Lower Decks

The following contains spoilers through “Fear,” originally broadcast 9/6/09.

There’s something kind of privileged about watching an unheralded, underrated series, especially when there’s a good chance that you won’t be watching it for long. ‘Defying Gravity,’ along with ‘Merlin,’ hasn’t exactly been your traditional network series this summer, airing as a joint international venture, so poor ratings and the probability that it won’t return or finish out a promising, multiyear lifespan doesn’t quite have the same inevitability as, say, ABC’s remake of ‘Life on Mars’ this past season, which had an opportunity to fill out a whole season before receiving a definitive plug. Instead, whatever its fate, D2G at least gets an extended run, one that can sustain, for as long as it lasts, the admiration of those who are watching, wherever they are.

An episode like “Fear” kind of highlights the mood. As the title suggests, the theme this week ruminates a little more clearly on the running arc of the series, where the mysterious Beta seems to prey on past failures of the characters, some of which we’ve explored in the past, others we’re just getting a glimpse of. Celebrating Halloween, they get an ironic opportunity to flake out just as a candy bar company prepares to shoot a commercial that would give the ISO program ten billion dollars to help in the scientific research the Antares mission will facilitate. As Donner’s narration puts it, fear is a confrontation, a chance to either expose what you really are, or hide it. It’s a challenge and an opportunity. No one needs to see the hero you really are. It’s a personal thing, like choosing to watch a show that’s free to operate under its own rule. Success can breed restriction, but struggle can free you. Just as another episode goes by without revealing the big secret that is Beta, we perhaps better understand why that’s a good thing.

Maddux Donner (Ron Livingston), Zoe Barnes (Laura Harris), Paula Morales (Paula Garces), Evram Mintz (Eyal Podell), Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba), Nadia Schilling (Florentine Lahme), and Eve Shaw (Karen Leblanc) are all incapacitated in some way this episode by visions. Donner, Zoe, and Ted are all part of a contingent of the crew, along with Jen Crane (Christina Cox), set to do the spacewalk trick or treat for the candy company when the visions really hit, while Paula, Evram, and Nadia are in various supporting roles that are equally compromised. Eve learns that Beta can trigger its effect even from thousands of miles away at Mission Control. All in all, it isn’t good, but it’s an important step where so many of them realize that they’re not alone in these recurring hallucinations (remember, last episode Evram was the first one to officially breach the subject, to Donner and Ted) that it becomes that much more likely that we’ll soon have a group discussion on the cause, and answers about Beta at last.

A big revelation during “Fear,” however, comes in the form of Roy Shaw, the five year old child of Eve and Ted, whom we’ve never even heard hint of previously. It’s a development that plays along with the episode nicely, because it features the first stirrings in the five-years-earlier period of the relationship shifts between the future parents. Eve visits Beta and receives a vision of Ted, which causes her to finally introduce herself to him. Previously, of course, he’d been seeing Jen, whose side relationship with Rollie at the time has already been suggested, but gets a little bump here, too. Instead of attending a Halloween party, Ted has a long talk with Eve, leaving Jen behind, having to deal with Zoe, who’s still recovering from her abortion, which few really know about (except Ajay), even though her eventual choice of costume is a pretty big indication.

Ted’s is actually one of the nicer touches of the episode. He, and his son five years later, chooses to dress up as Doctor Ra, a fictional character made for the show, which makes a good point of making a more fully-rounded reality of it. Donner meanwhile attends as Greg Maddux, whom he reveals to be his namesake (even if D2G makes the bold prediction of a Hall of Fame berth awaiting the pitcher), while Nadia a German baseball cheerleader (I didn’t know she was German, or that Germans have baseball cheerleaders) on his arm, much to Zoe’s continued chagrin. The baseball link is a nice touch for a character (and here we’re talking about Donner again) we already know as a fan, while this Doctor Ra figure is a nice touch for a science fiction series to make, even one that if you really don’t want to, you don’t have to view as science fiction.

Because this whole business with Beta and the effect he has on people, by the very nature of the approach the series has been making, can just as easily be seen as people dealing with their baggage, which is more than universal in its scope. Everyone has baggage, but D2G is a series that says it’s okay, because even when it gets in the way, that doesn’t mean that it controls us. For an episode like “Fear,” it may have some significant consequences, but there’s always another day.

Some of the visions are old hat, are hardly need to be discussed here again: Donner sees the messed-up helmet indicative of the Mars mission, Zoe hears a baby, Evram the girl from the war, Ted the Mars landscape (and the storm that in the discussion with Eve becomes a little easier to understand as the reason the mission ended so tragically, no matter how much it continues to torment Ted and Donner). Paula sees Hector, an old pet dog, who seems to have had some sort of fatal accident. That’s pretty new, and reasonably explains itself. Eve sees some children, apparently from another tragedy. That we’ll probably see more of.

Nadia, meanwhile, may have the most interesting tease of the episode. She sees a man she feels compelled to follow down a corridor, and it’s the first time her fierce armor of frivolity has been pierced. It’s an interesting development, because of all the characters, she’s seemed like the least likely one to have any real baggage to speak of, but seeing that its taken so long to get to it, maybe that means she may actually have some of the most interesting. It will remain, however, something to expect from another episode. Those who are unaffected, at least among the crew, Jen and Steve Wassenfelder (Dylan Taylor), are equally conspicuous, but at least this isn’t lost on the creators. Jen has been the character throughout the season who can be relied upon to lend a supporting, sympathetic hand to Zoe, but has also emerged as something of a moral authority, what with that Rufus-the-fetal-rabbit business (eluded to during the episode for her enthusiasm over the candy bar research money), which may be why, for the moment, she’s unaffected by Beta. Same with Wass, as evidenced last episode, with his real concern over the injured Paula.

Hey, there’s also flashback-era Ajay (Zahf Paroo), who as I said is one of very few characters to know the truth behind Zoe’s medical woes, who offers some sage advice. I think I’ve learned, at least as far as Mohinder from ‘Heroes’ is concerned, that maybe my interest in evocative Indian characters isn’t widely shared, but I still enjoy this aspect of Ajay, as much as his present struggle to rediscover his role, which hasn’t been explored as much lately. Still, for however much more time there is to explore such matters, I’m perfectly willing to play along with whatever the creators choose to do.

“Fear” is one of those episodes where the creators seem to be commenting as much about their own product as on the circumstances of the characters, which is kind of weird, because one would assume that they couldn’t have known at the time that so few people would be watching. Maybe it was an intuition, that no matter how much it occasionally resembles the popular ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ D2G couldn’t hope, as a genre series, to capture the same kind of audience, no matter how much it deserves such success. Sometimes, it just isn’t in the cards, and that’s just something that needs to be dealt with. Fear can sometimes be a beautiful thing.