The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

[Mister Fandango]

I enjoyed it. I liked most of the characters, I enjoyed the diversity, and while the story was predictable it was mostly there to introduce the key players and future storylines. But that last part is true of most pilots, so I don't see why people are harshing on that particular bit.

It has the potential to develop into something great. I hope Syfy gives it that chance, but I'm not holding my breath. Why people even bother producing shows for some of these networks is beyond me...

 

[Christopher]

I enjoyed it. I liked most of the characters, I enjoyed the diversity, and while the story was predictable it was mostly there to introduce the key players and future storylines. But that last part is true of most pilots, so I don't see why people are harshing on that particular bit.

True -- pilots are often weakly written compared to what follows. And frankly, given what a mess Rockne O'Bannon's Cult turned out to be, and given that I personally didn't think Farscape was all that good until David Kemper took over the writers' room from O'Bannon, I kinda suspect that the writing on the rest of the season may well be better now that O'Bannon's no longer involved. I really do feel he's overrated. Take away Farscape and there isn't anything really impressive on his resume.

It has the potential to develop into something great. I hope Syfy gives it that chance, but I'm not holding my breath. Why people even bother producing shows for some of these networks is beyond me...

Oh, I think Syfy is clearly committed to making this show work if at all possible. This is their gamble to put a big, prestigious show on the network again to follow in Galactica's footsteps. They've poured enormous amounts of money and effort into creating it and promoting it and into setting it up as this big multimedia franchise with the show and the MMO game and the website and Tumblr and everything. They wouldn't want to see all that effort and expense wasted.

Not to mention that the main thing that determines whether a show stays on the air is how much money it makes or loses. If the MMO is profitable, that helps underwrite the series and makes it easier for the network to afford to keep it on the air.

 

[Mach5]

I watched Defiance pilot for about half and hour before I fell asleep... And that was around 9 PM. It was really bad. Unwatchable, really.

Did it get any better afterwards, or should I just forget I ever watched it?

 

[Star Wolf]

Well the first half hour was pretty much this is not your earth and look at our aliens. What you like and expect from a show is what you like and I can't answer for you whether a second look is worth it.

 

[Mach5]

and look at our aliens.

Those were some shitty looking aliens.

 

[Star Wolf]

and look at our aliens.

Those were some shitty looking aliens.

Not as bad as Andromeda and that worked for a season

 

[Mach5]

and look at our aliens.

Those were some shitty looking aliens.

Not as bad as Andromeda and that worked for a season

You really had to remind me of Andromeda's existence, did you? Now I need booze. And I was just about to go jogging. Got my running shoes on and everything.

 

[bigdaddy]

Just watch Falling Skies season 2, works well.

 

[Christopher]

The basic nature of the alien designs is understandable given how many of them there have to be per episode. The more elaborate the makeup, the more time and money it takes to apply it, so SFTV aliens who need to appear in large numbers tend to be given fairly simple makeups. Since Castithans are the most common aliens in Defiance itself (although second to Irathients elsewhere), they have the most basic makeup, followed by Irathients, and the makeups get more elaborate as the species get less numerous.

 

[not]

I enjoyed it. I liked most of the characters, I enjoyed the diversity, and while the story was predictable it was mostly there to introduce the key players and future storylines. But that last part is true of most pilots, so I don't see why people are harshing on that particular bit.

It has the potential to develop into something great. I hope Syfy gives it that chance, but I'm not holding my breath. Why people even bother producing shows for some of these networks is beyond me...

Totally agree. There are so many it shows that took awhile to catch on with fans and today's networks aren't patient. Ergo the rush to introduce characters, forsaking subtleties that make them memorable and loveable -hateable too!

 

[Mach5]

Just watch Falling Skies season 2, works well.

Couldn't even finish season 1. It wasn't THAT bad, but sure as hell wasn't any good.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't care for Falling Skies at all. The first season was pretty badly written and had few interesting characters, so I didn't even bother with the second. (The stupidest thing that stands out in my mind was the plan from the first-season finale where they were going to take out the aliens' huge four-legged construct by splitting up into teams to blow up all four legs. Umm, hello? Haven't any of the writers ever had a chair leg break under them? All they had to do was blow one leg and the whole thing would've toppled!)

