Defiance (Syfy April 2013) TV Series and MMO

its shaping up to be a good year for scifi anyways, JMS (babylon 5) and wachowskis (matrix) are making sens8 for Netflix in 2014, 10 episode scifi series without much info yet. Yesterday AMC announced Ballistic City is going to debut this fall, a show about a cop on a generational ark-ship in space, described as Blade Runner+BSG. They are pairing it with Walking Dead this fall too, so it means a huge audience right off the bat.

also trailer for Helix is out, new show by Ronald Moore (BSG) on SyFy about somethingbad in the Antarctic, looks kinda terrible but who knows.

Jarnin_sl said:

That timeline reads like something a 7th grader would write, and the problems start in the first entry.

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The biggest problem in their timeline is they said they terraformed a completely lifeless planet and it was a success....Yet they choose earth, even though mars is right there?

What networks/studios need to do is stop comparing their "new" series to old series. It's like everything is a mash-up these days, and they have to tell you what they mashed together, otherwise people won't be interested.

RegardingBallistic City: Don't tell us it's a fucking mash-up of Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica. They should just tell us what it's going to be about and let us make the comparisons. Sell that shit on its own merit. If it sounds interesting, people will watch it.

The saddest thing about this show was that they used music several times that sounded like they ripped off the BSG soundtrack and just added a beat here or there.

Was a colossal mistake for anyone that enjoyed BSG because everytime I heard it my mind would rebel and say "Why aren't we watching BSG instead?"

Overall the thing that upset me the most is that the acting was just terrible. The daughter character and the whore sister were the only ones with a shred of talent (the main character is ok as well, but his dialog... Eesh). Casting was bad, dialog was bad and I have the sneaking suspicion that the marketing budget outweighed the effects budget by 2:1... Anytime you need to push a product THAT much there is a problem... And I run a marketing and consulting firm.

I wasn't expecting BSG, but I thought I'd get something better than Eureka. Granted it did get significantly better the second hour and I will watch at least 2 more episodes before I put a nail in this... Mostly because I want the game to be good enough for me to buy it :/

Bear Mccreary is the composer for Defiance, same composer for BSG/Eureka/Sarah Connor Chronicles/Lost Girl/etc.

Helldiver_sl said:

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.

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There's bombings, war, death and disease all over the world, yet most people just want to sit around arguing about how good a TV series is on the internet. See how things get quickly put in perspective? eg: what happens in the Badlands is of no concern to the protected city of Defiance, but if your kid gets killed inside that city you'd quickly give a shit about that, and drop just about anything else you might have been concerned about. The two families thing is a straight up rip from Romeo and Juliet, and I'm cool with that, let's see if they can put in a twist for us or amp it up another notch or two.

So white haired alien, Mafioso, owner of fight-club dude decides to break some guy's hand for not paying his loan on time

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The fight-club owner breaks the hand of some guy (via Sensoth proxy) for approaching him in public with his payment because the guy that was meant to pick it up, hadn't done so yet. This action would have prevented the payment from being late, even if it wasn't this guys fault. It was the approach in public and the personal affront to fight-club dude that caused the hand breaking.

yet as soon as the town is threatened he suddenly pardons all debts?

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Even fight-club dude knows that once the statis net is down, the town is fucked and he'll never see a red cent anyway because all of the people that owe him money are corpses... not to mention he himself would likely die. This means he is pragmatic despite his "talk to me the wrong way and I'll fuck your shit up". If the town survives, there's more chances that he'll have to rape the pockets of stupid people, and... he'll now also have a higher social standing in the eyes of the community. This is very, very important to him... see the hand breaking incident, and the applause comments just before that event.

That's just one example of many where the writers/director just doesn't know exactly what socio-political level he wishes to achieve.

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There's several different levels of your so called socio-political for each and every race in the Voltanis Collective. The Indogenes don't follow the same rules and the Sensoth, and not every member of even those races ascribes to those rules either. See the "Spirit Riders" and the normal Irathients living in Defiance. The most important part of this that they have hinted at, and haven't spelt it out for the viewer is that fight-club guy is a Castithan, and they have a very strict social caste system. This is why his wife shows almost total submission to him... while trying to manipulate him. I assume, and that's the kicker really, that these things will eventually be explained.

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.

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I'll agree that the Volge lacked any real menace. We should have seen them rip up an outpost or something first to give them more... oomph, for a lack of a better word. Disintegrating the three bikers just looked lame as fuck. I guess that's what happens when you use extras for battle scene green screens.

Helldiver_sl said:

-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 wasmostly 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.

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They've said multiple times that Nolan was a member of The Defiant Few, a mixed bag of Votan and Human fighters, which 15 years ago (in their time line) laid down their arms and stopped fighting during the Pale Wars. This even happened in St. Louis, which is now called Defiance after that event.

The very first thing you see in this series is a young kid watching the first Votan ships arrive on Earth... while standing in a park just in front of the St. Louis archway. At the very end of the episode, you can see Nolan standing in front of the ruined archway in Defiance 33 years later. That kid in the beginning? That's Nolan as a child. He grew up in St. Louis, saw the ships come, matured while the negotiations were underway, and later fought in the Pale Wars on the site of his hometown, and now he's back, as a veteran, a damned near legend and an uncouth scavenger that has a way with the chickies.

