The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

[Christopher]

^Maybe the Volge don't have nerve gas either. Everybody is in relatively bad shape following the Pale Wars and the Arkfall, and the various Votan races are at a distinct disadvantage considering that they're refugees on someone else's turf. They only had what they brought with them, and a lot of that was no doubt expended in the wars and the initial Arkfall.

Hey, I just thought of that -- everyone's comparing this to older shows like Firefly and Galactica and even Babylon 5, but the idea of alien refugees arriving in vast starships and having to assimilate with humans is reminiscent of the great '90s series Alien Nation. The difference being that in Defiance, even the humans are refugees along with everyone else.

 

[B.J.]

Interesting show, but I don't know if it'll keep my interest. Nolan doesn't seem to be very likeable, at least not to me, and is hard to identify with.

One minor off-putting thing was the change in terms for things that it doesn't seem like a long enough time for it to change. Like lawkeeper instead of sheriff, or roller instead of car or truck.

As a former resident of STL and a structural design engineer, I was glad to see that the in-show version of the arch is still mostly intact. The art that's been shown in the ads and such show a version of the arch that has a gap near the top. Knowing how it was actually built, I can tell you that it would not remain standing if there were any gaps. I couldn't see the portholes at the top, though.

Hmm.... in the middle writing this^, I found this:

“The kind of arch it is, if you take a big chunk out at 2 o’clock, it will fall down,” Murphy says, not quite coming up with the word “catenary.” “The plating was ripped off during a Voton attack. The Arch miraculously didn’t come down. It held together for a reason that is part of the show’s mythology, but we won’t find out why the Arch didn’t fall until much later.”
Rafe McCawley (Graham Greene), “the richest guy in town, is a St. Louis native, and he wanted to repair the Arch,” Murphy explains. “The inner skeleton was beginning to show, and he worried that it was going to fall.”
McCawley’s own engineers tried everything they knew, “but it didn’t work, and the Arch was going to come down like the Leaning Tower of Pisa,” Murphy says, enjoying his story. The mayor — Amanda Rosewater, played by Julie Benz — “said we have to go to the Votons for help if we’re going to save the Arch.”

That actually interests me a bit more.

 

[Admiral2]

Farscape on Earth. You got a bunch of Chianas, some Dargos, at least one John Chrichton and the soft-spoken blue chick is now a soft-spoken ivory chick. And then there's a bunch of guns. The only thing missing are the Jim Henson muppet characters.

Rockne O'Bannon is a one-and-a-half trick pony.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/defiance-syfy-has-potential-439886

Review

 

[kirk55555]

The pilot was ok, I'll watch the next episode. It started out very cliched, and the main characters were acting like idiots (going into a crashed ship to salvage was such an obvious set up for some kind of raider attack I was almost yelling at them through the TV) but it got better near the end. Some of the CG was definately done on the cheap, and the Indogene kind of bad (you could see the shape of the actor's ears covered by the makeup, with a small hole cut in the middle of the ear that made the whole thing look more like you are seeing a person in makeup than an alien, they were easily the worst of the non cgi aliens appearance wise). I also don't like the alien/human "romance" thing with the kids. Its cliche, and not very well done in this case. Having the boy's dad be undeniably evil was weird. You'd think they would atleast try to make you think he was an ass who could be redeemed maybe, instead of going completely with the parents being completely evil. Also, the guy and his daughter wandering into town after an accident and the guy eventually becoming Sheriff reminds me of Eureka (which I really liked) but its not as interesting in this, since its been done better and more interesting before. Still, I'll give it another episode or two.

 

[C.E. Evans]

As a former resident of STL and a structural design engineer, I was glad to see that the in-show version of the arch is still mostly intact. The art that's been shown in the ads and such show a version of the arch that has a gap near the top. Knowing how it was actually built, I can tell you that it would not remain standing if there were any gaps. I couldn't see the portholes at the top, though.

Hmm.... in the middle writing this^, I found this:

“The kind of arch it is, if you take a big chunk out at 2 o’clock, it will fall down,” Murphy says, not quite coming up with the word “catenary.” “The plating was ripped off during a Voton attack. The Arch miraculously didn’t come down. It held together for a reason that is part of the show’s mythology, but we won’t find out why the Arch didn’t fall until much later.”
Rafe McCawley (Graham Greene), “the richest guy in town, is a St. Louis native, and he wanted to repair the Arch,” Murphy explains. “The inner skeleton was beginning to show, and he worried that it was going to fall.”
McCawley’s own engineers tried everything they knew, “but it didn’t work, and the Arch was going to come down like the Leaning Tower of Pisa,” Murphy says, enjoying his story. The mayor — Amanda Rosewater, played by Julie Benz — “said we have to go to the Votons for help if we’re going to save the Arch.”

