Defiance [SyFy - US] [** Spoilers **]

Richard Dower

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/grant-bowler-cast-as-the-lead-in-new-syfy-series-defiance/

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/True-Blood-Grant-Bowler-Star-Syfy-Defiance-38706.html

Mr E

I hate having to click random links.
Post some content.

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet ravaged by decades of war and transformed by alien terra-forming machines. It centers on Jeb Nolan (Grant Bowler), the law-keeper in a bustling frontier boomtown that is one of the new world’s few oasis of civility and inclusion. Nolan is a former Marine who fought in the alien conflict and suffered the loss of his wife and child in the war. The trauma transformed him into a lone wanderer in the wilds of this new and dangerous world. Defiance seems to be blending Western and alien themes, something that last year’s feature Cowboys & Aliens attempted to do, but the series is set in the future. New Zealander Bowler is best known for his recurring roles as Vanessa Williams’ squeeze on Ugly Betty, as werewolf Cooter on True Blood and as Capt. Gault on Lost. Scott Stewart (Legion) is directing the series, which is slated to begin production April 2012 in Toronto.

JP Liz V1

Firefly anyone

Richard Dower

Some nice casting added per this, hotties galore!

http://www.digitalspy.ie/ustv/news/a370240/dexter-julie-benz-jaime-murray-join-syfys-defiance.html

Richard Dower

Casting news: http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/new-starz-series-da-vincis-demons-syfys-defiance-add-to-casts/

Richard Dower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biCjh5Tbyq0

don ramo

Richard Dower wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biCjh5Tbyq0

WTF was that richard, it looks like a computer game, no wait, it is a computer game,

last i check this was a TV forum

Apolloyon

Actually It looks like Defiance is going to be both. A MMORPG and a tv series. Each set in different locations but with inter connected storylines. What happens in the tv series affects the game and vice versa. Definitely a very bold move for SyFy. They could be ahead of the curve on this. Or it could be a disaster. I'm hoping for the former as science fiction on television really needs a fresh approach and by using the game to build up an audience. They just might be able to pull it off. Cast on the tv series looks top notch to so it could be a winner.

don ramo

Apolloyon wrote: »

Actually It looks like Defiance is going to be both. A MMORPG and a tv series. Each set in different locations but with inter connected storylines. What happens in the tv series affects the game and vice versa. Definitely a very bold move for SyFy. They could be ahead of the curve on this. Or it could be a disaster. I'm hoping for the former as science fiction on television really needs a fresh approach and by using the game to build up an audience. They just might be able to pull it off. Cast on the tv series looks top notch to so it could be a winner.

ah that makes more sense, it would have been handy if people were actually talking about it rather than posting links links links,

very interesting concept alright, it would be good if it succeeded, it would open up so many other avenues, but honestly i can see this blowing up in their faces, i really hope it doesn't as i think it would make for a great TV show, im not that into gaming but having the show linked to a game could be a good thing, but you'd have to keep the game fresh when the TV side of it isn't airing, it'll be grand playing out scenarios from the show each week, but what do you do for the 8-9 months the show doesn't air,

Apolloyon

The series takes place is St Louis and the game takes place in San Francisco so I think there's room for both to develop. I guess any nation or world events in each would reflect any other. I suppose like a major political shift or a new alien race arriving. It looks hugely ambitious which in itself is worrying. Because ambitious visionary television shows usually get pulled after three episodes these days. But even if it doesn't work. I hope it doesn't put off people trying something similar again. It may just be before it's time. We'll have to wait and see!