All this information is in that pilot.

What I won't tell you (from playing the game) is just what the hell happened at the Battle of Defiance.

2nd episode was pretty good imo. No real terrible CGI.

Ya, that was kinda cool...although it doesn't explain why the Arch didn't get buried ;P

I'm sure it did , looks like terraforming or whatever covered it up. They rebuilding the Arch up above ground to start over the city.

The makeup for the Castithan, Irathient and Indogene got better this first episode of the actual series, so maybe between the filming of the pilot and the start up of main photography on the series they had more chance to refine their craft. The wife had always looked good, but now looked more realistic and Datak no longer looks like a guy in a really bad wig.

Graham Greene is doing quite well in the show, I still wonder what Voyager would have been like had he played Chakotay as was originally the intention.

Jarnin_sl said:

Combine that with a healthy science education, a love foractualscience fiction, and some critical thinking skills and it's no wonder why I can't enjoy any of the crap SyFy has to offer.

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It really is painfully obvious what little effort they put into it. I mean the idea that a species which mastered interstellar travel would face ANY resistance from modern day humans is LAUGHABLE on its face. If Europeans could wipe out 90% of the Native Americans just by stopping by and saying, 'Hi there! is this India?' just imagine what a super advanced species could do to us with a deliberately engineered virus. Or nudge some space rocks to fall on us. Or simply zap us from orbit with space guns. Or send in drones. We would never see the faces of our killers. But we need a show, so I concede that these aliens are incompetent. It's ok, I loved SG-1.

Now, they flee their home because their solar system was destroyed by a rogue star? Ok, but then they say that some races are from different systems and that they successfully terraformed a world in another system. GRB from a type 1a supernova zaps nearby systems as well perhaps? Possible even if not mentioned. Of course those planets would merely have a destroyed ozone and I'm sure repairing that would be easier than traveling 5k lightyears. Not to mention any planet more than a mere 30-100 light years away or more would be unaffected. 5k is quite overkill. They would likely have found an earth-like well before then anyway, especially considering they have already found other sentient oxygen breathing life in other nearby systems, indicating how common it is in that universe.

So ETs come on over, and they end up riding motorcycles; because they brought plenty of space hand guns, laser knives, and a forcefield or two, but no flying cars. Come on, even SGA had flying cars! Terra Nova didn't either, and look what happened to that shit show. (not near the top of the list for reasons why it was a shit show however) Us humans must have owned them pretty hardcore in the war with our remote controlled kill bots and B1 bombers while they marched around with small arms. I mean, drop a fucking daisy cutter on those idiots and be done with it. If prostitutes with assault rifles can kill them, they must make Jaffa look menacing. I guess the armor is decorative. Or maybe it was our 'biomen' that held them at bay during the war-- because brute strength somehow became useful in war against interstellar travelers after it fell out of style in the 15th century. Just don't tell the bad guys that you can turn them off by punching them in the ass.

I think what I found the most disappointing about the show is that all the interesting stuff happened BEFORE the show starts. The invasion is done and over with, and the city 'Defiance' was named for the CEASE FIRE. Irony. God knows what you do in that game that I won't pay money for.

Stupid shit to nitpick. 1) human governments knew aliens were coming 10 yrs prior, regular folks only knew like a week or so before hand 2) the Votans left their system 5k years ago, which means that unless they had some leet scout probe, they couldn't have known there was intelligent/technologically advanced life 3) For the last time, they didn't come to invade in the way you're thinking 4) the war did fuck up parts, but Votan civies were on the ground to. Nuking from orbit makes little sense when you're trying to live there 5) sure, you can maybe terraform any planet, but unless it can magically make a big ass iron core so your planet can deflect solar badness, then long term it doesn't do you much good.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

It's so annoying when shows make up curse words and angers me to no end. Maybe I am the only one.

The alien ships show up without a single person knowing until they hit atmosphere?!?!

Why can't we have good scifi?

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The problem was that the pilot was poorly done. First 30 minutes should have shown more of the past and what led to the current event. If you do not play the game, it will seem like a very shitty story line when actually the story line is pretty good. I do not play the game, but a friend of mine does. He explained to me the history of events and it helped better explain what I was watching. SyFy had better get that explanation out there pretty soon or they will lose viewership pretty fast.

As it is, I now just view this show like a small town western with some futuristic angles to it. It helps me to better except the premise. If you do not like westerns you probabaly will not like this show.

Just watched the second episode and liked it much more than the first one. That is all.

Ok, who's betting that the weird golden thingamajig Miner Dad (yeah I suck at remembering names) found in his son's drawer is the thing the bad guys are looking for?

Yup. The "coming this season" teaser after the pilot suggests that everyone is after that artifact.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

It's so annoying when shows make up curse words and angers me to no end. Maybe I am the only one.

The alien ships show up without a single person knowing until they hit atmosphere?!?!

Why can't we have good scifi?

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Frak you! 'Nuff said.

In all seriousness I cannot understand why this show is getting shit on as much as it is. A bit cliche, yes. However, it is still leaps and bounds better than 95% of shit playing on TV.