Defying Gravity - News/Articles/Discussion (Spoilers)

[the fifth man]

Overall, I liked the premiere. But if the ratings stay where they are, this show will definitely not be on long.

[SBN]

Overall, I liked the premiere. But if the ratings stay where they are, this show will definitely not be on long.

Agreed. Frankly I don't have any expectation for this show to survive. I really had a difficult time finding any entertainment in this show. I will watch the next few episodes to see if, and how, it changes.

One thing I found extremely disturbing was the way flashbacks were done all through the episode. At some points I really had to pay attention a little bit more than I should have, a few rewinds or so, just to keep pace with the storyline that was all over. If this level of editing continues I will not care to watch further. I found it at best amateurish. At the end of the show it just seemed like a haphazard method of cut and paste various scenes to form a show, regardless of how they connected.

[Herb]

I thought it was great. Once people understand what is going on with Beta (this is where we sci-fi fans will love the show), I think people will enjoy it more. I am not sure how non-sci-fi people will enjoy the show (since I am not one of them). People should keep in mind that the ratings were fine compared to other shows on ABC that were previously in that same late Sunday night time slot, and that more than one SG-1 and SGA episode recieved the same rating of 1.1 (or 3.7 million viewers).

The production quality was wonderful. I liked the pace of the show as well. It wasn't all about danger danger danger, anxiety anxiety anxiety, run for your lives! There are a lot of characters to get to know and I think the editors did a great job with the first two episodes. I look forward to seeing more.

[tinerin]

My understanding is that the entire airlock situation was planned by Beta. It wanted the fat physicist on the mission so he could come up with that weird idea that saved the girl's oxygen supply. It wanted to switch the commanders because it knew he would have tethered the girl even though the airlock was never supposed to open. And it knew that the suit had a tiny rupture in it so it opened the airlock knowing that the girl would survive rather than if the astronauts found out about the damaged suit when they arrived on Venus.

[Madwelshboy]

Defying Gravity - Episode 1.05 - Rubicon - Promotional Photos

http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/0...5-rubicon.html

[knowles2]

About the ratings one point got to be made is in this case the ratings in the US does not count much, because ABC invested relevantly little in the project they just paid per episode, and anyway the rating equal there other programs in that time slot, the ratings matter much more in Germany, UK and Canada who have all directly invested in the project.
Plus the production company can make from other international tv networks.
Plus the BBC will advertise the hell out of the program when it does air here. I suspect that DVD sales will also influence the decision to product more episodes much more than other shows.

As to what beta is I suspect that it one of the astronoughts that were left behind on mars. one was all Alpha who died or disappear and one of them was named beta.
If it not one of the astronauts then it is something they found on Mars an the mission there bought it back to earth.

What I want to no is what it did to gain such blind faith from nasa, did it demonstrate it power to them through destruction or did it do in some other way.

I do not think it is a computer, or even an alien computer it seem to obvious.
An other question is why does it want to go to the seven planets with in the solar system, is it looking for something, trying to teach humanity something. What else did it choose for the mission, the evolution experiment for instant. An why does it choose to take the form of the blond scientist. The crying baby, was beta somehow involve with the banning of terminations in America or the entire world for that matter.
Why did it reverse the sterilisation of the bloke, was really a procedure gone wrong or was it beta.

The cutting seem not less well done than Lost did it flashback and unlike lost it seem most these are pretty logical.

I agree the line should of had a motor and is probably a flaw to rectrified on the next version of the space craft.

[AvatarIII]

About the ratings one point got to be made is in this case the ratings in the US does not count much, because ABC invested relevantly little in the project they just paid per episode, and anyway the rating equal there other programs in that time slot, the ratings matter much more in Germany, UK and Canada who have all directly invested in the project.
Plus the production company can make from other international tv networks.
Plus the BBC will advertise the hell out of the program when it does air here. I suspect that DVD sales will also influence the decision to product more episodes much more than other shows.

except that ratings don't matter to the BBC that much since we've already paid our licensing fee

[magictrick]

Today is the first time I'm hearing about this show, so I'm not surprised the ratings weren't that good. I haven't seen any previews or anything about this show at all, and picking August to launch a new show is not the best idea. There's a good reason why most shows start in the Sept - Nov period (except HBO shows, but they are always successful anyway).

I will definitely be checking out the premiere episode though since I found out Ron Livingston is in this. He was great in Band of Brothers and of course Office Space.

[LoneStar1836]

No,

Spoiler:

they said there was already a scheduled supply ship going up to the Antares; I believe it was originally supposed to be unmanned, but was equipped to accommodate passengers if needed.

Spoiler:

I know it had that detail, so having a ship ready wasn't really the problem, it was them allowing him and the other guy to just get on it and take off. There has got to be some procedure/protocol there that can't be done in less than 8 hours as well as final prepping for the rocket, etc, etc. and it was all done in less than 8 hours on the fly.

