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Ascension (Syfy) (1 Viewer)

Adam Lenhardt

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The first night of Syfy's three-night miniseries aired tonight.

After the first episode, I'll definitely be sticking around until the end. After years and years of schlock, it's nice to see Syfy attempt something truly ambitious again.

The concept -- that Project Orion resulted in an ark that the United States secretly launched in 1963 to colonize a distant planet -- is a strong one. The idea of a population that has rejected and embraced different parts of the 1963 legacy that they inherited over the past fifty years is a compelling concept to play with. The production design and the costume design are both top notch. Lots of fun historical details, and sets that cohesively fit together into a whole and feel like part of one massive ship. Even the actors -- especially the girl who plays creepy little Christa -- are a few cuts above Syfy's usual talent pool.

Where it fell short for me was the writing. It's a pretty well plotted mystery, with a terrific twist at the end of the 90 minutes that both caught me off guard and answered some of my questions. But the dialog was awful, shoehorning exposition in through the most hamfisted of ways. Because of all of the unkowns at play, you don't get a really good feel for the characters.

So the writing's only a marginal improvement over Syfy's average. But all the other elements are such a leap ahead of Syfy's average that it still averaged out into a worthwhile investment of time.
 

mattCR

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The writing did have.. issues. Thta said, the last 4 minutes of the show was pretty freaking brilliant, and I was really surprised by that twist.
 

DaveF

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And I'm grooving on this. The intro was superb, the climax fantastic. The middle with some writing a bit mushy, but generally good. Some terrific casting. And I've become a sucker for retro-'50s / '60s scifi settings.

And if you like this, I want to recommend the book "Wool". It's completely different, but there are some similarities.

But best of all, to me, was the line with Gil Bellows' character:
"What do you do?"
"I'm an engineer. I evaluate government contracts."

Between this and "Scorpion", I've got two shows starring Government Contractors! Finally, I feel represented on TV! :D
 

TonyD

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Yeh but Scorpion is weak. I'll record all 3 on tis then watch it all.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Some interesting shades in tonight's episode, even though it was obviously the middle between the big step up of last night and (hopefully) the big pay off of tomorrow night.

Favorite moment was Christa looking straight at the camera and dumping the milk. Creepy as hell, and yet somehow also exactly like a petulant 12-year-old.
 

Steve Armbrust

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I found myself screaming at the TV set over some of the idiotic science miscues. For example, this is a ship built in the 1960's, which doesn't seem to be rotating to establish any sort of artificial gravity, and besides the floors are not on the curved surfaces at all but perpendicular to them, and yet, there is gravity. And not to give away the ending of the first episode, I can't believe that in 50 years, no one on this ship has ever had to do an EVA!!

But I guess I'll tune in for the second episode just to see how bad of a train wreck this turns out to be.
 

Quentin

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I like the premise, most of the cast, the look, etc. I'm having a tough time with some limp and/or sketchy dialogue/moments that just seem too rough/weak.
 

Greg.K

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Steve Armbrust said:
I found myself screaming at the TV set over some of the idiotic science miscues. For example, this is a ship built in the 1960's, which doesn't seem to be rotating to establish any sort of artificial gravity, and besides the floors are not on the curved surfaces at all but perpendicular to them, and yet, there is gravity. And not to give away the ending of the first episode, I can't believe that in 50 years, no one on this ship has ever had to do an EVA!!

But I guess I'll tune in for the second episode just to see how bad of a train wreck this turns out to be.
I figured they had gravity due to constant acceleration of the ship. But then the time scale for reaching Proxima Centauri was way off... And with nuke pulse propulsion you wouldn't have constant acceleration anyway. Oh well.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Steve Armbrust said:
I found myself screaming at the TV set over some of the idiotic science miscues. For example, this is a ship built in the 1960's, which doesn't seem to be rotating to establish any sort of artificial gravity, and besides the floors are not on the curved surfaces at all but perpendicular to them, and yet, there is gravity.
This bothered me, given the state of 1960s technology, until the reveal at the end, which explained it perfectly.
 

RJ992

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Yes, the ending was a twist...and that is the only positive thing I can say about this latest SyFy debacle. (Sorry fans, but I found HELIX to be cliched and too formulaic for my tastes. DEFIANCE was slightly better but still a cornball train-wreck). ASCENSION Pt 1 was nothing more than a soap opera on a "spaceship." Only that finale is why I'll probably watch the second episode. But I'm not optimistic. Is it SO hard for this channel to do something original?? KRYPTON sounds like crap (Kal-El's grandparents??? That means it is just a generic show that has nothing to do with the Superman mythos but it will be called KRYPTON for branding purposes only.) Hard to believe this channel ever broadcasted FARSCAPE.
 

RJ992

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joshEH said:
I'm honestly surprised there isn't more racism on the ship. They make a point about anti-miscegenation still being the law, yet at the same time nobody seems to mind that the XO is a black guy.
I thought of that also. Seems like they are more concerned about being politically-correct than providing any sort of realistic drama or reflecting the era genuinely or purposefully.
 

Steve Armbrust

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Adam Lenhardt said:
This bothered me, given the state of 1960s technology, until the reveal at the end, which explained it perfectly.
The reveal may have explained it to you, but what about all those people who have lived there for 50 years? Are they complete and utter idiots? I don't know, maybe parts 2 and 3 explained things better, but I will never know, because I couldn't bring myself to watch it any more.
 

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