Dark Matter [** Spoilers **]

Nody

Did not see a thread for it but episode is up and I love it!

Trailer below:

Shows great promise (but not overly complicated) so far.

brevity

I tried to watch it but got about 15 minutes in and switched it off. Its not for me at all.

Mr E

You must have very high standards. I really liked it.

DMcL1971

I enjoyed it. It seems like cheap and cheerful low budget fare.

Geniass

Did not see the ending. That alone gets it another viewing.

Acting only okay, may take time.

AMKC

Not on here yet till tomorrow. Am looking forward to it.

mafaa

liked the pilot


Exclusive: The brains behind Stargate: Atlantis on coming back to TV with Dark Matter + exclusive concept art

DARK MATTER Scoop: Melissa O’Neil, Marc Bendavid, Anthony Lemke and EP Joe Mallozzi Interview

brevity

Mr E wrote: »

You must have very high standards. I really liked it.

I've probably been a bit spoilt when it comes to television over the last few years so I find it hard to lower my expectations for new, perhaps lower budget, shows.

I just found it a little bit cheap and the fight scenes were a bit naff. The dialog and the amount of tropes in the first 15 minutes pushed me over the end and I had to switch it off.

I might give it another shot if I'm in a more forgiving mood.

DMcL1971

brevity wrote: »

I've probably been a bit spoilt when it comes to television over the last few years so I find it hard to lower my expectations for new, perhaps lower budget, shows.

I just found it a little bit cheap and the fight scenes were a bit naff. The dialog and the amount of tropes in the first 15 minutes pushed me over the end and I had to switch it off.

I might give it another shot if I'm in a more forgiving mood.

I get where you are coming from. I love The Wire, The West Wing, The Americans, Breaking Bad and all that excellent stuff. But I also love to turn my brain off every once in a while and watch some clichéd, predictable entertainment. Like Gotham or Z Nation.

If the characters are likable and the stories are entertaining, I'll stick with it. But if they try to be a serious drama I can't see this lasting too long.

the_syco

DID NOT see that ending coming! Looking forward to the next episode!

Agent Coulson

I get a bit of a Blake's 7 vibe from it.

Should be a fun summer filler and I have always been a fan of Roger R. Cross.

jcrowbar

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I have always been a fan of Roger R. Cross.

He seems to be in everything lately!

Skerries

the_syco wrote: »

DID NOT see that ending coming! Looking forward to the next episode!

when the miners started talking about the Raza (sp!?) as these horrible aliens I knew where the episode was going

DMcL1971

I just finished watching the second episode and thoroughly enjoyed it. The character of 'Two' definitely seems to be the brains of the operation and makes a great leader, I like her a lot. 'Three' is a source of comic relief and is growing on me. 'Six' and 'The Android' are dropping hints of a grand conspiracy of some sort.

The acting and the characterisation of the supporting cast of the miners was quite one dimensional but if they aren't coming back then it doesn't really matter. There were a couple of clever plot twists, the look of the VFX work, particularly on the FTL jump scenes, is very organic and interesting. The stunt work and fight co-ordination were very well done in the big fight scene.

Overall, it's a pretty good, entertaining show. It's not going to be winning any awards but it kept me amused.

pixelburp

Caught the first episode of this and it seemed like the standard quality for ScyFy stuff: decent but nothing special. There's always something a little off about these ScyFy productions, like they lack that certain spark or polish you'd see on other channels. They're also often derivative as hell, so nothing new here either. I'll keep tuning in for now anyway, the mystery's intriguing enough!

Sudden Valley

2nd episode was fun. Will be interesting to see if they take the blake7 route of becoming revolutionaries or the farscape route of "just trying to get home" but helping people on the way. Only annoyance is the main guy (the young white guy) is pretty boring.

AMKC

I think it has potential.The 2nd episode is on tonight. The story lines where nothing new do they have bee n done in Star Trek and lots of other shows. Just watching the first episode I seen two Star Trek story lines. The one about the crew not knowing who they are has been done in Star Trek TNG and the one with the miners and others steeling there resources has been done in Enterprise but it was nice the way the mixed a bit of both storys in together.

Dan_Solo

The amnesiac thing is a bit weak. It basically gives them a license to be trained killers but not be bad guys. Bit too much running around in deserted factories too. I like the cast, more or less.
Better than Killjoys anyway...

Mr E

Episode 3 was good too...

Clones?

Thargor

Cant take any more of this boring syfy mush, same old corridors, same music, same abandoned factories, same boring non-entity actors, Ill read what happens on Wikipedia at some point but Im not wasting hours on another of these shows...

