Continuum Review: “A Test of Time”

This week’s episode plays with the Grandfathermother Paradox, and puts our heroes in a field of Lilies.

Title: “A Test of Time”

Cast and Crew

Director: Pat Williams
Writer: Simon Berry

Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron
Victor Webster as Carlos Fonnegra
Erik Kundson as Alec Sadler
Stephen Lobo as Kellog
Jesse Moss as Shane Mathers
Brian Markinson as Dillon
Stephen Huszar as Drew Laroche
Tony Amendola as Edouard Kagame
Lexa Doig as Sonya
Roger Cross as Travis
Terry Chen as Curtis Chen
Leanne Lapp as Lillian
Kathryn Dobbs as Lillian’s Mother
Richard Harmon as Julian
Sean Michael Kyer as Sam
Omari Newton as Lucas
Luvia Petersen as Garza
John Reardon as Greg
Adam Greydon Reid as Clayton
Olivia Ryan Stern as Maddie
Beatrice Sallis as Surprise Appearance

Full cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

Liber8 attempts to eliminate Kiera by killing her ancestor, while Kellog’s duplicity complicates events.

High Point

The interplay between Kiera and Lily worked reasonably well, and I wish we had seen more of it. I also liked that the show began to further explore some key questions. Did someone plan to send Kiera to the past? And can the future be changed?

Low Point

People, within and outside the police department, take an awful lot on faith from our protagonist.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6 The episode even references Terminator directly– and Terminator was already derivative.

Effects: 5/6

Story: 4/6 The writing is uneven, but this week’s plot had better focus than some of the previous episodes.

Acting: 5/6

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 6/6.

Overall: 5/6

In total, “A Test of Time” receives 31/42

3 replies on “Continuum Review: “A Test of Time””

  1. Regarding the complaint about the police types taking a lot on faith, that may not be so far fetched. We don’t actually know how much backstopping Alec did for Kiera’s identity. We know he has access to a ridiculous number of systems due to his Mad Hacking Skillz and we do know he did something back in the first episode. There’s no reason to believe he has not continued to run interference. Also, the show has not used its limited screen time following that particular issue because obviously if they did, it would be set up so that Kiera would be able to do what she is doing anyway. Of course, it would be nice to see how it was done and I may be giving the writers/producers too much credit.

    I also think it’s been pretty obvious that Kiera going back was planned right from the last scenes of the first episode, though nothing was stated explicitly. It was implied very loudly with one particular scene briefly focusing on one particular old guy in the future. What’s not clear is whether the timeline they all went back to is the same timeline they left from.

    • Planned, or foreseen and not prevented? At this point, it strikes me that either would make perfect sense of the scene in question.

      • Or simply known in advance because of the person in question being around at an earlier point in the same timeline? It looked very much like the reactions were those of someone who has worked out what was going to/must happen and was just watching it play out.

        I was more interested in the apparent agitation of a younger member of the cast in the observation room when Keira realised something was amiss. It was almost as if he knew what was coming as well, and so that implies some interesting personal conflict storylines for Keira later on. I’m just hoping it’s all planned out like Babylon 5 was and not going to end up in a mess of loose ends and contradictions like Lost.

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