16 replies to this topic

[Sci-Fi Girl]

Spoilers


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A spaceship crew awaken from stasis with no memory of their mission or their identities, but once they reach their destination, a mining colony, they begin to look for answers while working together to survive in the series premiere of this adaptation of the graphic novel series of the same name.

[Cardie]

This was OK but didn't bowl me over. It's sort of like Firefly or Andromeda, except everyone has amnesia. Aside from Roger Cross, the actors aren't that winning. (The woman who plays the android sounds like she's in community theatre.) I'll stay with it for a bit until I see what it's going to look like over the long haul.

[RJDiogenes]

The android is Lauren from Lost Girl.  I didn't realize she was in it.

The twist at the end was cute, but pretty standard.  It was like something out of an old EC Weird Science or something similar.  I guess it all depends on where they go with it.

The standard grimy aesthetics of the show don't grab me at all.  I was sick of that thirty years ago.  There's nothing much engaging about the characters yet either.

I don't know....

[sierraleone]

I pegged it as soon as I heard the miners/colonist mention the big bad that it was them.

I wonder what the girl's crimes are (I assume she isn't all innocent either).

Is this a way to "work off their sentence" and/or were they previously happy to do this work?

Anyways, to keep this straight until it sticks (I am horrible with names)

1 - Jace Corso
2 - Portia Lin
3 - Marcus Boone
4 - Ryo Tetsudo
5 - unknown (young mechanically gifted woman with strange eye-gouging dreams)
6 - Griffin Jones

And  security protocol "I possess no personal designation" the android.

I noticed they all had the same subject number on their rap sheets at the end (18-92). Was that a mistake? Why would they have the same subject number? I wonder if they knew each other before hand. And/or whether they were at least in the same organization (perhaps all part of one large sweep/coup). Were they terrorist/rebels/freedom fighters, or "simply" criminals? Of course one could have unscrupulous reasons to be helping freedom fighters. And of course each person's story could be completely different. I at first thought the similarity of their crimes might say something, but if they were considered the worse of the worst due to their heinous crimes (murder being at the top of everyone's list), with the longest sentences/most severe punishment, that could be why/how they were pressured into and/or choose this course of action.

If they go off mission they might want to continue with the code names or alternative names instead of using their real names At least in populated areas.

Edited by sierraleone, 14 June 2015 - 06:22 PM.

[zarkon]

Thankfully, we finally have something in space.   It has been awhile and now all of a sudden syfy seems to want to get back to the old groove with all these new shows popping up.

I also want to know what is behind the monster door.  Some biological entity of some sort is my guess.   Nothing good comes from behind a door that big and secure.  

[Sci-Fi Girl]

Well it was a little bit of a slow start, but it's interesting enough to keep me guessing as to what is really going on.

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The girl is not one of the wanted prisoners (mercenaries, assassins, whatever they are).  I think she came from the last place the Raza attacked, stowed away on board, and did something to the tech to wipe all their memories and the ship's record of their next target.  She knew whatever she did would wipe her memory too, so she brought along whatever is in that hold to gradually feed memories back to her (either her's or someone else's).  Or at least whatever she needs to know.  That's why she "keep[s] it locked", she needs to keep it from them.  And it contains "secrets", as that's where she keeps her information, away from them.

My mother thinks the dream was entirely metaphor:  the attackers were these criminals, their "eyes" being the knowledge that she removed from their minds.  Now they see differently, cannot see what they were originally supposed to do.  And the evil stepmother could be the corporation?  I don't know, it's a theory in progress.  

Oh, and who is Rothgar? (Or is it Hrothgar?) Some leader to the oppressed?  Where is he though?  Could the green haired girl be one of his people come to help the mining colony, and could the pendant in the bedroom be hers?

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This is still full of cliches though.  Oh look there's an Asian guy, is he the techie?  No!  He's Kung Fu / Samurai dude!  

And the girl, as a tech prodigy with psychic visions, manages to be both Kaylie and River at the same time!   LOL!

But why is David Hewlett grinning maniacally from the screen?!?    ROTFL!

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I was also a little distracted by some of the names.  "Rothgar" a friendly leader, and "The Raza" described as scary half lizard assasins (before the reveal).  These names and descriptions seem to be taken from the Eragon book series!   (Second show to borrow from there!)

In Eragon, Hrothgar is the friendly king of the dwarves.  Now I know that Paolini got that name from older works and legends, so that is not so telling. But the Ra'zac are half bird creatures that do the evil bidding of the enemy, killing whoever they are told to.  (Picture them as a deadly cross between "raven" and "cossack".)

