Production Guide
Observations: A Matter Of Balance

In the opening scenes in Hydroponics, Eddie Collins is not wearing a jacket. We see him go to his desk as Shermeen and Tony leave ("See you, Eddie."). The next shot shows him sitting ("Yeah, sure."), but now he wears a jacket. Thanks to John Day.

When Helena comforts Shermeen, a shadow moves over the wall behind them. It is the shadow of the microphone. (Note Shermeen is not wearing her name badge in this scene, understandably as it is in her quarters.)

When Maya says "No signs of animal life" she is looking down. We then cut to a wider shot, which shows her looking up. Thanks to Thomas.

There are some very bad lines in this episode. "That structure. Obviously built by intelligent life."

When Vindrus first appears to Shermeen on the planet, her bag is on her right side. When she starts to follow Vindrus, the bag is on her left side, with the strap across her shoulder. Thanks to Thomas.

Koenig states the creature won't go past the obelisk. In fact, the shots before and after show it with the obelisk behind. Thanks to Thomas.

When they realize Shermeen is missing, Fraser and Maya walk off shouting out her name. Koenig tries (unsuccessfully) to call Alpha on his commlock. Why don't they try to call Shermeen by commlock? Thanks to Thomas.

The fox head seen in the transformation scene looks like a stuffed animal. The fox seen in the field looks like a domestic dog. Foxes cannot be easily trained, so filming a real fox would have been impractical.

The equipment room doors open before the button is pressed (in fact her fingers don't seem to touch the buttons).

Koenig says "Our sensors showed no life forms on Sunim. So it had to be antimatter." It could also be a robot (the Thaed costume is adapted from the Beta Cloud robot, but the resemblance doesn't register with the Alphans). Thanks to Chris Moore

The monkey's lead is clearly visible in several scenes. Spider monkeys live in South American forests up to 35 metres above the ground, and can leap or drop 12 metres between branches. Here it survives a sheer drop from the top of the tower to a hard floor, with no obvious items that could have broken the fall.

By putting herself in the booth, wouldn't Maya be in danger of being converted? Wouldn't the antimatter people have moved Shermeen from the booth in the other side? They could have put the "real" Thaed in the booth, so when Vindrus is converted, the Thaed would appear and overpower the Alphans.

As Maya fiddles with the dials, the Alphans before and after are standing immediately in front of the convertor. One cut away shows the convertor on its own.

Psychon has an antimatter converter so presumably they were in contact with the antimatter dimension.