Syfy is jumping into the comic book-adaptation game, having acquired the rights to Dark Horse’s Dark Matter graphic novel series.
The network has picked up a 13-episode series based on Dark Matter, which actually only spawned four issues. The series will keep things in the Syfy family, as the original Dark Matter comics comes from Stargate writers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.
The original comic tells the story of a spaceship crew who all wake up from stasis with no memory of their mission or even who they are. They begin to look for answers when the ship reaches its destination, a mining colony.
Prodigy Pictures is producing the series with Mallozzi and Mullie on board to produce the TV show, which, is actually the original intended form for the project. Jay Firestone and Vanessa Piazza are also executive producing. Dark Matter is currently planned to be added to the Syfy schedule in 2015. TVLine first reported the news.
I thought it was a very solid series premier! I thought it certainly had a strong vibe of a mix between Stargate Atlantis & SG:Universe! Not to mention that Rodney McKay aka David Hewlett is supposed to guest star!!
It also had a description of a species that sounded a lot like the Wraith.
It has a shuttle that looks like a mix between a Puddle Jumper & Goa'uld Tel'tak
I wonder what is behind the big blast door on the ship?
Last edited by ChiefSequatchie; 06-13-2015 at 08:09 PM.
Enjoyed the premiere...this definitely looks like 'my cup of tea'! I'm loving the
[Show spoiler]droid...
Quote:
The Android
ZOIE PALMER
In personality, The Android is more butler-like than your typical robot - concise, staid, yet surprisingly possessed of a subtly wry sense of humor. She is an indispensible member of the crew since she can exercise control over all the ship's systems, an ability of which she isn't shy about reminding everyone. An outsider among the ship's human passengers, she is almost child-like in her earnest desire to fit in. Her character will grow and evolve through her interactions with her human charges as she’ll inevitably gain acceptance as a member of the crew.
[Show spoiler]We open on a ship floating through deep space. Inside, the spaceship looks like the Nostromo from Alien, but with more flattering lighting. Sparks fly and steam hisses, and a robot voice announces that "life support is at 15%."
A handsome guy emerges, frightened and confused, from his sleeping pod. He runs through the ship, apparently looking for information. A gorgeous, tough-looking woman emerges from her pod, finds the guy looking at the ship's computer, smacks him across the face and kicks his butt (a good entrance!). She pushes him out of the way like he’s a pile of old newspapers and presses a button to restore life support. A gritty-looking guy appears, holding two flashlights and demanding: "Who are you?!" Everybody agrees that nobody knows who they are. Many of us can relate to this, but these characters actually don't know their own names.
More residents wake up in their sleeping pods: a sleek-looking bald guy, a super-buff guy with a goatee and a teenager who is probably subversive because she has turquoise hair. Nobody knows his or her identity or how he or she ended up in outer space. The gritty dude finds a corridor that leads them to the main part of the ship ... and the tough woman says that "systems were down and we were venting atmosphere. I was able to get back online and restore the ship's auto-repair protocol." She doesn't know how she knew how to do that, she just did. The handsome guy proclaims that they will be named by the order in which they woke up. He is One, Tough Woman is Two, Gritty Dude is Three, Bald Man is Four, Turquoise-Haired Teenager is Five, and Super-Buff Man is Six.
The group surmises that they are the crew on a transport vessel doing a long range haul and their ship encountered technical difficulties ... although this does not explain their lack of memory. Three opens a crate in which there are a bunch of firearms. Two tells everybody to pair off and explore the ship.
Two and Five head to the main computer room, hoping to fix the system. Three and Six find the cockpit. Elsewhere, One wonders why Two was able to remember how to use the ship computer when he couldn't. He also wonders how long they were in their sleeping pods (Days? Months? Years?). He points out that their entire memories weren't erased, otherwise he wouldn't be able to know what a pod was, or a year, or even have language abilities. Four leads them to what appears to be training room ... or a torture chamber. There, he shows off some serious sword-fighting abilities.
In another room, Three finds a pod containing a sleeping woman, who soon opens her scary, Stepford Wife-like eyes. Meanwhile, Two is working on the computer when it initiates "some kind of security protocol." We cut back to the formerly sleeping woman robotically beating the holy hell out of Three and Six. Six communicates to Two that they're under attack. One arrives and tries to get the blonde woman from behind but she swats him across the room. Four tries to use his fancy sword moves on her but she dodges his attacks while also looking like she’s dancing in a Janet Jackson music video circa 1989. Two figures out that the woman must be part of the ship's "security protocol" ... and de-activates her!
Two reveals that the formerly sleeping woman is an android whose "biosynthetic physiology" is similar to that of the ship's outer hull. Two is smart. Three wants to lock The Android away, but Two says that she's de-programmed her security command and re-booted her so that she is no longer a threat to the gang, and could prove useful. She apparently has a neural link to the ship's mainframe, allowing her to repair the ship and potentially its computer's memory.
The group wakes The Android up and asks why she attacked them, although she has no memory of this. Two asks her to establish a neural link with the main ship and access any data about the identities of those on board. The Android says that no such data exists. Two says that it's impossible that the ship erased all of the data accidentally ... somebody must have deleted the information intentionally!
Two orders The Android to run a full diagnostic and restore all computer systems. The Android has become surprisingly agreeable since her re-boot. She informs Two that the ship is emitting a distress signal.
In the ship's infirmary, Five pieces together a gadget with what appears to be enormous skill while Six looks for something to treat his headache (wouldn't you have one?). Five freaks Six out by randomly announcing that "headaches can be caused by blood vessel abnormalities, or brain tumors." When he asks how she knows that, she responds: "I don't know. I just do." She continues to spout off lots of information about tumors, blood cells, and which arteries to slash in order to kill a person, proving that, at some point, she had interests that went far beyond listening to Le Tigre and dyeing her hair to bug her parents. She makes the unidentified gadget work.
