The Ark is a new space-based sci fi series from Syfy which has been highly anticipated because it comes from the creators of Stargate.  Dean Devlin was the co-writer of the 1994 film (he is also known for Universal Soldier and Independence Day) and Jonathan Glassner was executive producer on Stargate: SG-1 for its first three seasons.  With that pedigree, the expectations might be that they would be bringing the next major franchise to Syfy, but sadly The Ark is not off to a promising start and may deliver yet another one-and-done genre entry for the network.

The show follows the colony ship Ark 1 which is on a mission to Proxima b to establish a new world that the human race can flee to because Earth is dying.  All onboard are in suspended animation for the trip, but a catastrophic accident wakes them up before reaching their destination.  The module with the command crew is destroyed in the accident leaving mid-level officers as well as scientists and technicians to sort out what has happened and to get the ship back on track for its destination.  But several people in the remaining crew may be somebody else than they appear to be.

The basic premise is a familiar one for sci fi (and 2018’s truncated Origin did a much better job), but it is a promising concept that could potentially carry the show.  The budget is certainly not in the range of what we are seeing from the mega-dollar streaming originals, but that has to be expected from a basic cable series these days and that is not necessarily a stopping point.  With two experienced genre veterans in Devlin and Glassner, you might expect them to hearken back to the early days of Stargate (which also did not have a huge budget) and get the most out of the production.  But after trudging through three episodes, I can tell you that is not the case.

So far, the show has given us predicament after predicament piled on with a bunch of young adult angsty drama.  The cast is relatively young, apparently because of the length of the journey, though that doesn’t fully make sense seeing as they were in suspended animation.  (But get used to it, because quite a number of things don’t fully make sense with this show.)  So the cast is full of fresh young faces making this look a lot like a CW production, though with an even lower budget.  It also delivers plenty of copy-and-paste dialog and scenes and a heaping helping of unnecessary melodrama.  This is space opera in the worst way because it is heavy on soap opera elements.  It also throws in the expected mysteries upon mysteries (i.e. the backstory for Lt. Sharon Garnet), but those appear very contrived and designed specifically to manufacture conflict.

The cast consists of mostly new faces, and I while won’t beat them up and say that they are bad actors, they are not up to the task of compensating for the lackluster scripts they are given.  The characters they play range from uninspired but acceptable (Lt. Sharon Garnet, Eva Markovic) to just downright annoying (Angus Medford, Dr. Cat Brandice).  There is also a palpable lack of chemistry among the cast as the characters have failed to mesh after three episodes.  This may be blamed on the plodding, by the numbers directing, though, which has also done little to give the show or its players any sort of boost.

There was a time when I would give a show a minimum of four episodes before making a decision on whether to stick with it, but with the Peak TV crunch I am much less patient.  I almost bailed on this one after the premiere, but I stuck it out for two more episodes.  I am done for now, though, unless I hear that this show has an upswing in quality as its first season progresses.  There are too many other sci fi shows to follow these days to commit time to a meandering, subpar production like The Ark.  I really wanted to like the show and hoped that it could give us the next good space-based series.  But I was already hate-watching it by the second episode and there is no need to continue with that when shows like Amazon’s The Rig (also a modest production) are much more fun to watch (more on that one at this link).

And for those who are soldiering on with The Ark, I don’t advise getting too invested in the show.  This appears to be an acquisition, meaning that Syfy’s parent company NBCUniversal has no financial stake in the production.  Therefore, the only way that Syfy makes money is through advertising, and the same-day ratings have not been great so far.  (The delayed viewing has kicked things up some, but advertisers do not care about that.)  So unless this has foreign partnerships/funding and/or syndication deals, the prospects for a second season are not great at this point.  So even though the show has a promising concept and could course correct at some point, I don’t like its chances for sticking around.

Have you been watching The Ark? Chime in with your thoughts on the show in the comments section below.

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There are lots and lots of scripted shows out there these days, and it is certainly hard to keep up with all of them (though we do our best here at The Sci Fi TV Site to put out as complete of a list as possible).  There are so many shows, including foreign entries, that sometimes they premiere and almost nobody knows that they are available (and I fault the streamers for not doing a good job of promoting their own originals).  One such show is The Rig which arrived on Amazon’s Prime Video on January 6th with almost no notice.

This Scottish-made production takes place on the oil rig Kinloch Bravo located in the North Sea.  Communication is cut off from the mainland and a strange cloud envelops the offshore platform.  Some of the crewmembers start manifesting strange behavior and dangerous tremors start to affect the rig leading the rest of the crew on a struggle for survival as a mysterious presence threatens them and the world beyond.

This is the latest in a long line of eco-horror thrillers and it sets up a tense and at times claustrophobic atmosphere as the people aboard the rig try to make sense of what is happening while trying to keep themselves alive.  The show is populated with its fair share of roughnecks along with the expected corporate types that have their own agenda (you almost expect Paul Reiser’s Burke to show up at some point).  But the writers add just enough characterization to keep them from turning into complete stereotypes and they offer some twists as the story progresses.  Plus, the actors make the most of their screen time as they bring their characters alive.

I won’t spoil the nature of the eco-terror, but you will probably figure out the gist by about mid-way through the show’s six-episode first-season run.  It does actually deliver an interesting big bad that has some basis in science and presents some challenging moral quandaries.  It doesn’t go quite into tree-hugging territory, but us humans do take some hits for indiscriminately ripping up the environment.

