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Defying Gravity: Star trekkers, the next generation

With no aliens, warp factors or teleportation, new space opera ‘Defying Gravity’ appears more down to earth than the classics. But that just adds to its appeal, says Gerard Gilbert

'Defying Gravity' begins on BBC2 on Wednesday 21 October

Defying Gravity

'Defying Gravity' begins on BBC2 on Wednesday 21 October

Space may be “the final frontier” – but the final frontier of what, exactly? The final frontier of human endurance and technological capability, or of the literary imagination? Or is it just a vast void into which to propel reckless amounts ofmetaphysical and allegorical junk?

From Georges Méliès’ man in the moontoStanley Kubrick’s star-child, by way of any number of Klingons, Cylons and Clangers, the universe is a limitless playground for both the brilliant and the mundane. And if it’s true that in space you can’t hear critics scream, more often than not it’s because of the clamour of federations of sci-fi fans. Devotees and critics were as one when it came to Battlestar Galactica, the hugely imaginative space opera that reached its own final frontier earlier this year. BSG, as it’s fondly known, worked perfectly well as an allegory of the post September 11 “war on terror” (with the Cylons as al-Qa’ida), but also as sweeping, novelistic and compelling TV drama. Its followers weren’t being entirely outlandish when they argued that itwas a greater TV series than The Wire. A BSG prequel, Caprica, comes to our screens next year, and apparently the allegorical business of this new one is to do Vichy France.

On the other hand, only a vast hinterland of fan-worship can surely explain the Stargate franchise. Sky1 has recently started screening Stargate Universe, the latest spin-off from Roland Emmerich’s supremely daft 1994 movie about a mysterious portal that projects people through space. This one stars Robert Carlyle as a dodgy Glaswegian scientist and appears to have plundered both Battlestar Galactica and (inevitably) Lost, without suggesting it might get within light years of either show’s greatness. Stargate Universewas filmed in Canada, by the way, as was another new and altogether different type of “space opera”, Defying Gravity.

What’s strangely refreshing about this one is its very lack of thematic ambition – its determination to stay within the realms of the probable. Defying Gravity is bound to our solar system, with no alien races, warpfactors or teleportation. And this new13-part drama comes (partly at least) courtesy of the BBC, a broadcaster that hasn’t really embraced the genre since the heyday of Terry Nation and Blake’s 7, seeming to prefer instead space Star trekkers, the next generation comedies like Red Dwarf and Hyperdrive. At least sci-fi sitcoms are cheaper to make and when the scenery wobbles you can pretend that it’s part of the joke. But where is the money coming from for the gorgeous-looking Defying Gravity?

Just like the International Space Station currently orbiting earth, the 13-part drama is a cross-border coproduction – this one between the BBC, Fox in the US, two Canadian broadcasters and a couple of TV stations in Germany. The talent however is predominantly American, starting with the two executive producers, Michael Edelstein (Desperate Housewives) and James D Parriott, the man who gave us Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty, but whose first love is sci-fi, having written for such Seventies classics The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. “The idea was to start a project by selling foreign first and bringing it back to the US,” is Parriott’s somewhat Earth-bound explanation of the project. “It was instantly appealing to me, because with an international space mission you have crew members who are from different countries. It’s about man’s place in the universe, as opposed to the United States planting a flag on the Moon.”

Set in the not-too distant future (once the world gets over the recession obviously), the show was directly inspired by a 2004 BBC dramadocumentary, Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, which imagined a six-year mission around the Earth’s solar system. Parriott’s research was done mainly at the Kennedy Space Center, near Cape Canaveral in Florida, and the Johnson Space Centre in Houston Texas.

“I talked to a number of very highranking scientists in Nasa,” he says. “And I took three astronauts out to dinner. One of them, Mike Fink, asked for my cell number and said, ‘I’ll call you from space’. A few months later, I was back in Los Angeles having lunch with my writers in a noisy restaurant, and I got this call. ‘It’s Mike from the Space Station...’.”

