Defying Gravity (ABC)

[doublehelix]

Did anyone catch this last night? I watched the full 2 hours, though I was dubious at first - apparently it's was pitched to the networks as "Grey's Anatomy in space" (a show I find tiresome). However, the space element was intriguing, so there you go. Here's the basic plot concept, via Wikipedia:

Defying Gravity is a internationally produced space travel television drama series, first aired on August 2, 2009. Set in the near future, the series will follow eight astronauts—four women and four men—from five countries on a six-year space mission through the Solar System, where everything they do is monitored.

It was alright. In the first episode they went back and forth between the show's present and 5 years prior, when a lot of the crew members met during their training years together. I did like some of the characters, though found some of the others to be kind of predictable and cardboard cut-outy.

There's also some sort of "thing" that is referred to obliquely by certain higher up characters, to inject a bit of mystery as well. I must admit, I'm curious, so I've fallen right into the producers' trap. :lol:

I also found it interesting that the astronauts undergo forced sterilization, at least in the form of a vasectomy; I don't know if the women are sterilized, as it's not explicitly stated. I also got the impression that abortion is illegal in their time, which is about 50 years in the future. According to Wikipedia, each crew member wears a "libido-suppressing device". Of course - and I didn't have to read Wikipedia to figure this out - romance will ensue. :roll:

Here's the LA Times review.

I'll check it out next week and see how it goes.

-dh

 

[gunsandrockets]

I saw the original docudrama mini-series this program is based upon. I think it was called "voyage to the planets" or something. The design of the Antares spacecraft and the grand tour planetary mission looks the same.

So far I give "defying gravity" a thumbs up. I don't mind the soap opera storyline and I enjoy eye candy (Laura Harris) as much as anyone. But what's important is this show is honest to goodness, near future, space flight science fiction. They may garble some of the science but at least they are trying.

The whispered "it", which apparently resides in cargo pod 4 of the spacecraft Antares, has also been called "beta", for whatever that tidbits worth.

The technobable of "nanotech clothes" which "magnetically" pull the crew to the floor in the zero gee sections of the Antares is a cute solution to the TV production problem of representing actors in a zero gee environment. Though the female crew members must also use nanotech shampoo too since their hair droops towards the floor instead of floating.

The costume used for the "Venus spacesuit" looks like they used a real life EVA hard suit concept. Of course a real life Venus spacesuit would look more like a cross between a refrigerator and a tank than an EVA suit, but I give the producers points for trying.

The first distinct science error I've noticed in the program so far, was when the Commander was communicating with Earth (after the Venus injection burn) with no time delay evident in the conversation. Since the Antares is supposed to zip to Venus in only 43 days(!), there is no way ordinary two way communications is possible even a short time after Earth departure. The much slower Apollo took only three days to reach the Moon, and Lunar communications impose a 2.6 second two-way delay. It's too late for the producers to react to what I'm complaining about since the first 13 episodes have already been filmed. But I'm hoping future episodes will show one-way video emails used instead of unrealistic live two way communication.

 

[gunsandrockets]

Judging by the lack of posts to this thread, I can see why Defying Gravity is in ratings trouble and most likely will not survive past the first 13 episodes (which have already been produced).

Well they are up to episode 5 by now, and the story is continuing to evolve in terms of the characters and the shadowy conspiracy element. I have no trouble with either element so far, nothing fantastic but nothing really horrible either, so they have kept my interest.

In my previous post I noted the zero gravity hair problem and jokingly said they must use nanotech shampoo. Well ironically enough they actually did come up with an explanation in episode 4, but it was hairspray instead of shampoo! But the newest episode 5 was a real mixed bag in terms of basic science errors.

Episode 5 started off nicely enough with a closeup of a baseball hovering in zero gee, but later on during an inspection of a zero gee section of the ship (I will have to rewatch that to be certain) access panels removed from the wall were set down on the floor and leaned upon the wall in blatant full gravity reaction. After that I couldn't help but notice a scene in the lab, which is also in a zero gee part of the ship, had objects conveniently resting upon the work surfaces as if under full gravity. Arrrgh. :roll: Since the show went into so much trouble making part of the living environment zero gee, little details like that have to be paid attention to in order to sustain willing suspension of disbelief.

