felice Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 is it just that I'm always looking away at the wrong moment or does this show seriously underuse establishing shots? It's not a big thing, but it certainly contributes to the lack of a sense of place that pervades the entire series. I hadn't noticed that as a big problem. Such shots are probably a significant expense, though, so it is likely they keep them to a minimum. I don't think more establishing shots would help much, though; we'd still know virtually nothing about the places being established. Khlyen would be determined to get his hands on the weapon (did Dutch and John bother to pick that thing up, btw, or was it just left lying there?) even if it's just a means to an end. I'm really curious to learn if events would have unfolded as they did if John hadn't accepted that level 5 warrant, or if the only difference was that Khlyen revealed himself to Dutch. Good question about the weapon. They were rather distracted at the time, having just failed to stop a coup, D'avin being in grave danger from Khlyen, and Old Town about to be bombed. If John hadn't taken the warrant, there's a good chance he and Dutch would be dead; I'm pretty sure D'avin has saved both their lives. Khlyen saved Dutch in the first episode, but she wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place if not for the Level 5 warrant. How closely was he watching her before then? As a killjoy she risks her life a lot, and he's not always around as backup. But I don't think the Level 6 plans would have been affected too much if they weren't around. Some other killjoy would have recovered the genetic bomb. I really think that, given how careful the planning for the show clearly is, they must have a floorplan for the ship that makes sense and serves as the basis for the sets, even if said sets don't quite fit together as intended. Are the ladders to the bridge the only way to access the upper level? In the first episode Kendry showed up, she and Dutch walked down the corridor towards the doors to the bridge and common room while her guards are making sure the rooms ahead are secure, which doesn't really make sense if they'd first climbed up onto the bridge. Actually there really has to be some kind of lift somewhere, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure there's no lift; why would it be needed? I think the basic floorplan does mostly make sense, even if the ceilings don't, but the director sometimes doesn't get how it's supposed to fit together. The nanite episode was the worst offender, with the airlock exterior not fitting at all (why not just use the main ramp as airlock? An internal door could be fitted there very easily), and when Dutch emerges from the airlock, she runs into the ramp area instead of going up the ladder. And when John gets stabbed a couple of episodes later, the doctor wanders around Lucy's upper level before finding him in the cargo bay which should have been where she entered the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mother of The Others Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 So Red 17 is up to something and somebody was so curious about them that a torture ship was dedicated to finding out Red's deal by asking its victims about 17 and then healing everyone with nanites and asking again. That makes you say whoa they must really be up to something, and they have enemies that are up to stuff too. Then, apparently they're right in the neighborhood, on Arkyn where their presence is perfectly undetectible because nobody would go to the 4th sphere in a group of 4 tightly packed planetoids (3 of which I hear are moons!). I mean, no space teens would ever go to an "off limits" moon to have sex. Certainly not. And nobody would ever use their lunch hour to fly close to have a look at the joint to see if there's.... Hey look there's a bunch of active facilities down there on the moon nobody can survive on! And if they disappear all the people who get too close to the secret base then a bunch of missing persons' flight plans show that gobs of people disappeared right around Arkyn, gee I wonder if maybe that's significant. No, it must not be, because this nice comely middle aged Klyhen guy just killed me using only his armpit---and it wasn't a body odor death by armpit choking, either, it was blunt force armpit trauma. The sheer lethal power of his pit-strike did me in. Because that's how skilled these people are. Also, on the other show, I like the vacuum-ready lady more now. it's like the saying goes, "If you're indifferent to a character let them go out the airlock, and if your realize during their 'death' that you'll miss them, then you know that what you have with that fake character is real," or at least your feelings for the character have been upgraded from really fake to fakely real. That type of shit usually makes no sense, but in this case it was true because I was like, "oh no, they killed someone in the first minute of the show and that's the part I missed!" And then, "Oh no, they killed one of the numbered people who isn't a dude, leaving all these dudes alive! Who thought that was a good idea?" And then, "Hey this show will be worse off without her." And then, "Hey, wait a minute. This show doesn't have much going for it, and they're killing off the pilot? They'll not be able to fly, and that's all they do. Something's not right here....... She can't be dead! Dong-fest avoided!" And then that idjit bad guy spacewalker fool got oxygen-helmet-boned, and she was back, and she was alien-headed! She had vacuum-breathing alien head for a second. The Greys. The Greys probed her mom and she popped out as an alien hybrid space baby! Surely that's it! Then that boring android took my alien-humping explanation off the table by saying she was manufactured. Well, that was a roller coaster ride. And I wasn't grading the action sequence by how it was edited. It was like, "I'm miraculously alive and all you've got is body armor!" And then the guys were funny perhaps for the first time. Then murder. I used to like that Stargate Universe show with the captain and scientist who'd always be murdering each other. That's the mark of a quality show. Because you're trapped in space with these people, not like in highschool but as adults. If you were still trapped with people