On Defying Gravity

I had some time to kill on a flight recently, so I watched the first 5 episodes of Defying Gravity and caught the 6^th this morning. I'd had my expectations sufficiently lowered ahead of time, which was good. Lowered expectations is definitely what you need to get through this show.

Maybe it's just me not watching anything ABC for the last decade and a half, but is this really a 2009 show? The plot lines, the relationship dynamics - I feel like it's a show straight out of the nineties. You can see the plot turns coming a mile away, and the characters...well, they are largely heckneyed TV stereotypes. The male and female leads have this kind of "Sam and Diane in space" dynamic, which I found annoying even when it was Cheers. The Wassenburger/Paula dynamic is even more grating, and it makes me wish Laura Rosslyn or Starbuck was onboard the Antares, because they'd send that dude out the airlock by ep 2.

The one thing not-so-'90s about the show is the flashbacks. They serve as a dual timeframe, linking events in the current 2052 with those of 5 years earlier. But they are so prevalent (almost half the airtime would be my guess), and the clues at being in "flashback mode" are not easy to follow. Many of the characters have identical appearance in 2052/2047; it would've been nice to have more hairstyle changes etc. to help parse through all the time-hopping. Oh, and although most time jumps go back 5 years, there are other time periods explored as well. All the more to juggle in the course of forty-some minutes - a recipe for confusion.

Oh yeah, and the sci-fi (such as it is): There's the big mystery about the "Beta" alien, but mostly it's about relationships of 8 really neurotic people (how did most of these people pass a psych test??) and those on the ground who love them or hate them. It's sort of on a sliding scale of "bad". I find myself drawn to some storylines over others, but not because they're compelling, just that they are a bit of relief from the parts that make me want to claw my eyes out (i.e., Wassenburger). OK, some of the plots are getting a little bit better by Ep #6, and I'm rooting for Rollie because he was on BSG, but mainly I'm sticking around to see where the Beta plotline goes.

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: cynical

sci-fi calendar items

For my own reference, as well as yours:

• Oct 27^th: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is released on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download. Premeires on the Sci Fi Channel (no, I'm not using that other name) sometime in November.
  
• Nov 3^rd: V premeires on ABC.
  
• No word on air dates for Sarah Jane Adventures S3 (with Judoon kickoff and later ep w/David Tennant), other than "Autumn".
  
• Similarly vague about final Tennant episodes Waters of Mars (November) and 2-part finale The End of Time (Xmas).
  
• Also! We have an unoffical report that BBC has picked up a 4^th series of Torchwood. "How?" is another question - as a sendoff, it would've been the best in TV's history (at least as far as I know). But to continue? I'm not opposed, but I do wonder how they can just "go back" to the old format...

Tags: doctor who, sci-fi
Mood: nerdy

Collected Sci-Fi Notes

1. Saw District 9 last weekend. I was going to do a full review, but for a couple of reasons I won't. I'll just say that it was very very good...for a movie. Near-perfect CG, interesting storyline, a good characterization of the aliens, etc. But, as it was a movie, it had some "movie"-like aspects that I try to avoid. I tried to explain a bit when I reviewed the Star Trek movie. Suffice it to say I prefer the (modern!) TV format for a sci-fi fix. Nonetheless, it was money was well spent.

2. When there's been time, I've been watching the commentaries on BSG S 4.5, and have covered nearly all of the material in the first 3 (out of 4) discs. What's been learned:

• Sometimes a Great Notion was written before the writer's strike, which could explain why it's still got some of the old BSG "pow" from before.
  
• From the RDM podcasts, it sounds like the writers were in fact (as I suspected) overextended between BSG and The Plan and Caprica. It was admitted that they in fact made Adama throw one or two too many temper tantrums, but it was because they were so distracted that every time seemed like the first.
  
• Islanded in a Stream of Stars makes a hell of a lot more sense in its extended version, both on its own and for developments in the finale.
  
• Edward James Olmos is a man of few words. Unfortunately, this made his director's cut commentary for Islanded very boring indeed.

3. I am going to give Defying Gravity a try this week, as there's only 5 eps to spin up on. If I like it, I'll start reviewing it.

4. I've joked about it, but it's actually true: what I really want to go as for Halloween is The 456. But aside from the fact that its construction may lie a bit outside of my time and abilities, I don't think the organizers of the events I would be attending would appreciate my costume vomiting blood and mucus on the walls of their establishment.

Still, a girl can dream.

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: calm

Does *anyone* actually think this is a good idea?

Today Sci-Fi channel makes ill-advised (and hard-to-parse) name change to 'Syfy' in the middle of a recession, possibly dooming itself to irrelevance.

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: cynical

Firefly & Serenity Analysis (Long)

Not having TV reception, I never got into Firefly for the short time it aired in 2002. When Serenity came to theaters, I knew it wasn't a good idea to see it without watching the series first. And then honestly it fell off my radar. Fortunately, Netflix is a great way to get caught up in a hurry without incurring unnecessary expense.

Here are my thoughts, summarized in one long sentence:
While there was a lot of potential, new ideas and interesting concepts, I can see why the show was cancelled in the first season; this boat was not made tight enough to be seaworthy.

First, some things that I liked. I thought the whole concept of this massive, terraformed, human-colonized solar system was pretty neat. The idea that there would be core planets, wilder "outer" planets, rebellions, and class struggles is very believeable and had potential for endless plot material. Also the story of the rebellion , and how it came to pass that all these people migrated from "Earth That Was" would've been great to explore.

