The weakest of the Master of Science Fiction episodes is also the one that they will premiere the series with. A Clean Escape based on the short story by Nebula Award winning author John Kessel. Is an episode that relies more on good writing than focusing on giving us an entertaining plot. I for one enjoyed some of the technical aspects that went into making this film, but found myself waiting for some action to go along with the very well written script. I never got it.
A Clean Escape is about a dying doctor named Deanna Evans (Judy Davis) who refuses to believe that her patient, Robert Havelmann (Sam Waterston) cannot remember what has happened to him in the past twenty five years. The problem is that there is a global crisis going on, one that extinguished the majority of the human race. No one knows why the doctor spends most of her time working with Havelmann, but their is a reason which binds this story together giving us it’s shocking conclusion.
The script for this episode was written by Emmy award nominee Sam Egan (The Outer Limits). I’m not going to say that the script was bad, because it was very well written, my problem was that the film seemed more like a talkie, and there was no Sci-fi action within the plot. The dialogue was great, very well written, and the premise of what was going on in the story was told well. My problem actually lied within the overall flow of the episode.
The acting and directing go hand in hand in this episode, Both are excellent, and I’m not going to take anything away from the people who worked on this film, because they all pulled their jobs off with perfection. Sam Waterston (Law & Order) was brilliant in his role as Robert Havelmann. Judy Davis ( Marie Antoinette) was also top notch in her role as the Doctor. The majority of the episode revolves around both of them most of the time. Both actors delivered their lines with great brilliance and used the emotion of body language to present themselves as such great actors. This in hand has to also do with the great direction, by Oscar Nominated director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond). I give him most of the credit for taking such a hard story and putting it together.
The overall production value is not that great. I mean we really don’t have any kind of extraordinary science fiction looking sets. In fact the set for this film looks pretty much like the inside of a five star hotel room. Here is where the show kind of disappointed me, when I think of Science Fiction films or television shows I think of great effects and cool looking sets. We don’t get much of it at all in this film. What we do get is some CGI towards the end that is part of the conclusion of the show. But most of time as I stated above, the script relies more the over development of the characters then giving us a great overall science fiction thrill.
In the end however, although I think this is the weakest of the four episodes I had the honor of reviewing. A Clean Escape is a very well put together piece, but don’t expect to be entertained with action packed sequences, because while you’ll get a good story, you won’t get any great visuals.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
