| Choice or Chance | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 9 | |
| |
| Air date | November 26, 1995 |
| Written by | Doc Johnson |
| Directed by | Félix Enríquez Alcalá |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Hostile Visit |
Next Stay with the Dead |
Choice or Chance is the ninth episode of Season 1 of Space: Above and Beyond. This episode is also the second part of a two-part story that began with Hostile Visit.
The episode aired November 26, 1995 on the Fox Network.
The 58th crash-land on a moon deep inside enemy territory and Wang, West, Vansen and Damphousse are captured by Silicates while Cooper and McQueen manage to flee and evade capture. Wang is tortured and broken by a ruthless Silicate while West discovers that Kylen is among other prisoners. Another Silicte decides that either Vansen or Damphouse will die and leaves the choice up to them. The Wild Cards attempt to escape.
Summary[]
After crash-landing on Kazbek, McQueen and Hawkes are able to get away before Silicates capture the remaining Wild Cards. McQueen tells Cooper to try and get help on his own because the Colonel is injured, but Cooper ignores the order and follows him. Shane and the rest are taken prisoner and are brought to the mines located on the moon. Underground, Nathan sees Kylen and when he tries to reach her, he is beaten. The Wild Cards are split up and put into different cells.
Paul is chosen for interrogation and is mentally and physically tortured by an Elroy EL unit but Paul gets some information about Chigs, such as that the aliens cannot stand the smell of humans because the reek of blood makes them sick. Shane and Vanessa are put into a cell together and are closely watched by both Chigs and the AIs.
Soon the Wild Cards find out that they are used as guinea pigs to examine if humans are loyal to each other and when a Feliciti OH unit informs them that one of them has to die and the other one has to work in the mines, their fears are proved to be correct. Shane tells Vanessa that she should be the one for the mines, for Vanessa has family and eventually she would find a way to escape. But Vanessa tells her friend that this is out of the question, they either escape or die together.
Nathan is freed by Kylen and they can escape but she behaves differently, shying away from him when he bleeds from a cut on his hand. He is somewhat bewildered by it and suspects that something is totally wrong. Kylen urges him to leave the planet with her but Nathan does not want to leave his friends to an unknown fate. When she asks him whether a rescue team is on its way, he lies to her and gives her wrong attack co-ordinates of the SARATOGA.
Meanwhile, McQueen and Hawkes kill a Silicate, taking the left arm of the android with them. McQueen tells Cooper that he should save one last bullet in case he is taken prisoner because when the Colonel himself was taken POW during the AI-wars, he had been tortured. Then the two break into the mines to go after their comrades.
Shane and Vanessa stage a fight to get out of the cell and together with Hawkes and McQueen they free Paul, who had been forced to make a confession and is disorientated and mentally broken. Chig fighters set out to patrol the co-ordinates which Nathan has told Kylen and when the crew of the SARATOGA notice this, Commodore Ross decides to send a team to retrieve the Marines on Kazbek.
Outside the mines, Nathan kills Kylen after she greets them with their names. The Marines are shocked but Nathan tells them that he never told her his friends' names. When Kylen dies, she turns into green goo, the bio-electrical substance of which the Chigs are made off. A transport arrives and the Wild Cards are rescued. A Marine brings a strange packet aboard the transport and hands it over to Howard Sewell, who is on the SARATOGA.
Cast & Characters[]
Main Cast[]
- Morgan Weisser as 1LT Nathan West
- Kristen Cloke as 1LT Shane Vansen
- Rodney Rowland as 1LT Cooper Hawkes
- Joel de la Fuente as 1LT Paul Wang
- Lanei Chapman as 1LT Vanessa Damphousse
- James Morrison as LTC Tyrus Cassius "T.C." McQueen
Recurring Cast[]
- Tucker Smallwood as Commodore Ross
- Michael Mantell as Howard Sewell
- Doug Hutchison as Elroy EL
- Kimberly Patton as Feliciti OH
- Paul Keeley as Justin EB 774
- Iva Franks Singer as Sabrine EW
- Amanda Douge as Kylen Celina
- Melissa Bowen as LTJG Stroud
- David Gardner as LT Klein
- Billy Mayo as LT Webb
- Jim Anzide as LT Krantz
- Randy Mulkey as LT Donne
- Steven Jang as as LT Connor
- Susan V. Hansen (as Susan Vee) as LT Gates
Additional Cast[]
- Robert Farrior as Brandon IM
- Chip Heller as Crossland
- Julie Michaels as a Silicate (uncredited)
- Michael Reilly Burke as a Silicate (uncredited)
Crew[]
Director[]
Writer[]
Executive Producers[]
- Glen Morgan (executive producer)
- James Wong (executive producer)
- Stephen Zito (co-executive producer)
Producers[]
- Tim McHugh (producer)
- D. Howard Grigsby (producer)
- Herb Adelman (co-producer)
- Ken Dennis (associate producer)
Music[]
- Shirley Walker