Why do baddies always fall down holes?!! The guy had loads of level ground underfoot, but he still walks onto the higher brush, thereby conveniently falling down the hole the Alphans had made for him. If I'd been in his place I wouldn't have had any reason to step up onto the brush.
Ahh well, that's what happens when you're a baddie, I guess - you develop total stupidity!
(My boyfriend pointed this out - I hadn't even noticed. Maybe I'm a baddie-in-training?)

All villans usually over look small flaws. Kahn (Star Trek II) didn't consider the Enterprise fixing the ship and leaving. Saddam Hussein had a large enough military to defeat Kuwait, but not the entire United Nations. Darth Vader didn't think about shooting Luke Skywalker when he had the chance. etc.

In addition to the above points, there's the James Bond syndrome, where you tell the recently captured hero all your plans, then tell some bozo to dispose of him.

Just curious, did anyone else catch the stagehand HANDING Koenig's stun gun to Magus when he supposedly caused it to "fly" into his hand? Slow your tapes down for this one!

Is this the episode where the alien looks like Jesus or something?

The villian of the piece, Magnus, has long hair and a beard, so i suppose he does sort of look like Jesus.

Yeah, dork-Jesus with no clothing allowance and a silly looking fake mustache.

He claimed to have been (in Earth's past) Simon Magus, a miracle-working contemporary of Jesus' who is mentioned in the New Testament.

Magnus also claimed to have been Merlin, just like Flint (from Star Trek's "Requeim For Methuselah") did.

...You guys forgot the "Bad Aim" syndrome where, depsite being no more than 10 feet away, the baddie shoots the good guy in the chest or the arm. DUH! Hey STOOPID, go for HEAD!

There's so much to hate about this episode, but there are some good moments too. I like Koenig's in-your-face attitude with Magus, especially the scene where Magus dares him to try to get out of the glade. Koenig looks at Helena quickly as if to say, "Honey, I'm about to do something dumb, sorry to worry you." And the scene where he knocks over the drinks. You really feel his frustration. I also like the scene when he and Maya kiss (but not Bain and Anholt - they just don't make a couple, ya know?) And the ending when Koenig jumps onboard the Eagle in a rush but takes a minute to kiss Helena.

Magus supposedly fixes it so that if Maya and Tony touch each other, or Koenig and Helena, they get a nasty shock. So how come when Maya turns into an owl, she's perched on Tony's arm, and nothing happens?

The same reason a bird can land on a telephone wire and not get fried? (It's a reach, but so was this episode.)

Guy Rolfe, who played Magus, died October 19, 2003 at the age of 91. He appeared in numerous US and British films and did a lot of tv work.

dat Magus wuz a dang nasty fella sayin he was God and all. down here we know how to treat a fella who don't respect the lord, we give him a good ass woopin!

For the most part, I felt this was a decent episode. The rubber suits were a bit cheesy, but at least an effort was made to show some 'mutants'. The low point of this episode was the pet lizard presented as some sort of giant monster. The Sci-Fi channel's only improvement in airing this episode was to edit out the lizard scene.

Good episode, with the exception of the pet lizard, and the rubber-suited bug-eyed monsters. I'm surprised nobody mentioned the twist on this episode with Who Mourns For Adonais?

When Tony fired at the lizard, no laser light left his gun.

The filtered lighting for the romantic scenes was a bit cheesy.

Good story anyway.

Two other things:

Great line: We are a little short of sacrificial goats right now.

Also, they mentioned that Magus gained strength when he was shot by the laser. When was he shot by a laser? I don't remember this.

Martin Landau's acting is rather entertaining in this one too. He appears to be angry at Magus throughout the ep!

So did Magus survive? John and Tony speculated that at the end, that maybe enough light filtered through when the planet was breaking up that Magus was able to get away.

I wonder if 1999 had another season, would the Alphans have run into Magus again.