Richard Dower

I can see alot of recent genre/sci-fi shows mixed in here -
Jericho/Terra Nova/Farscape and Revolution ...shizzle, lets add Mad Max and Starship Troopers to the list, Firefly + Jeremiah, Falling Skies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxK7BWbdJX0

don ramo

Richard Dower wrote: »

I can see alot of recent genre/sci-fi shows mixed in here -
Jericho/Terra Nova/Farscape and Revolution ...shizzle, lets add Mad Max and Starship Troopers to the list, Firefly + Jeremiah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxK7BWbdJX0

yeah looks like a blend of a few good shows, i hope it works out, more than anything i get a bit of a falling skies vibe from it (revolution also, but all ive seen is the trailer so dont really know what kind fo a show that is yet), which isnt a bad thing, maybe theyll do a better job of it here,

don ramo

from the people behind shows such as Battlestar Gallactica and Farscape come a new show called Defiance

based in the town of Defiance, formerly St Louis, 30 years after aliens arrived from their dying world seeking refuge, and after a long fought war against humans for the right to stay on earth, humans and alien strike a fragile balance,

now a lot of info out yet about the actual premise, but there is also gonna be a MMO RPG game that will run side by side with the show, with events playing out in the show and being playable in the game,

its a massive undertaking from SYFY (TV) and Trion Worlds (game) who are working hand in hand to bring a new fully interactive experience, im really looking forward to seeing how this works out, as it could lead to more input from fans on TV shows, and also generate more revenue for TV shows making it easier to keep them on air longer,

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.534094019937978.132982.211869792160404&type=1

Richard Dower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6LicCRuPg

pixelburp

I see the request to stop simply posting videos / links without comment fell on deaf ears :rolleyes:

Well to actually engage in a debate, been keeping my eye on this, given its fairly unique premise (that there will be a concurrent MMO game running in parallel to the TV show, with events from each overlapping into the other), though given I hate MMOs I'm more interested in the TV serial; beginning to look like an odd mix of Battlestar Galactica & Farscape, which is not a bad thing.

I'm more amazed that ScyFy (ergh) still remember how to make shows.

Richard Dower

Info on the series, the cast and characters etc. http://www.spoilertv.com/2012/10/defiance-series-cast-and-character.html

I will certianly check it out, but it does remind me alot of a crossbred of Falling Skies meets Farscape. I disliked Farscape as i HATE the Jim Henson puppet stuff....never liked it even SS etc.

Richard Dower

pixelburp wrote: »

I see the request to stop simply posting videos / links without comment fell on deaf ears :rolleyes:

Ah lad!....what can be said?....it's a 30 second promo...unless you want the usual OMG CAN'T WAIT stuff that gets trotted out. You can't write a 1000 word essay on this.

I think people need to be reasonable here and YT videos are used to promote the show and see some footage, you can't really comment until the series starts

Skerries

Richard Dower wrote: »

I disliked Farscape as i HATE the Jim Henson puppet stuff....never liked it even SS etc.

How dare you!!!
That is one of the best Sci-Fi shows of all time with one of the best villains, Scorpius

pixelburp

Richard Dower wrote: »

Info on the series, the cast and characters etc. http://www.spoilertv.com/2012/10/defiance-series-cast-and-character.html

I will certianly check it out, but it does remind me alot of a crossbred of Falling Skies meets Farscape. I disliked Farscape as i HATE the Jim Henson puppet stuff....never liked it even SS etc.

Your loss about Farscape - it was a show with a lot of heart, some great characterisation and plot arcs, not to mention some genuinely funny comedy & sly humour.

It was also one of the few sci-fi franchises that had aliens that actually looked and acted... well, alien; the use of the Henson workshop was an inspired move, and if you got over your bias you'd find yourself amazed at the work & realise that when all's said and done, a physical 'puppet' interacting with the cast trumps CGI 90% of the time. Comparing it with Sesame St. is really doing it a disservice.

Richard Dower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4BQ6GRQYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqjteWTXhOc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XctCENscSE

Richard Dower

Watch the first 14 mins here: http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/03/defiance-episode-101-pilot-watch-first.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaowWi9p9TM

JP Liz V1

Syfy has secured the UK premiere of Defiance, the epic new fantasy sci-fi drama. The series will make its UK debut on Tuesday, April 16th, 24 hours after its US launch

Richard Dower

^^ wasn't too bad, its got a fair bit of the movie Evolution in there as well with the critters and weird animals + a heavy dose of Farscape. Certainly worth a full look.

pixelburp

Definitely looks interesting, and still keen on seeing this; from what I understand, the focus of this show will be around the titular town of Defiance, its various factions & denizens. Early reviews suggest Deadwood by way of Farscape / Caprica-set BSG (which is kinda hyping it up a little, so I take the reviews with a pinch of salt).