Dan_Solo

Thargor wrote: »

Cant take any more of this boring syfy mush, same old corridors, same music, same abandoned factories, same boring non-entity actors, Ill read what happens on Wikipedia at some point but Im not wasting hours on another of these shows...

You'd wonder how much they're saving (and movie makers too) by making up their own ****e stories when there are literally thousands of books worth of better material out there you'd imagine could be grabbed for a pittance. The challenge seems to be to "do a Star Trek" and set up things in the first few episodes so the gang can run into any sort of adventure they want from week to week. This doesn't look like a story arc thing to me, nor does Killjoys.

pixelburp

Dan_Solo wrote: »

You'd wonder how much they're saving (and movie makers too) by making up their own ****e stories when there are literally thousands of books worth of better material out there you'd imagine could be grabbed for a pittance. The challenge seems to be to "do a Star Trek" and set up things in the first few episodes so the gang can run into any sort of adventure they want from week to week. This doesn't look like a story arc thing to me, nor does Killjoys.

Actually, Dark Matter is based on a comic book so it's not just made up themselves (though no idea how similar to the source material it is / will be).

I've only watched the first two episodes and I'd somewhat echo Thargor's sentiments: Dark Matter is 'OK' and about the standard with ScyFy these days; it's nowhere near the worst genre TV I've watched in the last year (that'd be something like Gotham or The Strain for me), but ScyFy seem to consistently low-ball their productions into the ground - it has become depressing. There's no great effort being put into anything they do, it's all rote, generic. They direly need a creative head with some nous and passion.

People seem to be hoping that The Expanse adaptation will be ScyFy's bright spot, but I remain pessimistic that the channel won't bland it into oblivion.

Dan_Solo

pixelburp wrote: »

Actually, Dark Matter is based on a comic book so it's not just made up themselves (though no idea how similar to the source material it is / will be).

Thanks. Didn't know that. Still, I'd place book storylines over comics also (no offense anybody, I read a few comics myself).
It's not terrible, it was mainly the genericness of the ground based scenes got to me. Derelict warehouses and machine guns... oh dear. If it's an adventure per episode type show I'll pass, a story arc I might go for.
Also, given how cheap looking the opening episodes are, I can assume quality will go downhill if anything from here.

ixoy

pixelburp wrote: »

People seem to be hoping that The Expanse adaptation will be ScyFy's bright spot, but I remain pessimistic that the channel won't bland it into oblivion.

Haven't seen Dark Matter but I've read two books of the Expanse and thought they were poor and clichéd so I don't see how they would raise the bar in quality.
Lots of other series with more potential that I would prefer and even some games such as Mass Effect.

CptMackey

Watching it but it is fairly standard . Nothing that I would miss watching tbh. Will give it 2 or 3 more episodes but I'm not holding out much hope. Would kill for a good scify show.

And recommendations?

Dan_Solo

CptMackey wrote: »

Watching it but it is fairly standard . Nothing that I would miss watching tbh. Will give it 2 or 3 more episodes but I'm not holding out much hope. Would kill for a good scify show.

And recommendations?

IMO the best SF show on now (or next season shortly anyway) is Continuum. It makes more sense than anything else on and has enough budget to cover what it's trying to do properly.

CptMackey

Dan_Solo wrote: »

IMO the best SF show on now (or next season shortly anyway) is Continuum. It makes more sense than anything else on and has enough budget to cover what it's trying to do properly.

Will check it out. Think I saw it on Netflix. Nice one

expectationlost

the black hench men in the 2nd ep were pathetic, need to put up more of a fight to really show how dangerous the crew are

pixelburp

ixoy wrote: »

Haven't seen Dark Matter but I've read two books of the Expanse and thought they were poor and clichéd so I don't see how they would raise the bar in quality.
Lots of other series with more potential that I would prefer and even some games such as Mass Effect.

Yeah they were clichéd but entertaining enough page-turners; what I meant was just that it seems like the adaptation will be ScyFy's next concerted attempt to actually spend some cash and not have a Canadian cast run around some derelict warehouses.

What makes me equally frustrated is that ScyFy are channeling part of their income into those Asylum team-ups; Sharknado and the like. Money that could be going into sets, FX and more script drafts is instead churning out those awful, deliberately ironic 'mockbusters'.

brevity

pixelburp wrote: »

Actually, Dark Matter is based on a comic book so it's not just made up themselves (though no idea how similar to the source material it is / will be).

I've only watched the first two episodes and I'd somewhat echo Thargor's sentiments: Dark Matter is 'OK' and about the standard with ScyFy these days; it's nowhere near the worst genre TV I've watched in the last year (that'd be something like Gotham or The Strain for me), but ScyFy seem to consistently low-ball their productions into the ground - it has become depressing. There's no great effort being put into anything they do, it's all rote, generic. They direly need a creative head with some nous and passion.

