CW launched a new summer series on Tuesday, July 16th entitled 'Pandora'. The show takes place in the distant future with aliens, telepaths, and clones all making an appearance. Let me introduce you to some of the characters!
Jax/Pandora
Jax is the main character of the series. She returns to Earth after her parents are killed in an attack on a colony called New Portland. With returning to Earth she is enrolled in Fleet Academy where she meets the remaining characters. We learn quickly that she is set on discovering who killed her parents, no matter what.
Professor Osborn
Professor Donovan Osborn is the uncle of Jax and a professor at the Fleet Academy. He seems to be a mysterious character and always too busy for a real conversation. I think a big part of this first season is learning what secrets he is holding from Jax about her parents and herself.
Xander Duvall
We meet Xander in one of the first scenes of the episode and then he seems to just keep popping up. He is the assistant to Professor Osborn and therefore is a go to person for Jax when she has question about or for her uncle. He also attends the Fleet Academy. However, when he shows up at New Portland with Earth Com (An investigation crew) we learn that he may be more than he is pretending to be. I think that his character is either going to be an unexpected ally or an unseen villain.
Professor Shral
Jax meets Professor Shral on her first day at the academy, but it isn't the best meeting she could hope for when he calls her out for being late. This is only reinforced when he is at her uncle's party and he overhears her calling him an ass. While this character is set up to be an enemy, I think we will find that he is actually one of the good ones and is giving her that good ol' tough love treatment.
Atria Nine
Atria meets Jax in Professor Shral's class and they immediately become friends with Atria inviting her to a bar called The Blackhole. This is really where she meets everyone else. In the conversation at the bar we learn a little about each character and in Atria's case we learn that she is actually a clone. Not only that, but that clones are typically not at the academy because they are treated like property. In her case she was able to apply because she killer her master. I am sure we are going to learn more on this later.
Thomas James Ross
Thomas was briefly seen in Professor Shral's class but we really meet him for the first time at The Blackhole. He is a telepath like his father who is currently in jail for using his powers in gambling. He seems to be having a romantic relationship with Atria, although it was said that he does have a girlfriend that is pretty far away. I think that Thomas is going to be that one friend that is unexpectedly and completely loyal.
Greg Li
Jax and Greg instantly have a very flirty vibe about them and both seem interested in having a relationship. He is in the academy training to be a doctor. I already think that I prefer her with Xander, but Greg seems cool too. He was willing to follow her to New Portland and wanted to risk expulsion to protect her. We will see how his character grows.
Ralen
I found Ralen to be one of the most interesting characters of the bunch. He is an Zatarian, which seems to be a big deal since they were just at war with the humans. His father is an ambassador with Ralen being the first Zatarian allowed to attend the academy. He seemed to be a really good friend after Jax stepped in and defended him at the bar, however, toward the end of the episode his father gave him some interesting orders that we will talk about later that makes us question where his loyalties really lie.
Ellison Pevney
Ellison Pevney is another professor at the Fleet Academy and teaches Earth History. He is friends with not only Osborn, but was also friends with Jax's parents. He also knows the secrets that Osborn is keeping from Jax and is in favor of telling them to her. I think in the long run he is going to be a good source of wisdom for our younger characters.
Regan
Regan definitely has villain written all over her with her dark features and bright red lipstick. Her father is the head of a company that has dealings with Professor Osborn and she is there to ensure that things are going according to plan. We have no idea of any further details, but I anticipate that she has something to do with the bigger picture.
Recap
Now that we have that out of the way let's talk about what happened in this episode. Like I said, the real story pusher here is the death of Jax's parents and learning who had them killed. Her Uncle sends red flags up right in their first meeting as knowing more than he leads us to think and this is confirmed throughout the episode. The second moment that really pushed for Jax to investigate further was her uncle telling her that the investigation on her parents death had been closed when she was at his dinner party. A short time later she was in class learning about the first World War when she had a flash back to the death of her parents.
She was later found in her room by Ralen who was checking on her after she misses study group. She mentions that the PTSD may have been brought on by not only the class, but by learning about the closing of the investigation. She makes a comment about wishing she had access to s ship that could take her to New Portland. It turns out that he has access. (Kinda) This leads to a gathering of the new friends in stealing an academy ship.
When arriving at New Portland they learn that the investigation into her parents is far from over. She heads to the colony alone wanting to investigate for herself leaving Ralen and Greg to squabble about Greg's feelings for Jax. She doesnt make it to far before she is intercepted by Xander in an Earth Com uniform. He says he is here to stop her from doing something stupid but, Earth Com is who is heading this investigation. He shows her something that was found in the investigation that her mother was working on decoding when she was killed. Although no one else was able to decode the message, Jax could easily read that it said, " The Obstacle is the Path".
Not willing to turn back she goes further into the cave where the investigation is on going and is somehow able to activate this wormhole. Of course she just has to walk in it. After being in the wormhole for a few moments they hear something back on the side they came in. When going back to the cave they find that the statue like creatures on the wall have come to life and are now attacking the crew. All of out main characters make it out obviously and they are able to take one of the creatures back with them to study.
This is really when the answers start to come. Xander learns from a scientist that this creature shares similar DNA to Homo Sapiens, but that their active DNA is a match to Jax. This means that she is not entirely human, she is also part-whatever these things are. That being said, Ralen reports in with his father and instructs him to make sure that this creature does not make it back to Earth. So, we may see some betrayal from Ralen. However, there isn't mention of an attack, but we do see Xander back with Professor Osburn at the end of the episode. We are still unsure exactly how space travel is working on the show, so we may learn something about an attack next episode.
I think that the most interesting conversation this episode is the last one between Xander and Professor Osburn where we hear Osburn say that Jax is really Pandora. Also something about being stopped from opening the box and that there are Pandora's demons involved. It was confusing and I am sure we are going to learn what all this means over the next few weeks.
My Opinion
Now, I think you guys are going to find that I am rather soft when it comes to rating shows. I think that this show could have potential if it hits the right audience. The CGI was not great, but this is also a pilot episode and these things tend to get better as you go. The characters seem a little fake at times, I am sure that as we get further along it should improve as well. I am going to continue to watch the show to see where it leads and make posts about it. This is just a short ten episode season, but look forward to it.
If you want to check out Pandora, it airs on Tuesdays at 8 P.M. EST on the CW.