The problem with faster than light communications is now getting worse; they mentioned at the beginning of the episode that the Antares is 30 million kilometers from Earth, yet real time two way communications took place with no time delay. Arrrgh. :roll: At that distance time delay is 100 seconds one way! It's lazy for the writers to ignore that fact just for the sake of dramatic interaction with people back on Earth. I wonder if the show will keep it up when the Antares isn't just light minutes distant from Earth but hours, assuming the show survives that long.

At the show's current rate of progress, I doubt the Antares the will reach farther than Mars by episode 13 and may not even reach past Venus.

 

[nimbus]

Definitely a soap.

 

[davp99]

I missed the TV shows, but caught a few Eps. on Hulu...

Three words...Stupid..UnReal..and Boring ( to me anyway's), especially with that girl running around sticking her camera in everyone's noses, when every time the crew just give her the Grrrs.

And one more thing, wouldn't NASA have a crewman standing by ready to help if that ..ahem..Venus spacesuit had any problems, Oops someone must have hit the Open button by mistake !!!!!!,,,

Too Many 'No Ways' for me..

Dave

 

[nimbus]

Yeah there's just too many false notes, non-stop, for it to really work as anything else than a soap. Which IMO is a shame, because it's one more chance gone amiss to draw the general public to .. "space-awareness" I suppose you could call it.

 

[SkylarkDuQuesne]

I'm willing to put up with science errors to watch a good sci-fi show, but I'm beginning to find this endeavor boring. The first couple episodes were to let us know the characters and set up the situation, but I say let's get on with some action already!! Beta should have become a more menacing presence by now, and a runaway box isn't my kind of excitement. Watching an unauthorized bunny grow is pretty lame/tame, unless it teams up with Beta to consume the twits on the crew! :shock: Also, why don't they show us some cool things outside the ship? They could certainly CG Venus for our viewing pleasure!

 

[SpacexULA]

Your standards for a science fiction show are WAY to high. Name 1 TV science fiction show that has approached the accuracy of Defying gravity? Can you name 2?

As far as the Soap opera aspects of the show, what are they supposed to do for the MONTHS it takes to get to Venus? Real life mission to mars will be a soap opera. I think we have all been spoiled by the "Warp Drive" plot device. No firm (not hard) science fiction show is going to have a shoot out and alien encounter every show, so what will the epesodes consist of? Human interaction is all they got.

As far a the science holes in the plot, this has less holes than any prime time scifi I have ever seen. The vehicle looks modular, no FTL, acknowledgment of need for centrifical gravity, and a doable cheat on the main ship so they have sudo gravity on the main ship.

You people sound like you want hard science fiction with FTL travel, wiz bang laser guns, alien encounters, all wrapped up in real science. AKA contrary desires.

I hope they continue this show.

 

[doublehelix]

Ha! I haven't watched it since the pilot. It didn't sustain my interest, I guess...

 

[nimbus]

the accuracy of Defying gravity

Idiotic, immature astronauts. Yeah, that's real accurate. I can't think of any shows off the top of my head that were accurate, but considering how bad and basic the flaws in DG are and what something like the animated series "Planetes" did, it's really not that difficult to keep it realistic. The inaccuracies in Defying Gravity pretty much all point to laziness and/or lack of interest in painting a realistic picture of life in space. Soap first, soap second, sci-fi third.

As far as the Soap opera aspects of the show, what are they supposed to do for the MONTHS it takes to get to Venus? Real life mission to mars will be a soap opera.

It wouldn't be idiots in a can. The plot would actually be airtight and wouldn't be so limp wristed with Deux Exes (hello Beta) and high school drama.

I think we have all been spoiled by the "Warp Drive" plot device. No firm (not hard) science fiction show is going to have a shoot out and alien encounter every show, so what will the epesodes consist of? Human interaction is all they got.

Cue fantastic Beta Deus Ex.

As far a the science holes in the plot, this has less holes than any prime time scifi I have ever seen. The vehicle looks modular, no FTL, acknowledgment of need for centrifical gravity, and a doable cheat on the main ship so they have sudo gravity on the main ship.

