I had the impression from these scenes that Four had regained his memories. At least about his past. If that's not the case, then yes, those scenes did not work at all.
Dark Matter, SyFy's new space show, premieres June 12th
- Thread starter Quinton O'Connor
- Start date
I had the impression from these scenes that Four had regained his memories. At least about his past. If that's not the case, then yes, those scenes did not work at all.
Exactly. Real gunshots don't sound much like the kind we've been conditioned to expect in movies and TV.
Hear, hear. But as I said, it would help if there were enough worldbuilding background to justify it. Is it because the corporations hoard the wealth and the rest of the people are forced to make do with more primitive conditions? That's what Killjoys seems to go with, but while Dark Matter has hinted at corporations running everything, it hasn't really done anything with the idea since the opening 2-parter (discounting last week's cliffhanger).
A lot of space habitats would be made to have Earthlike environments inside them. No reason you couldn't build an interior structure in a station out of the same kind of building materials you'd use in a ground structure. And there's no harm in using a mall to represent a location that is actually a mall in-story. Sure, it's a mall inside a space station rather than in a sprawling suburban complex, but form follows function.
Perhaps because the newer shows have no precedent for doing otherwise? Or because the ships featured there are less familiar to us, so we have no reason to question why they're large enough to hold an entire brewery?
It's not just the sound. They're using real guns. From a production standpoint I think it would be more of disconnect to see a real weapon making a pew-pew sound than just to use typical gun shot noises. It would in essence be breaking the immersion twice. Once to try and make the audience think these are not the guns they appear to be and again to make us think that though they look exactly like guns we know, they operate on completely different principles.
Better to just let the audience ride with "this is a deadly weapon" because they are familiar with the expectations of what they see.
There is that, granted. Though they were mainly just extras, so it's probably just a consequence of the limited Toronto casting pool rather than a conscious bit of worldbuilding.
Well, those older shows seemed to do more to try to make their sets and things look futuristic or alien.
I hadn't really been paying a ton of attention to the background stuff in Dark Matter, but Christopher is right, there really hasn't been much world building in it. We've been shown a bit of stuff, but there really hasn't been explanation for what exactly it all means or why it is the way it is. Killjoys has been using D'avin as a excuse to have the other characters explain stuff, but we haven't really gotten much of that in Dark Matter. Usually I love world building details, so I'm kind of surprised I haven't really noticed how lacking it is here.
Oh, I'm not asking for expository dialogue. As I just said in my comments on the latest Killjoys episode, it did such a great job of showing with regard to the poison rain that the "explain it to D'Avin" moment later felt redundant. Worldbuilding does not mean having one character give another character a lecture. It means creating a sense of setting and history in the story.
Really, given that the characters in Dark Matter have lost their memories, the show is nothing but an opportunity for having other characters explain stuff to them. They should be learning about their world along with us. But what we're learning is piecemeal and focused narrowly on their individual concerns and journeys. Now, good writers can maintain a personal focus in a way that reveals a lot of worldbuilding at the same time, but we're not getting that here. The backgrounds that these characters come from are just so superficial and cliched, and there's nothing really tying them together.
In the flashback scene where 4's teacher is taking the blame before the Emperor I got such a Stargate vibe, the set looked like it was ripped right out of Stargate, lighting and all.
That rationalization doesn't really hold up, because without 4's memories, he'd have no idea that execution was the penalty for failure. Plus, that was the penalty under 4's father, and his half-brother appears to be a lot less harsh. He seemed upset enough about Akito's death that I doubt he would have had him executed.
Tonight's episode:
Episode Ten
The crew's need of money compels them to take on a dangerous assignment, which involves heisting a mysterious device from a rival corporation. Complications arise when they encounter another team of mercenaries who have been hired to do the same job.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7192ZzburJ8[/yt]
Episode Ten
The crew's need of money compels them to take on a dangerous assignment, which involves heisting a mysterious device from a rival corporation. Complications arise when they encounter another team of mercenaries who have been hired to do the same job.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7192ZzburJ8[/yt]
I'm stuck assuming that Four has spent his time researching his planet's culture, laws, and the royal family's background, it's associates, etc. He was the only member of the crew who got to investigate his identity on their first pitstop at a spaceport (in the Jace Corso reveal ep). If Six could manage to track down The General ('s clone) with even less onscreen investigation, then Four coasting off what he learned allows me to reluctantly, give him a pass.
As stated by another poster earlier, he should have been shown at least, fumbling in conversation so as to alert Akito that there was something off, to draw upon the series' conceit that this character is grappling with an erased memory.
I just had a thought about that... Unlike the others, Six actually got to witness his own memories when he was neural-linked to Five. So he probably saw or heard something in his memories that told him where to find the General.
Let's see, on the plus side... goggles! I love Five's science goggles. Also, who doesn't like a good heist caper? Not that this one was very complicated.
On the minus side... Two defends herself against an attempted sexual assault, and everyone's acting like she's the one who deserves the blame for screwing up the plan? That's outrageously wrong.
