How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the creator

[Chris_Johnston]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Yeah, I couldn't understand why, when so many people complain about shows and movies having "no character development" or "no story" would complain about Defying Gravity, which had lots of both, including really great production values.

 

[Angel4576]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

James Parriott did eventually live up to his word, and spill the beans on the endgame;

The Final Chapter

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Yeah, I couldn't understand why, when so many people complain about shows and movies having "no character development" or "no story" would complain about Defying Gravity, which had lots of both, including really great production values.

Do people complain about "no character development" or "no story"? What TV show has ever had "no story"?

I complain about lousy character development and stupid stories. Simply the existence of these things are not enough.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Yeah, I couldn't understand why, when so many people complain about shows and movies having "no character development" or "no story" would complain about Defying Gravity, which had lots of both, including really great production values.

Do people complain about "no character development" or "no story"? What TV show has ever had "no story"?

I complain about lousy character development and stupid stories. Simply the existence of these things are not enough.

Defying Gravity was AWFUL. I hated the characters. I can't see any space agency or aliens wanting to deal with such wankers.

 

[Caliburn24]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

The story Parriott wanted to tell could have been interesting, but based on what was revealed in the linked article it would have been even more ridiculously slow than the one season we did get.

The story he outlined would have worked well enough in a miniseries or one season of TV, but stretch it out over four(?) seasons like he was implying and it gets much too slow and boring.

Pre-planning where a series is headed is fantastic. JMS did it better than anyone in Babylon 5, but he actually had enough story to warrant five seasons. Parriott's planned story just wasn't enough to keep me interested. Season one felt like padding and filler, with one or two interesting moments tossed in, just to keep us wanting more.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

The ending described sounds like "deus ex machina", where some unseen cosmic force gets to play God and presses a big reset button if it deems the human race worthy. Lame. It wouldn't even have been worth staying for the ride as most of the characters were annoying. No amount of CGI eye candy would have been enough to persuade me.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

James Parriott did eventually live up to his word, and spill the beans on the endgame;

The Final Chapter

Thanks for that link. The article didn't mention whether or not Nadia would have turned back into a woman. I was fascinated with that storyline.

 

[FreezeC77]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Sometimes I get irritated when I spent 2 hours or so watching a movie and then the end result is a reset button... It kind of depends on the story... but to have presumably spent 5 seasons watching this series and the end result be a galactic reset button? Wow...

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Sometimes I get irritated when I spent 2 hours or so watching a movie and then the end result is a reset button... It kind of depends on the story... but to have presumably spent 5 seasons watching this series and the end result be a galactic reset button? Wow...

Yeah, I was reading the outline and I just kept thinking: thank god this was cancelled. Especially the ending. It's a lazy reset. Come on, we're gonna spend all this time with the characters and the end is an Alternative Universe filled with people we don't know? Fuck that.

 

[Skywalker]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

That sounds unbelievably dull and unfulfilling. Sounds like it was a good thing the show didn't last.

 

[firehawk12]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Wow, I thought I was seeing things. At least dude cares enough to have had an ending in mind and then reveal it. Most producers are happy to just disappear nowadays.

Huh, what is it with existentialism these days. It's like it was the in-vogue thing for TV science fiction for a while.

 

[Mach5]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Defying Gravity was seriously bad, and an insult to intelligence everywhere.

QFT

 

[Checkmate]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

I said, ‘would you guys buy this if we pulled it from ABC and give it to you for free on rerun and buy us into a second season?’ But then you’ve already aired and you’re taking the wind out of Syfy’s sails, because they can’t promote it as ‘their’ show.

That's the bit that just go whooshing over my head.

Why are television executives this far out of the loop? Do they really think people only tune in to watch a program when they throw "A [Station Name] Original Series!" on it? Even when it is in no way, shape, or form an original series? Hell, has anyone in the history of existence ever tuned a show because of such a lame, pointless, and usually fraudulent tagline of that nature? Or worse, don't tune in unless it has one?

Jesus. Why are the people responsible for this crap so unbelievably detached from reality?

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

I said, ‘would you guys buy this if we pulled it from ABC and give it to you for free on rerun and buy us into a second season?’ But then you’ve already aired and you’re taking the wind out of Syfy’s sails, because they can’t promote it as ‘their’ show.

That's the bit that just go whooshing over my head.

Why are television executives this far out of the loop? Do they really think people only tune in to watch a program when they throw "A [Station Name] Original Series!" on it? Even when it is in no way, shape, or form an original series? Hell, has anyone in the history of existence ever tuned a show because of such a lame, pointless, and usually fraudulent tagline of that nature? Or worse, don't tune in unless it has one?

Jesus. Why are the people responsible for this crap so unbelievably detached from reality?

Maybe it was Syfy's way being nice to the guy. Better than saying, "Dude, your show is teh sux."

But, to answer your question, no.

 

[Noname Given]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

I liked what I saw of the series on ABC; but after reading the Producer's plan...sorry, Iif I'd spent a could seasons and that was the result, eh, /yawn.

Arthur C' Clarke's 2001 did this theme better; and did Rendevous With Rama. Sorry, but it would have all ended up being very cliche; and given the pace, I doubt it would have made it past Season 2 on SyFy.

 

[bigdaddy]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

I said, ‘would you guys buy this if we pulled it from ABC and give it to you for free on rerun and buy us into a second season?’ But then you’ve already aired and you’re taking the wind out of Syfy’s sails, because they can’t promote it as ‘their’ show.

That's the bit that just go whooshing over my head.

Why are television executives this far out the loop?

They aren't the creators are lying or were lied to.

Anyone remember that little Sci-fi original show called Stargate sg-1 that ran on another network for 5 years? Or maybe the sci-fi original show called Sliders that ran on another network for 3 years?

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Anyone remember that little Sci-fi original show called Stargate sg-1 that ran on another network for 5 years? Or maybe the sci-fi original show called Sliders that ran on another network for 3 years?

These days it's all about brand marketing. They want you to think of their network when you think of the series.

They don't want to be seen as a left-overs network, picking through other networks' trash. The average viewer may not care where the show came from as long as they get more, but these execs and marketing guys have to justify their existance.

 

[bigdaddy]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

Anyone remember that little Sci-fi original show called Stargate sg-1 that ran on another network for 5 years? Or maybe the sci-fi original show called Sliders that ran on another network for 3 years?

These days it's all about brand marketing. They want you to think of their network when you think of the series.

They don't want to be seen as a left-overs network, picking through other networks' trash. The average viewer may not care where the show came from as long as they get more, but these execs and marketing guys have to justify their existance.

My point is Syfy will just add "original series" to anything and I doubt it's the reason DG wasn't picked up.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Re: How 'Defying Gravity' would have progressed, straight from the cre

They said Doctor Who and Merlin are "Original Series", too and Starz is promoting Torchwood as an "Original Series" despite 3 series elsewhere.