FTL communication and a bunch of others I frankly didn't commit to memory because it was such a crappy show.

You people sound like you want hard science fiction with FTL travel, wiz bang laser guns, alien encounters, all wrapped up in real science. AKA contrary desires.

[/quote]"Us people", huh.. It's a crappy soap played by crappy actors playing almost nothing but airheads, pretending to be sci-fi.

 

[diluzional]

When taking into consideration that the members of this crew were not picked for there "mature" attitudes or their ability to make decisions on a level that might be required for our current space program, but for their ability to communicate and interact with Beta: One might see that this may be more possible then not.

On a side note, even our own space program isn't perfect and it has it's problems that it sweeps under the carpet (otherwise they wouldn't have fanatics to jump on forums such as this to defend them). The "accuracy" of the show is true to the story line. Ask for anything more and you should just change the channel and stop posting messages, because many people have been made to look like the idiots they are trying to crucify.

The show is just getting it's start and Network TV just needs to hold out for this TV series. It would be a pitty to have another "Firefly" event on our hands. :mrgreen:

 

[gunsandrockets]

When I watched tonight's episode of Defying Gravity, the ABC voiceover described it as the "season finale." Despite the fact that this was only the eighth episode out of 13 produced! That tells me that falling ratings have finally lead to a soft cancellation, and that the remaining episodes will not be aired by ABC. What a shame. Unless hulu.com continues to air further episodes this may be my last commentary on the show.

The show if finally finding it's stride and given all the astronauts of the Antares a chance to demonstrate some character and backstory, despite the focus on the main male and female lead actors. The mystery of Beta is becoming more explicit too with hints that Beta is not only the secret reason for the Antares mission but is also somehow involved with the Mars mission disaster. I'm beginning to think Beta was found on Mars and brought back to Earth.

Unfortunately the main glaring science error of the show, the FTL communications, has gotten even worse by becoming integral to the plot of the two last episodes. Arrrgghhh! :x That said I think most of the episodes have included fairly realistic dangers the crew have had to face from the realities of space flight. The producers have discovered real drama can be found in reality rather than relying on stupid old cliches like "meteor storms", thank god.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I watched my first episode last night and was left not too impressed. But then again, I haven't followed it all along.

I was bored

 

[crazyeddie]

I've only watched the first three episodes so far.....I've recorded the rest. Judging by the comments here, I was prepared not to like it, but I find myself enjoying it. Yeah, I noticed the instantaneous communications gaffe right away, but otherwise I'm impressed with the sets and attention to detail. It may indeed be a soap opera in space, but let's face it: real spaceflight is mostly about a few moments of action and excitement, followed by long stretches of boring routine. I can see why they need to spice it up with the interpersonal drama. I like the mysterious Beta angle. I'll keep watching for now.

 

[hansolo0]

I didn't like it up until the last few episodes, half the show was flashbacks that i.m.h.o did nothing to advance the plot at all. However that changed on the last 2 or 3 eps, where the flashbacks were important, and there was conflict. A crew member was injured, etc. They were about to get to Venus, least interesting place in the solar system if you ask me, why go there ? And I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying a 'force' was on the ship and was influencing the crew at times. It was about to be revealed at the last episode, and, of course, that was the 'last' episode (although as mentioned there were actually 13 recorded) it's on hiatus or is canceled as of now. I don't know how in the world mission control could have justified allowing said force to go onto the ship and not tell the crew. I would have loved to hear the reason they did.

It was too slowly paced in my opinion, and too many flashbacks. I had an idea for a show pretty much like this, so it's a shame it's probably gone just when it's getting interesting. They should have gone to jupiter's moons first and focused more on what was going on in the present. These days slow paced shows are a ticket to nowhere, so I don't know what makes the creators of them think they'll do well. There was another show a few years ago about a 'stealth' alien invasion of sorts where some guy who lives in Florida or in the southeast and finds a weird skeleton and the invasion begins during a hurricane or something like that. It just took to long to get going and was canceled as well. I lost interest in that after about 1 or 2 eps.

 

[Oneironaut]

I love the show. Yeah, it's kind of a soapy drama, but I think in terms of that it's really well done and intriguing. I'm really into the characters... I think they did a great job with that.

