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'Dark Matter' on Syfy

29K views 802 replies 82 participants last post by  Aleron Ives 
#1 ·
This looks like it could be good.

From the writers-producers of Stargate comes a new space epic. Coming to Syfy June 12 at 10/9c.

In Dark Matter, the crew of a derelict spaceship is awakened from stasis with no memories of who they
are or how they got on board. Facing threats at every turn, they have to work together to survive a voyage
charged with vengeance, betrayal and hidden secrets.

The cast includes Zoie Palmer (Lost Girl), Roger Cross (The Strain), Marc Bendavid (Bitten), Anthony Lemke
(White House Down), Melissa O'Neil (Les Miserables), Joelle Ferland (Twilight) and Alex Mallari, Jr (Robocop).

Dark Matter is based on the graphic novel Dark Matter by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie (of the Stargate franchise).
http://www.syfy.com/darkmatter



 
#6 ·
They are pumping out series after series and I wonder if the quality can keep up. Olympus, for example, is horrific. I will be looking forward to this one but wondering if I will be disappointed again.

Maybe they use the "throw the spaghetti against the wall" theory and hope some (like 12 Monkeys) sticks while most of the others fall off. :p
 
#9 ·
They are pumping out series after series and I wonder if the quality can keep up. Olympus, for example, is horrific. I will be looking forward to this one but wondering if I will be disappointed again.



Maybe they use the "throw the spaghetti against the wall" theory and hope some (like 12 Monkeys) sticks while most of the others fall off. :p


While Olympus is not my cup of tea, I wouldn't call it horrible. As a show about mythology it seems OK.



So far SyFy has done very well with original or bought from Canada series. I'm watching almost all of them on a regular basis. Beats the hell out of what was going on in the past.
 
#11 ·
Didn't Stargate Universe end with characters going into stasis? Seems like this would have been a good opportunity to breath new life into this darker storyline. However, I look forward to this new show and hope it hits all the right marks so that it lasts more than two seasons.
 
#14 ·
I recently noticed an advertisement for this show. It sounds like something I might like. So I guess I will plan on watching it this Summer.

Although I still wish Stargate Universe had continued on.:(
 
#15 ·
Although I still wish Stargate Universe had continued on.:(
+1000. I really enjoyed it while it lasted. And I never watched any of the other 'Stargates' once the franchise left Showtime. There is a place in this world for kiddie sci-fi. Just not in the ol' archihouse.

I'll be tuning into this, at least until they inevitably turn a space-based plotline into a cheaper-to-produce ground-based plotline. You know its going to happen.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Contrary to some (or many), I was never that enamored of SG. I thought it was too cutesy. In some ways similar to Farscape but w/o Farscape's charm, sarcastic wit-humor, dark sides to the characters. Everything about eps I did manage to watch of SG were typical network-fare. The good guys always win and it was all too cute.

But for some reason, the eps I watched of SG-A, I did like. Can't say why I thought it was different but maybe the bantor with McKay was a factor, kind of similar to Aeryn-Crichton ;)

And I thought SG-U was the best of the 3. Many didn't like its dark side, but I thought it had the most dramatic realism of all 3. With conflicted characters, "real world" dilemmas and a touch of the moral ambiguity that GoT (and Martin's books) have made a big part of their story. The stones were kind of an annoying plot device but everything else about the show I liked and wished it had been renewed for a season 3.

Maybe Dark Matter will fill the void :)
 
#18 ·
It's like sci-fi executives are afraid of presenting complex storylines. Did they not have their biggest critical (if not ratings) success in the last couple of decades with BSG, a decidedly adult-oriented and thematically challenging show? Instead, they come up with series after series that look like they were generated by the same algorithm:

1) Young, attractive protagonists, preferably teenagers. With plenty of angst. Check
2) Simplistic good guy beats bad guy plotlines. Check
3) Contemporary earthbound setting because it's too expensive to do space-based settings with futuristic production design and lots of CGI. Check

And if you do break from the formula and try to make a space-based show (like SG:U), make sure they visit lots of planets with climates all mysteriously like Vancouver.

