Ascension (Syfy) News/Discussion

[garhkal]

Let alone how are they keeping everyone inside from seeing the reality outside.

[hedwig]

Well! That was certainly a cliffhanger. Some folks wondered if Syfy was planning on the show being continued as a series. With an ending like this one, there's no way they weren't thinking of continuing it as a series.

I was really bummed by some of the events at the end. Especially the "where" in the case of one character.

[Ian-S]

Yeah, I take back what I said earlier, it did add to the story, but holy cow that was quiet a cliffhanger, I read somewhere they were waiting on viewing figures before deciding whether to take it to series, hope they do actually, any boy know what the viewership figures have been?

From the way they lumped all the episodes together one would be forgiven for thinking that they had already decided not to goto series as it gives the impression of wanting to burn the story off quick, but I dunno, didn't they do this with the BSG mini series too?

Let alone how are they keeping everyone inside from seeing the reality outside.

Contrast, similar to how you cannot see a lot of detail outside your room window at night when the lights are on (assuming you don't live in a very well lit street) inside, but as soon as you switch the interior lights off and the same amount of light is available both inside and out, you'll be able to see outside just fine. It looks like the ship is in a huge dome type structure with the fake space being projects on the big dome fixtures,there only looks to be one vantage point outside so it would be mostly dark, with the amount of light and limited windows on the ship, they simply wouldn't see past the stars.

As for gravity, I think that's the part where we're expected to suspend belief lol.

[hedwig]

I didn't find anything that showed the ratings for all three episodes, but found this:

Last night Syfy aired the first episode in its new three-episode "event series" Ascension, and it looks like the premiere didn’t do too badly at all. The first episode premiered last night to pretty strong ratings for Syfy, pulling in 1.8 million viewers overall. Beyond that, the show boasted the second highest number of tweets for a scripted show on the network; the only episode of a Syfy show that has been able to beat it was the 2013 series premiere of Defiance.

While 1.8 million isn’t a huge audience, especially when you compare Ascension to cable shows on other networks that crush (like The Walking Dead, which nabs well over 10 million eyeballs every week, give or take a million), for a Syfy drama, 1.8 is a pretty strong showing. Shows like Dominion and Defiance have kicked off their runs on Syfy around the 2 million mark, and have tapered off to a more consistent viewership of around 1.5 million. To help explain Ascension’s viewership further, this past season of Haven, one of the Syfy's mainstay programs, had an audience just below or at 1 million, so the event series is well up from that.

[TOIVA]

On a technical side, I'm quite curious how they're doing artificial gravity on the ship when it's still standing vertically in a launch silo.

It's pretty simple. The decks on 'Ascension' are horizontal as it stands on the ground. They're experiencing Earth gravity as everyone else out of the ship.

And as for the illusion those on the ship believe in: Ascension can create a semblance of earth gravity by steadily accelerating 'up' (head first as they're standing on decks). Having a nuclear reactor to power it (and hopefully enough fuel), it can thus accelerate for a long, long while. The moment it stops accelerating, all things aboard would experience weightlessness (that's potentially bad if hundreds of people are living in what seems like normal Earth environment with plenty unattached objects around). But in theory, such a ship would never really have to stop accelerating. For instance, it could keep accelerating for half the expected path travelled, then turn around (thanks to some small maneuvering side thrusters - this would however be a moment of potential weightlessness or other mess because of the turnaround) and fire up the engine again, this time accelerating in the opposite direction. That would in fact be slowing down the ship on approach of its target destination.

[Ian-S]

I had to read that three times before I understood what you meant, but it's funny, I've often wondered how fast an object would have to travel before it created it's own internal gravity in space (well not Gravity exactly, but the illusion of it from the inertia).

Edit: 500m/s according to Google, assuming meters per second, so pretty dam fast (1118mph)

[Brother Freyr]

My Review

I simultaneously loved and hated Ascension. The story pulled me in. The experiment was fascinating, creepy, and thought-provoking. The set was gorgeous. Several actors gave strong performances. Plot twists were nicely handled.

