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

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Quinton O'Connor, May 27, 2015.

  1. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Is it considered unrealistic for there to be humanoid aliens? I would think there would be a pretty good chance that aliens that evolved in a similar environment to ours would evolve to look similar to us.
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Oh, that's very unrealistic. Lots of Earth species have evolved in similar environments and haven't ended up looking anything like us. Even granted that technological species have a reasonable chance of being two-armed bipeds, they could just as well end up shaped more like a velociraptor or a kangaroo than a human. And there's no reason other body plans couldn't work too. The most intelligent species on Earth other than humans and our sibling apes are: Elephants, corvid birds, cetaceans, and cephalopods. There's enormous variety there. And elephants occupy much the same environment as primates, yet their body plan is profoundly unlike ours. Ditto for cetaceans and cephalopods -- both ocean-dwellers, both competitors for a similar niche (whales and squids are mortal enemies), yet astonishingly dissimilar to each other in body plan. And that's just on one planet and based on one genetic code.

    No other order of life on Earth has evolved to match a human shape, so it would be even less likely to happen on a completely different planet. Sure, we like to make up arguments about how our shape is the "natural" shape that intelligent, tool-using life would tend toward, but the fact that we've found intelligence and tool use among elephants, cephalopods, birds, etc. pretty much debunks that. It's a human habit to expect ourselves to be the center of all things, but we've always been wrong about it before. We weren't created in God's image, the planet wasn't created for our benefit, Earth isn't the center of the universe, the Solar System isn't the center of the galaxy... now we even know that our planetary system is actually an oddball rather than a typical system, that it's unusual to have all the rocky planets near the Sun and all the giants farther out. We should've learned by now that when we expect ourselves to be the template for the universe, that's nothing more than ego.

    Indeed, the human shape is actually far from ideal. We're shaped the way we are because we're a bunch of tree-swingers still in the early stages of our adaptation to walking upright. We haven't even come close to evolving into a perfect form for upright locomotion, which is why we have so much trouble with bad backs and fallen arches and even hemorrhoids. We're in transition, betwixt and between, still only half-adjusted to our niche. Which is probably part of why we've needed to invent technology to compensate for our many physical shortcomings. Other intelligent, tool-using species might well be similarly ill-adapted and half-evolved, but the odds that they'd happen to share our particular misfit attributes are quite low.

    And sure, it's a big galaxy, and there are probably a few planets where a shape roughly similar to ours has developed. But they wouldn't be so identical that they could be replicated by sticking pieces of latex onto a human's face.
     
  3. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    Eh. Close enough. I like outer space but I also acknowledge the budget limitations of TV sci-fi. (Hey, if they had money, they wouldn't be shooting it in Canada in the first place! :p )
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Actually Dark Matter and Killjoys are Canadian series to begin with, although the latter is a Syfy co-production.
     
  5. cylkoth

    cylkoth Commodore Commodore

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    The Expanse is also shot in Canada... :nyah:
     
  6. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Everything is shot in Canada... :bolian:
     
  7. Leviathan

    Leviathan Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    So alien life evolved in Canada. Explains why most aliens are such hosers.
     
  8. IndyMac

    IndyMac Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Childhood's End and Hunters are shot in Australia!
     
  9. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^^
    Australia is just southern hemisphere's Canada... :D
     
  10. Wouter

    Wouter Captain Captain

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    Exactly. And the pedestrian sets don't mean that the story or the atmosphere has to be bad; I thought that 6s scene in the doctor's waiting room (episode 4, IIRC) was golden. Transfer transit was introduced in that scene.

    Not everything has to be big SF with massive sets. Interesting characters are more important that big ideas to me, at least in this kind of TV series. The science fiction elements are serving the story and the characters, rather than the other way round.

    In other news, the episodes will now get names in season 2 (first season used numbers).
     
  11. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Nonsense, everyone knows that New Zealand is Australia's Canada. :p
     
  12. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    It's the side-benefit of the lower dollar value these days. All the X-Men movies have been made in Canada thus far too, IIRC.
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Again, though, Dark Matter and Killjoys are not American shows filmed in Canada to save money, like Stargate or Fringe, say. They're Canadian shows, made for Canada's Space network and imported to the US by Syfy, like Lost Girl and Bitten.
     
  14. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The Shannara Chronicles shoots in New Zealand.
     
  15. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    New Zaeland is Canada for fantasy series ;)
     
  16. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Aren't they co-productions with Syfy though? This distinguishes them from, say, Continuum, which was just a direct import.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    As I said already back in post #604, only Killjoys is a Syfy co-production. Dark Matter is pure import. (Although you'd think it'd be the other way around, since Dark Matter is from a couple of Stargate producers while Killjoys is from the creator of Lost Girl and the production company of Orphan Black. So I always have to remind myself which one is the co-production.)
     
  18. TemporalFlux

    TemporalFlux Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Been watching for it, but surprised to see no blu-ray release yet.
     
  19. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    Most of them, yes. Not quite all of them. X-Men: First Class was shot primarily in the U.K. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was primarily Australia. The Wolverine was mostly Japan playing Japan.

    But the other 5 were all shot primarily in Canada: X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Days of Future Past, & X-Men: Apocalypse.
     
  20. Mark_Nguyen

    Mark_Nguyen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Different parts of Canada, though - mostly Vancouver, but also Montreal and also Toronto and a wee bit of stuff outside Calgary. We're a really big country. Lots of different looks to the place.

    Then again, Arrow, Flash and Legends are all shot in Vancouver, and they're pretty masterful at giving those three shows different enough looks despite often having the same skyline in the actors' backgrounds.

    Mark