And in terms of scientific inaccuracies, I'm willing to forgive. I mean, look at Star Trek. That's ripe with scientific flaws (one that bothers me a lot is that somehow all intelligent life evolved to become humanoid). It seems way more accurate than alot of other sci-fi films/tv.

When I watched tonight's episode of Defying Gravity, the ABC voiceover described it as the "season finale." Despite the fact that this was only the eighth episode out of 13 produced! That tells me that falling ratings have finally lead to a soft cancellation, and that the remaining episodes will not be aired by ABC. What a shame. Unless hulu.com continues to air further episodes this may be my last commentary on the show.

Apparently (on the day you made that post), ABC announced that it isn't canceling the show, but trying to figure out what time slot to use to air the rest of the season.

Since the show had a late summer start, they actually were only planning to use that time slot for eight episodes (and put some other show at that slot). So, as of now, they are intending to air the rest of the season.

Not to mention, it's still being aired in Canada and Europe, so if you really wanted to see the rest of the season, you could, using the internet as a resource. (Episode 9 actually airs on television tonight outside the US.)

 

[gunsandrockets]

Apparently (on the day you made that post), ABC announced that it isn't canceling the show, but trying to figure out what time slot to use to air the rest of the season.

Since the show had a late summer start, they actually were only planning to use that time slot for eight episodes (and put some other show at that slot). So, as of now, they are intending to air the rest of the season.

Not to mention, it's still being aired in Canada and Europe, so if you really wanted to see the rest of the season, you could, using the internet as a resource. (Episode 9 actually airs on television tonight outside the US.)

Hey! Thanx for the tip.

 

[JeffreyNYA]

The show is starting to get interesting now. Its really not that bad and my only issue is the lack of time delay in communication. but it is a 1 hour show. Not sure how they would manage this much better. As for the Nano tech and its anti-grav effect. Is that so far fetched? I just saw a article recently where a mouse was put basically into zero g by magnetic fields. Granted they work on the water in the cells, but still makes it not seem such a stretch.

Link to Magnetic levitation research: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/1 ... itate.html

 

[nimbus]

It's only getting "good enough" to watch in these recent episodes because hard SF fans are starved.

 

[lewislink2]

I love this show. I watch ito online. It's a terrible shame it is being canceled.

 

[gunsandrockets]

Hulu.com is now only showing episodes 4 through 8. Too bad. They had nice high definition recordings.

But I have found other sources online to watch Defying Gravity. More importantly, episode 9 can be watched online and it seems future episodes will be too. Even though ABC has stopped broadcasting the program for now (with a promise to resume at some later unspecified time), Canadian TV is still broadcasting.

So now I have seen episode 9! (Don't worry I won't post any spoilers in this post) The bad thing is the online source does not have HD picture quality

http://www.sidereel.com/Defying_Gravity

 

[lewislink2]

I don't know if this site provides better quality than Sidereel but DG can be watched here too:

http://www.ch131.com/

 

[gunsandrockets]

I love this show. I watch ito online. It's a terrible shame it is being canceled.

It seems I was too hasty in declaring Defying Gravity kaput. As some have already pointed out, and online news reports confirm, ABC has not cancelled the show. In fact, despite the lousy ratings ABC may not even be in the position to cancel the show because of it's multi-national nature. So even if ABC decides it will no longer participate, Defying Gravity may survive into a second season.

 

[lewislink2]

I love this show. I watch ito online. It's a terrible shame it is being canceled.

It seems I was too hasty in declaring Defying Gravity kaput. As some have already pointed out, and online news reports confirm, ABC has not cancelled the show. In fact, despite the lousy ratings ABC may not even be in the position to cancel the show because of it's multi-national nature. So even if ABC decides it will no longer participate, Defying Gravity may survive into a second season.

That's good to know. Though, that last episode left me feeling a bit ripped. Nevertheless, it is a great show and one of the more intelligent ones available.

 

[Carlton1963]

OK. So I'm new to this posting thing. I like the show, although it took its time to get interesting. But I have one problem; if they so far from earth, how can they have real-time communication? Is it just me, or does this not make sense????