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Dark Matter, SyFy's new space show, premieres June 12th

That pendant was shown for a reason, and we have yet to see the reason. For now I'm taking Corso's word that he is indeed Corso and 1 looks like him through surgery. So who is 1?

I'm pretty sure they explained the reason. The Raza attacked, took the weapons from, and destroyed the actual ship that was coming to help the mining colony, which is how 1 ended up with the pendant. It was taken from the actual ship.
 
That pendant was shown for a reason, and we have yet to see the reason. For now I'm taking Corso's word that he is indeed Corso and 1 looks like him through surgery. So who is 1?

I'm pretty sure they explained the reason. The Raza attacked, took the weapons from, and destroyed the actual ship that was coming to help the mining colony, which is how 1 ended up with the pendant. It was taken from the actual ship.

Or maybe that's just what we're supposed to think...?
 
Anyone know what the numbers are? (For both Dark Matter and Killjoys)

ETA: Just looked up current Ratings of SyFy Shows

Dark Matter is #3 out of 12 Scripted Shows, with 1.08 Million Live Viewers (#6 in the 18 - 49 Demographic)

Killjoys is #5 out of 12 Scripted Shows .97 Million Live Viewers (#7 in the 18 - 49 Demographic)

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/syfy-tv-show-ratings-updated-33879/

On top of that, here are the +3-day DVR ratings,

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...rowth-for-the-week-ending-july-5-2015/429249/

Dark Matter seems to be doing well enough, showing up on 2 of those lists. It's pretty much doubling it's single day viewership. Killjoys showed up on one of them too, which seems to be a good enough feat, since that counts a bazillion shows on hundreds of different cable channels.

Dark Matter is a Space program, so it would still be around even if SyFy cancelled it. Killjoys, on the other hand, is a joint SyFy/Space production, so who knows what would happen there.
 
Dark Matter is a Space program, so it would still be around even if SyFy cancelled it. Killjoys, on the other hand, is a joint SyFy/Space production, so who knows what would happen there.

That's funny, I would've expected it to be the other way around, since Dark Matter is from two producers of the Stargate franchise (which was original to the SciFi Channel for a decade), while Killjoys is from the creator of the Canadian import Lost Girl and the producers of the Canadian/BBC America co-production Orphan Black.
 
It's all Can-con, so it may be kept as a Space production if SyFy dumps it and the Canadian-based studio finds a partner to replace them and continue to take advantage of the tax breaks. Not likely for DM or Killjoys; and Defiance probably has a really good deal or multi-year contract with its distributors as a result of its game tie-in, so they may have a different kind of coverage.

It was mentioned earlier about getting the Zombie episode out of the way; funny, as on Stargate they got as far as season six of SG-1 before doing an undead monster sort of episode, and I think did it only once since then. I can't recall if Atlantis or Universe did it (I'm on a chronological rewatch of the franchise right now and am on SG-1 S9 and Atlantis S2).

Mark
 
It's all Can-con, so it may be kept as a Space production if SyFy dumps it and the Canadian-based studio finds a partner to replace them and continue to take advantage of the tax breaks. Not likely for DM or Killjoys; and Defiance probably has a really good deal or multi-year contract with its distributors as a result of its game tie-in, so they may have a different kind of coverage.
DM's Wiki page lists NBC/Universal as it's distributor, some may have confused that as being production partner. And Defiance is majority owned by Universal Cable Productions, the production house that is a unit of NBC/Universal's cable division.

Here's an interesting tidbit from Joe Mallozzi's blog...
shaneac1 writes: “Ps any word on season 2 yet after all the Expanse hasn’t even aired yet and they just got greenlight for season 2.”
Answer: Actually, The Expanse writers have been given the go ahead to start developing scripts for season 2 – which is not the same as getting a green light to go into production on a second season. It’s not uncommon. Jay (Firestone of Prodigy Pictures) has already given us the go-ahead to start scripts for season 2 in advance of – hopefully – an official pick-up
It was mentioned earlier about getting the Zombie episode out of the way; funny, as on Stargate they got as far as season six of SG-1 before doing an undead monster sort of episode, and I think did it only once since then. I can't recall if Atlantis or Universe did it (I'm on a chronological rewatch of the franchise right now and am on SG-1 S9 and Atlantis S2).

Mark
There were indeed, zombie Wraith hybrids on Atlantis' s5. "Whispers" was the episode. :)
 
Zombies weren't as popular back then.
The vampire era. And we know what Stargate did with them. My first Trek episode was Man Trap it scared me away until the animated series.

Man Trap STILL scares me. Or rather just the sight of the salt vampire taps into my primal childish terror and it all comes flooding back.

No there was not even a whiff of that in the zombie ep of Dark Matter :lol:

The zombie Vulcans on Enterprise were better because after 40 (?) years of watching Vulcans on Star Trek seeing them like that was wrenching. You cared, despite the riduculousness.
 
The zombie Vulcans on ENT are actually, like, one of the very, very, very few times the whole zombie thing has worked for me. I don't know what it is about zombies, but they almost never interest me. I hit that ep in my recent rewatch of the show a few weeks ago and was pretty much "O_O" the entire time.

Like, you can quote me on that. O_O.
 
The zombie Vulcans on ENT are actually, like, one of the very, very, very few times the whole zombie thing has worked for me.