And now the bad: to enjoy the show, I was required to ignore much of what I've learned since, well, since ever. Ascension isn't alone. The stupidification* of science fiction has been accelerating for some time.

Would I watch more of Ascension if it launches (ha ha) to a longer series? Maybe. I enjoyed the mini-series, but I also felt satisfied, by the end, that a complete (enough) story had been told. The last-minute revelations were bits of silly, ridiculous fun for me -- they were fantasy, not science fiction -- rather than compelling cliffhangers that require follow-up. Sometimes it's best leave well enough alone, before one spoils it. Would I watch more? Maybe. Probably. And I'd probably be disappointed.


* I planned to claim the coining of the word, but others used it first.

[knowles2]

I had to read that three times before I understood what you meant, but it's funny, I've often wondered how fast an object would have to travel before it created it's own internal gravity in space (well not Gravity exactly, but the illusion of it from the inertia).

Edit: 500m/s according to Google, assuming meters per second, so pretty dam fast (1118mph)

It not the speed it the acceleration and deceleration of 1G. They would have to have a constant acceleration to the halfway point of there journey and constant deacceleration until they reach it.

[Skydiver]

It has potential but...eh.

I had to wonder if Tricia's contract demands that she get naked or maybe she gets cast in shows that take advantage of her comfortableness with her own body
In any case I was kinda getting tired of it (I watched it sunday morning so all in one sit down - give or take. I did miss chunks as I did other stuff)

honestly, if it were to become a series where would it go from where it left off?

Spoiler:

bad guys chasing down the starchild????? Yeah, that's never been done before

[knowles2]

It has potential but...eh.

I had to wonder if Tricia's contract demands that she get naked or maybe she gets cast in shows that take advantage of her comfortableness with her own body
In any case I was kinda getting tired of it (I watched it sunday morning so all in one sit down - give or take. I did miss chunks as I did other stuff)

honestly, if it were to become a series where would it go from where it left off?

Spoiler:

bad guys chasing down the starchild????? Yeah, that's never been done before

Spoiler:

I actually think John Stokes would be the most interesting character to follow as he tries to understand our world and find help. How does one move from a ship with just 600 people to one with 7 billion people. He a bit of a blunt instrument that will need to become scalpel to get anywhere. That will be interesting to see happen.

As to the show as a whole it just felt all a bit of a rush, I bet there is a lot of footage sitting on the editing desk waiting for the DVD.

[Ian-S]

It has potential but...eh.

I had to wonder if Tricia's contract demands that she get naked or maybe she gets cast in shows that take advantage of her comfortableness with her own body
In any case I was kinda getting tired of it (I watched it sunday morning so all in one sit down - give or take. I did miss chunks as I did other stuff)

I must be in a minority then cos I'd never get tired of watching Tricia parade around naked in front of me, for someone two years my junior, she has sure aged a lot better than most 40 year olds.

Now I better clear the recent history and hope my wife never stumbles across this post

[TOIVA]

I'd agree. The problem for me is Viondra was the only one getting fully naked (at least ass was seen of that nakedness in two of the three parts). Everyone else still had underwear on.

That's just stupid. Either there should be more nudity shown across the board or none, not making a single character an exception. (I'd of course prefer the first possibility.)

[Skydiver]

To me, now that they've revealed the 'omg' moment of the ship being a fake, we're just left with 'meglomaniac trying to keep in power vs govt trying to keep power', which is so overdone.

If the 'are they/aren't they' played out longer then it might have been intriguing.

[Brother Freyr]

To me, now that they've revealed the 'omg' moment of the ship being a fake, we're just left with 'meglomaniac trying to keep in power vs govt trying to keep power', which is so overdone.

If the 'are they/aren't they' played out longer then it might have been intriguing.

plus, it's one thing to end a series with a miracle girl who uses mental powers to send people to other planets*. It's quite another to try to build a series around such an absurdity.

*and now that i wrote that sentence, it makes me want to downgrade my review

[Sp!der]

I watched it in one sitting. I liked it, not much the execution but the idea and the potential behind the story. It was sometimes really stupid but most of the times I kept watching because I wanted to know what happened next. I am not sure if a tv show would be wise because it is good as it is now.