TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Defiance (Syfy April 2013) TV Series and MMO
- Thread starter Goatface
- Start date
This was the first show I've watched on SyFy since StarGate Universe was cancelled. It'll also probably be the last. Defiance is exactly what I expected: Formulaic. Derivative of better shows. Predictable.
The characters are two dimensional. It's already obvious who they're going to have shacking up with who, and there's going to be a fucking love triangle between the hero, the mayor and her sister, the whore.
The technical side of the show is laughable. I get that Earth has changed, but mountains in St. Louis that show signs of millions of years of erosion? The St. Louis Arch, which is broken but miraculously hasn't fallen down. The introduction of alien super-predators without an alien food chain to support it. Technology that survives a unguided entry from orbit. Motherships that enter the atmosphere. An alien army of armored mechs that die when shot with bullets... I could go on and on.
I'm gonna give it one more week, just to reaffirm my belief that SyFy can't do anything right.
The characters are two dimensional. It's already obvious who they're going to have shacking up with who, and there's going to be a fucking love triangle between the hero, the mayor and her sister, the whore.
The technical side of the show is laughable. I get that Earth has changed, but mountains in St. Louis that show signs of millions of years of erosion? The St. Louis Arch, which is broken but miraculously hasn't fallen down. The introduction of alien super-predators without an alien food chain to support it. Technology that survives a unguided entry from orbit. Motherships that enter the atmosphere. An alien army of armored mechs that die when shot with bullets... I could go on and on.
I'm gonna give it one more week, just to reaffirm my belief that SyFy can't do anything right.
Helldiver
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 228
- 3
Meh, I was face palming the whole time.
Why didn't they just leave at Nolan and Irisa going from post apocalyptic town to town, doing jobs. We got to learn more about them little by little and things could be kept fresh every week.
Instead we get Days of Our Lives, with some really crappy looking aliens and CGI.
Maybe I'm alone in this but I didn't give a shit about the mayor, the two fathers and their families, specially the emo-alien dude and the Indian dude's daughter. Why are they concerned about a murder when there's all sort of shit going on outside the post apocalyptic world. Things just felt all over the place. The characters were just way too one-dimensional. The only ones I cared about were Irisa and Nolan. I wanted to know more about them, see more of their adventures. Instead I had to sit through soap-opera forcibly acted dialogue that made me cringe.
So white haired alien, Mafioso, owner of fight-club dude decides to break some guy's hand for not paying his loan on time, yet as soon as the town is threatened he suddenly pardons all debts? That's just one example of many where the writers/director just doesn't know exactly what socio-political level he wishes to achieve. You have people achieving Star-Trek alien world level of normalcy when we're lead to believe that it's a dangerous world with roaming alien mutant beasts?
I was expecting something closer to Bartertown from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. That's the kind of swindling, scummy, hive, I want to see in these settings. With aliens, ark-hunters, regular humans, going in and out. One look at Tina Turner's character and you knew she was corrupt and had no problem cracking the whip. Mayor Rosewater came off as an awful imitation of Sarah Palin. The indian's (McCawley) performance is awful, his daughter's is worse. None of the characters show a sense of urgency. Neither about the chaotic world going on outside their town, nor when the town is threatened. Not that it matters anyways, the alien menace that attacked made Storm Troopers look like elite seals. No background on those alien mechs and powered armored dudes by the way. Not that you'll care, the town doesn't give a shit that they're in the middle of a post apocalyptic world.
By the time the aliens come, you're pretty much going "what the fuck"? Who the fuck are these guys? Why do I care? I don't even care that they are attacking the town. I was seriously hoping the town would be obliterated along with all the characters except Irisa and Nolan. Again, I honestly think none of us give a shit about any other characters except those two.
I don't think this is the network's fault. This is just awful writing, just simple shit that gets overlooked. I just don't get it.
I can't believe that people on YouTube put together better short films than this shit.
Why didn't they just leave at Nolan and Irisa going from post apocalyptic town to town, doing jobs. We got to learn more about them little by little and things could be kept fresh every week.
Instead we get Days of Our Lives, with some really crappy looking aliens and CGI.
