The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by PlainSimpleJoel, Dec 14, 2012.

  1. Mach5

    Mach5 Admiral Admiral

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    The fuck, man? O.o

    I'm not a gamer myself, but shit, some of the most awesome people I know are.
     
  2. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Only maybe 2 or 3 billion people play video games, it's just a fad cult of posers.
     
  3. Mach5

    Mach5 Admiral Admiral

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    My left testicle just got a brain tumor.
     
  4. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  5. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    He at least stands a chance of doing so. Murphy was, after all, brought in rather late in the game to run Caprica and to replace Jane Espenson. By the time he was in charge, the damage was already done.
     
  6. Sto-Vo-Kory

    Sto-Vo-Kory Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Is "terraforming" the right word for what the aliens began doing on Earth? I may be mistaken, but I thought "terraforming" meant to make a planet "more Earth-like." Seems like a different/new term should be applied in this case. "Xeno-forming"?
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    You're quite right, but it's a common mistake to use the word generically. There is sort of an in-universe rationalization for it, though; the Votans borrowed the word from English, according to one of the online sources, so they probably didn't understand its etymology and applied it incorrectly, just as so many humans do.
     
  8. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Which is what I was afraid of, I only noticed the advertising a week before the show aired and have not played a game since 1980. Will the show fill in the blanks by actually showing us watching on Skiffy?
     
  9. jayceee

    jayceee Commander Red Shirt

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    The first episode was decent.

    Almost like ticking off a list of which generic sci-fi tropes they're using.

    I'll be watching the next several episodes to see whether I like the direction they're going.
     
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Naturally they're aware that the show and the game have different audiences, which is the whole reason for doing something multimedia like this in the first place, to draw in different audiences. So the show and the game are both designed to stand on their own and be comprehensible to their respective audiences. It's just that people who follow both will get some bonus information.

    Here's an example of the kind of crossovers between the two: In the first act of the pilot episode, when the Spirit Riders take the cylindrical blue crystal that Nolan used to access the Terrasphere, Nolan says, "Do you know what I went through to get that?" That's a reference to the opening adventure in the game, where the player goes through a mission to retrieve that crystal and then has it stolen from them by Nolan at the end of the mission. But as far as the episode is concerned, it's just a throwaway line that has no significance to the story. And conversely, Nolan's involvement in the game mission is minimal: you glimpse him and Irisa at the start of your mission, then you're separated from them and carry out your mission solo, then they steal your loot at the end of the mission and disappear, heading off to do the stuff we saw in the pilot episode. So the connections between the show and the game are just Easter eggs, incidental nods that don't really affect the core story of either.

    True, gamers have access to a lot of backstory that show viewers haven't gotten yet, but it's just backstory, and anything that's important to an episode will naturally be spelled out in the episode. However, if you want more backstory but don't want to play the game (like me), then you can always explore the show's official Syfy site. The online material is the third part of the "transmedia event." The site contains a lot of canonical background material about the show's universe, including articles from a Tumblr called Defiance News which features in-universe news coverage and other documents fleshing out the history that led up to the current state of affairs.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Do you remember that awful movie AI?

    There was a massive multilmedia module attached to that movie.

    Does your life feel incomplete?

    (Of course it doesn't.)

    There's also a prequel series of comics to the New Star Trek Movie which seem to be about... No, that would be telling.
     
  12. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Just finished watching the pilot. It was okay. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable and it kept my interest. The general story idea, I'll agree with many of the reviewers who watched the adavanced screening who said it channels Firefly (veteran the previous war, town named after historic final battle) but there's also some Terra Nova there as well (newcomer to isolated settlement quickly becomes town sherriff). The plot is pretty straightforward and at times predictable, for example despite the build-up it was pretty damn obvious that the rich alien's son didn't kill the mining foreman's son.

    Nolan and his daughter are pretty cool characters and their sarcastic attidudes often give them some of the best lines in the epsiode. Although Nolan is certainly in the Han Solo/Malcolm Reynolds mold of anti-hero. Helps out specifically to get a reward, then runs off only to turn around and help out in the final battle.

    I'll definitely stick around to see how things play out. So far it certainly has potential.
     
  13. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    "terraforming"

    Yes I understood the difference, and knew the proscribed in-universe language I was using was technically inaccurate, but no I didn't think about it and neither did the two of you all that hard, because as Doc Brown said "You're not thinking fourthdimensionally!"

    The Votons did not make Earth more or less Earth like, Earth can only be Earthlike no matter what you or fate does to it. So although they were "changing" the nature of Earth they were not alienating the planet or antiterraforming or Votonforming Earth into anything other than Earth. Therefore Earth was transformed from Earth into Earth by Terraformers.

    :)

    Sophistory rocks.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I don't think we were ever supposed to think he did. This wasn't a murder mystery; it was about showing how much the McCawleys and the Tarrs hated each other, how they were on the edge of erupting into violence at the slightest provocation.
     
  15. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    Saw this last night. It had an impressive cast, but I didn't enjoy it. If I get wind of something interesting happening, I might check it out again, but otherwise, I don't think I'll stick with it. Not even for Mia Kirshner. And yeah, it did have a Farscape vibe to it. Didn't know it was done by the same guy.
     
  16. B.J.

    B.J. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That reminds me, who exactly shot the sheriff (lawkeeper)? I wasn't paying that much attention, so I couldn't tell who in the group did it. Is that person in jail, or was it overlooked?
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It isn't really. Rockne S. O'Bannon tends to get all the credit for Farscape, but it was really more its executive producers David Kemper and Richard Manning who made it the exceptional show it was. As for Defiance, O'Bannon was one of three co-developers along with Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor, but after the pilot, O'Bannon left to create and produce the CW's flop Cult. Yes, O'Bannon co-wrote the pilot, but from here on out it's Murphy and Taylor's show.


    Bob Marley?

    Really, it was very unclear. It seemed to have been a stray shot in the crossfire, and it wasn't followed up on.
     
  18. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Fine. Give credit to whoever you please. It's still rehashed Farscape, which is only useful if you were a fan of Farscape. I wasn't.
     
  19. Worf2DS9

    Worf2DS9 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    There was really only one spot in the show that I thought looked really cheap: There was a shot looking out of the windshield of the vehicle Nolan & the Mayor were in, and her killer assistant swerves into view ahead of them, fishtailing and stirring up dust; that looked really videogamey.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the pilot. I love Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa. Love her look and attitude. I liked that early scene when they were in the car and despite being pissed at Nolan, eventually starts singing the song with him. :D
     
  20. Roshi

    Roshi Admiral Admiral

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    I think Eric Clapton is also a suspect.