But I guess it's all part of the conspiracy. *duh duh dun*

So that the candidates can perform exercises on Earth that simulate weightlessness. Standard ops for astronauts.

I know our astronauts do all kinds of prepping in buoyancy tanks, but they do that kind of training in suits unless you are talking about something else.

Besides the ship they were on had artificial gravity and this particular guy was probably not going to go out in an EVA suit and do repairs, etc.

If they answered that question in the first two episodes, there wouldn't be much of a mystery story for the rest of the series, now would there?

Of course not, but it certainly didn't hook me either as I really don't care what the conspiracy is because I don't like most of those people anyway.


Meh, I find the story and the acting dodgy (even though I only gave this show a look because of Ron Livingston) so I might watch the second episode to see if the story gets any better but otherwise it will most likely be a pass for me.

And seeing that the ratings were in the tank (did ABC even advertise this except for the day it premiered? ), I doubt it sticks around long anyway.

[knowles2]

except that ratings don't matter to the BBC that much since we've already paid our licensing fee

Spoiler:

I know it had that detail, so having a ship ready wasn't really the problem, it was them allowing him and the other guy to just get on it and take off. There has got to be some procedure/protocol there that can't be done in less than 8 hours as well as final prepping for the rocket, etc, etc. and it was all done in less than 8 hours on the fly.

But I guess it's all part of the conspiracy. *duh duh dun*

I know our astronauts do all kinds of prepping in buoyancy tanks, but they do that kind of training in suits unless you are talking about something else.

Besides the ship they were on had artificial gravity and this particular guy was probably not going to go out in an EVA suit and do repairs, etc.

Nasa is going back to Apollo sea landings with it next generation space craft capsules landing systems, well they were last time I check, in case the capsule seals are breach the people inside would need to evacuate into the sea, and why a life raft would most likely be available immediately, the exercise was clearly design to see if they could stay at sea on there own for a substantial time and still help themselves when the rescuers arrive.

Of course not, but it certainly didn't hook me either as I really don't care what the conspiracy is because I don't like most of those people anyway.


Meh, I find the story and the acting dodgy (even though I only gave this show a look because of Ron Livingston) so I might watch the second episode to see if the story gets any better but otherwise it will most likely be a pass for me.

Give the actors some settling in time, they always look dodgy in pilots at least to me, it takes a few episodes for most series to get going and for actors to start actually act decently.

[Madwelshboy]

Defying Gravity - Episode 1.03 - Threshold - Promo

http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/0...threshold.html

Defying Gravity - Episode 1.03 - Threshold - Sneak Peek

http://spoilertv.blogspot.com/2009/0...eshold_05.html

[MIZA]

yeah i am watching it now, it looks pretty good there are some stuff that annoys me about it, and if the ratings don't pick it is definitely canceled , like most things i enjoy

[AvatarIII]

yeah i am watching it now, it looks pretty good there are some stuff that annoys me about it, and if the ratings don't pick it is definitely canceled , like most things i enjoy

i rthought it was intended as a one-off miniseries anyway. or was the plan to do other missions (jupiter's moons? pluto? beyond?)

one thing i meant to ask was, do they have the aurora magnetic radiation sheilding that they had in the original show?

[Madwelshboy]

I do like what i've seen so far, but i agree with people saying that it wont last simply because its a show that's really hard to market. The show was described as "Grey's Anatomy in space", which is kinda fitting, but there lies the problem with any potential longevity. For a lot of the typical sci-fi fans, their not going to like all the character drama, the interpersonal relationships etc. On the other had the general audience that's attracted to character drama etc, are going to be put of by the sci-fi elements of the show. The show is catered to a very niche market.

[ames]

In general, I liked the show. Seeing as the second half (ours aired as a 2-hour premiere ... is that not how it aired for everyone else?) was better than the first, I have high hopes for the episodes to continue growing in strength of writing.

Yes, there were things that drove me a bit batty ... like how long the tether was (not to mention the apparent lack of motorised reeling in system), and the fact that everyone seemed to think the fellow would be allowed to remain active in the program after taking his unauthorized sight-seeing walk.

A few questions arose as well:
Why were there only two backup officers available? If there were over 1000 applicants for each position, why wasn't there a full back-up team standing by?
Why would a married couple be allowed to participate in the program, especially with one technically being in command of the other?
Who/what is Beta ... and more importantly, *where* is Alpha?
Judging from the flashbacks - just how long as 'Beta' been involved in the planning of this program?

Speaking of the flashbacks, yes, there seemed to be a lack of distinct transitions to cue the audience that we were in a flashback. Some had dates on them, but some were more based on contextual evidence ... I enjoyed getting the background information, as well as seeing parts of their training, but the jumping around on the timeline did make me have to pay rather close attention!

We'll see what comes about next week!
Oh, and to answer someone's question about advertising, we (SW Ontario) started getting snippets for the show maybe 3 weeks ago? Not a long build-up at all -- but there was enough of a one to get both my dad and I independently to set our PVRs to record the show