People seem to be hoping that The Expanse adaptation will be ScyFy's bright spot, but I remain pessimistic that the channel won't bland it into oblivion.

You prefer Dark Matter to The Strain and Gotham?

pixelburp

brevity wrote: »

You prefer Dark Matter to The Strain and Gotham?

I prefer none of them, but Dark Matter's worst crime so far is that it's bland and utterly, shamelessly derivative. It's not offensively bad; I'd sooner watch that over the sheer atrociousness that was Gotham. Divorced of the Batman brand - which I suspect gave it a lot more leeway than others shows would have received - it's a horrendous show, saddled with bad writing and cliché (important plot information conveyed by a convenient Breaking News!), not to mention really, really stupid characters. I don't get p*ssed off by bad writing/shows that much, but for some reason Gotham left me steaming at how idiotic some of the writing was.

The Strain had a same problem; really stupid - or just plain unsympathetic - characters trying their best to sink any potential the show could have had.

brevity

pixelburp wrote: »

I prefer none of them, but Dark Matter's worst crime so far is that it's bland and utterly, shamelessly derivative. It's not offensively bad; I'd sooner watch that over the sheer atrociousness that was Gotham. Divorced of the Batman brand - which I suspect gave it a lot more leeway than others shows would have received - it's a horrendous show, saddled with bad writing and cliché (important plot information conveyed by a convenient Breaking News!), not to mention really, really stupid characters. I don't get p*ssed off by bad writing/shows that much, but for some reason Gotham left me steaming at how idiotic some of the writing was.

The Strain had a same problem; really stupid - or just plain unsympathetic - characters trying their best to sink any potential the show could have had.

I'm not a huge fan of Gotham either to be honest. It's a bit Law and Order:Gotham City for me but I do have a soft spot for The Strain-despite it's faults. I think the 14 year-old me would have loved The Strain. And I did enjoy the book.

Like you say, production values can help suck people in for a bit and Dark Matter is seriously lacking in them.

As an aside, I hate the stupid spelling of Sci-fi...who decided that?!

Dan_Solo

pixelburp wrote: »

I prefer none of them, but Dark Matter's worst crime so far is that it's bland and utterly, shamelessly derivative. It's not offensively bad; I'd sooner watch that over the sheer atrociousness that was Gotham. Divorced of the Batman brand - which I suspect gave it a lot more leeway than others shows would have received - it's a horrendous show, saddled with bad writing and cliché (important plot information conveyed by a convenient Breaking News!), not to mention really, really stupid characters. I don't get p*ssed off by bad writing/shows that much, but for some reason Gotham left me steaming at how idiotic some of the writing was.

The Strain had a same problem; really stupid - or just plain unsympathetic - characters trying their best to sink any potential the show could have had.

Totally agree here. There a lot I can put up with in a SF show, except for when the main plot driver is (often supposedly trained professionals) doing the most moronic thing imaginable in every possible situation. And I'm looking at you too Prometheus etc.
Then again, if they'd just follow the protocol there'd be no show I guess...

brevity

Dan_Solo wrote: »

Totally agree here. There a lot I can put up with in a SF show, except for when the main plot driver is (often supposedly trained professionals) doing the most moronic thing imaginable in every possible situation. And I'm looking at you too Prometheus etc.
Then again, if they'd just follow the protocol there'd be no show I guess...

Fortitude was another. I don't think I've ever been as angry watching a TV show as I was watching the last 2 episodes of Fortitude.

DMcL1971

I just finished watching episode three and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is nothing special but it is keeping me interested each week. it's cheap but enjoyable. One and Five annoy me a bit but I like the rest of the characters especially The Android.

I wasn't expecting much and it is better than I thought it would be. Whereas with shows like Gotham and The Strain I was expecting a lot more because it was Batman and Del Toro but they both left me disappointed, particularly The Strain.

Sudden Valley

Third episode was ok. Still uncertain whether i'm going to continue with this as the character are all so pretty and boring. This show and killjoys are made by the same channel , right ? Cos they could easily inhabit the same universe they are so generic.

Nody

Sudden Valley wrote: »

Third episode was ok. Still uncertain whether i'm going to continue with this as the character are all so pretty and boring. This show and killjoys are made by the same channel , right ? Cos they could easily inhabit the same universe they are so generic.

They are shown back to back (Killjoy being the second of teh two) live so yes.

Tristram

Nothing to see here. Crap storyline and bland characters lacking any chemistry.

