new AMC space sci fi series?

[Temis the Vorta]

Ever since AMC debuted The Walking Dead, I've been hoping they'd do a space related sci fi series. And it looks like they have one in serious contention:

Voyage, from writer/exec producer John Shiban, is described as a grounded look at human beings' first contact with extraterrestrial life seen through the eyes of an ambitious female scientist and her team at Jet Propulsion Laboratories.

Don't worry that the title is very similar to a certain Star Trek series...

 

[watermelony2k]

A real-world hard science drama? Sounds good. NASA and JPL deserve some screen-time depiction.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And this is different from Contact...how, exactly?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

And this is different from Contact...how, exactly?

And this is an interesting and relevant question...how, exactly?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Well, if it's anything like Walking Dead...

*Lies on the floor on his stomach, hands propping up his head, eagerly staring at the TV*

 

[Caliburn24]

I'd give it a try, but it needs to have a tighter through-line and better pacing than last years Rubicon.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'd prefer that they adapt Stephen Baxter's alternate history novel, Voyage, but I'll take any decent sci-fi that's on offer. It does sound a lot like Contact, though. I don't know if "grounded" should be taken literally or figuratively.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Nothing wrong with Contact.

Nothing "much" wrong with Threshhold either.

Surface was meh. Lake Bell should be pretty but somehow she stumbles.

Invasion had a guy on top but the female lead was still quite impressive. Tedious plot though.

 

[Vendikarr]

And this is different from Contact...how, exactly?

It's not just the concept, but what they do with it. Should we never tell a first contact story again because CONTACT was made?

 

[RoJoHen]

As long as they use something other than Prime Numbers to communicate, I'm all for it.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

... and they don't use that muti-axis, gimbal thingy to create wormhole FTL travel as in Contact, Event Horizon, ...

 

[Anwar]

Maybe it'll be like a TV version of District 9, more deeply examining the idea of aliens coming to Earth and how we'd REALLY react.

 

[Satyrquaze]

Don't worry that the title is very similar to a certain Star Trek series...

Eh, it's okay nobody watched that series anyway.

 

[Pingfah]

Oh good, I hope this comes off, because by my reckoning there won't be a single space based show on after the lamentable SGU finishes. Unless somebody has better information than I.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Oh good, I hope this comes off, because by my reckoning there won't be a single space based show on after the lamentable SGU finishes.

Amen to that.

 

[Tom]

Well we have V as the current first contact type show. So in this one I hope there are not a bunch of uber powerfull aliens showing up with an agenda (V, ID4, Skyline, Battle LA, etc. etc..).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

And this is different from Contact...how, exactly?

It's a TV show and it's new.

Contact, the TV series would be just fine by me.

Well we have V as the current first contact type show. So in this one I hope there are not a bunch of uber powerfull aliens showing up with an agenda (V, ID4, Skyline, Battle LA, etc. etc..).

Since it's AMC, my strong hunch is that they won't just lazily fall back on the expected tropes: the aliens look human or even humanoid; they're automatically evil, even if they seem nice; or even that they're something we can relate to.

Maybe they're pulsating blobs of matter that communicate telepathically. Sadly, humans aren't on their wavelength. We're not even certain they're intelligent because we can't communicate directly with them. They probably think the same of us.

Even that kind of thing would be nothing new (for novels) but it sure would be radical to see on TV!

I don't know if "grounded" should be taken literally or figuratively.

I'm thinking it means "it won't be the usual overused cheesy melodramatic crap" rather than "we're staying on planet Earth."

Maybe it'll be like a TV version of District 9, more deeply examining the idea of aliens coming to Earth and how we'd REALLY react.

Yknow what I'd love? About a month of hysteria, but then everyone realizes that pulsating telepathic blobs who can't communicate with us are boring, and everyone goes back to their regular lives like nothing happened. Only scientists would stay interested.

I doubt that intelligent alien life forms would even be as relatable to us as the prawns of District 9 (who behaved in very human-like ways - a daddy protecting his son for instance - wouldn't a real prawn have a billion offspring and therefore not care about the fate of any one of them?)

What happens when it turns out the aliens aren't as cool as we wanted them to be? Humans are so ego-driven that we only care about aliens to the extent they remind us of ourselves. I'd love to see a sci fi series that makes that point. Only the scientists stay interested because they are the only ones motivated by anything other than ego.

 

[Jetfire]

It's a TV show and it's new.

Contact, the TV series would be just fine by me.

Yeah 'Contact' was a beautiful movie...I think the idea would be awesome as a series.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It's a TV show and it's new.

Contact, the TV series would be just fine by me.

Yeah 'Contact' was a beautiful movie...I think the idea would be awesome as a series.

Really? I can't envisage it working in an episodic format that's suitable for TV. A miniseries might be as close as you could get.

 

[Lookingglassman]

The problem I see with it is where will they go with it? If the whole series is based off of us just getting to know the aliens and that is it then I think it would be boring.

Contact was good for a two hour movie, but I wouldn't have watched a series based on it, especially when the aliens sent Jodi Foster back with no proof. I thought that was the dumbest endings ever. Why would the aliens even waste the time to send data to earth to get us to build these wormhole machines then send the human back with no proof they went anywhere? The aliens pretty much blew any chance of humans contacting them again because if they send any more data it would just be covered up and if not humanity wouldn't want to waste the time and money and would point to Jodi Foster and say, "HR Haden made up all this before because James Woods pointed that out in the congressional hearings so why should we believe this new data?"