For instance, the investigator says to Harris, "people like me." And he says, "homosexuals." And she replies, "we pop up when you least expect it." First of all, how would he know? And even if he had it in his file of research he did on her, how would he know specifically that she meant "homosexuals" in the context of her conversation with him?
Remember, when they first met, he was looking over her file and discussing the reasons for her discharge from the military. "They didn't ask... but you told." I.e. she was discharged for being openly lesbian while the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy was still in effect. That's how he knew. So since it had already come up in conversation between them, that's how he knew what she was referring to. And really, what else could it have been? They have women aboard, and they have plenty of white people aboard.
And wouldn't she be offended by the manner in which he said it?
Quite possibly -- but I'm sure that, as an out lesbian, she faced such slights and insults on a routine basis and developed a thick skin about them. Anyway, I think his reply hinted that he's maybe too caught up in the old-fashioned cultural mores of the
Ascension crew, or else that he's coldly clinical about people rather than concerned with their sensitivities. Either way, I don't think it was meant to make him look good.
What would have been better to me is if they had a Section 31 sort of agency (perhaps Area 51) that got its hands on technology way more advanced than NASA which would have allowed a real Ascension to take off in the 1960s.
Mmm, that's rather a cliche by this point.
Seven Days used alien tech from the "Roswell crash" as the basis for its top-secret time machine. The
Lost in Space revival comics from the early '90s retconned the
Jupiter 2 as the product of reverse-engineered tech from a crashed alien ship. This miniseries was mired enough in cliches and derivative ideas as it was. The nature of the ship, and its basis in the real-world Project Orion proposal, was actually one of the fresher elements of the story.
The (real) space story would have been cool, and the Earth story could have been about unraveling how they got the technology, continuing the missions in secret, how a select few in the government knew what was going on, keeping the information from others in the government and other countries, and also tying in actual historical events, conflicts and speeches which is what I was hoping for.
That couldn't have been done in real time, though, without the contrivance of FTL communication. It could potentially have been an interesting saga done that way, but would've had to jump forward in time quite a bit. And since the creators and Syfy clearly saw this as a backdoor pilot for a weekly series, I doubt they would've gone that route.
They could have done the reverse of what we got - the series could have actually started in the 1960s and aside from a handful of insiders who we learn about gradually throughout the series - the remainder of the inhabitants of the ship could have been kept in the dark that they were indeed on a fully functional spacecraft (they could have been drugged or something for the actual take-off), then the shocking reveal for them throughout the premiere would have been to learn they are now traveling in space against their will and can't go home.
But that wouldn't make much sense. Operating a spacecraft is delicate and dangerous work. Logically, you'd want your ship to be crewed by people who are fully trained in its operation and able to deal with whatever crises may arise. A crew consisting of abductees who don't even know they're on a ship is a terrible idea.
So... they built a spaceship... to trick a bunch of scientists into thinking they were going to another star... because for some reason they are way better at inventing MRI machines in complete isolation from all other human advancement
Yeah, I couldn't really buy that part. Innovation comes from interaction, not isolation. Historically, the most innovative cultures have tended to be in regions where different cultures interacted freely, travel and trade were encouraged, and so forth.
So Gault and the other guy got magically transported to a planet around Alpha or Beta Centauri (certainly not Proxima).
The other guy wasn't there, just Gault. They disappeared together, but only Gault reappeared.
Also, it's not Alpha and Beta Centauri, it's Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B.
Beta Centauri is a totally different star, some 350 light-years farther away than Alpha Centauri, and is itself a three-star system. After all, the stars were named centuries before they were discovered to be multiple stars. So there's Alpha Centauri A, B, and C (aka Proxima Centauri), and there's Beta Centauri A1, A2, and B (because the A "star" was only later discovered to be a binary itself).
(I'm sensitive to this right now because I'm currently re-reading the old
Star Trek novel
Crisis on Centaurus, which also mistakenly refers to Alpha Cen B as Beta Cen.)
Anyway, looking past my disappointment that this wasn't 60s-era Steampunk, it wasn't bad.
I know you meant that as an analogy, but steampunk refers specifically to Victorian-styled retro-SF. The term for retro-60s would have to be something else. Atompunk?
Googiepunk?
I liked that little kid who played Christa, but she didn't really get to do a lot besides scream and react (but she excelled at looking appalled at displays of violence).
I felt just the opposite. I found her wide-mouthed gaping to be ludicrously overplayed.
