Syfy's Ascension Miniseries

[DigificWriter]

Ascension should've been promoted with the "nothing is real" meta-concept being front and center, because hiding it didn't accomplish anything other than to piss people off.

Huge waste of potential with the way the show was deceptively promoted. If I didn't like the cast and want to be a 'completist', I would've given up on it already.

 

[Yoda]

Only watched up to 'the twist' so far. Kind of suspected it. The rest was really uninspired. Oh great a murder mystery. Most of the actors are bad. The script is bad. Is this a limited series for realsies or is this like Under the Dome where they tell you it's going to be a limited series and then next thing you know they're stretching it out for as long as they can?

 

[cylkoth]

Is this a limited series for realsies or is this like Under the Dome where they tell you it's going to be a limited series and then next thing you know they're stretching it out for as long as they can?

It was intended as a 6 episode miniseries, but if successful, a series could result.

 

[Ithekro]

If it went to a series, I would hope they would have this end with the start of an actually deep space mission using 21st century technology (plus whatever they learned from this project) and come up with some sort of faster deep space colonial mission, and start out from the same point, but the voyage not going to take 100 years, but something less.

 

[DigificWriter]

It was intended as a 6 episode miniseries, but if successful, a series could result.

I really don't see how they could've extended this to a full-fledged series given the fact that they basically torpedoed anything remotely sustainable about it simply for the sake of having a 'twist'.

 

[cylkoth]

^^ Neither do I, based on what's aired thus far. But with the amount of money spent on these 6 hours, if they perform well enough, it will surely spark interest in somehow finding a way to extend the concept, if the producers haven't already thought of some plot thread that will be left open for a followup or sequel.

 

[Christopher]

I doubt very much that this wasn't written with a potential series in mind. The conclusion is bound to be open-ended in some way.

 

[Ithekro]

Now, what would be interesting. Set a series based on this as a sequel were they do the actual project. Send a ship into deep space heading for the nearest potental habitable planet as we can guess. Have it take less time, but still probably a generation to get there with slightly better than todays technology.

The twist would be to set it in something similar to the known Star Trek universe. So that around the time they are arriving, a warp ship gets there as well after only a few years at something a little over warp 1. Then culture shock as they find humans already in the Centauri system (using the old Starflight Chronology setup). USS Ascension arrives followed by one of Cochrane's early interstellar ships.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Some places are listing last night as episode 3.

It's possible that the episodes at one point where supposed to be shorter and twice as many?

But then wikipedia described this earlier in the production as a 6 hours event.

which it clearly isn't.

 

[B.J.]

I haven't watched this, but is the "ship" just a building, or is it possibly an actual ship that just hasn't launched yet?

 

[Ithekro]

It was suppose to be six episodes over six weeks, but was changed to a three night event. So each night is two episodes in a row without difference given. Thus "Night Two" starts with episode 3. Night Three starts with episode five.

 

[Christopher]

I haven't watched this, but is the "ship" just a building, or is it possibly an actual ship that just hasn't launched yet?

Well, it'd have to be a functional ship in most respects to be convincing for the occupants, but there's no way the propulsion technology could've been there in 1963, so the engines are probably fake.

It was suppose to be six episodes over six weeks, but was changed to a three night event. So each night is two episodes in a row without difference given.

And yet the first two episodes aired in a roughly 90-minute time slot. Granted, it was with limited commercials, but still enough commercials that it seems they must have trimmed down some of the episode content.

 

[yenny]

I haven't watched this, but is the "ship" just a building, or is it possibly an actual ship that just hasn't launched yet?

It's a Inclose environment long range deep space spaceship simulator.

 

[Ithekro]

Probably cut the stuff that would bring the audiance up to speed as to what happened in the last episode. Cutting out the redundant.

A Star Trek quivalent might be fun. A slow boat to some planet. Some conflicts and highlights on the decades long voyage, then once they get there, bame, people already live there. But these people don't know of Earth, yet are human, and speak something like Greek. But on top of that, while trying to figure things out with the locals, bamn, another Earth ship arrives...the not quite so slow boat. They bring news. "yeah, we kind of nuked the planet a little. But we invented FLT drives. Oh and we got visited by aliens with pointed ears and green blood right after that. How was your trip?"

 

[Christopher]

Probably cut the stuff that would bring the audiance up to speed as to what happened in the last episode. Cutting out the redundant.

Yeah, but they would've done that for parts 4 & 6 too, and it would've only been a minute or two worth of material, not enough to account for the difference.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I haven't watched this, but is the "ship" just a building, or is it possibly an actual ship that just hasn't launched yet?

Well, it'd have to be a functional ship in most respects to be convincing for the occupants, but there's no way the propulsion technology could've been there in 1963, so the engines are probably fake.

It was suppose to be six episodes over six weeks, but was changed to a three night event. So each night is two episodes in a row without difference given.

And yet the first two episodes aired in a roughly 90-minute time slot. Granted, it was with limited commercials, but still enough commercials that it seems they must have trimmed down some of the episode content.

I wonder what they trimmed?

Someone must have called a code brown when they understood that they were filming the miniseries wrong, that nearly an hour and a half had been cut from the final product.

There could be an entire character/plotline that's been extracted. Or maybe they just removed all the additional gratuitous superfluous sex scenes? 20 minutes fogging up the windows in that rover during the radiation storm, could easily explain away 20 extra minutes in episode 1.

Either the original cut exists, unless they were warned what was happening early enough that it never got that far, or will there be a mess of dvd/bluray extras in the additional features menu.

 

[cylkoth]

Some places are listing last night as episode 3.

It's possible that the episodes at one point where supposed to be shorter and twice as many?

When 2 episodes are joined together for a 2 hour 'presentation', the Act 1 credits will feature the writer and director of each episode upfront. That's what happened last night.
Monday night's 1 1/2 hr premiere aired with a reduced commercial load, but Tueday night, the regular amount of commercial time ran, padding the entire 2 hours.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I never seem to notice the commercials.

Episode 1 was 1 hour 5 minutes long without advertising (or ending credits.).

Episode 2 was 1 hour 18 minutes long without advertising (or ending credits.).

 

[cylkoth]

Doesn't sound quite right. If you're editing out the ads, both should come to the same length. Monday night had an on air run time of 1 hr 27 mins. The average 1 hr show these days clock in at around 40 mins minus credits. Two 40 min installments come to 80 mins, 1 hr 20 mins. So the premiere should have had nearly 7 mins of ads.

I used to record tons of stuff with my DVD recorder, then edit out the ads, but after the analog shift to digital, I don't bother much anymore. Hard to believe a 2 hr opener was actually 65 mins long. That's a huge chunk whacked out of it.

 

[DWF]

]

I the selective breeding program to produce somebody like Christa was the point all along. And any scientists on the ship originally would be long since dead by now.

Blah...I wanted more than that. Something grander. Profound. Did they really need to spend billions creating and maintaining this project, just to create Mutants/Inhumans/Metahumans?

Yeah the story seems to have gone from Earth Star: Voyager to Doctor Who's Invasion Of The Dinosaurs to Scanners.