Besides, the two shows are very different. Falling Skies is a guerrilla-war story about fighting off alien invaders who've conquered Earth. Defiance is an immigrant story of various cultures, including humans, trying to build a life in a world that's alien to all of them.

 

[The Wormhole]

I stuck with Falling Skies for two episodes. Instead of actually fighting aliens they just sit around and talk "hey, you remember the time when we fought the aliens?"

 

[Unicron]

I thought the pilot was okay. I'll be interested to see where the series goes.

 

[DigificWriter]

I finally had a chance to watch the pilot after being unable to catch it in its initial airing on Monday, and I really liked what I saw. It didn't feel like your typical television pilot, and had more of a feature-length movie vibe to it.

There were a few things that they could've made a bit more clearer plot-wise, but I liked the storyline overall and the characters are all interesting.

A while back, IO9 posted a review of the series in which they compared it to Firefly, but I really didn't get a Firefly-esque vibe from it at all. It actually reminded me way more of Tombstone - not only in terms of its scope, as mentioned above, but also in terms of its overall structure - than anything else.

I won't be able to watch episodes as they air due to viewing conflicts, but I definitely intend to keep up with the series, and am interested in seeing where things go from here on out, especially with regards to the mystery that is revealed at the end of the episode and with Datak and his wife's scheme involving their son and the McCawley's daughter.

 

[stj]

Why anybody would attack through a choke point like that canyon. I suppose all military science disappeared along with the concept of hand thrown HE? It would have been easier to suspend disbelief if the village had been shown to be down in a crater with only one way in.

Also, did everyone omit to say what was being mined?

On the other hand, the framing shots were imaginative, with great effect.

And if Fionnula Flanagan's Magic Kazoo is about killing off all the aliens, then the hint of a continuing storyline actually addresses the theme of racial tolerance/racial war.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Defiance is 200 meters above Saint Louis (How the frakk big is the arch? 630 ft (192 m) Thank you!).

The old city was buried.

Similar to Waterworld, maybe they're just mining for the past?

Their city is built on top of thousands of buildings and hundreds of thousands of homes and millions of cars and busses.

Why mine for new metal when you can just recycle the metal that's already been processed?

Unless Saint Louis wasn't buried so much as struck by a targeted meteor that is rich in valuable resources.

 

[stj]

If the city was buried, the arch would be buried with it.

The arch is not buried, ergo the city is not buried.

The city is gone because St. Louis is the gateway to the West. Which is metaphorically what the arch is, a literalization of the notion of a gate to the West.

In one sense, Defiance is setting itself up as an SF alternative to the real history of the country. Instead of a genocidal war, racial tolerance. In principle, democratic governance could be part of the package. But the show seems to want to stick with the Strong Man motif of so many Westerns. By literalizing the different races as genuinely alien, the show risks (or wants?) raising genocide as a moral choice worthy of serious consideration.

Nolan's relationship with the girl would have pedophile overtones if she didn't seem like a hard, high-mileage adventuress in her mid-twenties.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That's not the whole arch.

That's the top of the arch.

In the show the arch does not look 193 meters tall.

The first 93 (up and down, what the hell does that mean for side to side?)meters are under the surface.

looking...

In the “Defiance” story, St. Louis was buried — essentially, paved over — by the geological upheaval of 2030. “Portions of the city remain intact, deep underground — a place known as Old St. Louis,” Syfy explains. “Scavengers have picked the remains clean, and few people go there anymore. Not only is the way down dangerous, but the memories are just too painful (and) the sound of the Mississippi River still running in the darkness is kind of creepy.”
Why isn’t the Arch completely buried? It was “thrust upward,” Murphy explains, and is about two-thirds above ground.

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainme...cle_bc2d16c8-0d39-50eb-841b-fa86c1aa120a.html

 

[stj]

Nothing is scaled properly on the show I think. But the arch is clearly the same shape, which is to say, unburied.