Wednesday 24 April 2013

TV: DEFIANCE (2013)

This is the new Science Fiction series on Sy-Fy (or however they spell it this week, stupid name that it is). As it's only one double and single episode in I'm not going to review it yet as such. Just a brief outline and one pedantic grumble.

It's set about 30 years after a motley collection of several alien races arrive on Earth and ask us to share our planet with them. This doesn't go down too well with us humans who tell them to sod off back into interstellar space. This doesn't go down too well with the several alien races who are going to make Earth their new home and sod the what the humans (us) think. After fifteen years of conflict (or something like that -there's so much going on, not all of it revealed, that it's hard to be sure) we're stuck with them and the humans have to adapt to a changed environment as well as living with several alien (but all humanoid) races. Fifteen years later (or something like that, et cetera) our story starts.

A starship crashes and our mature hero and his adopted alien daughter (well played by British actress Stephanie Leonidas, I forget his name) attempt to loot it but disturbed by a bunch of aggressive aliens who want to loot for themselves. Hero and adopted alien daughter have to run away, get menaced by monsters in a forest but are saved by the sheriff of Defiance (the new name for the remains of St.Louis and you can guess where the rest of this series is going to be set) where several alien races and human live in relative (relative being the important word) harmony. There are two rival families, one human and one alien (husband and wife played by British actors Tony Curran and Jaime Murray which gives the show some class). Also giving the show some class is Julie Benz as the newly appointed mayor.

It's actually all very promising, the special effects are good as is the acting (and not just by the British cast members) and there is quite a bit of scope in the scenario. Of course it is early days and it could fall flat on its face. I hope not because, although I'm still uncertain about it, there's enough good stuff that I want it to succeed.

However, this isn't what I wanted to write about here. What's happened is that the several alien races have altered Earth's environment introducing new species (presumably) animals and plants and also altering it physically -most of the original St. Louis is now underground. This is consistently referred to as terraforming. Sorry, let me emphasise that a little more-

Terraforming

Now, as I understand it, terraforming actually refers to altering conditions on an alien world so as to transform into conditions that make it into an earth-like environment.

This is exactly the fucking opposite of what has happened on Defiance!

Earth has partially been transformed into an alien environment. There may or may not be a word for this but I do know it isn't fucking terraforming.

Okay, here are some pictures taken, from as always, Google Images.

Jaime Murray (alien)

Tony Curran (ditto)

Stephanie Leonidas (alien), Hero (human) (I can't be arsed to look up the actor's name but he's American. Or Canadian).

Defiance (city).

Julie Benz (one of my favourite American tv actresses, see Buffy, Angel, and a shitload more. She's wonderful, beautiful, okay I have a crush on her.)

Group shot of the main characters.

This may not be the last you read about this TV series in this blog. Hopefully not as a major disappointment.

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