The show’s astronauts are played by an international cast led by Ron Livingston (Carrie Bradshaw’s onetime boyfriend in Sex and the City) and Laura Harris (24). Livingston plays ship’s engineer Maddux Donner, a hot-headed space veteran haunted at having had to leave two astronauts to die on Mars during an earlier mission. He’s torn between Laura Harris’s Zoe (dubbed a “space nun” because she refuses to have relationships with fellow inter-planetary travellers) and Nadia Schilling (played by Berlin-born actor Florentine Lahme), a rather more obliging German astronaut.

“Donner finds himself kind of pulled between the two of them,” says Livingston, whose own father trained as an aerospace engineer in the late Sixties (“I remember growing up building models of the very first test shuttle, the Enterprise”).

“We’re probably girlier than most sci-fi shows,” he says. “But that’s what makes it interesting and gives it a new spin. I do think that when people watch this, they’ll say, ‘I haven’t seen anything like that before’.” “It’s a little bit of Grey’s Anatomy”, agrees Michael Edelstein. “It’s also got an overarching mystery like Lost...”

Ah, yes, Lost – without elements of which no contemporary sci-fi show now even attempts to see the light of day. The mystery element in Defying Gravity involves a secret objective for the Venus probe – a mission within the mission that’s hidden from most of the crew. “Jim (Parriott) created his characters and his story and this over-arching mystery, which took us a little more into the world of sci-fi,” says Edelstein. But is Defying Gravity sci-fi? “Any time you have people in a spaceship, that’s going to be defined as sci-fi,” says Parriott.

The comparison of the space opera to the classic frontiersman “stagecoach” Western has often been made, with aliens instead of marauding Apache, except that in Defying Gravity there won’t be alien races to contend with, just the very real problems that a mission like this would be likely to encounter. Not that Parriott has entirely forgotten about the big stuff – the metaphysical business that is so appealing to both creators and consumers of sci-fi.

“I think the central theme of Defying Gravity is about man finding himself and his place in the universe,” he says. “What’s wonderful about doing a big show like this is that we get to deal thematically with race, religion, all the big issues of our time.”

‘Defying Gravity’ begins on BBC2 on Wednesday 21 October at 9pm; ‘Stargate Universe’ continues on Sky1

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Comments

Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]kaptainkitten wrote:
Friday, 16 October 2009 at 09:56 am (UTC)
Means the BBC spends our money on largely socially irrelevant US/Canadian imports in order to reach demographics it has long since disconnected from.

Although this is a "co-production" probably in the sense that the BBC sent some money over.

Another dreary co-pro from the BBC.
Re: Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]knowles2 wrote:
Friday, 16 October 2009 at 11:11 pm (UTC)
By the way Defying Gravity has been cancel, the sets have already been sold off, stargate universe buying several major pieces of the set, along with independent film production .
An it ends of the biggest cliff hanger ever.

Just a warning for people who get pissed when a tv show is cancel when the story gets good.

The show is actually brilliant, the cinematography and CGI is superior to anything on tv at the moment, The CGI for Rafus, a rabbit grown in space and outside of the womb was done beautifully., it one of the few to make full use of HD, an actually need to be viewed in HD to truly appreciate the program. The story, why slow in the beginning hits it stride around episode 6.

An the BBC did not just send them money. There a major character in the show who is a BBC reporter.
An the show actually brings up and discussed many social relevant subjects to do with science and technology and Religion. How can you even say that without actually watching the show, the 11th episode have some pretty interesting commentaries about Religious miracles.
An there is some kind of alien in the series, an it an interesting one, something to do Fractals. It actually one of the most original aliens I seen in a long time.
Re: Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]jeanagain wrote:
Monday, 19 October 2009 at 11:19 pm (UTC)
Are you sure it's cancelled, knowles? Space is airing all 13th episodes in Canada and is calling the last one the season finale.

