Extant premieres tonight - are you going to watch?

[Owain Taggart]

I actually thought this episode was better than the first on the whole despite its problems. Seems I was partly right about both astronauts being experiments, although it might not be by the space organization itself but whatever entities were on the station.

I did laugh at the CGI elephant though. It was really terrible, looking like a giant mouse with giant ears rather than an elephant. It's as if the artist started to draw out an elephant and midway said, 'F This!' and just completed a really rough childlike rendering of one. It was almost cartoon-like in its quality. The whole segment reminded me of Night at the Museum, and I suppose that's what they were trying to accomplish there.

 

[JD]

It was an OK episode. It is always frustrating when sci-fi shows have lousy science.
So apparently they did know what was going to happen, and purposefully sent the Molly and the other astronaut to the station hoping what would happen happened.
So was the or whatever looking for woman? It seemed disappointed when it realized he was a guy.

 

[Borgminister]

I liked the Glen Close lookalike.

Otherwise painfully slow... buildups going nowhere. Looks like a bust. Which is what Halle should show. Crass, I know. Sorry.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Awful.

Invited to a Birthday party?

I would not let that robot hang around with my children because it has no defined moral parameters and... Do we know how strong it is? Even if it is twice as strong as a child the same age, accidents can happen, but if each if its limbs are a pneumatic jack, he would be able to throw people through walls by accident during a supposedly harmless sporting event.

until I saw all the other kids freak out when the Elephant charged, I wondered if all the kids were robots, but what was clear after every other child cowered in fear despite knowing what a hologram is and that all the exhibits are holographic and that they may have been there before and... The children do not know that it is a Robot. They think that Ethan is hard core. The children might be morons but all the parents on sight must think that this "boy" is developmentally challenged for not being afraid of a Hologram... Or that he is weird fr not being developmentally challenged like all their kids?

When was the last time you went to a 3d movie and screamed in fear because you though a car was coming out of the screen and was going to kill you?

Maybe they searched out a group of retarded kids to hang out with the robot because "average" children would notice he is different, and then try to destroy the boybot or use it.

I only fell asleep twice this time.

Using that scale, this episode is twice as good as last week.

 

[Professor Zoom]

And we can't get Star Trek back on TV on CBS, The CW or Showtime, but we can get this?

Star Trek might be a more expensive show actually. Especially if we want one that boldly goes... that means a new planet each week. And they all can't look like Vancouver.

This is probably a cheaper show to do... and with a star like Berry, I'm sure they felt this mitigated the risk. It's a summer show, etc.

Though, I will say this: they did an order of, what, 13 episodes?, rather than just ordering a pilot and deciding from that. I think that was a mistake.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I had forgotten that I lost all respect for Hallee after she accepted money for starring in Catwoman.

You have to understand that this series impressed Halle and that that is why it was allowed to be made.

This is programming on her level.

From the same mind that thought Catwoman was a good idea.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

And we can't get Star Trek back on TV on CBS, The CW or Showtime, but we can get this?

Star Trek might be a more expensive show actually. Especially if we want one that boldly goes... that means a new planet each week. And they all can't look like Vancouver.

This is probably a cheaper show to do... and with a star like Berry, I'm sure they felt this mitigated the risk. It's a summer show, etc.

Though, I will say this: they did an order of, what, 13 episodes?, rather than just ordering a pilot and deciding from that. I think that was a mistake.

I don't think that they do pilots anymore. especially backdoor pilots (the only one I've seen recently-backdoor or otherwise-was Crash Nebula.)

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how a company as successful as CBS can't, won't or isn't able to commit to a Star Trek show. Halle and all those involved better hope that this show gets any views, high ratings, or critical acclaim despite the shitty science, because if it doesn't get either, it will be dead and gone quickly.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Halle might have had a development contract with very clear language that foorced the show to air even if the ratings tanked... Oh? Have the ratings tanked? It sucked, but did it suck and tank?

Ratings for July 18th (original + 3 day time shifting from dvr, ondemand and shit.)

L+SD L+3 Lift % Lift
1. UNDER THE DOME 8.55m 12.21m +3.66m +43%
2. EXTANT 9.58m 11.88m +2.30m +24%
4. NCIS (R) 8.41m 8.66m +247,000 +3%
5. The Big Bang Theory (R) 7.98m 8.58m +596,000 +8%
7. 60 Minutes (R) 8.03m 8.18m +147,000 +2%
9. Unforgettable 6.15m 7.93m +1.78m +29%
10. Big Brother-SUN 6.10m 7.33m +1.23m +20%

The ratings rock? How the hell did that happen?

(Oh. Because NCIS and Big Bang are reruns. Never mind.)

