Peter Weller’s character swears every other sentence, fuck this, fuck that, it was hilarious, finally it was shown on TV how people react honestly when something happens which is ….fucked-up! I had the feeling Peter Weller had a great time swearing on TV, doesn’t happen often, certainly not 20 years ago. I have to admit, he was sometimes a bit over the top, but from him, you tend to accept that somehow.

The premise is that five astronauts witness the destruction of Earth while they are on a space ship, they see our world explode. Then an alien, calls himself the Seeker, appears to them and explains to them that they are able to prevent what they’ve just seen. He sends them 5 years in the past into their own bodies but with the knowledge they have gained over the last five years, including what happened with the alien and seeing Earth explode. Once in their own bodies they come together to try and figure out what happened and what to do. Sarah, who is a reporter, had a son who died because of cancer and with that knowledge she goes to the doctor but there is no basis at that moment because the kid is not yet ill, it is met with distrust by the doctors and her husband. Chuck tells his wife because she thinks because of his secrecy that he is having an affair, but she doesn’t believe him.

In episode 2, “Shatterer” the crew tries to prevent a death, a suicide of a mathematician who developed sentient AI programs. Sarah and Angela investigate a suspicious gene therapy treatment and Neil goes back to high school where he meets up with his girlfriend who is still underage at that time. Angela is grounded as an Astronaut but her father is influential and despite Angela’s request not to interfere, he un lifts her punishment.

In “Astronaut Dreams” NASA is working on a new satellite called project Bright Sky. Chuck fears this may have something to do with the destruction of Earth so he makes plans to sabotage it. Meanwhile Kurt is trying to figure out how to detect synthetics and finds a way while Sarah is trying to prevent a crime which she recognizes from 5 years ago but for some reason it now happens differently. In “Symbiosis” Crew gets a tip from someone on how to find a missing girl who is deaf, of a scientist who previously worked on mind control technology. Sarah meets the man who she married in the original timeline. Marc, Neil’s brother, passes NASA’s first flight test. Angela has to deal with her parents. In “Time Out of Mind” The crew are beginning to lose their memories of the future they only had lived. They also lose memories of each other. Kurt is the only one who can reverse it, having only a code that Chuck wrote in a trance. Kurt is desperately trying to decrypt the code but is starting to lose his memory also. In “The Choices We Make” The crew has visions of people asking them if they believe that anything is possible. This leads to Chuck and Neil confronting a painful memory, Sarah dealing with her son's cancer and Kurt and Angela seeing the future they could've had. “Rapture” was less exciting, still not bad. Neil's classmate hooks Niel's girlfriend and some other kids on a strange psychoactive drug that seemingly makes people smarter. Chuck learns that NASA's new flight director is part of "The Cadre" cabal. Angela's psych evaluation is up, She passes although the shrink was planning on stonewalling her but the new flight director lets her pass for some purpose not yet clear.

In “L.D.U. 7” Chuck, Kurt and Sarah infiltrate a high tech private prison dubbed Lock Down Unit 7 to find a convict who claims he killed the synthetic replicas of his parents. Meanwhile, Neil must deal with his brother who's having an identity crisis. Note – The building they are investigating is synthetic and Angela is in space for two months, so out of the show, makes me wonder if she perhaps was pregnant in real life? In “Flux” Chuck is infected, changing into a synthetic, his wife comes to Kurt’s place looking for answers. Chuck’s other son, Marc (Kenneth Mitchell, RIP) has issues because he is failing at NASA. He makes a deal with Chuck’s boss, meaning that he has to spy on his father and then Marc won’t fail. Sarah loses her custody over her kid. “Kitten” is one of the weakest episodes of the season. Neil has a stalker, is it a woman or is it a computer? But it/she knows about Odyssey 5. Angela is up in the space station and saves the station after being named as someone who doesn’t belong there.