Oh, and lest I forget, rasslin' and lots of "reality" shows. Because that brings home a lot of cheap bacon.
 
#20 ·
Oh, I don't have a problem with that at all. I prefer shorter seasons. If they try to crank out 22-24 episodes a year you're going to have a fistful of duds included simply because of writers' fatigue and deadline pressure. I'd much rather have 13 strong episodes, then give the writers, actors and production people a chance to rest & recharge and hit it strong again next year. Serialized dramas are especially susceptible to running out of steam during long seasons.

Besides, there's just too much good TV on these days. Don't have time anymore for those long seasons. That's one of the reasons why I watch very little broadcast TV anymore. I used to like 'The Blacklist', but it's clear writers' fatigue has set in and is dragging the show down.
 
#23 ·
Watched this last night. Held my interest and has me looking forward to more. Plus it was good to be back in space.:)
 
#25 ·
Watched it last night. it was okay. Looks like some of the sets were from the Stargate Universe series. One scene that was just too dumb, involves this trigger happy dude, who comes to a door he can't open on the ship, though knowing he is in outer space with the possibility that on the other side of that door could be the vacuum of space, tried to shoot it open. Doh!
 
#26 ·
Yeah, by that point I think we already got the idea that he's a shoot first think later idiot, they didn't need to show him shooting at a door because it wouldn't open for him. And clearly there's some really big bad thingie in there that will be important later in the show.

I want to like it as it's a spaceborne sci-fi show, but this episode looked a lot like just another mediocre sci-fi show churned out by a Vancouver-based TV sci-fi factory. Maybe next week will be a bit more compelling.

It did look a lot like the SU set though I thought those were all tore down shortly after it was cancelled, maybe not.
 
#27 ·
The SGU sets would have been torn down and disposed of after it's cancellation. It would cost money to house them for this long, and Bridge Studios surely would have rented out their facilities to other films/productions, making holding on to them unlikely.
 
#29 ·
They may possibly have used the SG:U workprints to rebuild them, however, making a few minor design changes to nominally differenciate them. And perhaps there are some props that they could re-use as well. That would save money upfront on designing entirely new sets & props from scratch.

And this is Syfy, after all. Their motto: Cheaper, Faster, and Cheaper!
 
#31 ·
Solid opening, but hard to ignore the many parallels to Firefly characters and the situation (a group of renegades/misfits flying around in a spaceship and getting mixed up in interplanetary politics centered around corporate owned/controlled territories). The pretty female android/ship AI has been done before too. I'm especially reminded of EDI (Tricia Helfer) in the Mass Effect video game series.



I didn't mind the guy shooting at the door as much as the stereotyped Asian ninja character. I know it's a TV show, but we don't use swords in modern combat situations, so why the heck would swords be used in futuristic combat? I suspect the crew will encounter some underdeveloped planets (like the outer Wild West-type planets in Firefly) where "primitive" weapons will come in handy.
 
#34 ·
Solid opening, but hard to ignore the many parallels to Firefly characters and the situation (a group of renegades/misfits flying around in a spaceship and getting mixed up in interplanetary politics centered around corporate owned/controlled territories).
Right down to the kooky River Tam clone young girl- the only non-criminal on the boat.
I didn't notice- but was she barefoot or wearing combat boots? :)

I'll stick around for a few episodes to see how things firm up.... I'm going to my bunk!
 
#32 ·
Meh..the premiere was ok. I'll give it a few episodes to grow on me. I liked the Defiance s3 premiere better which I watched before Dark Matter. So maybe that affected how I felt about the Dark MattER premiere.
 
#37 ·
Same here.


In spite of the hotness of a couple of the girlies, there is absolutely nothing original.
Stereotyped characters don't help either.


Only really interesting thing is what is beyond the steel door...
Hint: half-reptile baddies bent on destruction.
 
#40 ·
My thoughts precisely. This was straight-up junk. Characters are all cliched sterotypes. The generic dingy and dimly-lit sets reminded me of countless syndicated sci-fi shows from the 1990s.

They fly to their first inhabited planet and what's the only thing we see? The inside of a warehouse. Yup, this is a tiny-budget cable show all right. I predict that most episodes will wind up inside warehouses.

The ways this rips off Firefly have already been pointed out. The opening scene was also straight out of Pitch Black. And what's the plot...?

These wandering warriors go to a small rural village where they have to reluctantly help defend the villagers from baddies. Wait a minute, how many of them are there? One, two, three, four, five, six... plus the robot equals seven.

Could they be like samurai? Oh, how clever... :rolleyes:
 
#38 ·
C'mon guys, and swine.:rolleyes: It's a show set in outer space with laser blasters and hot chicks. Is it perfect? Far from it. But shows like this are slim pickings. We don't need another bachelor trapped on an island with desperate housewives show. Unless those housewives are cannibals. I'd watch that. But I digress. Make a beverage of your choice, put your feet up and enjoy the space shenanigans.
 
#42 ·
C'mon guys, and swine.:rolleyes: It's a show set in outer space with laser blasters and hot chicks. Is it perfect? Far from it. But shows like this are slim pickings....
That's how I'm approaching it too! You never know- most thought the series version of 12 Monkeys would be a stinker... but it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise hit.

FWIW- in between the end of the winter shows and the start of the summer shows I decided to re-watch the full four season run of Battlestar Galactica, usually one episode per night over the past month or so. Just watched the middle of season two episode "Scar". Holly frack! I forgot how good BSG was! :eek:
 
#39 ·
Maybe many of these shows would seem better if I were drinking an alcoholic beverage while watching them. Unfortunately I rarely, if ever, drink any alcoholic beverages.

I would typically drink more, thirty five years ago, on one Saturday night, than I have during the entire 21st century.
 
#41 ·
Maybe many of these shows would seem better if I were drinking an alcoholic beverage while watching them. Unfortunately I rarely, if ever, drink any alcoholic beverages.
Maybe that's how I managed to get thru this first episode without "oinking" it.:D



My thoughts precisely. This was straight-up junk. Characters are all cliched sterotypes. The generic dingy and dimly-lit sets reminded me of countless syndicated sci-fi shows from the 1990s.

They fly to their first inhabited planet and what's the only thing we see? The inside of a warehouse. Yup, this is a tiny-budget cable show all right. I predict that most episodes will wind up inside warehouses.

The ways this rips off Firefly have already been pointed out. The opening scene was also straight out of Pitch Black. And what's the plot...?

These wandering warriors go to a small rural village where they have to reluctantly help defend the villagers from baddies. Wait a minute, how many of them are there? One, two, three, four, five, six... plus the robot equals seven.

Could they be like samurai? Oh, how clever... :rolleyes:
Yeah, all true.
I'll give it another go before bailing.
Maybe it will go down better with TWO pitchers of margaritas....
 
#49 ·
Yeah, now that that silly procedural 'Castle' is finally on its last legs and Cap'n Mal will be freed up, time to re-birth 'Firefly'! Second time's a charm! Seriously. It's only gotten more popular over the years as more people have discovered it.

Jeebus, they're remaking 'Vacation' ferpetesake. Hollywood has no new ideas; why not remake the really good old ideas?
 
#51 ·
Hollywood has no new ideas; why not remake the really good old ideas?
As far as Hollywood is concerned, a "good" old series is one that sold well, not one that was critically well received. Firefly was a huge commercial flop (in large part because Fox botched its release), so it will never be included on the reboot bandwagon. Reboots are about trying to resell the same thing that was popular in the past to eliminate the risk associated with sinking money into a new project. A Firefly reboot would carry significant risk (not to mention most of the actors involved in it are busy with other projects now), thus eliminating the commercial benefits of rebooting it.
 
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