Dan_Solo

E03 wasn't as bad I was expecting. There was some mild suspense and a bit of whodunit going on. The last scene throws the cat among the pigeons, but may be a lot less interesting for the overall story TBH if what we're expecting is true.
Anyway, I'll probably have to watch them all now. Terrible idea putting it back to back with Killjoys. Two shows are far too similar (though Dark Matter is much better IMO).

don ramo

Dan_Solo wrote: »

E03 wasn't as bad I was expecting. There was some mild suspense and a bit of whodunit going on. The last scene throws the cat among the pigeons, but may be a lot less interesting for the overall story TBH if what we're expecting is true.
Anyway, I'll probably have to watch them all now. Terrible idea putting it back to back with Killjoys. Two shows are far too similar (though Dark Matter is much better IMO).

id say its just his twin brother, doubt itll be a clone,

it would be much more interesting if the shows crossed over, i wonder if syfy thought of including some element like that when they greenlit 2 space based shows to air back to back, killjoys seems based in a small enough system that the dark matter crew could drop by, and the RAC and killjoys could be solely based out of that system,

must say though killjoys 2nd episode was much much better than the pilot, whereas dark matter seems to have remained consistent throughout its 3 episodes,

Sudden Valley

I dont think that actor is good enough to play both his bland character on the ship and his evil twin. I liked how they were so quick to believe the girl was dreaming all their memories. Out of the two shows i only think the british actress in killjoys and the funny older guy in dark matter are good.

stiffler123

Really enjoying this so far, it reminds me of Firefly. Interesting characters apart from "One" but I suppose he is needed as the moral compass of the show.

DMcL1971

That was a good, fun episode. The team breaks up into separate groups and all end up having mini-adventures that don't go according to plan. I think that they are doing a good job of developing all the characters, they each have distinct personalities and I have grown to like them all except 'One', he still annoys me.

I can't figure out what age 'Five' is supposed to be, they talk about her as if she is a little girl but she looks to me like she is in her twenties.

I think I will be sticking with this show for some cheap and cheerful entertainment.

Sudden Valley

Unfortunately it seems 1 and 2 are going to be the main couple of the show and it is becoming obvious to me that 1 is a mediocre actor. 2 is better but is really starting to resemble aeryn sun in dress sense.

FreudianSlippers

stiffler123 wrote: »

Really enjoying this so far, it reminds me of Firefly. Interesting characters apart from "One" but I suppose he is needed as the moral compass of the show.

It's basically a complete ripoff of Firefly with a few other shows thrown in for good measure.

It's pretty bad so far IMO, but I'll watch to see if it gets any better.

DMcL1971

I really enjoyed episode 5. Yeah I know it was a rip off of plenty of 'trapped on a ship while running out of time' plots or 'trapped in an enclosed place with a bunch of zombies' plots and zombies in space has even been done before but I had fun with it. The characters have grown on me and I have started to care about them all. Except 'One', just chuck him out the airlock and be done with it.

pixelburp

Hang on a tick, they've brought zombies into the mix now? Well, space-zombies I guess. Ach no, there's being derivative and then there's just narrative slumming. I defended the show a few posts back but if the scripts are being this unimaginative and uninspired, it scarcely deserves watching

DMcL1971

Well zombies certainly aren't doing 'The Walking Dead' any harm or 'iZombie or 'Z Nation' and we have 'Fear the Walking Dead' coming out soon so I don't begrudge a cheapy show like 'Dark Matter' a bit of intergalactic undead action, as long as they don't make a habit of it.

To be honest, I also watch 'The 'Walking Dead' and I enjoy 'Dark Matter' more than that.

AMKC

I quite enjoyed the show tonight. It reminded me a lot about the Enterprise episode where they find the Vulcans that have turned into zombies. What about no.2 do you think she still has the virus or is it gone as they think it is. I think she might still have it as she was scratching where her plaster was after she took it of at the end of the episode.

don ramo

AMKC wrote: »

I quite enjoyed the show tonight. It reminded me a lot about the Enterprise episode where they find the Vulcans that have turned into zombies. What about no.2 do you think she still has the virus or is it gone as they think it is. I think she might still have it as she was scratching where her plaster was after she took it of at the end of the episode.

she wasnt scratching, she was rubbing the blood away to see where the bite mark went, and it has completely healed already,

id say the crew could be some kind of new synthetic clones, like ones other self said, 1 could be a clone, but clones only last 3 or 4 days, maybe the crew are some kind of new experimental clone, and maybe thats linked to that quarantine zone where the space zombies came from, and thats why the zombie virus didnt kill 2,

interesting mix of stargate personnel, amanda tapping direct the last episode and then david hewlitt was in this one, and the show was created by some of the stargate team,

FreudianSlippers

Watched a few minutes... space zombies (:rolleyes:) turned it off. I'll give it another go tonight, but I think the show is losing the plot before it even gets started properly. I'm not expecting this to survive past a first season.