In the main cabin of the ship, Four finds a box hidden behind one of the locker walls. Its outside bears a pattern similar to that of the carpet of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, so it must be ominous and important.
The Android discovers that the ship was hit by a meteorite, causing a fair amount of damage to the ship and its computer systems ... which explains why they'd been on life support. As an alarm goes off, The Android reveals that another vessel is heading right for them ... and has launched missiles that will hit them in 60 seconds. The Android over-taxes the ship's engines and the crew loses gravity, but they evade the attack. The Android uncovers the ship's original destination: it is headed towards an inhabited world. Everybody is freaked out.
Four tries to figure out what’s going on with his mysterious box, which seems like a puzzle (the last thing the ship needs is a visit from Pinhead and the Cenobites, so hopefully he'll be careful). Five tells Six that, while unconscious, she had a vision of a big, dark, metal door that "they" always keep locked because of dark secrets. Concurrently, Three finds a door that looks suspiciously like the one in her vision, which he tries to blast open with a huge gun. It doesn’t open but he gets hurled against a wall. Whenever men act arrogantly on this ship, they get their butts kicked.
In his bed, One finds a necklace with a distinctive pendant. Two stops by to summon him to the cockpit for their descent into orbit. The sexual tension between them smolders. "I suggest you wear pants," she says, looking at his boxer briefs with a combination of attraction and disdain. Shaming as flirtation device! Take notes.
One, Three, Four and Six take the ship's shuttle to what appears to be an impoverished factory town. Our voyagers raise their guns in response to a pack of villagers with weapons, who want to know if "Rothgar" sent them. It is challenging to be in these situations when you know nothing about yourself! One suggests that everyone lower their weapons and go for drinks.
One notices that one of the women of the planet wears a necklace that matches the one he found in his bed. Three lies that their ship was invaded and raided and they found this planet in desperation. The residents mine terrium (the futuristic equivalent of oil) and they kindly offer to help the crew restock their ship, but tell them that they better get away as soon as possible. It seems that the evil Ferrous Corporation hit a terrium goldmine nearby and wants to inhabit their planet. The miners expect that the corporation is going to send The Raza, a gang of assassins, to kill everybody as part of a hostile takeover. According to legend, these killers might be giant half-man/half-reptiles, but they don't know because nobody has lived to tell about an encounter with them.
The apparent leader of the miners says that they gathered their money and sent Rothgar away for enough arms to equip everybody to fight The Raza. One suspects that he and his fellow amnesiacs are the suppliers, as the girl with the necklace tells One that Rothgar gave it to her when he left, telling her that, when the suppliers arrived, the same necklace would identify them as allies.
Back on the ship, Five tries to fix one of the damaged consoles. She tells Two that she had a dream that she was walking her brother back to the palace where people murdered her father and then came for her. Instead of murdering them, she carved out their eyes and left them for her *****y stepmother to find. What's even weirder is she claims that the dream wasn't hers, but somebody else's.
The crew debates about whether to help the miners or sell the weapons for quick cash. Two puts it to a vote. The vote is split, so Two decides to put half the crates aside for selling, and bring the rest to the miners. A good compromise.
The Android discovers the identities of everybody on the crew, except for Five: They are all vicious criminals with histories of murder, theft, kidnapping, you name it. Two tells everybody that The Raza is not the name of a team of assassin aliens but of the ship itself. They are not there to help the miners, but to kill them!
Admittedly, it's a little disappointing that we're not going to see giant lizards, but the moral quandary presented by this scenario is arguably even more exciting.
Pretty good though not great premiere. It's nice to see a SyFy show set in outer space. Roger Cross is a solid presence as usual and Melissa O'Neil who plays Two is a major hottie.
Pretty good though not great premiere. It's nice to see a SyFy show set in outer space. Roger Cross is a solid presence as usual and Melissa O'Neil who plays Two is a major hottie.
Agree about Melissa O'Neil. Super hot. Never heard of her prior to this show, but reading background on her I see she's a Canadian singer and was on Canadian Idol 10 years ago. I thought she was pretty good as the leader of the group.
I love Roger Cross, but damn, the guy is everywhere. He's on this, Continuum, Motive, The Strain and made appearances on Orphan Black, Arrow among others. I think he's the only major working male black actor in Canada.
I agree with your comment. The 2 episodes were good, but not great.
It was good to see Torri Higginson again from Stargate Atlantis in the second episode. Although the role was minor. I guess her connection to the writers/producers helped. I never liked how she was written out of Atlantis.
If only the Syfy flicks were this well made. Currently dog sitting at my Dad's and burnt through the movies I took with me so I'm now checking out some of the opening episodes of some of this seasons new shows.
There been any answers yet? Seems like it could end up being another Lost with the sheer amount of questions raised by the opening episode alone. Dunno whether I can be bothered with all that again.
If only the Syfy flicks were this well made. Currently dog sitting at my Dad's and burnt through the movies I took with me so I'm now checking out some of the opening episodes of some of this seasons new shows.
There been any answers yet? Seems like it could end up being another Lost with the sheer amount of questions raised by the opening episode alone. Dunno whether I can be bothered with all that again.
Episode 4 starts to answer some things...
But also raises a few as well...
Also, They actually give an answer to everything, only to nearly right away, say that, no, that isn't what happened...lol....
My rules with TV shows are
- 5 episode minimum with new shows.
- If it is an older show that I've never seen before, if it has 7 or more seasons, I just skip it... UNLESS there is a real reason for it to run that long...
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Syfy's "Dark Matter" (Season 2)
Dark Matter
w/Dark Matter, Defiance & Kill Joys coming up, oh my!! 
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