By Sandy Amazeen Nov 13, 2006, 19:31 GMT
Starship captain Jerry Cavanaugh witnesses a phenomenon known as “moonriders” up close and personal yet no one takes him seriously. At a time when space travel and exploration is struggling for funding in the midst of disappointing returns on the investment, moonriders are viewed with skepticism until the sheer volume of sightings leave the Academy (think NASA) little choice but to investigate. Opponents of the Academy cite many of the same arguments heard today including using the available funding for curing disease, reversing global warming and improving general living conditions to call a halt to further exploration. Their arguments are furthered by the disappearance and apparent malfunctions of starships in the existing fleet.
Former starship pilot Priscilla Hutchinson is joined by headline hungry newspaper editor Gregory MacAllister and a fifteen-year-old senator’s daughter on a fact-finding mission regarding the nature and origin of the moonriders just as the finishing touches are being added to a new particle accelerator. The new project dubbed Origins may unlock some of the mysteries of the universe or maybe, tear a hole in the space-time continuum. Hoaxes abound as corporate greed pushes the boundaries at the cost of careers and lives as humanity is forced to acknowledge the moonriders existence in a frightening showdown.
The many incomplete subplots are detrimental to what could have been a strong storyline. The characters are formula as once again, it’s the evil corporations vs. the idealistic making for a tiresome backdrop. This is unfortunate as the plot showed a great deal of imagination and promise with the questions regarding mans understanding of physics dovetailed with contact to a possibly sinister new species with its own agenda, too bad it fell short.
Your Talkback on this Story