I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with this series - it has far too many odd things happening in it that are never explained. This episode was a classic example.
Why did Parker revert to a child during the Backstep? He often has flashbacks when he's in the sphere but they don't usually make him turn into what he was thinking about. And why did he remember Olga when he didn't recognise anyone else? Also, how did this 'ten year old' not wonder why he'd got his very own spaceship?!
Don't get me wrong - I don't mind strange things happening but I'd just like them explained to me afterwards!
Where did the little kid get Frank's spacesuit from? I thought that Frank was still in the suit when he went into the clothes store. Even if he left it there, would they just hand it over to whoever wanted it?
It sure was convenient that, of all the places in a very large continent that she could have lived, the airman's wife happened to live just minutes from NORAD.
Being a fan of Stargate SG-1, I couldn't help looking for staff from that series while the NSA team were walking round the Cheyenne Mountain complex!
In Britain we saw the episode "Act of God" last week which I understand was never shown in the States. That was a far better episode than this one which I found too annoying to be enjoyable.
What's all this "point of no return" business, anyway? Can a protocol that allows US forces to disobey a direct order from their commander-in-chief, the President, be legal?
Also, I don't think the system they portrayed as HAARP actually matches with real-life. HAARP (High frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a US Government research project into the effects of radio waves on the upper-atmosphere, using an extensive radio transmitter array in Alaska. Not the global command, control and co-ordination network depicted here (at least, not that I can see. Here's their homepage:
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/index.html )
That is what you are supposed to think.
The "point of no return" thing seems rather pointless to me. I mean, someone could just as easily impersonate the President (or any other commanding officer) and order them to turn back before the point of no return as afterwards!
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