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Falling Skies 2.01 "Worlds Apart"

Writer: Mark Verheiden

Director: Greg Beeman
THE ONE WHERE : Three months after stepping aboard the Overlords’ craft, Tom is returned to the 2 ^nd Mass – only to take a bullet from Ben. As he struggles for life, he experiences disturbing flashbacks to his time in captivity…

THE VERDICT : The second season premiere kicks off in impressive, adrenalised style. Favouring hand-held shots, director Greg Beeman brings an urgency and immediacy to the opening clash between the resistance and the invaders in a nocturnal battleground of a city, ablaze with war. We’re hurled into the thick of it, and the episode continues to play for high stakes, from the warzone surgery on Tom through to his nightmarish flashbacks of the mothership. Shame the story ultimately loses focus – a plotline about the invaders choosing to target resistance vehicles is too neatly wrapped up with a throwaway line about fiberglass wrapping. Still, this feels like a muscular, more confident Falling Skies , heavier on tension and action, stripped of much of the mawkishness of season one. Promising.

FAB FX : Some outstanding visuals in this one. The Overlord’s throneroom has an eerie organic feel, as if it’s sprouted from extra-terrestrial bone. Elsewhere there’s a memorable glimpse of an abandoned, post-apocalyptic Michigan, all smashed cars, collapsed buildings and lowering skies.

DID YOU SPOT? : There’s Banksy-style graffiti of a Mona Lisa with an alien head on the side of one of the buildings in the ruined city. Yeah! Stick it to the Overlords with art!

ALIEN LORE : The invaders have an impressive knowledge of the history of human warfare, atrocities and all. Did they hoover this info directly from Tom’s brain while he was in captivity? Or simply download Wikipedia before they destroyed the internet?

TRIVIA : No stranger to the interiors of motherships, Steven Spielberg himself had creative input into the design of the throneroom.

BEST LINE :

Margaret: “You sure know how to impress a girl. What’s next – his and hers grenade launchers?”

Falling Skies is now showing on FX

Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Titan Books. His original novels are called The War in the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements.