I am not convinced yet that Zoe had an abortion, she keeps hearing a baby cry, it makes me wonder if she didn’t manage to sneak off for several months, have the baby and then come back to the program. It makes for a
more dramatic reveal later when it comes out she had Donner’s baby as opposed to “by the way, I aborted your fetus five years ago.”
The bit that I felt was beating us over the head was the bit with the biologist deciding to save one of the bunny embryos. The biologist who’s long held apparently pro-choice views were changed by one comment from an airhead about her killling her children. :rolleyes:
I started to watch it, but the opening scene showed instantaneous communication between Earth and Mars. At their absolute closest, they’d be 3 light minutes apart. I’m willing to suspend some disbelief for a sci fi show, but if you’re going to play with the speed of light, you’d damn well better have colonies on Betelgeuse.
Anyone want to spoil the “if they knew, how many of them do you think would have volunteered” mystery from the commercials?
[Spoiler]There is something called ‘Beta’ that apparently has control over the selection of personnel who went on the mission, and perhaps the mission profile itself. Currently only a few of the senior ground staff, and the mission commander, know who or what Beta is and presumably, what its purpose is; the rest of the crew is to be told on arrival at Venus. Best guess is an alien or AI.
Beta apparently somehow induced a medical defect in two of the crew to have them replaced at the last minute, and may be planting dreams and hallucinations in other crew members, and messing with shipboard equipment, for unknown purposes. Pod 4 aboard the ship either contains Beta or a means of communicating with it; the mission commander was on his way there but got diverted by an ‘accident’ (which may not have been) involving another crew member. It all remains very vague at the moment.[/spoiler]
I’m fearing a really, really ham-fisted ‘message’ regarding the bunny embryos and Zoe’s aborted child, likely involving that mystery ‘Beta’ thing. Perhaps it’ll turn out to be the starchild from 2001…
Yeah, it’s worrisome. Also, that whole experiment was designed by someone who doesn’t actually know the meaning of “natural selection.”
I believe that Goss (the guy they were talking to) was in orbit while the rest of the crew had taken a lander to the surface, as in the Apollo missions. Indeed, I’m sure of it given that he was by himself in that scene, but the rest of the show makes clear that the agency runs a Mission Control center not unlike the ones we know today.
Hey, I was disappointed when Two and Half Men turned out to be a crappy sitcom and not a drama about a pair of serial killers and their latest partly-eaten victim, but I got over it.
I rather liked it. It might not be realistic, but I found it entertaining anyway. I’ll definately be watching the next episode.
The only criticism I have is the mystical part of the show. A good space drama would be enough for me and I don’t like horror, so I hope it doesn’t turn out to something like that.
It occurs to be that there is a 3rd option since the shows set 4 decades in the future. If artificial wombs exist she might have just had the fetus extracted and put up for adoptions (it would certainly make abortion ban and mandatory reporting of all pregnnancies less draconian). I the writers have thought of that since the dialoge between Zoe and Jen suggest that her only options were to have the child (ending her career) or an illegal abortion (also ending her career if found out). I can’t imagine how she could’ve “sneaked off” for six months or more in the middle of training without raising eyebrows.
Not bad, slow moving but I’m assuming that’s because it’s building to something. It’s good to see them trying to give the ensemble some background rather than just hurling them straight into space without some much as a ‘hello’.
I don’t know about the baby crying, but I get the feeling that the mysterious “it” that Mission Control were talking about is the ship itself - it’s either a software AI or some kind of biological/electronic/mechanical organism. If so, that could be quite interesting, however I could be way off the reservation as I haven’t read a thing about the show prior to watching it.
So I guess I’m the only one with a wicked earworm from this show?
I liked it enough that it’ll be one of the shows I’ll watch at lunch at work - not enough interest to commit to watching at home, but enough that I’ll keep watching to see what happens. And I have to agree with the poster that pointed out the whole cast is ridiculously good-looking. They really should’ve thrown in some average people to make it convincing.
They are visiting seven planets in six years. Venus is just the first.
I watched the show following the pilot on Hulu and they have Zoe get in a spacesuit that looks for all the world like a very deep sea diving suit. While they are strapping her into it they talk about the violent conditions on the surface of Venus and her suit is presumably built specifically to tolerate it and keep her alive.
This all takes place in 2052 (or 2051) so presumably they have some future tech that allows for such a suit to work on Venus. Sci-fi ya know…sometimes you just have to go with the magic tech that allows for the absurd (who complains about Star Trek transporters?).
However, the characters have made some oblique references to Earth being a mess (they are glad to leave it behind). The one woman mentions abortion is illegal per a supreme court decision. I also have the sense that having babies is, in their future world, a super desirable thing to be cherished as if people ordinarily can’t or something like that (no idea). The woman (biologist, forget her name) seems to make a pretty big deal out of having babies with her husband as if it is more than just a generic husband/wife talking about having kids someday. Still, if babies are rare and especially cherished on Earth 2051 I could see the social mores changing to reflect that.
There just is not enough backstory about how the Earth in general is doing to tell what the scoop is.
I dunno.
I agree the whole baby haunting her thing is stupid unless we find that Beta (whatever it is) is affecting her somehow.
I actually considered something like that but I was posting from my iPhone and didn’t want to type all that out.
Again, I think the abortion thing is a red herring and even though they’ve made it seem like there’s no way she could have had a baby and still be in the program something may come up later. They are not going to put all their cards on the table in the first couple episodes and they could be holding back option 3 for a reveal later on. To reiterate, I think a child alive somewhere is going to be a much bigger dramatic plot point than an aborted fetus.
Also, a mutated bunny rabbit prowling the station for human flesh would be pretty dramatic and interesting, but they probably won’t go in that direction.
Lots of people? At least there’s a rational reason why someone would try to invent the teleporter, even if the implementation on the show is FUBAR. The first meeting after the decision to build the Venus-walking suit should have begun with the firing of the idiot who thought walking on Venus was something worth aiming for.
Well, science geeks will note that a transporter cannot really work and the show gives a nod to how they work by using the magical “Heisenberg Compensator” but in terms of the show I think most people, even physicists, are ok with it. It’s a story, they are allowed their MacGuffins.
I agree there seems no rational reason to go on a walkabout on Venus but then we do not know, yet, the real motivation of why the whole mission to all the planets is even happening. Presumably they actually have a reason to walk around Venus, probably provided by the Beta thingy, we are unaware of.
If it turns out they figure as long as we are there they may as well go for a walk then that would be a real let down.
