Series/Dark Matter

A Sy Fy original series about the crew of a derelict space ship, awakened from cryo-sleep as the life-support is failing. They fix that quickly, but the bigger problem remains: They've lost their memories, and the ship's computers have been scrubbed clean.

Overall, I like it. It's not a super-original premise, and the twist in the first episode was pretty obvious, but the pilot hooked me. The fact that they didn't go for the obvious of having One (the white male protagonist) become the leader was nice; Two, the female of color slotted into that role much more neatly. Likewise, the fact they didn't kill off any of the crew members despite several opportunities to do so is a good sign.

edited 17th Jun '15 7:46:06 AM by Discar

I liked it.

Just two episodes in but I have great hopes for One, who apparently has an arson record, to grow as a character. Hopefully not into some kind of good guy mole, seeing as how he seems to be The Heart right now. on the other hand the necklace thing didn't pan out so I guess we'll see.

I quite liked it as well. The myth arc of finding out how the characters got their memories wiped rather has my attention, as is their mastering of the politics of the verse they exist in.

Saw first episode and am intrigued.

Anyone else think Five's dream was about Two? I'm going from the expression on Two's face like it was almost but not quite familiar.

Where did One fit in the original crew? The others are obvious: Commander, pilot, tech (if Four was part of the crew),ninja and muscle. Executive officer maybe?

edited 24th Jun '15 2:45:01 PM by tricksterson

Something like that is my guess. You confused me a little by changing the order, but it looks like this:

• One: XO and second in command.
• Two: Captain.
• Three: Muscle and weapons specialist.
• Four: Ninja and interrogation specialist.
• Five: Probably not part of the crew, but if she was then tech savant.
• Six: Pilot.

Not really sure why but I got a doctor vibe from One.

Episode 3. Mutiny, Internal Reveal.

They didn't kill Six! Or the android. Seriously thought we were losing both. Odd that they didn't consider that the dead boy might have been the one who left the program behind that erased their memories. I figured he wrote the program, someone shot him as a stowaway, then everyone went in the pods thinking everything was fine and got their memories erased. Guess not.

As an aside, I really liked Five's earring. Don't know why.

My tv cut out before the last couple minutes, though. Can someone tell me what happened on the station?

A laughably terrible reveal.

Hilariously evil dude (he wears eyeshadow!) is at a bar. Says he's looking for somebody. Bartender asks what his name is (for some reason) and he replies: "Jace Corso".

DUN DUN DUN!!!

I just got caught up. I like it so far. I'm still learning everyones number. At first I only knew One,Two, Three, and Six.

I used to get the other numbers confused I thought Five was Four and vice versa.

Episode 4 is tonight, Amanda Tapping directed this episode.

Very good episode. Excellent interactions between One and Three, and Two and Five. Didn't really like that One agreed to cover up the truth instead of coming clean, but it's in-character. Yeah, One is a good guy, but he also clearly wants to be part of the crew—which, in hindsight makes sense assuming he really is an impostor who stole Jace's identity to get on board to Raza.

I assume that One is a GA plant. He's too clean-cut, particularly when contrasted with the real Corso.

Also, the writers missed a Four Is Death reference - unless Four actually acknowledges this quietly. It suits him, anyway.

edited 22nd Jul '15 9:55:52 AM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

Hm, that's a good one. Jace assumed he was just a creepy fan, but considering what some of the rest of the crew is wanted for, maybe you're right.

I'm curious if Five realized that the code to the vault was "Miss Maplethorpe." We saw Griffin talking about it in one of her memories, which implies she noticed, but then she spent a few subjective months hanging out on a farm, so. And the ending didn't mention it.

Also, credit to Jodelle Ferland for playing Six and One very well. Sure, The Stoic isn't a particularly hard archetype, but she did his mannerisms well. Likewise, in the barn, you could see hints of One's facial expressions on her.

She didn't play Six. She played Four and was pretty awesome at it.

As for Four Is Death I just tweeted the showrunner this exact question. It's too good to pass up, so let's have Word of God sort it out.

And now, for something completely different, there's a thing about Two: what if her Healing Factor is not zombie-induced, but comes from earlier? Notice that when the artificial gravity kicks back in in the pilot, otherwise combat-capable Three splats on the floor not unlike One and Five, but Two sticks a Three-Point Landing. It's like she's some gene-tweaked Super-Soldier.

Whoops. Oh well, yeah, Four.

And yeah, that was what I was thinking. Either she was an earlier successful application of the immortality drug, or she has unrelated enhancements that let her immune system beat it. Even for this show, she is very good at fighting.

I'm taking the time to get to know the new/old One, creeptastic wannabe or plant for the not-so-above-it-all GA he is still developing as a character.