In “Dark at the End of the Tunnel” While watching a BDSM pornographic film, Kurt sees a hidden message in the video and immediately gets the uncontrollable urge to leave for a small rural town he's never been to of heard of before. Chuck is having trouble proving to his wife that he knows the future. She doesn’t believe him and she files for a divorce. Everything changes when her mother gets a heart attack and Chuck says not to worry. When he proves right his wife begins to believe him. Angela remembers that her father will have a car accident and tries to prevent it. However, she also remembers that the last time there were no heat wave and it was raining all day. They eventually find out about Kurt's departure, so Chuck and Neil, with the help of Sarah, travel to the small town Kurt went to, in order to see what's going on there and with him.

In “Trouble with Harry” a Friendly geeky and nerdy sentient (Ted Raimi) takes over a synthetic body and goes on the run. As a big fan of Star Trek and Sci-Fi in general, he decides to call himself Harry Mudd, a recurring character in the original Star Trek. He finds the gang and warns them that an insane sentient called Phaedra plans to destroy Earth. The crew visits the scientific research center that holds the atom collider that Phaedra took over. Meanwhile, Harry tries to satisfy his enormous curiosity about what it's like to be human by engaging in various human activities such as cooking and group sex. In the end, love conquers all. In “Skin” Angela’s father has been shot at. She asks her father if he suspects anyone but he doesn’t. At least, he doesn’t say. She also asks him if he heard of Bright sky. He says no but he is lying. Chuck’s wife knows everything now. When Chuck is investigating he gets infested, goes home his wife touches him and gets infected also. She tries to kill Angela’s father but before the job is done it moves from her body. She unfortunately dies nonetheless. Chuck wants no longer have anything to do with the saving of the planet, he says goodbye to the team and moves off.

In “Begotten” Kurt is creating a synthetic who has come alive and attacks him. He suffers a mental breakdown and becomes convinced that the crew has been replaced by synthetics. Chuck goes on a drive and picks up a hitchhiker who looks a lot like his younger wife! In “Vanishing Point” Chuck is captured and he is brought in coma and he is given an alternate reality life where his wife still lives. Chuck however keeps fighting because he remembers his wife has died. When his son wants to save him he at first is stopped by another entity who does not want them to leave but Chuck convinces the entity to let them go because otherwise, if Earth gets destroyed, they are also destroyed. Sarah and Angela investigate a mass grave tied to a Transhumanist group. Neil loses his virginity – again. In “Follow the Leader” is another weak episode, a group of children who all visit the same computer lab receive a strange signal over the Internet and become obsessed with it to the point of killing anyone who tries to interfere. Chuck's estranged sister helps him deal with his grief.

In “Half Life” Angela believes that the ghost of her dead ex-boyfriend, a pilot who was killed in an experiment, is haunting her. Sarah starts dating a colleague she ended up marrying in the original timeline. In “Rage” Dr. Chandra dies in suspicious circumstances and leaves the crew a disk that the synthetics want. The crew investigates what causes a strange riot in a peaceful suburban neighborhood in the original timeline and tries to prevent it from happening again. The season / series finale, “Fossil” Chuck analyzes a strange Moon rock concealed by NASA and finally finds some answers. Angela is kidnapped. A police officer falsely suspects Kurt. Sarah's wish comes true - as well as her worst nightmare.

Final Word:

The show ends on an unresolved cliff-hanger, creator Manny Coto expressed the desire to return to this show at one point. Obviously this didn’t happen before he passed away, way too early! He died last year on July 9^th, 2023. I don’t know his age but he obviously was way too young to pass on. It shocked me when I learned of it. Manny Coto was a Star Trek buff and he created an almost perfect season 4 of Star Trek: Enterprise, for that alone I am eternal grateful. Rest in Peace Manny Coto! Odyssey 5 deserved far more than only one season, a great story-arc, a strong cast, suspense, some real sci-fi, you name it, it was a really good show. Such a shame we will never know a conclusion to it.

Regarding this blog, I borrowed a lot from IMdB because I did not take enough notes back in 2021 but because I did do some work already, I didn’t want it to let this go to waste. I promise you this, when I do a rewatch in the future, I will update the blog and post it again. If there is anything incorrect in the blog, please let me know via the comments, so I can adjust it.

Screencaps taken from the YouTube channel: Voyage