That actually interests me a bit more.

So there's a reason why the Arch is still standing, but they're not telling yet.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Ratings are in:

Last night’s series premiere of Syfy’s new drama Defiance drew 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 million adults 18-49 to become the channel’s most-watched scripted series premiere in adults 18-49 and 18-34 (479,000) in seven years, since the 2006 debut of Eureka. The two-hour Defiance opener also delivered Syfy’s top performance in total viewers and adults 25-54 (1.4 million) since 2009 (Warehouse 13).

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Ratings are in:

Last night’s series premiere of Syfy’s new drama Defiance drew 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 million adults 18-49 to become the channel’s most-watched scripted series premiere in adults 18-49 and 18-34 (479,000) in seven years, since the 2006 debut of Eureka. The two-hour Defiance opener also delivered Syfy’s top performance in total viewers and adults 25-54 (1.4 million) since 2009 (Warehouse 13).

Sounds good.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Defiance isn't grabbing me so far - Jericho meets Falling Skies (with a bit of Alien Nation), with some dubious effects, and the feel of cutscenes for the game... Mainly I just want them to stop so I could get back to gameplay... (which would be difficult as I don't have the game)

Also, yeah, it's from the guy who made Farscape, and it's trying too hard to look like a Farscape knockoff in places - bald woman in robes, big alien guy with gruff attitude and voice (who has tentacle-like beard and hair with rings along it...)

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Ratings are in:

Last night’s series premiere of Syfy’s new drama Defiance drew 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 million adults 18-49 to become the channel’s most-watched scripted series premiere in adults 18-49 and 18-34 (479,000) in seven years, since the 2006 debut of Eureka. The two-hour Defiance opener also delivered Syfy’s top performance in total viewers and adults 25-54 (1.4 million) since 2009 (Warehouse 13).

Sounds good.

Right up there with Smackdown....

I am glad to see scripted series be successful.

 

[Roshi]

Vastly superior to Falling Skies, Terra Nova and Revolution combined.
I'll tune in next week, there's a lot of potential.

 

[davejames]

The show certainly looks impressive, and I thought it started fairly promisingly. But once they got to the town it slowly started to lose my interest with all the dull characters and boring politics.

And the lead character started to come across more and more like just a gruff, unlikeable dick. All I could think was how much he kinda looked like Tripp from ENT (and how better the show would have been with his kind of charm instead).

 

[ATimson]

Also, yeah, it's from the guy who made Farscape, and it's trying too hard to look like a Farscape knockoff in places - bald woman in robes, big alien guy with gruff attitude and voice (who has tentacle-like beard and hair with rings along it...)

Rockne O'Bannon left long ago. It's thoroughly Kevin Murphy's baby.

 

[sojourner]

It's funny that people say that some of the CGI looks cheap. Wonder if they are forgetting about the tie-in video game. More than likely said CGI is straight from the game. It's purposely bad CGI in that respect.

 

[RAMA]

It was OK..but with all that background, I thought we might see something more...Alien? Unusual? Imaginative? Plot boiled down to a lot of the usual locales: bars, brothels, fight club, etc in a dusty western town. Characters were pretty unremarkable too, the same old girl who can kiss ass, grizzled veteran gunfighter/military man, mobster, etc. The actors were pretty interesting and made it worth watching. The most disappointing moment...the ending...the dweeb in the suit and the old lady were behind the attack? They're looking for the ring to rule them all? It has potential, probably more than other recent big budget scifi shows that failed, so I'll continue watching for now. 2.5 out of 5 stars

RAMA

 

[BillJ]

Thirty minutes in and I am soooo bored.

 

[Christopher]

It's funny that people say that some of the CGI looks cheap. Wonder if they are forgetting about the tie-in video game. More than likely said CGI is straight from the game. It's purposely bad CGI in that respect.

No, I've seen some game footage, and it's even cruder and lower-resolution than what's on the show. Although in its defense, it's not trying to look real there.

 

[JD]

I loved it just as much as I expected. I really like Nolan and Irisa, and while it wasn't the most original one I've come across, I still really enjoyed the story. The town is interesting, and I thought most of the aliens were pretty cool. I absolutely love the cast.

 

[blueskin]

I will give the show a few more weeks. This show reminds me a lot of Gun smoke. Nolan is Marshal Dillon, Kenya is miss Kitty Russell.
+
Two powerful families -- the McCawleys,( Bonazer Cartwrights) who control the mines and the Tarrs,(Barkley Big Valley) elite alien race called the Castithans.

 

[BillJ]

Pretty dull.

And I just didn't care about the big attack because I hardly knew the characters at that point.