Good episode, loved the idea of Five taking a vacation in One's memories I think it would be kind of neat if the others gave it a try, or let the android carry them around.

heard next episode that they were going to get into the vault perhaps five did remember that chat.

Also: Read Showrunner as Shadowrunner fun and appropriate.

edited 22nd Jul '15 8:19:54 PM by GiantSpaceChinchilla

Except no magic or dragons.

never know haven't visited Earth yet

And there's always the potential for Space Elves

Three falling in love with a widow living in a hut on some backwater planet. I haven't expected that one at all.

This is a masterclass on how not to make a science fiction tv show. It's also a great demonstration of all the ways to completely fuck up developing characters. Every character (sans the personality-free Android) is either a blank, personality-free cipher (One, Two, Five) or a poorly sketched out cliche (Four is Space Japan Exiled Prince, Six is literally his character from Continuum plus a psychotic break).

The Android is alternatively clever witty or a total dud, depending on whether she's spouting technobabble at the time. The writers are terrible at writing technobabble. But still, there's a much funnier, more interesting AI who you can see just an hour before.

Don't be a dick. Compared to Killjoys, this show at least doesn't piss the lore away until the plot demands it. Killjoys has a lot of shit going on that makes you ask "what?", Khlyen being the biggest one. D'avin's Amnesiac Hero arc seems just as dumb, being ham-handedly railroaded to go along the weekly job plot.

Dark Matter on the other hand, starting from a terribly cliche amnesia plot, resolves it in a far better way. Pretty much everyone has an agenda of some sort, setting up a Character Arc for each one (One's identity theft, Two's Healing Factor, Three's frozen girlfriend, Four's Frame-Up, Five's key, Six's terrorist background) and they slowly but surely work them out. The only dud was the Android's unexplained jealousy.

At least Killjoys has plot. And characterization. And worldbuilding that feels lived in. Halfway decent writing. Interesting character plots and arcs. Honest to goodness forward motion. Serial plots that aren't paper thin. And so on.

We're seven episodes into a thirteen episode season and still on basic setup. The show spent six episodes having a viewer wonder "What's in the vault" and then wasted the reveal on the revelation that "Even the asshole is lovable" (although Three's actually likable because he has personality) and Sexy Evil Female #321 (and of course, women be catty and jealous when the sexy dark rival shows up, oh, women!). The show is wasting time on a stupid romantic plot between undeveloped characters because it doesn't know what else to do with them. And the cliches, oh god the cliches.

This show may be doable if it cut a few of the cast. Nix One, combine Three's abrasive personality and Six's backstory (starring Roger Cross, naturally), don't make Four a horrible Asian stereotype, and cut the romance subplot involving Two in favor of some actual characterization. Maybe make the Android more human and give her Five's properties, nixing Five entirely. Starting with 6 blank slates with no personality or backstory (and a robot) would be a challenge for any showrunner.

edited 25th Jul '15 8:46:04 AM by Mars444

Oh joy. Turns out that episode 9 will be Four-centric, and that means a lot of Asians with shitty-ass $30 katanas.

Anyway, what do you mean about Killjoys and characterization? It has an angsty chick who's revealed to be a Hitman with a Heart, blah blah blah. Then, it's the Commander Shepard knockoff with a partial mindwipe and some ridiculously angsty past. And finally, theeeere's Johnny. Johnny's role in the plot is to break the rules, because otherwise we wouldn't have Commander Knockoff and his laser-guided amnesia on board. Then, it's the blowhard who runs the Rack, who shows up for two episodes, once to scold angsty chick for the entire Commander Knockoff bullshit that was all Johnny's doing, and once to give absolutely no fucks regarding the Rack being played into dealing with the Company's internal politics, which is supposed to be a big no-no. And finally, the embodiment of Vagueness Is Coming, whose laughably feeble attempts to drag the angsty chick into cooperation are supposed to push the so-called plot forward, and who's protected with some kind of ridiculous Plot Armor (see: episode 6). I'm watching it only to see how it's all going to fit together. Because right now, there's barely any "forward motion", besides Mr Vagueness and the Conspiracy Coverup that, uh, happened in the last episode, after it turned out, SOMEHOW, MIRACULOUSLY, TWO EPISODES AGO, that Commander Knockoff has some pathways in his brain corked up with a couple of gizmos that came hell knows where from.

Seriously, not that much difference from Dark Matter, that can be blamed of not being as pretty (because instead of a Bad Guy Bar and its vicinity of a slum under an overpass, we have to watch the same damn spaceship set (at least they reused the footage of Five crawling into an airduct only once, thank god).

I also noticed one thing about the comic's cover: the Android, as he was originally drawn, oddly resembles Rob Stewart. Although having Rob Stewart in two series at once would be way too good.