 

[Professor Zoom]

I don't think that they do pilots anymore. especially backdoor pilots (the only one I've seen recently-backdoor or otherwise-was Crash Nebula.)

That's not true. At the network level, they still do pilots.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how a company as successful as CBS can't, won't or isn't able to commit to s Star Trek show. Halle and all those involved better hope that this show gets any views, high ratings, or critical acclaim despite the shitty science, because if it doesn't get either, it will be dead and gone quickly.

Take off the lenses of being a fan.

A Star Trek show in this day and age will cost a lot of money per week. New planets? That's new sets and new backgrounds. New Aliens? That's new make up. Each week. For 20 weeks.

You think that's cheap?

And then ask yourself, how many people will need to tune in each week?

And then ask yourself, which Star Trek? Do you do the movie characters currently being used? Well, that will mean recasting. Or do you do something just set in that universe? That means introducing and hoping 7 to 10 million people care.

And 7 to 10 million, will that be worth it financially? Especially when the most watched show on network television, at 17 million people, is NCIS, which doesn't require alien worlds, doesn't require alien make up, and it's set in the modern day...

Which do you think is the smart business decision? An NCIS spin off or Star Trek?

Because it's show business, not fan service.

 

[Guy Gardener]

There was a fun joke on the Will Wheaton Project the other day...

Will: "Time Magazine is now claiming that the science behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes holds true and that it is possible for Monkeys and apes to take over the Earth... On the brightside of that, I suppose that this means that there will be new writers for Extant."

 

[Shaka Zulu]

I don't think that they do pilots anymore. especially backdoor pilots (the only one I've seen recently-backdoor or otherwise-was Crash Nebula.)

That's not true. At the network level, they still do pilots.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how a company as successful as CBS can't, won't or isn't able to commit to s Star Trek show. Halle and all those involved better hope that this show gets any views, high ratings, or critical acclaim despite the shitty science, because if it doesn't get either, it will be dead and gone quickly.

Take off the lenses of being a fan.

A Star Trek show in this day and age will cost a lot of money per week. New planets? That's new sets and new backgrounds. New Aliens? That's new make up. Each week. For 20 weeks.

You think that's cheap?

And then ask yourself, how many people will need to tune in each week?

And then ask yourself, which Star Trek? Do you do the movie characters currently being used? Well, that will mean recasting. Or do you do something just set in that universe? That means introducing and hoping 7 to 10 million people care.

And 7 to 10 million, will that be worth it financially? Especially when the most watched show on network television, at 17 million people, is NCIS, which doesn't require alien worlds, doesn't require alien make up, and it's set in the modern day...

Which do you think is the smart business decision? An NCIS spin off or Star Trek?

Because it's show business, not fan service.

Sorry about that-I lost my head there. Consider me chastened.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I get it: we want what we want. But, that doesn't always mean we're gonna get it, or that it's some personal crime against us.

While I think Extant is a shitty show, I'm glad they are trying something in genre fiction. That's a good thing.

I would rather have more new things, than the same old things just in a new package. Sorry if I came on to strong.

 

[Guy Gardener]

This is what I find alarming: No advertising logos on clothing.

It's like they got all the (m)admen, stuck them up against the wall when the revolution came and ventilated them.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Seen the first three episodes now... it's starting to get interesting - though it's been slow to get going, to be honest. How long is season 1 supposed to be anyway?

 

[Guy Gardener]

13. But it will seem like a thousand years to sit through them.

I'm assuming Halle is going to have a terminal John Hurt moment at the apex of child birth so that she doesn't have to do season two.

I only just figured out that Grace Gummer and Mamie Gummer are not the same person.

Between the two of them they do 6 or 7 shows a year sometimes.

What a little dynamo.

 

[JD]

When my mom asked me if I was still watching this before the new episode aired, I told her I was interested enough to stick with it too the end. Now, I'm thinking I might have to retract that. I'm already starting to lose interest in the mysteries, and getting bored. It just seems like we haven't really learned anything that worthwhile about the mysteries, and I'm already starting to lose interest in the stuff with the robot son. I honestly thought that would be enough to hold my interest at least, but I'm they don't really seem to be doing anything that interesting with that story either.

 

[Mister Fandango]

You mean long, drawn-out mysteries for the sake of mysteries that never get fully answered because that would mean the end of the show isn't the best storytelling method around?

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm surprised by how spot-on some of my predictions ended up being, namely the one about an experiment being conducted on her without her consent.

 

[Starbreaker]

I made it 3.25 episodes. The dialogue is terrible. Especially between the villains. Nobody talks like that!

 

[Mister Fandango]

That didn't stop most of Whedon's shows from being popular. Buffy in particular.