On the minus side... Two defends herself against an attempted sexual assault, and everyone's acting like she's the one who deserves the blame for screwing up the plan? That's outrageously wrong.
So, looks like we're going to get more insight about Two's physical capabilities. Apparently she's going to be able to survive exposure to outer space. (Unless she dies, and then wakes up in one of those tourist chambers.)
When the android got zapped, I thought red android would show up and save the day. (Either through some sort of physical manifestation, or passing information along to the crew.)
So, should we assume that weapon/object/whatever they stole is just some really dangerous technology that they won't want to give the corporation, or should we jump right to the assumption that it will somehow be directly connected to the crew, perhaps Two? (Or perhaps it will bring her back from the dead.)
When the android got zapped, I thought red android would show up and save the day. (Either through some sort of physical manifestation, or passing information along to the crew.)
So, should we assume that weapon/object/whatever they stole is just some really dangerous technology that they won't want to give the corporation, or should we jump right to the assumption that it will somehow be directly connected to the crew, perhaps Two? (Or perhaps it will bring her back from the dead.)
True.
Regardless of their quality (or otherwise) there's been way too many Earth based shows and next to no space operas recently.
Which isn't to say that a space setting is enough in itself, but it's a start...
I had the impression that the "red Android" was only perceivable to the Android, like a hallucination, rather than a hologram. The way the bit with Five entering the bridge was done suggests that Five should've been able to see Red if she'd been visible to anyone else. And we've had no indication that the Raza has holoprojectors on its bridge.
And it isn't to say that Earth-based shows can't be real science fiction. That's a stereotype. Indeed, for much of the '80s and '90s, prose science fiction tended to focus primarily on near-future Earth-based stories focusing on themes like computers and AI, biotechnology and transhumanism, dystopian and post-apocalyptic scenarios, and the like. Since mass-media science fiction tends to lag about two decades behind the prose, a similar shift in focus occurred there in the 2000s. But it's called science fiction, not space fiction. As long as it's driven by the effects of scientific and technological change, then it's just as much SF whether it's on present-day Earth or 37th-century space.
Heck, I consider Eureka to be one of the most solidly science-fictional shows ever made. Because it was actually, fundamentally a show about science itself -- about scientist characters and their work, about the impact of their discoveries and inventions. Sure, the science was extremely fanciful (though it got better in the last 2-3 seasons), but the work of science itself was the central focus of the entire series, more so than even on Star Trek, and enormously more so than on something like Dark Matter or Killjoys. Those shows are space opera, but Eureka was science fiction in the purest, most literal sense.
I'd also count Fringe as a good example of a present-day show that was emphatically science fiction. Two of its three lead characters were scientists (essentially), and all its plots were driven by mad science and its consequences. Again, it was thoroughly fanciful, often quite ludicrous pseudoscience, but it was presented as science, the result of scientist characters' research and innovation.
^I like to point to Dollhouse as another example of actual science fiction, since it followed one of my personal definitions: postulate a radical scientific advance, and examine how it affects society in general, and how individual people deal with it/use it/abuse it.
As for tonight's story - as I said in the Killjoys thread, it was a little disturbing that the plot was so close to the caper on Killjoys the same evening - break into a space station that looks like a normal building inside, knock out the power, and try to find the McGuffin. Are the production teams using the same playbook? Is SyFy scheduling it like that on purpose? 
Oh, definitely. Dollhouse was the truest and richest work of science fiction that Joss Whedon has ever done, for exactly the reason you state. Not just a series that happens to be set in a futuristic setting, but a series that is fundamentally about exploring the ramifications of a technological innovation.
I'd also cite Orphan Black and Person of Interest as the most solid hard-SF series on the air today. They're both very grounded in plausible science and very strongly driven by examining the evolving ramifications of their core technologies -- cloning and genetic engineering in OB, ubiquitous surveillance and artificial intelligence in PoI. A lot of people don't even realize that PoI is science fiction because it doesn't have futuristic trappings, but it's actually a very solid work of near-future SF, and has proved remarkably predictive of real-world developments more than once.
Would it be mean to criticize the characters for taking absolutely no precautions with regards to ship security while having a bunch of thieving ruffians onboard? Like seal off decks thereby restricting their movements, and locking the infirmary door after Six and Four depart in the shuttle, and ordering the Android to monitor the lead ruffian while they were all gone...keeping closed circuit cameras on him, no unauthorised computer useage, and finally, no bridge access-including the corridor to it, at all?!! 
Despite those quibbles, it was fun, mostly to see our gang interacting as a group with another. Pity our poor Android, she's really going to have her emotional subroutines frazzled as this is the second time in only a few weeks that someone got the drop on her. Look out for Revenge of Red-droid, who will (guessing) take over her body and cause problems for everybody.
Despite those quibbles, it was fun, mostly to see our gang interacting as a group with another. Pity our poor Android, she's really going to have her emotional subroutines frazzled as this is the second time in only a few weeks that someone got the drop on her. Look out for Revenge of Red-droid, who will (guessing) take over her body and cause problems for everybody.