing…to be able to use her powers.
Did this episode have any redeeming qualities?
One. I did enjoy that Donovan too was driven so crazy by Henry that HE wanted to haul off and knock the kid out.
This is probably the worst episode of the series and that is saying something.
D-
