Wow, that was awful! My fiancée(who has aided me in several other recent reviews of mine) and I watched this last night, and the quality was so low, we decided to write a review of it together... to warn off anyone lucky enough to not have watched it yet. No, the "documentary"-maker may not have had a direct hand in creating(nay, *spawning*) this episode, but it sure reeks of him. The story was preachy and condescending, not to mention poorly structured(essentially entirely built up around the political agenda that it forces upon us for a good deal of it). Another trait that fits with him having made it is the blatant anti-Americanism. No matter your stance in politics, no matter how you feel about the agenda pushed here, the presentation is undeniably extremely poor... which is really the very core of the problem with this. The message was heavy-handed, preachy(*at* you, not even to you) and insulting. This made After School Specials look subtle and Jerry Springers' Final Thought look intelligent. It's not so much Masters of Science Fiction as Masters, if even that, of Left Wing Propaganda. The acting was unimpressive, save for perhaps O'Quinn(whose presence in the episode, coupled with our attraction to the genre of science fiction were largely the reasons we watched the episode), but Rohm, for example, is just... bad. Why she keeps being cast is a mystery. Editing was OK, cinematography had moments that made me wish the director would pursue music videos, instead. The special effects seemed as if they wanted to save any money they could... save for one effect, which was good, and another, which seemed to have no purpose at all. The writing is quite lousy... clichés are plentiful, it was drenched in naivety, predictability abounds, the story never really captivates(in spite of its title, I could easily see people falling asleep during it), even though it manages to rip off far more established sci-fi titles(including Independence Day and The Day The Earth Stood Still... the latter being from when obvious messages in this genre were at least more accepted and usual, and actually a well-produced piece of celluloid; this was simplistic, offensive... modern propaganda). The writer/director seems to have also taken a note from X-Files(in addition to promoting The Cigarette Smoking Man to President), in leaving the ending open(to appease and appeal to both religious people and UFO enthusiasts... and here's hoping they'll all see right through it). The score was... strange. I'm not sure who thought those drums were a good idea. The production values aren't dreadful. The President and Americans, particularly military officials, all come off as war-mongers(the throwaway line about the fallout, oh *please*). The good guys are all the other countries, in this piece of pap. How was this even sci-fi? Heck, it could easily be argued that there is nothing that would bring about that classification to be found at all. Ignore the promos. Please. For your own good. And these are the "masters"? These episodes, the cream of the crop(since they were the ones ABC *chose* to air, there were two they didn'twhat must they have been like)? Somehow, early parts aren't devoid of promise... the first scene with O'Quinn actually has some dialog and points that were interesting, and the first episode, "A Clean Escape," did at least show some quality to it. The only value this has is to be laughed at. We want our hour back. It should be noted that we only got to see these first two episodes, as our local ABC affiliate chose to air pre-season football instead of the two episodes following it... and ABC buried it in a spot in the summer, when they would be watched by hardly anyone. I recommend this only to those who agree with the message being shoved down the throats of viewers... so the preaching can go no further than the ears of the choir... and those who are fans of science fiction and/or Terry O'Quinn should especially stay away. Far, far away. And to the people behind this sorry excuse for entertainment and/or commentary: Guys... get on a soap-box and stay away from this fine medium(or, as my fiancée suggested, stick to message boards, so you can be put on Ignore). We don't need more sci-fi *this* badly. In case you were wondering if my fiancée and I hated this... yes. Yes, we did. We wish we could give this a zero, but... 1/10