Earth: Final Conflict
"One Taelon Avenue"

Air Date: May 1st, 2000

The reunion between Jonathan Doors (David Hemblen) and his son is marred by Joshua (William de Vry) being under the influence of an experimental mind-control device.

Although it's not clear where he's been hiding or what he's been up to, it's nice to finally see Joshua Doors again. He practically fell off the face of the Earth in season two's "Crossfire", only to reappear suddenly and resume as if it were business as usual. Which includes giving his father a hard time, it seems. William de Vry plays Joshua's inconsistent personality seamlessly. One minute Doors is charming, the next in-your-face aggressive, on the drop of a hat. It is jarring to witness but it convincingly resembles a multiple personality syndrome.

This lack of continuity aside, the A plot concerning the Control Project at One Taelon Avenue reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The theme of an experiment in artificial intelligence that backfires on the creator when the being becomes sentient has been seen before, but I didn't mind as it allowed the Doors vs. Doors B plot to progress. Still, I thought it was oddly amusing that the Control project is the one Taelon-designed experiment that has turned on its creators and actively resisted their efforts to control it. In effect, Control outsmarted the Taelons. Isn't that a scream? I had a flashback to Hal 9000 and Dave Bowman, most especially in the scene with Ronald Sandoval (Von Flores) and Control. It's too much to ask, but I was kind of hoping for a moment of comedy as Control tries to talk Sandoval out of blowing it to hell. "What do you think you're doing, Ron?" I kept expecting the psychosupercomputer to ask. Oh, well.

Speaking of Sandoval, I just have to comment on the pure, evil glee on his face when he put Zo'or and Da'an into catatonia with the Control Core. I admit that is a nifty thing to have when you work for someone like Zo'or but he's going to need more than that to be his bullet in the chamber if things get really bad for him in future. As his ambition grows, the likelihood that he'll forget himself and land in hot water grows.

The more interesting aspect of the episode is the father/son conflict between Jonathan and Joshua. They haven't always seen eye to eye in the past, a situation that came to a bad end in "Crossfire" when Joshua sold dear dad out to the Taelons and then got gone. In "One Taelon Avenue" it's hard to tell how much of the rancor in Joshua's behavior toward Jonathan is fresh salt on an old wound or Control's influence on him. Either way, the younger Doors is a mirror of the elder. One can see Jonathan's dominant traits come to the surface of Joshua's altered personality. For example, ruthlessness, exaggerated drive, arrogance; best illustrated in the scene in Renée Palmer's (Jayne Heitmeyer) Doors International office. Joshua knows how much an affront his offer to Palmer will be to his father. He will get a great asset like Renée to work at One Taelon Avenue and piss Dad off in the bargain. It's icing on the cake he wants to have and eat, too.

David Hemblen, who I'd loved and hated as the arrogant control-freak with humanity's best interests at heart, allows Jonathan to soften at the end when he tells his son in Doors fashion that he loves him. Sadly, Jonathan Doors' character had to die so that the door for Joshua could be opened to continue his legacy and support the Resistance. Whether Joshua Doors walks through that door remains to be seen as Augur (Richard Chevolleau) observes at the end. It may take a while for the younger Doors to work through his anger, regret and the haze of the Control Core before he can have the clarity and focus to do what his late father did for the Resistance, and humanity.

Though the Control project at One Taelon Avenue failed, it's only a matter of when a similar experiment appears later. How long will the Taelons wait before trying to revise and revive the Control Core project? I for one am proud and relieved to see that human creativity isn't as easy to suppress as the Taelons thought.

-- Vivian E. Lee

Earth: Final Conflict is in syndication. Check local listings for show times.

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