Maybe I'm alone in this but I didn't give a shit about the mayor, the two fathers and their families, specially the emo-alien dude and the Indian dude's daughter. Why are they concerned about a murder when there's all sort of shit going on outside the post apocalyptic world. Things just felt all over the place. The characters were just way too one-dimensional. The only ones I cared about were Irisa and Nolan. I wanted to know more about them, see more of their adventures. Instead I had to sit through soap-opera forcibly acted dialogue that made me cringe.
So white haired alien, Mafioso, owner of fight-club dude decides to break some guy's hand for not paying his loan on time, yet as soon as the town is threatened he suddenly pardons all debts? That's just one example of many where the writers/director just doesn't know exactly what socio-political level he wishes to achieve. You have people achieving Star-Trek alien world level of normalcy when we're lead to believe that it's a dangerous world with roaming alien mutant beasts?
I was expecting something closer to Bartertown from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. That's the kind of swindling, scummy, hive, I want to see in these settings. With aliens, ark-hunters, regular humans, going in and out. One look at Tina Turner's character and you knew she was corrupt and had no problem cracking the whip. Mayor Rosewater came off as an awful imitation of Sarah Palin. The indian's (McCawley) performance is awful, his daughter's is worse. None of the characters show a sense of urgency. Neither about the chaotic world going on outside their town, nor when the town is threatened. Not that it matters anyways, the alien menace that attacked made Storm Troopers look like elite seals. No background on those alien mechs and powered armored dudes by the way. Not that you'll care, the town doesn't give a shit that they're in the middle of a post apocalyptic world.
By the time the aliens come, you're pretty much going "what the fuck"? Who the fuck are these guys? Why do I care? I don't even care that they are attacking the town. I was seriously hoping the town would be obliterated along with all the characters except Irisa and Nolan. Again, I honestly think none of us give a shit about any other characters except those two.
I don't think this is the network's fault. This is just awful writing, just simple shit that gets overlooked. I just don't get it.
I can't believe that people on YouTube put together better short films than this shit.
Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 17,377
- 13,892
Well...
1) Going town to town = bigger budget needed unless they all look the same. Even on shows like ST:TNG where they went to new planets, they spent like 80% of the episode on the ship.
2) Why wouldn't they be concerned about a murder in the town? The whole point of the town is it's supposed to be a stable place vs. the chaotic outside.
3) I saw the debt pardoning as a way to garner support for himself, but make it appear to be altruistic. The dude's endgame is to basically rule the town it seems...if the town is destroyed, you really can't do that. If the town lives, now you have lots of supporters, which makes future political endeavors much easier.
4) Show hasn't gotten into it yet, but the whole world isn't 100% fucked. There are stable areas (so to speak), like the NE United States is basically Earth Federation land. The midwest area is kinda chaotic, though. And of course they care they are in a post-apocalyptic world, hence why they want to preserve the town. People crave normalcy in times like that and a stable town fits that bill...it's only the sociopaths that crave the idea of joining a fucking group of raiders or cutthroats.
Yeah, the primary reason why they're setting it in Defiance is that there's a MMO that is running parallel to the show, so having the protagonists moving from town to town would be a bit hard to follow for the players of the game.
The thing that cracks me up is the game... I mean, I'm guessing the players represent all the schlubs that are in the background during the show, but what fun is that going to be? Every MMO out there tries to make players feel like a hero, and this one is saying, "Yeah, you're not a hero, you're a schlub. A faceless extra that will never be cooler than the characters in the show."
The thing that cracks me up is the game... I mean, I'm guessing the players represent all the schlubs that are in the background during the show, but what fun is that going to be? Every MMO out there tries to make players feel like a hero, and this one is saying, "Yeah, you're not a hero, you're a schlub. A faceless extra that will never be cooler than the characters in the show."
kaid
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,647
- 1,187
Well the game takes place in san francisco and the show takes place in St louis. Not going to see that much direct tie ins although I am guessing you will hear about stuff happening in san fran from time to time when some big game event concludes but that is easy enough to work in without much trouble.
Selix
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 2,149
- 4
Here is something I posted in the MMO thread on Defiance and I'm re-posting it here and expanding on it a bit.
So Jarnin dealing with the fossil record is kind of hard so...
So that is my second attempt
So here is an Defiance back story I came up with that would explain why so many of the aliens are "humanoid" shaped. It's actually fairly simple. They aren't aliens. We are. That is to say we are part of "their" species and came to this planet early on.
My story is like this. Something went wrong in our "home galaxy" (home being where the the 7 species of Defiance are from) and they (we) setup the Ark ships to leave this(that) galaxy but the ships were super slow. They sent out scout Ark ships using experimental warp like drives but none of them returned so they used the slow Ark ships to put everyone to stasis for hundreds of thousands of years (more?) while they traversed space to get to earth.
Well turns out one of these Ark scout ships did make it to earth but in such a bad state that it crashed (hey dinosaurs wiped out!) What remained of the ship created a long term terraforming something to adapt this planet to us with the last of its energy then woke up what people it could (hence why it looks like the dinosaurs were wiped out much longer then actual? This is really flimsy I know) We adapted, lived, procreated, devolved, evolved and came to be the humans we are today. To little was left of the original single scout ship to still be around now and the struggles from the initial colony's survival while the planet was being semi terraformed caused them to lose to much of their advancements to build upon.
Let's even go so far as to say the ark story from the bible (and other similar religious stories) is actually related to this some how (who doesn't like a religious angle in their SCI FI? That's right fuck you BSG) except that it was 500,000 years not 5,000 (enough time for us to devolve from our ape like previous shapes to hairless caveman and evolve to our current human shapes?)
Fuck around with time figures, throw in some shit about long term exposure to radiation in vacuum requiring everyone to be in stasis hence not awake and a little dose of bullshit suddenly has very tiny roots in scientific reality.
My story is like this. Something went wrong in our "home galaxy" (home being where the the 7 species of Defiance are from) and they (we) setup the Ark ships to leave this(that) galaxy but the ships were super slow. They sent out scout Ark ships using experimental warp like drives but none of them returned so they used the slow Ark ships to put everyone to stasis for hundreds of thousands of years (more?) while they traversed space to get to earth.
Well turns out one of these Ark scout ships did make it to earth but in such a bad state that it crashed (hey dinosaurs wiped out!) What remained of the ship created a long term terraforming something to adapt this planet to us with the last of its energy then woke up what people it could (hence why it looks like the dinosaurs were wiped out much longer then actual? This is really flimsy I know) We adapted, lived, procreated, devolved, evolved and came to be the humans we are today. To little was left of the original single scout ship to still be around now and the struggles from the initial colony's survival while the planet was being semi terraformed caused them to lose to much of their advancements to build upon.
Let's even go so far as to say the ark story from the bible (and other similar religious stories) is actually related to this some how (who doesn't like a religious angle in their SCI FI? That's right fuck you BSG) except that it was 500,000 years not 5,000 (enough time for us to devolve from our ape like previous shapes to hairless caveman and evolve to our current human shapes?)
Fuck around with time figures, throw in some shit about long term exposure to radiation in vacuum requiring everyone to be in stasis hence not awake and a little dose of bullshit suddenly has very tiny roots in scientific reality.
So Jarnin dealing with the fossil record is kind of hard so...
I didn't want to go the route of "they were in stasis for millions of years" while humanity (first ark scout ship in previous post) came to be but on second thought it could actually fit. What is that saying if you have one problem then you have a problem but if you have multiple problems then you have a solution.. or something. So how do they get from point A to millions of Light years away point B that is Earth? I see three ways: magic, warp like drive, or just traveling the hard way. Let's assume they don't have magic and that the experimental warp drive is how we (humans) came to be here early on from the scout ship so that means the rest of them had to travel here the hard way.
That is to say millions of years at near light speeds in stasis. Ok so it is a big pill to swallow but we can say they had to either leave their system or die (super massive black hole event?) so they created the Ark ships. Why stasis? Well traveling across space for millions of years with millions or billions of other beings would never work if they weren't in some sort of stasis (Just one look at their fractionalized nature now that they have reached earth is enough to see that). Round out the story a bit with the ships requiring nearly all of their excess power to maintain radiation shielding and perform regular deep level gene repairing functions of the damage from the radiation that it couldn't block 100% of (Similar technology used in their terraforming process?).
Maybe throw out there that there were originally 50 billion beings on millions of ark ships (matrix like formation for self defense while traveling) but that so far only 3 billion have made it to earth (explains why we have so many enemies to kill and endless expansion content potential). Further throw out there that the ships, although designed with every ounce of multiple species advanced technology, that the ships were still heavily damaged from the voyage and not able to properly execute all of their final phase procedures when they reached earth. That they were expected to be supported by awakened scientists who could tweak them and that it is a miracle they survived to reached earth at all. That combined with sabotage meant screwed up shit happened and semi terraforming of the earth (for the second time if you remember from the original scout ark falls long term effects millions of years previous.
That is to say millions of years at near light speeds in stasis. Ok so it is a big pill to swallow but we can say they had to either leave their system or die (super massive black hole event?) so they created the Ark ships. Why stasis? Well traveling across space for millions of years with millions or billions of other beings would never work if they weren't in some sort of stasis (Just one look at their fractionalized nature now that they have reached earth is enough to see that). Round out the story a bit with the ships requiring nearly all of their excess power to maintain radiation shielding and perform regular deep level gene repairing functions of the damage from the radiation that it couldn't block 100% of (Similar technology used in their terraforming process?).
Maybe throw out there that there were originally 50 billion beings on millions of ark ships (matrix like formation for self defense while traveling) but that so far only 3 billion have made it to earth (explains why we have so many enemies to kill and endless expansion content potential). Further throw out there that the ships, although designed with every ounce of multiple species advanced technology, that the ships were still heavily damaged from the voyage and not able to properly execute all of their final phase procedures when they reached earth. That they were expected to be supported by awakened scientists who could tweak them and that it is a miracle they survived to reached earth at all. That combined with sabotage meant screwed up shit happened and semi terraforming of the earth (for the second time if you remember from the original scout ark falls long term effects millions of years previous.
So that is my second attempt
OK, first of all, you don't have to put your ideas about their back story in spoilers since you're just spit-balling. If you were talking about specific plot points from the show (like I'm about to do), then you should use spoilers so you don't incur the wrath of whoever might like this show.
As for your ideas: Warp drive isn't magic.It's actually founded in science, and that's why it belongs in science fiction. If it were magic, that would be fantasy, or more aptly "space opera" (like Star Wars).
And about that fossil record: There's no getting around that. Humans evolving on Earth is a fact. How they evolved is still contested by non-scientists, but anybody that's anybody in the scientific community accepts the theory of evolution by natural selection as the best explanation of how humans evolved.
Now for minor spoilers and some spit-balling:
One of the aliens on Defiance said that they spent (a) hundred(s) years in cryo getting to Earth. I don't recall them saying anything about their ships having faster-than-light propulsion, but that still works (and works better since it appears FTL is a pipe dream without cheating (aka warp drive
.
The thing is, with time dilation occurring as you approach the speed of light, time on the ships would slow down relative to time passing for someone not on the ship. This means that your "scout ark" could have arrived at Earth millions of years ago and, from our local frame of reference, the rest of the ships just got here in 2043 (or whatever date the show takes place).
So these aliens discover Earth through their telescopes and see it as habitable. They send their scout ship to check it out, which takes millions of years from the aliens waiting back on their home world frame of reference. When the scouts arrive, they see nothing but dinosaurs and shit, so they send a signal back home saying, "Hey bros, this planet is perfect, come check it out." So the fleet takes off.
The fleet takes longer to get here because it's a lot of ships and they have to stop for gas and piss breaks along the way. By the time they get here, humanity has evolved and there's no sign of the scouts they sent in advanced. What happened to them?
Well, the scouts figured they'd get a jump on things. They didn't want to fuck around with no tyrannosaurus rex, so they drop an asteroid on Earth and wipe out the dinosaurs. Then they head down and start fucking around, genetically altering life so it would be more compatible with their diets, or some shit like that, inadvertently changing life on Earth forever. Then some shit goes down and all the aliens die off mysteriously.
So the aliens end up being responsible for the creation of humanity, in a round about way via evolution, but their buddies have no clue what the hell is going on since they're all sleeping while their ships head this way. They show up, see that Earth is now populated by some weird alien race that didn't show up through their telescopes. They open a dialog with the humans and the humans are like, "fuck you weirdos", so the aliens figure "Hey, we're outta gas, and these human things are primitive. Let's fuck them up and take their shit!"
So the aliens invade and there's a big war. Humans are losing, but then something happens! Their ships blow up formysteriousreasons, killing most of the aliens. Stranded, the aliens are now stuck on Earth, and the planet is all changed and shit since they used their Genesis torpedo to terraform Earth (when it apparently didn't need it).
As far as I can tell, this fits with the story that was in the pilot, what little they mentioned and from what I remember.
.The thing is, with time dilation occurring as you approach the speed of light, time on the ships would slow down relative to time passing for someone not on the ship. This means that your "scout ark" could have arrived at Earth millions of years ago and, from our local frame of reference, the rest of the ships just got here in 2043 (or whatever date the show takes place).
So these aliens discover Earth through their telescopes and see it as habitable. They send their scout ship to check it out, which takes millions of years from the aliens waiting back on their home world frame of reference. When the scouts arrive, they see nothing but dinosaurs and shit, so they send a signal back home saying, "Hey bros, this planet is perfect, come check it out." So the fleet takes off.
The fleet takes longer to get here because it's a lot of ships and they have to stop for gas and piss breaks along the way. By the time they get here, humanity has evolved and there's no sign of the scouts they sent in advanced. What happened to them?
Well, the scouts figured they'd get a jump on things. They didn't want to fuck around with no tyrannosaurus rex, so they drop an asteroid on Earth and wipe out the dinosaurs. Then they head down and start fucking around, genetically altering life so it would be more compatible with their diets, or some shit like that, inadvertently changing life on Earth forever. Then some shit goes down and all the aliens die off mysteriously.
So the aliens end up being responsible for the creation of humanity, in a round about way via evolution, but their buddies have no clue what the hell is going on since they're all sleeping while their ships head this way. They show up, see that Earth is now populated by some weird alien race that didn't show up through their telescopes. They open a dialog with the humans and the humans are like, "fuck you weirdos", so the aliens figure "Hey, we're outta gas, and these human things are primitive. Let's fuck them up and take their shit!"
So the aliens invade and there's a big war. Humans are losing, but then something happens! Their ships blow up formysteriousreasons, killing most of the aliens. Stranded, the aliens are now stuck on Earth, and the planet is all changed and shit since they used their Genesis torpedo to terraform Earth (when it apparently didn't need it).
As far as I can tell, this fits with the story that was in the pilot, what little they mentioned and from what I remember.
But here's the thing: If the aliens have terraforming technology that is so advanced it can literally build mountains in a matter of three decades, why the fuck didn't they simply claim Mars? It's uninhabited, has about the same surface area as all the continents on Earth, has water, has about 40% of the gravity...
Of course if they did that there'd be no Defiance because the aliens would have just said, "OK, you guys can have that planet, we'll make this little one over here our home since you haven't even got the technology to travel to it yet."
Seriously, aliens invading Earth is SO overplayed these days. We live in a gravity well that's a pain in the ass to leave. There is literally INFINITE resources out in space. Heavy metals, water ice, carbon, nitrogen. Everything those aliens would need to set themselves up with a sweet space station, or terraform Mars. There's no reason to bother Earth at all.
And that's one reason why I think this show is silly. We're still dealing with science fiction tropes from the fucking 1950's and 60's. An alien invasion is just not likely once you've got the ability to travel between the stars. That's the hard part. Once you're in space it's better just to stay there and build lots of ships and space stations from the resources already up there.
TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 19,577
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Selix
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 2,149
- 4
OK, first of all, you don't have to put your ideas about their back story in spoilers since you're just spit-balling. If you were talking about specific plot points from the show (like I'm about to do), then you should use spoilers so you don't incur the wrath of whoever might like this show.
As for your ideas: Warp drive isn't magic.It's actually founded in science, and that's why it belongs in science fiction. If it were magic, that would be fantasy, or more aptly "space opera" (like Star Wars).
And about that fossil record: There's no getting around that. Humans evolving on Earth is a fact. How they evolved is still contested by non-scientists, but anybody that's anybody in the scientific community accepts the theory of evolution by natural selection as the best explanation of how humans evolved.
Now for minor spoilers and some spit-balling:One of the aliens on Defiance said that they spent (a) hundred(s) years in cryo getting to Earth. I don't recall them saying anything about their ships having faster-than-light propulsion, but that still works (and works better since it appears FTL is a pipe dream without cheating (aka warp drive
The thing is, with time dilation occurring as you approach the speed of light, time on the ships would slow down relative to time passing for someone not on the ship. This means that your "scout ark" could have arrived at Earth millions of years ago and, from our local frame of reference, the rest of the ships just got here in 2043 (or whatever date the show takes place).
So these aliens discover Earth through their telescopes and see it as habitable. They send their scout ship to check it out, which takes millions of years from the aliens waiting back on their home world frame of reference. When the scouts arrive, they see nothing but dinosaurs and shit, so they send a signal back home saying, "Hey bros, this planet is perfect, come check it out." So the fleet takes off.
The fleet takes longer to get here because it's a lot of ships and they have to stop for gas and piss breaks along the way. By the time they get here, humanity has evolved and there's no sign of the scouts they sent in advanced. What happened to them?
Well, the scouts figured they'd get a jump on things. They didn't want to fuck around with no tyrannosaurus rex, so they drop an asteroid on Earth and wipe out the dinosaurs. Then they head down and start fucking around, genetically altering life so it would be more compatible with their diets, or some shit like that, inadvertently changing life on Earth forever. Then some shit goes down and all the aliens die off mysteriously.
So the aliens end up being responsible for the creation of humanity, in a round about way via evolution, but their buddies have no clue what the hell is going on since they're all sleeping while their ships head this way. They show up, see that Earth is now populated by some weird alien race that didn't show up through their telescopes. They open a dialog with the humans and the humans are like, "fuck you weirdos", so the aliens figure "Hey, we're outta gas, and these human things are primitive. Let's fuck them up and take their shit!"
So the aliens invade and there's a big war. Humans are losing, but then something happens! Their ships blow up formysteriousreasons, killing most of the aliens. Stranded, the aliens are now stuck on Earth, and the planet is all changed and shit since they used their Genesis torpedo to terraform Earth (when it apparently didn't need it).
As far as I can tell, this fits with the story that was in the pilot, what little they mentioned and from what I remember.
But here's the thing: If the aliens have terraforming technology that is so advanced it can literally build mountains in a matter of three decades, why the fuck didn't they simply claim Mars? It's uninhabited, has about the same surface area as all the continents on Earth, has water, has about 40% of the gravity...
Of course if they did that there'd be no Defiance because the aliens would have just said, "OK, you guys can have that planet, we'll make this little one over here our home since you haven't even got the technology to travel to it yet."
Seriously, aliens invading Earth is SO overplayed these days. We live in a gravity well that's a pain in the ass to leave. There is literally INFINITE resources out in space. Heavy metals, water ice, carbon, nitrogen. Everything those aliens would need to set themselves up with a sweet space station, or terraform Mars. There's no reason to bother Earth at all.
And that's one reason why I think this show is silly. We're still dealing with science fiction tropes from the fucking 1950's and 60's. An alien invasion is just not likely once you've got the ability to travel between the stars. That's the hard part. Once you're in space it's better just to stay there and build lots of ships and space stations from the resources already up there.
"Magic" was one of the three ways to travel through space while warp like drive and traveling the hard way were the two others.
Also you seem to be ignoring the constant radiation you would be exposed to in space. Just setting up a space station if you find a good spot still might work but it would be "safer" to live on a planet where the highly fractionalized politics of 7 species wouldn't put such a delicate structure at risk. Terraforming other planets defiantly seem like a better idea I agree but that can be considered another one of those important but small problems like how they got here and why there are all seemingly offshoots of humanity.
The terraforming technology is one of those important but smaller problems that I can't readily think of an answer for. It is important enough to be serious but not as crucial as just answering how the aliens got from there to Earth and all see to be offshoots of humanity.
I totally forgot about time dilatation.
Total agreement in aliens invading earth. Maybe we can fend them off with a Macbook, a vial of smallpox and a baseball bat.
Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 17,377
- 13,892
There is backstory yet to be filled on the show, but there has been background made:
1) They did not know Earth was inhabited by intelligent life until they got closer
2) Human governments knew they were coming 10 yrs before they got to Earth. Biomen and anti-grav were created before the aliens showed up.
3) Arks traveled at near-light speed (not FTL drives), so they had to slow down as thet got closer to our system. That is why the governments had 10 yrs to plan
4) Aliens peacefully negotiated with Earth, which allowed some colonies to be setup. Majority of aliens remained on the arks. Tensions began to escalate as colonization was slow going and humans resisted allowing the aliens to use terraform tech, due to concerns about the impact on native ecosystems. Alien ambassador was assassinated by a human, riots happened, Pale wars started. At somepoint, ALL the arks exploded at sametime, which resulted in uncontrolled terraforming. Pale wars ended because Earth got fucked up for everyone, but military factions still exist and hate eachother. Areas away from military influence (like Defiance) are more mixed in terms of races.
1) They did not know Earth was inhabited by intelligent life until they got closer
2) Human governments knew they were coming 10 yrs before they got to Earth. Biomen and anti-grav were created before the aliens showed up.
3) Arks traveled at near-light speed (not FTL drives), so they had to slow down as thet got closer to our system. That is why the governments had 10 yrs to plan
4) Aliens peacefully negotiated with Earth, which allowed some colonies to be setup. Majority of aliens remained on the arks. Tensions began to escalate as colonization was slow going and humans resisted allowing the aliens to use terraform tech, due to concerns about the impact on native ecosystems. Alien ambassador was assassinated by a human, riots happened, Pale wars started. At somepoint, ALL the arks exploded at sametime, which resulted in uncontrolled terraforming. Pale wars ended because Earth got fucked up for everyone, but military factions still exist and hate eachother. Areas away from military influence (like Defiance) are more mixed in terms of races.
Helldiver
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 228
- 3
The problem with all that is that it loses focus.
So you want me to get involved with the intricacies of the town's people. Their love lives, their dilemmas, and so on. So now the chaotic post-alien apocalypse world outside loses luster, importance, urgency. If you throw in anything from the outside (like those invading mecha aliens) I don't really care, I don't feel the impact.
I think they were feeding me way too much too early.
First pilot should have focused on:
-Irisa and Nolan. Who are they? Why are they important?
-What makes this town so special? Don't just tell me in one sentence.
-They did try to make the town important by making Nolan linked through it (needing a job and the town being a good source), but it really wasn't developed. He was mostly connected through some faux sense of duty and altruism. Which fell flat since we really don't know much about Nolan and what makes him such a big shot. Sure they've told us here and there that he was a former soldier. But that's why I say that the first few episodes should have been about getting us connected with those two characters.
-The town's mayor and former mayor. It should have opened with those two contending for office. This would have given us some firm insight about the socio-political divides among the people of the town. It would have allowed us to see the inner workings of the political machine and shown us what being leader of this frontier town was all about. It would have been a good tool to set us straight on what makes this town special.
-Everyone else should have been left for Episode 3, or 4, or later on. By the time Episode 3 or 4 rolls around we would have been attached to the town and the mayor. We would now begin to see the major families that make up the hierarchy of the town. Episode 4 should have focused completely on Mcawley and the alien white guy. Who are they? Why are they important to the mayor and the town? How "big" are they? Since we already have an idea of the political divides we would have a firm grasp of the effects the dichotomy of these two families have on the town (and ultimately Nolan and Irisa). The albino alien is the dark hand of liberal opportunistic commerce, making his money on services, financing, racketeering, blackmail, etc. Mcawley being the working man, making money the old fashion way, through hard work and dedication. Perfect food for plots and would have given the mayor's character a lot more background and roundedness. How does she deal with these two major political forces in her town? How did she win them over?
They tried to put way too much in just the first pilot. What ended up happening is that everything felt too generic, clich?, and watered down.
Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 17,377
- 13,892
Eh, it's a pilot. Most pilots usually try to introduce you to the main characters and set the premise, even if you don't get to learn much about them (although usually you are introduced to their "main" attributes that set the tone for the character).
I felt the pilot seemed to set the general tone for the main characters we were introduced to, so at this point it just becomes a question as to whether or not they are able to develop them in a satisfactory way (which is part writer, part actor).
I felt the pilot seemed to set the general tone for the main characters we were introduced to, so at this point it just becomes a question as to whether or not they are able to develop them in a satisfactory way (which is part writer, part actor).
Gask
Silver Baron of the Realm
- 13,509
- 53,440
As far as SyyyFyyy programming goes this wasn't completely awful. Yes it was predictable and everything that happened in town could have not happened and no one would have cared but it was tolerable and fun in a campy sort of way. It is pretty ridiculous that there's advanced energy weapons/shields, 5 sentient alien species and bloody battle mechs roaming around all over the place but basic aviation seems to be some sort of arcane mystery lost to the sands of time
but whatever.
I just can't see this show being worth watching for long though if they are going to go down the route they hinted at; family drama and town politics with our hero doing bs detective work each episode and averting random crisis_01. The plot reveal at the very end was interesting but you know they are going to stretch that out for forever and a day before anything actually happens. It would have been much better if the town had simply died off and we instead get to enjoy a weekly MadMax adventure on a twisted earth, it would have been more interesting at any rate.
I just can't see this show being worth watching for long though if they are going to go down the route they hinted at; family drama and town politics with our hero doing bs detective work each episode and averting random crisis_01. The plot reveal at the very end was interesting but you know they are going to stretch that out for forever and a day before anything actually happens. It would have been much better if the town had simply died off and we instead get to enjoy a weekly MadMax adventure on a twisted earth, it would have been more interesting at any rate.
OneofOne
Silver Baronet of the Realm
- 6,976
- 8,743
Hrm. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be from the initial 14 minute preview, but not terribly good either. The scene
where Nolan and the mayor first meet, and the scene where Irisa is in jail having lunch with the black deputy, just seemed incredibly bad writing. In neither did the people act or talk in any sort of natural way. Both just really grated on me. Likewise, everyone in town just seemed so cheerfully naive. Their behavior did not AT ALL reflect the fact they were in a little walled off community in the middle of a dangerous post-apocalyptic wilderness. I expected a bunch of rugged survivors, not... whatever they were. Grahm Greene's acting was terrible too - and I actually like the dude in a lot of his other work. Maybe dude lost his chops, or just looked around, said WTF? and phoned it in /shrug Either way big disappointment.
I'm not even going to bother going on about all the little plot points that just didn't make sense - most have been covered. The end gave me a bit of hope that there might be SOMETHING interesting about the show, but, not enough to bother looking for DLs of it.
I'm not even going to bother going on about all the little plot points that just didn't make sense - most have been covered. The end gave me a bit of hope that there might be SOMETHING interesting about the show, but, not enough to bother looking for DLs of it.
Mahes
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 5,777
- 7,227
The show had a couple of moments but for the most part was ...boring. A reference to Terra Nova was made in a previous post and that is exactly how it feels. I realize that many afternoon soap operas no longer air, but could we please keep that environment in the afternoons? I was hoping for a gritty show that showed a combination of old tech and new tech being used to defend a city of 10's of thousands of "humans". The combining of alien races and humans just seems odd without a better back drop than " We came together because we hated war" premise. Was our poor little planet attacked by 8 different aliens races?
There is just to much "What the fuck?" about this show. One thing that really struck me as odd. They use force shields to protect the city from attack.....on the ground???? Hello, we have technology now that carries explosives over a wall. It is called a missle or hell even a trebuchet. Shouldn't the shield envelope the city as to protect not only from air/space based invasion but also from falling debris??
God I miss Firefly....
There is just to much "What the fuck?" about this show. One thing that really struck me as odd. They use force shields to protect the city from attack.....on the ground???? Hello, we have technology now that carries explosives over a wall. It is called a missle or hell even a trebuchet. Shouldn't the shield envelope the city as to protect not only from air/space based invasion but also from falling debris??
God I miss Firefly....
nuday
Golden Squire
- 203
- 8
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the tower that housed the whole forcefield system actually sticking out above the top of the force field?