Now the Raza analogy still fits after the reveal, because they are mercenary / assassins flying around in a ship!

SFG

Edited by Sci-Fi Girl, 15 June 2015 - 11:19 AM.

[Sci-Fi Girl]

Cardie, on 13 June 2015 - 02:24 PM, said:

(The woman who plays the android sounds like she's in community theatre.)

RJDiogenes, on 13 June 2015 - 04:31 PM, said:

The android is Lauren from Lost Girl.  I didn't realize she was in it.

I've seen her before in two different shows, Lost Girl and The Guard. She was vastly different in each, and vastly different here.  I guess this is just what she thought a robot should sound like!  

SFG

[Cardie]

The original Hrothgar is the king besieged by Grendel in Beowulf. I had no idea his name was still pinging around medieval fantasies. The green-haired girl is definitely behind the memory wipe. I wonder if she's an alien of some sort.

[Cybersnark]

The sealed vault gives me flashbacks to the Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye comics (in which the Lost Light's "Basement" holds a particularly psychotic and nigh-unstoppable mass murderer).

I'm guessing that Five is picking up memories from someone else aboard ship, possibly someone else in cryosleep, or even Two (given how freaked out Two was about her story). Or maybe she meant "someone else's" as in "I'm a different person now."

I'm excited about the prospect of an honest-to-Lucas Space Princess in this show, since that seems to be what Five's vision was describing; a princess and her brother surviving a coup and fleeing into exile (which means that the assorted "criminals" making up our crew could be her Dragons, saddled with trumped-up charges). Or maybe my Star Wars and Akatsuki no Yona fandoms are overlapping.

As for the android, The Mary Sue recently did an interview about the show's female characters (part-quoted below).

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“It was really tough for [Palmer],” explained Mallozzi. “You’ve got your standard android characters, and you have certain expectations of an ‘android,’ and on our show we’re dealing with various stages of androids. But she’s essentially a service bot, and one of the ways I described the character in the very beginning was possessed of an almost childlike enthusiasm; less Data, and more like Marvin from Hitchhiker’s Guide. She get jealous, she can get very childish, always reminding people about the type of stuff she’s done.”

[Virgil Vox]

I liked this more than I thought I would. I'll admit I didn't see the twist coming that they were the Raza even though I should have. Of course, the guy who seems to be the most moral and upright out of them (One/Jace) is seemingly the worst one of the bunch.

The characters seem interesting enough, given that they have no memories. Three did grate on my nerves and I have a feeling he's going to continue to grate on my nerves.

I did kind of expect One and Three to hook up. I thought maybe she had some inkling that the two had been an item and was renewing their sexcapades. Instead she was there to give him orders and check him out pantless.

Wonder if Two was in charge before the amnesia? She certainly took control easily enough. She had no problem giving out orders or sending most of the crew down to the planet while she stayed behind.

I am curious why she didn't give anyone a head's up before the ship did that maneuver that cancelled out gravity. Would have helped the rest of the crew. Maybe it's a small thing to be annoyed by but it stuck out to me.

I'll definitely be giving this a few episodes. The mysteries are intriguing. Who wiped their memories and why? Was it Five? Were any of the others in on it? Was this supposed to be a clean slate for all of them or did something go wrong? Who fired on them? Was it someone who knew they were the Raza and wanted revenge or was it their employers? Why was Hrothgar's medallion in one of the rooms? Is one of them secretly on Hrothgar's side? What's behind the door? Why did the android attack them?

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In Eragon, Hrothgar is the friendly king of the dwarves.  Now I know that Paolini got that name from older works and legends, so that is not so telling. But the Ra'zac are half bird creatures that do the evil bidding of the enemy, killing whoever they are told to.  (Picture them as a deadly cross between "raven" and "cossack".)

When I heard Raza I immediately though of Eragon as well. I had actually forgotten that Hrothgar had been the name of the Dwarf king. Instead I just associated the name with the Beowulf poem.

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This is still full of cliches though.  Oh look there's an Asian guy, is he the techie?  No!  He's Kung Fu / Samurai dude!  

I groaned when he picked up the swords and was amazing with them. I was really hoping One would be the guy in love with swords just to avoid the cliche. Hopefully Four gets more fleshed out as the series goes along.

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Thankfully, we finally have something in space.   It has been awhile and now all of a sudden syfy seems to want to get back to the old groove with all these new shows popping up.