from your highschool as adults, and one of you was the captain and another the science officer, there'd be so many murders in space. So that's realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I hadn't noticed that as a big problem. Such shots are probably a significant expense, though, so it is likely they keep them to a minimum. I don't think more establishing shots would help much, though; we'd still know virtually nothing about the places being established. Like every issue with the show's production values, it's definitely a cost problem. Depending on how you do it, you can convey a lot of information with just brief shots. In the last episode, the information whether the planet had a major population or was mostly empty could have been at least strongly hinted at by showing the lab exterior: either put it in an urban environment or have surrounded by untouched wilderness. It wouldn't really solve any of the glaring problems the show has otherwise, but it's just another thing they don't even seem to be half-arseing. I hadn't really thought about it until I wrote it down here, and now I'm trying to remember whether we've seen much more than a few exterior shots of the Razam a couple of space stations and a few planets shown from high orbit. I hadn't noticed that as a big problem. Such shots are probably a significant expense, though, so it is likely they keep them to a minimum. I don't think more establishing shots would help much, though; we'd still know virtually nothing about the places being established.I'm pretty sure there's no lift; why would it be needed? I think the basic floorplan does mostly make sense, even if the ceilings don't, but the director sometimes doesn't get how it's supposed to fit together. The nanite episode was the worst offender, with the airlock exterior not fitting at all (why not just use the main ramp as airlock? An internal door could be fitted there very easily), and when Dutch emerges from the airlock, she runs into the ramp area instead of going up the ladder. And when John gets stabbed a couple of episodes later, the doctor wanders around Lucy's upper level before finding him in the cargo bay which should have been where she entered the ship. The lift would be really useful to get anything you can't fit into a small bag to the upper level, because hauling everything up the ladder has to be a real pain. Like, what happens if they need a new chair for the mess/common room? Even unassambeld IKEA furniture isn't something you want to carry up that way. It's probably true that at least some of the inconsistencies are down to directors not giving that much thought, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini Sigil Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Thank You Dr Pepper, RedEyeGhost & John As.... at the very least you've saved me time & heartburn...lol.... I will give Killjoys a quick look.... this board has never let me down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I hadn't really thought about it until I wrote it down here, and now I'm trying to remember whether we've seen much more than a few exterior shots of the Razam a couple of space stations and a few planets shown from high orbit. What else has there been to see? The planets that have been featured have mostly been pretty nondescript. Though come to think of it, I did notice the lack of exteriors for the settlement in the pilot. Wouldn't hurt for Four's home planet, either, which is the closest thing to a place that actually means anything. One more thing Killjoys does so much better. The lift would be really useful to get anything you can't fit into a small bag to the upper level, because hauling everything up the ladder has to be a real pain. Like, what happens if they need a new chair for the mess/common room? They turn off the artificial gravity while they've moving big stuff around? (Being careful not to bash their heads when the extra vertical space goes with it ;) Or maybe there's a hatch on top, and they can lower big stuff in by crane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 What else has there been to see? That's part of the problem, and as I said, it wouldn't solve everything, but surely some context is better than none? One more thing Killjoys does so much better. You really could do a side-by-side comparison of all comparable elements of the two shows and [i]Killjoys[/i] would come out ahead every single time. When I went back to episode 1 to check something last week, I noticed that it starts by zooming in from the J Star Cluster to the Quad to Westerly to the Badlands. None of that means much at that point, obviously, but it does its small part to anchor the story. They turn off the artificial gravity while they've moving big stuff around? (Being careful not to bash their heads when the extra vertical space goes with it ;) Or maybe there's a hatch on top, and they can lower big stuff in by crane? That does sound awfully complicated, doesn't it? I mean, just storing a week's worth of groceries would require a hell of a lot of effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Pesci Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Finished up Killjoys and was far superior to what I've seen of Dark Matter, but I have watched only 4 episodes of DM before getting kind of bored with it. Is DM something I should try to continue on with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pliskin Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Oh f***, they better give a season 2 to Dark Matter after that finale... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 I thought it was absurdly terrible. Another episode where they spend half of it searching the ship. Yawn. Then the mystery is solved in just a few seconds and barely even matters considering Five did it only in order to save Six who was always working with the GA and completely willing to give up everyone, including Five. More annoyingly, Android's double turned out to be completely useless and unnecessary. What a waste of a show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Oh f***, they better give a season 2 to Dark Matter after that finale... The entire season (and finale in particular) was such shit that I don't even care if we get any resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pliskin Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 I thought it was absurdly terrible. Another episode where they spend half of it searching the ship. Yawn. Then the mystery is solved in just a few seconds and barely even matters considering Five did it only in order to save Six who was always working with the GA and completely willing to give up everyone, including Five. More annoyingly, Android's double turned out to be completely useless and unnecessary. What a waste of a show. We'll agree to disagree. I think it gives more weight to Six's actions. It explains why he killed everyone among the rebels, even those who weren't aware that they were played into killing innocents. And why he was so obsessed with revenge. And why he always tries to talk Five into leaving. He did everything he could to get her out of the Raza. As for the Android, it was meant as an acceptance from the crew of her humanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Then the mystery is solved in just a few seconds and barely even matters considering Five did it only in order to save Six who was always working with the GA and completely willing to give up everyone, including Five. It's not clear who Five was trying to save, is it? If Six was working with the GA before the mind wipe, he doesn't remember it, so that can't have been a factor in his betrayal. And why wait so long? To me it seems more likely that he decided to contact the GA after the Raza crew's actions lead to a planet getting blown up. But if Five wasn't intending to wipe her own memories, why did she hide a copy of the recording? And surely it would have been much simpler to write a program to just wake her up early, and then take her time over dealing with the planned murder. For that matter, why did Two want to wait till after the suspended animation to kill whoever it was? Why not get it out of the way? And I don't particularly care whether any of the questions left hanging get answered... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 It's not clear who Five was trying to save, is it? If Six was working with the GA before the mind wipe, he doesn't remember it, so that can't have been a factor in his betrayal. And why wait so long? To me it seems more likely that he decided to contact the GA after the Raza crew's actions lead to a planet getting blown up. But if Five wasn't intending to wipe her own memories, why did she hide a copy of the recording? And surely it would have been much simpler to write a program to just wake her up early, and then take her time over dealing with the planned murder. For that matter, why did Two want to wait till after the suspended animation to kill whoever it was? Why not get it out of the way? And I don't particularly care whether any of the questions left hanging get answered... When in the general's bunker, Six spoke with the guy who turned out to be a GA agent. I guess that scene could be read multiple ways. Either he was recruited then or that guy reminded him of who he was. Five could have only been trying to save One, Three or Six. I figure it's unlikely to be Three since he's always been fairly transparent so that leaves One or Six. It's a toss up. But if Five's crude programing didn't mess with the order of wake up, then it seems most likely Two and Four were going after the last one to come out of stasis. I figure Five took the time to hide the recording as a just in case measure since she wasn't very good at programming, or maybe also to just get it out of her quarters. I can't imagine this show being renewed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Colonel Mustard, in the Library, with the Lead Pipe. That's all I got. :dunno: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mother of The Others Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Memory Wipe Complete. (The last 5 seconds were pretty good.) (I never learned which number is which person). (It didnt' seem relevant, I don't like capitalizing numbers, and the numbered people felt like a psych experiment you're supposed to resist.) (Black Guy probably made the decision to turn them in fairly late--- after the rest of them were okay with repeating the same kind of mass death event he felt so much angst over from his own past.) (There was no reason to call the show Dark Matter. The amnesia obviously lightened their load, and they don't have actual dark matter in the cargo hold). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 When in the general's bunker, Six spoke with the guy who turned out to be a GA agent. I guess that scene could be read multiple ways. Either he was recruited then or that guy reminded him of who he was. Good catch, I hadn't noticed that. Seems likely he convinced the GA agent that he wasn't responsible for blowing up the station, and was offered amnesty if he turned the others over. He's probably been considering the deal since then. There was no reason to call the show Dark Matter. And no reason for a Transformers-style logo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 After a somewhat confusing festival weekend*, it's nice to see that, in the real world, some things are still reliable. Like [i]Dark Matter[/i] still sucking. I so don't give a damn about anything on this show, and I'll not be watching if it comes back. Maybe I'll read the plot summary on Wikipedia after it gets cancelled (surely it can't hold on for long?). Is there any news regarding [i]Killjoys[/i] getting another season? *It involved a bunch of French teenagers celebrating a [i]very[/i] middle-aged Offspring playing their 90ies stuff as if they had achieved classic rock band status when I wasn't looking. Quite surreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Somehow Dark Matter has been renewed. On the plus side, Killjoys was renewed as well so at least SyFy will have one halfway decent show next year. Surprisingly, still no word on Defiance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkash Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Defiance Finale this year sure felt like a Series Finale... I, for one, am glad both KJ and DM are renewed ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I'm thrilled that Killjoys is renewed! I'm not sure that I'll watch Dark Matter any more... maybe if they bring in some new writers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.