I hope it turns out to be decent as there's a real dearth of quality new sci-fi out there; Game of Thrones & Dr. Who returns this weekend (yay!), but generally it feels like a long time since a proper Firefly or BSG level of quality came along in the genre. Throwing money at concept shows such as Revolution, Terra Nova or Falling Skies clearly couldn't make up for their lacklustre scripts, so hopefully Sci-Fi's more modest budget will be countered by a decent script (though there was more FX in the video than I would have expected).

And speaking of BSG, I was going to remark that the music sounded very like Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar; but then I googled & it turns out it really was him; he's scoring this show, so my interest just increased a little more.

Richard Dower

pixelburp wrote: »

Definitely looks interesting, and still keen on seeing this; from what I understand, the focus of this show will be around the titular town of Defiance, its various factions & denizens. Early reviews suggest Deadwood by way of Farscape / Caprica-set BSG (which is kinda hyping it up a little, so I take the reviews with a pinch of salt).

I hope it turns out to be decent as there's a real dearth of quality new sci-fi out there; Game of Thrones & Dr. Who returns this weekend (yay!), but generally it feels like a long time since a proper Firefly or BSG level of quality came along in the genre. Throwing money at concept shows such as Revolution, Terra Nova or Falling Skies clearly couldn't make up for their lacklustre scripts, so hopefully Sci-Fi's more modest budget will be countered by a decent script (though there was more FX in the video than I would have expected).

And speaking of BSG, I was going to remark that the music sounded very like Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar; but then I googled & it turns out it really was him; he's scoring this show, so my interest just increased a little more.

I knew it was Bear without Google...you know his sound when you hear it.
Agree with your points, but we do have Continuum

groovie

Excellent wiki entry for this, great back story.

I'm looking for some of the old BSG magic.:D

Richard Dower

^ cheers....well at the very least its some legit Sci-Fi, and dying genre on tv these days.

Manach

From Ads, looks to be coming on the Sky SciFi channel soon. As I've found "Revolution" okish it, I'd like to give this a chance and hope it makes things interesting.

deco nate

saw a webrip today and for me it was meh.
however im gonna give it a few episodes
before i call it quits.

don ramo

Manach wrote: »

From Ads, looks to be coming on the Sky SciFi channel soon. As I've found "Revolution" okish it, I'd like to give this a chance and hope it makes things interesting.

being fair to SYFY they do make some decent enough sci-fi shows, and unlike network TV they do give them a fair chance to make an impact, defiance is more or less guaranteed a renewal already, unless it completely tanks in the ratings and pulls in something like 900,000-1million viewers throughout the season, which is highly unlikely especially as it will air through the summer months when for some strange reason a lot more people tune into the SYFY channel,

the last show i can think of that was cancelled after 1 season on SYFY was Caprica, and that was pretty badly done,

and Defiance airs on SYFY UK tuesday night, only a day after the US airing,

sky23

the game is awesome hope the tv show is good!

Richard Dower

It kicks off tonight on SyFy....i'll tune in.

Richard Dower

deco nate wrote: »

saw a webrip today and for me it was meh.
however im gonna give it a few episodes
before i call it quits.

Good spot - waiting for a proper 720p though...i like my Sci-Fi in HD

Basq

Spoiler tag added to thread title..

donfers

was it any good?

Headshot

I'm shocked that I thought it was quite good. I was expecting rubbish because I usually hate SyFy shows but this had me surprised

It's a pity the cgi is poor again in a SyFy show thou

expectationlost

its pretty good, Kinda seen it all before cliches but i've been missing me some scifi. first ep is very long at 1 and half hours

there seems to be one race of aliens who are just all emos

Sarn

I enjoyed it. Between the CGI and the Bear McCreary music running in the background I thought it had a real Caprica feel.