It is nice to see SyFy get back into the groove of space shows again. Granted, they all seem to have the same type of grungy, dark look about them but I'll be checking them all out. I've missed having a show set in space on a space ship.

[Christopher]

Virgil Vox, on 16 June 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

I did kind of expect One and Three to hook up. I thought maybe she had some inkling that the two had been an item and was renewing their sexcapades. Instead she was there to give him orders and check him out pantless.

You mean One and Two, right? Jace and Portia?

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I am curious why she didn't give anyone a head's up before the ship did that maneuver that cancelled out gravity. Would have helped the rest of the crew. Maybe it's a small thing to be annoyed by but it stuck out to me.

Evidently she hasn't remembered everything about how to command a ship.

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When I heard Raza I immediately though of Eragon as well.

I thought of La Raza, the Spanish term for "the race," used as an ethnic-pride buzzword in various Spanish-speaking cultures. It's also a variant of the Persian name Reza.

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This is still full of cliches though.  Oh look there's an Asian guy, is he the techie?  No!  He's Kung Fu / Samurai dude!  

I groaned when he picked up the swords and was amazing with them. I was really hoping One would be the guy in love with swords just to avoid the cliche. Hopefully Four gets more fleshed out as the series goes along.

To be fair, Portia Lin is also part-Asian, both the character and the actress (Melissa O'Neill is part-Chinese). And Marc Bendavid (Jace/One) is part-Moroccan. So it's a more diverse cast than it appears at first glance.

[Cardie]

Bendavid is a Hebrew name, so he's either part Moroccan Jew or comes from a brave Arab/Jewish intermarriage. Lin is also skilled out martial arts, so the stereotyping continues.

[sierraleone]

Cardie, on 16 June 2015 - 07:34 PM, said:

Bendavid is a Hebrew name, so he's either part Moroccan Jew or comes from a brave Arab/Jewish intermarriage. Lin is also skilled out martial arts, so the stereotyping continues.

Not necessarily intermarriage (marriage doesn't always come before the baby carriage, nor after! ). But that is just me nitpicking, I am certainly not going to be asking him the how-tos and what-fors on his heritage even if I had a chance At least not in that much detail. Like asking him if he or one of his parents were born out of wedlock

Edited by sierraleone, 16 June 2015 - 09:18 PM.

[Christopher]

Cardie, on 16 June 2015 - 07:34 PM, said:

Bendavid is a Hebrew name, so he's either part Moroccan Jew or comes from a brave Arab/Jewish intermarriage.

Arab is an ethnicity, not a religion. There are Arab Jews and Arab Christians in the world.

According to the sources, Marc Bendavid's father is Moroccan Jewish. There have been Jews living in Morocco since Roman times, coexisting with the indigenous Berber population, and shaped over the centuries (like Moroccan culture as a whole) by the influx of other cultures like the Arabs, Spanish, and French.

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Lin is also skilled out martial arts, so the stereotyping continues.

I wouldn't say that. She was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, but so were several of the other characters. Nothing I saw about her fighting style was ethnically coded the way the use of swords or throwing stars would be.

[Cardie]

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Arab is an ethnicity, not a religion. There are Arab Jews and Arab Christians in the world.

I would beg to differ. Ethnic descendants of the ancient Hebrews share with Arabs roots in the overall group of Semitic peoples but Moroccan Jews--and I've known many--are generally not ethnically Arab. Judaism is a religion that any ethnicity may follow but it originally was practiced by a specific ethnic group. As a Jew born into a long line of other Jews, I have always felt both ethnically and religiously Jewish. But I don't consider them the same thing. I've also known Iranian Jews but they don't have Persian ethnicity.

[Christopher]

^"Generally not" is not the same as "invariably not." And I'm puzzled why you singled out Jewish and Arab as the only two ethnic possibilities for a Moroccan, a country whose original population was Berber and whose current population is a mix of Berber, Arab, Jewish, Spanish, French, and probably other heritages.

[Cardie]

Christopher, on 18 June 2015 - 10:05 AM, said:

^"Generally not" is not the same as "invariably not." And I'm puzzled why you singled out Jewish and Arab as the only two ethnic possibilities for a Moroccan, a country whose original population was Berber and whose current population is a mix of Berber, Arab, Jewish, Spanish, French, and probably other heritages.

I singled them out because it was the most likely possibility, given the ethnic makeup of Morocco. Not every thought posted online must provide all the possible permutations and combinations of its premise before its expression is allowed. In any event, my speculation as to the most likely ethnicity of someone whose ancestors come from Morocco and is named Bendavid, that he is Jewish, turned out to be right on the money.