Since viewers in Germany and the UK haven't begun to watch yet, how can it be cancelled, anyway? North America isn't the only audience.
Re: Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]knowles2 wrote:
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 at 12:11 am (UTC)
http://twitpic.com/klum5

Well there that picture. Then there been a few unofficial twitter comments basically saying they have taken the cool pieces of sets home with them when they have finish disassembling it, also the ground station have been sold to a independent production and the observation deck has got to Stargate Universe. Apparently no one wants to do a official press release until all finance contributing markets, Canada, BBC, Germany has aired it, which means this is months away at best, probably early January or Feb before it becomes official.

To add more credence to the cancellation gossip, the producers themselves in a interview have said it cannot be produce with out a American broadcaster backing.

There is a rumour that a new American broadcaster have come forward to offer finance, but so far nothing official, an it unlikely give the numbers ABC was getting.
The only hope for the show if ABC actually gave it a descent slot with support in the form of a other show for it last five episodes, which is has said it will air eventually. But I doubt this will happen, an even if it does air I expect it will be Saturday night, which in America mean low numbers and it where networks usually burn of series which have not perform.
Re: Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]stardust_20 wrote:
Saturday, 17 October 2009 at 08:24 pm (UTC)
Try WATCHING before you actually make a call. It's a very original, unique show and you can't judge it before you've even watched an episode.

I live in Canada and have been thorougly enjoying the show since it began. It's slow paced but the characters are deep and the relationships interesting, and the underlying mystery is one that keeps you coming back for more.

Green Eggs and Ham - try it before you say it's a waste of time.
Re: Unique Funding Mechanism...
[info]jockooooo wrote:
Sunday, 25 October 2009 at 05:15 am (UTC)
I'm up in Canada and the Space network aired all 13 episodes on their webcast.

The season finale was excellent.

Sci-Fi shows always get harsh critcism and then later surface slightly more revered.

For a contemporary prime time style sci-fi series this show was excellent. It covered very real issues as well as imaginative concepts such as trans-humanism, black ops, and space travel.

My only critique is soundtrack and introspective narritive monologues could be toned down.. For a 1st season the acting was very palpable. This show is more pass than fail.
enjoying Defying Gravity in Canada
[info]jeanmcd wrote:
Friday, 16 October 2009 at 10:34 pm (UTC)
kaptainkitten, have you seen some episodes or do you just believe it will be dreary?...My husband and I both like the show, which is rare! It has a different tone than a lot of network programs, in North America, anyway, with more emphasis on the fairly large cast of characters and why they're important to each other. It's set not too far in the future and, as the columnist says, most of it seems possible. That appeals to me. The mystery is only gradually being revealed--we're enjoying not getting answers too quickly.

The columnist mentioned German born Florentine Lahme in the cast...there is also Colombian Paula Garces, Scottish-born Andrew Airlie, British actor (and director of some episodes) Peter Howitt and Israeli-American Eyal Podell. At least six of the main characters are played by Canadians.

Two Episodes and I am Hooked
[info]james1615 wrote:
Saturday, 24 October 2009 at 08:33 am (UTC)
Just finished watching episode two of Defying Gravity, where the airlock appears to be opened, and there is a vision of mars. I was not sure about this series, till that point. There is a lot of the 1970s show, Space 1999 in this.

Canada is the home of great sci-fi television. I have beeen looking for something new since Battlestar Galactica ended.
It's too bad this series has ended...
[info]jockooooo wrote:
Saturday, 24 October 2009 at 08:44 pm (UTC)
The season finale was pretty damn good.

Defying Gravity
[info]sw27121964 wrote:
Thursday, 29 October 2009 at 10:15 pm (UTC)
I'm fortunate to have watched the entire 'Defying Gravity' series. In my opinion it is a masterpiece, but 13 episodes really didn't do it justice. There is a lot more mileage left in this series, it is such a shame that only 1 series is ever likely to be made. My advice is for people to watch it and just enjoy it for what it is, damn good TV.

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