Whereas I utterly hated that episode. I found it a pointless bore and possibly the worst thing that's ever been done with the Vulcans.

I'm not sure I can think of a time when a zombie story has worked for me, other than iZombie, although its version of "zombies" is really more like the way vampires have been handled on TV and film for the past couple of decades (i.e. undead creatures who are nonetheless still attractive and able to lead mostly normal lives, and whose monstrous qualities are as much a superpower as a curse). I liked Army of Darkness, but for the comedy, not the zombies. (And it's the only Evil Dead movie I've seen.)
 
The zombie Vulcans on ENT are actually, like, one of the very, very, very few times the whole zombie thing has worked for me.
Whereas I utterly hated that episode. I found it a pointless bore and possibly the worst thing that's ever been done with the Vulcans.
I suppose you've repressed all memory of 'neuropressure', then. :lol:

It's not that I didn't enjoy seeing T'Pol in her silk pajamas giving people massages, but still, it was beyond stupid.

BTW, I liked the 'Inception' episode. This is turning out to be a fun little show.
 
I thought this was the weakest link on the SyFy Friday night block, but I find myself caring more about these characters than the ones on Killjoys.
 
Last night's episode was very strong, since we got a lot more insight into the characters -- even though only Five and Six got to experience their own memories.

However, I'm not sure I like it that both Four and Six basically got redeemed -- turns out they weren't as bad as they thought they were. It makes sense for Six, given his personality, but it seems to be going too easy on the characters. I like the idea of this series as a story of redemption, but it undermines it if they have less to redeem themselves for in the first place, if their old selves were just misunderstood/framed.

I also have a serious problem with the portrayal of the Ishida royalty. Okay, a spacegoing civilization based on a non-Western culture makes sense, since non-Western humans substantially outnumber Europeans and Americans. But Japan today is maybe the most technologically forward-looking nation on Earth, a society that embraces modernity and progress as much as it celebrates its cultural traditions. So why is the Ishida civilization portrayed as a bunch of medieval types running around with swords? That's a caricature of Japanese culture. I could buy the Emperor clinging to a constructed traditionalist image for its symbolic value, but it surely wouldn't have extended to the actual armaments of the palace security forces.

Let's see, we also got the story of how Five ended up on the Raza and who the dead boy is. I wonder how she was saved from being spaced by Boone (Three). Anyway, you can bet that "What kind of code is 'Miss Maplethorpe?'" exchange between Jace and Griffin is going to turn out to be the code to the big mystery door. Characters in this kind of story always happen to stumble upon exactly the memories or visions they need to advance the plot.

And what do you want to be that the idyllic farmboy memories actually belong to Boone/Three instead of Corso/One?
 
Last night's episode was very strong, since we got a lot more insight into the characters -- even though only Five and Six got to experience their own memories.

However, I'm not sure I like it that both Four and Six basically got redeemed -- turns out they weren't as bad as they thought they were. It makes sense for Six, given his personality, but it seems to be going too easy on the characters. I like the idea of this series as a story of redemption, but it undermines it if they have less to redeem themselves for in the first place, if their old selves were just misunderstood/framed.
From the premiere I have been seeing Blake's 7 with cheaper 21st century versus 1970s budgets. We still don't know how bad the government is while we know at least 6's wing of the rebellion was willing to take such actions

I also have a serious problem with the portrayal of the Ishida royalty. Okay, a spacegoing civilization based on a non-Western culture makes sense, since non-Western humans substantially outnumber Europeans and Americans. But Japan today is maybe the most technologically forward-looking nation on Earth, a society that embraces modernity and progress as much as it celebrates its cultural traditions. So why is the Ishida civilization portrayed as a bunch of medieval types running around with swords? That's a caricature of Japanese culture. I could buy the Emperor clinging to a constructed traditionalist image for its symbolic value, but it surely wouldn't have extended to the actual armaments of the palace security forces.

The Pope's guard would be an equivalent public face although they are also armed like the US Secret Service Presidential detail in the background.
 
The Pope's guard would be an equivalent public face although they are also armed like the US Secret Service Presidential detail in the background.

Maybe. But so far, we've seen nothing to indicate that the rest of Ishida civilization is any more advanced. At this point, it just looks like an ignorant Orientalist stereotype on the writers' part.


One more point: I think this is the first episode to mention real star names, e.g. Acamar, Procyon, and I think I heard Arrakis (which, aside from being the name of the planet in Dune, is also a variant of Alrakis, the Arabic name for Mu Draconis). So now we have confirmation that Dark Matter is taking place in local space, the same part of the Milky Way galaxy that contains Earth. As opposed to Killjoys, which is set in "a galaxy far, far away" according to the official show site. This would imply that Killjoys is further in the future, even though Dark Matter's technology seems more advanced. (Which would undermine my efforts to treat them as taking place in the same universe.)
 
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The Darkmatter setting is beginning to remind me of the soci/political setting used in Battletech, without the Mechs of course. The Ishida civilization seems very similar to how the Draconis Combine has been portrayed.

I would not be surprised to learn the writers drew some inspiration from there.
 
But it would be nice if they drew inspiration from an informed understanding of Japan rather than a lazy caricature out of a martial arts movie.
 
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