Too bad the audience really gets no clue as to any of this backstory. All you really see is a Western in Space, with whispers of a "war" and some kind of Evil Empire in play. The series would've started off on a much better foot had they taken the first 30 seconds from Serenity for their pilot. In the first season of a series, a little bit of audience hand-holding is necessary.

And then there's the characters. Most of the characters seemed to be - pardon me for saying so - wooden, almost sedated for at least the first half of the season. Most of them were very un-nuanced stock characters. As time went on, some of them got better, but not by much, unfortunately.

Malcolm started off severely irritating me, with his do-good scoundrel persona and his tedious and insulting madonna/whore relationship with Inara. After a while though his manner grew on me and I did at least value his comedic contributions.

Kaylee was whiny and annoying, and she just doesn't sell me that this Jennifer Anniston lookalike is a grease monkey. The story of her crush on Simon was just so unoriginal I felt like I was reading the Sweet Valley High series all over again.

Simon was pretty much two things - a snotty doctor and a devoted brother. He never really ventured outside of those borders, and so he was probably the most boring of all the characters.

Every time River walked on screen, I wished she would walk off again. She would screech, babble nonsense, and occasionally read people's minds, but the mystery concerning her and the "experiments" never moved forward, so she only served to be and annoyance (as she was to the crew).

I wanted to like Zoe, but I think her character fell a bit short (although not as much as some of the others). I thought her interactions/backstory with Mal and Wash were interesting, but I just never bought her as a battle-hardened military type. Too soft spoken, too sultry. She needed a bit more of an edge to be 100% believable.

Wash I can't really say too much on - he's really only there in relation to his wife, to crack jokes (although Jayne and Mal are usually much funnier), and occasionally steer the ship.

Shepherd Book had a lot of potential, but like all things in this series, they didn't move his storyline along fast enough.

The Inara character gave the audience the most insight into the Firefly universe, since she is constantly explaining herself and her profession to the puritanical Mal. But ultimately the writers waste too much of her screen time in the pointless love-you/hate-you business with Mal.

Surprisingly, my favorite character was Jayne. Or perhaps not so surprisingly - usually if there's a (believably) pragmatic and cold character on a series, I gravitate towards him/her (e.g., Aeryn, Scorpius, etc.). Just usually they're not so butch as Jayne. Of the nine, Jayne was the most believeable and the most awake. He injected a much needed energy into the show.

On other things:
(1) While it was cool that the Serenity sets are all interconnected like a real spaceship, I thought they looked cheap overall. It felt like being in a very real treehouse, but not a very real spaceship.
(2) So humanity is made up of the remnants of the last two great superpowers - the US and China. Where are all the Chinese then? Lots of Chinese fashion, very little by way of Chinese people. And they were all extras, I don't recall a single speaking part!
(3) Chinese as swearing: Awkward. The actors really seemed uncomfortable with the words, and invoking Chinese swearing always knocked the emotion right out of a scene when it should be reversed. That, and they were always using different words! Short of learning Chinese, one had to guess at what they meant in any given line. I was also annoyed with the cutesy "shiny", too, but that's a matter or personal preference.

The movie, Serenity (not to be confused with the ship itself or the pilot episode, sigh), was pretty good. For some reason they reinvent Mal as much more heartless and damaged than in the series. But I'm really glad they did something to explain the Reevers, and it was a pretty good explanation too. Also they finally let the audience in on the whole setup of the Firefly universe (too little, too late).

However, they indiscriminantly killed off Shepherd Book (also killing off a tantalizing storyline, leaving it unresolved) and Wash (for no reason other than to get Zoe upset I guess). At some point I wondered if the plan was to kill all of them off, since every one of them managed to suffer a mortal wound or be in a hopeless situation. Y'know, put the series down in a blaze of glorious finality.

But no, it was just Wash and Book.

Like I said, I can see why the series got cancelled. Clearly there was a massive gulf of disconnect between Whedon and the network. But I'm not going to put all the blame on the network either. There were a lot of things going wrong that were clearly the producer/developer's bad calls. The universe was presented to opaquely; the series lacked focus, languishing too long in character establishment. The network was too haphazard in their decisions and then overcompensated in the other direction, leaving everyone the loser.

FWIW, I did get attached to many things about the series, and wished there had been more - don't mistake my attempts at objectivity to imply otherwise...

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: nerdy

State of the Sci-fi (to tide me over 'til SJA in Autumn)

- Chris and I finally got around to watching Battlestar Galactica: Razor on Saturday. We were drinking at the time, so take our opinion with a grain of salt. We both really liked it - it didn't have any of the cheesy elements that standalone movies about TV shows normally do. It filled in a lot of storylines referenced in passing in the series (probably by design, anticipating the movie). My favorite part was the old-style Cylons saying "by your command". Vocoder ♥.

- Finished my Netflix of Alien Nation, plus the movies. Those movies weren't bad either - they were like longer episodes, and it seemed to be a natural fit, as if the series would've been better served in that format. Too bad they canceled it, but I'm amazed they were able to resurrect it so many years after the fact, and with all of the original cast. There was one plot point that confused me in the last movie though - it seemed for a moment as if two of the detectives had gone bad, but then nothing happened. Perhaps it was just my inattention, or maybe ambiguous editing/acting.

- Decided at long last to Netflix Star Trek: Enterprise, despite my loathing of Scott Bakula. Mind you, I'm not buying anything unless I really get into it, but since my grudge is completely irrational, I might as well see the series on the cheap.

- Heads up - the Torchwood Season 2 Box set comes out in September.Tags: sci-fi
Mood: pleased