A very brief nod to the game at the start, with the crystal rod being used in the Arkfall.

Will have to see how it holds up over the long haul, but in the absence of much else, I'll be watching it.

VinLieger

Not bad, not bad at all, deffinitely worth giving it a few episodes and im still curious how they might tie the game in

johndoe99

reminds me of Alien Nation. The CGI sucks though, hopefully it gets better throughout.

Manach

Actually, alot better than I expected and compared to the much larger budget Revolution, more watchable.

Footoo

"I don't like the look of that scaffolding"

:eek:

Who let that line through?

PhiloCypher

I'd echo what everyone else has been saying in that its much better then I thought it would be . The opening scene with the two of them dueting to Johnny Cash could have been cringey but they pulled it off due to their excellent chemistry , what the show pulled off less well was the cgi badlands. Now I've often decried sci fi shows using the canadian wilderness as a stand in for alien planets in the past but if the Cgi is going to be as ropey as that bring back the conifers. Both Car scenes whether shot internally with cgi scenery zipping by or external looked dodgy as F**k which was strange as I felt the cgi elsewhere was pretty decent , but who knows maybe they ran out of cash .

Early days of course but my first impressions are a lot more favorable then they were with Terra Nova , Falling Skies and revolution .

Burgo

Think the deal is already done for two seasons. I do hope the cgi improves. The less they use the better unless they fix it. Thought the first episode was ok, cheesy futuristic deadwood.

squonk

Have to weigh in here and say I really liked it as well. I wasn't expecting a lot admittedly. I was delighted to see Fionnula Flanagan in the credits and then to see she has a fairly important recurring role so that's a plus right off. Some of the CGI was a bit dodge but I'm willing to forgive them that. I just hope that the storyline evolves and doesn't become a procedural cop show kind of thing but we'll see. The fight arena scene put me in mind of Babylon 5 which is no bad thing. I should be more jaded, I've seen all of this before but it's far more engaging than Falling Skies, Continuum and definitely Revolution. I'm actually being unfair to Continuum in throwing it in with FS & Rev .

Also, with the amount of alternate reality Sci Fi around at the moment, it was just nice to see at the beginning some ships show up. The opening shot with the earth being orbited by the alien ships was great and it felt like a breath of fresh air.

Incidentally, I also got put in mind of Earth Final Conflict while watching this. As I say, all good really!

VinLieger

TBH i dont get people complaining about the cgi, this isnt a big budget show you cant expect draw dropping avataresque stuff

Richard Dower

record ratings; http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/04/defiance-breaks-ratings-records-for-syfy.html

stevenmu

The CGI definitely wasn't top notch, but it was really only the car bits that bothered me. They were so poor that they ended up being very jarring. The rest was up to the task though, not jaw dropping but didn't ruin immersion in the show.

I thought that was a good start to the show, better than I expected and I'll look forward to watching a few more.

JP Liz V1

Irisa seems like a good character and like the relationship with her and her dad Nolan, I think Grant Bowler has great charisma to play Nolan so good casting there, overall not a bad pilot

don ramo

pretty good start to the show, i was surprised they used that sphere so soon, thought it would have been some plot point dragged out over a season or 2, it will be interesting to see what it is exactly they former mayor is looking for, seeing as she wanted to wipe out the town in order to find it,

and id say that car chase scene must have been taken right out of the game, probably done on purpose to show some of the game id say, once it relevant to the story graphics like that dont bother me, sanctuary was about 90% CGI and it never put me off it,

im delighted it lived up to my expectations, another decent if earth bound sci-fi show to watch, really missing space though:o:D:D

VinLieger

don ramo wrote: »

and id say that car chase scene must have been taken right out of the game, probably done on purpose to show some of the game id say, once it relevant to the story graphics like that dont bother me, sanctuary was about 90% CGI and it never put me off it,

Nope wasnt taken from the game its a whole different set of awful as far as graphics go