With Wreckers on board and threatening them both, can Aster and Halan put their differences aside and work together to survive?

Beacon 23 had a strong opener and I was hopeful for this second instalment. Could it maintain the momentum and intrigue? Well, sort of.

The plot as it goes is fairly by the numbers for this sort of episode. Our two protagonists, deeply mistrustful of one another, are forced by the introduction of a shared enemy to work together. So far, so routine. That enemy is a ragtag bunch of mercenaries known as ‘Wreckers’ who have two amongst their number that… don’t really belong. The main intrigue of the episode, outside of the ongoing tension between Aster and Halan, is the presence of these two – why they are there at all, how they got mixed up in all this, and how it will all end up resolving.

The thing is, that feels like the most underdeveloped part of the episode, and in fairness that’s saying a lot given how little we really discover about the invaders. One is big and speaks some sort of alien language. One is good with computers in an odd, almost body horror-esque way, and their leader is another ex-soldier with a history of violence and no apparent morals.

None of them really get any character or journey here, they just serve as two-dimensional antagonists for the audience to root against. The one interesting fact about them is another thing that the show leaves the audience not knowing whether they can trust or not, and then we circle back to the fact that we really find out nothing about the two odd ones out in the group. I mean sure, we get to know who they were, in a vague sort of way, but no real detail is forthcoming about how they ended up in the situation in which they find themselves, other than vague asides.

We do find out a little more about Halan – the fact that he is a soldier is already known to us of course, but here we find out what sort of soldier, and what his military service means for him and his physicality. As to Aster, we get a little more development but given the nature of the character, it’s impossible to know whether this is a lie or not.

Verdict: All in all, it’s a competent enough episode in terms of moving pieces around but there’s just no substance to really grasp on to, and that’s a shame. 6/10

Greg D. Smith