And if you have a recurring feeling that you have seen that actor somewhere before, it’s because you have.  The production includes quite a number of familiar faces including Shitz Creek’s Emily Hampshire playing against type as the corporate foil and Game of Thrones‘ Iain Glen as the troubled leader of the rig.  Other faces that will look familiar include Abraham Popoola (Andor), Rochenda Sandall (Doctor Who), Owen Teale (Game of Thrones), Stuary McQuarrie (Foundation), Mark Addy (Game of Thrones), and Nikhil Parmar (Foundation).

This is not a mega-dollar production like Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power or Netflix’s The Sandman, but it doesn’t need to be and it makes the most of what money it has.  The Rig appears to mix in practical effects with CGI and the set for the offshore platform is rather effective.  And while it can be cheesy at times, the production values are mostly solid.  Combine that with the stand-up job by the actors and a mostly solid storyline (even if not completely original), and you have a sleeper of a sci fi series.

Unfortunately, the first season ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger and does not resolve all the main storylines, and there is no guarantee this one will stick around for a second season.  The fact that it is not a super-expensive original should help, but since it received next to no promotion, I’m not sure many people have tuned in so far.  It is still worth a look, especially if you are a fan of the eco-horror subgenre.  And it is a pretty quick watch at six episodes all around the 50-minute length.  But whether or not a second season of this little-known series will make it to Prime Video (or shift to another venue) may depend on fans making some noise to assure it gets some attention. [Update: This show has been renewed for a second season.]

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Right now is a good time to be a fan of epic fantasy.  Not only do you have HBO’s House of the Dragon (along with the other Game of Thrones spin-offs) and Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power vying for top honors among big-budget fantasy shows, but you also have The Wheel of Time (Amazon), The Witcher (Netflix), Shadow and Bone (Netflix), The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon), Sweet Tooth (Netflix), and even the overlooked British entry Britannia currently streaming on EPIX (more on that at this link).  Amidst all of these, Disney+ has put forth its own entry in the fantasy sweepstakes with Willow which just wrapped up its first season.

The show is a follow-up to the 1988 George Lucas film of the same name.  In the original movie, an aspiring sorcerer named Willow (who is a member of the dwarvish race known as the Nelwyn) is tasked with protecting an infant from an evil queen who fears a prophecy that the child will bring about her doom.  The film was written by Lucas and directed by Ron Howard and performed reasonably well at the Box Office when it first came out.  It never attained the same acclaim as Lucas’ Star Wars films, but Willow went on to become somewhat of a cult favorite and there had been talks of a sequel for years with original star Warwick Davis expressing an interest in returning to the role.  Those plans eventually morphed into the television series that is now on Disney+.  The show takes place seventeen years after the events of the movie, and the child (Elora Danan) has grown up and must go on a quest with Willow and several other heroes to face a dangerous evil that threatens the world.

The original movie was somewhat derivative, incorporating various fantasy cliches and bits of familiar lore while also inviting many similarities to the plot of the first Star Wars film (the real first film from 1977, not The Phantom Menace).  But it was still good fun and went down easy at a time when there were not too many epic fantasy films in the theaters.  The series also has a familiar feel to it, throwing in plenty of copy-and-paste fantasy tropes, especially at the beginning.  But it also has a sincerity to it that draws you in and keeps you involved with the story as it starts to take some twists and turns.  It is populated with a variety of characters that stand out beyond fantasy archetypes, with even some of the small roles making notable impressions.  And while the story can get murky at times and also throw in some leaps of logic, the fact that it never takes itself too seriously and that the actors have good chemistry keeps it rolling along.

Another strength of the show is the fact that it is not constantly pushing its production values to the forefront to try and impress the viewers.  In comparison to House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power (both of which I did like, more on that at this link), Willow has a much more modest budget.  Not that it is a cheap production, but it does not have the deep pockets of either of those shows and actually relies on practical effects as much as CGI.  That is a rather welcome change of pace as it uses its sfx judicially and does not dwell on its production values with long, ponderous shots as we would see at times in the two shows mentioned above, especially The Rings of Power.  Willow instead lets the story and more so the characters carry the show.

Warwick Davis is truly the heart and soul of the series, and that makes sense seeing as he lobbied for years for the show to happen.  He plays an older, grumpier, more world-weary Willow, but the character sticks to his convictions and leads this group of misfits to the challenges they must face.  And while he is core to the series, this is very much an ensemble piece with plenty of new faces that could carry on the show for years.  Joanne Whalley reprises her role from the film as Sorsha and genre fans will recognize Erin Kellyman from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but most of the actors in primary roles are relatively new.  They were well-selected, though, and all of the performers deliver their best performances to help give the series a spark.

Very importantly, Willow tells its story in one season.  It definitely set up more seasons to follow, but the main plot is resolved by the final episode and brings the story to a resolution.  With so many shows getting cancelled after one season, it should become a requirement that they wrap up as many storylines as possible by the last episode so as not to leave viewers hanging.  More seasons could follow for Willow, and there are already talks of where the show would go (the final scene suggests a trilogy, making a three-season run a possibility), but if this is all we get from the show viewers will not be too disappointed.  It acts as a continuation to the original movie while also standing well on its own.  And it may not be a high-dollar production that revels in excessive CGI, but it still delivers an epic fantasy that can be fun and that is populated by a delightful cast of characters.

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What Is It?

A bullied teenager starts receiving strange messages online, and she discovers that they are from her father who died two years ago but had his intelligence uploaded.  She seeks the help of others to gain custody of his U.I. (Uploaded Intelligence) but discovers that the company that possesses it has other plans for the U.I. and the technology that made it happen.

Starring: Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Aaron Eckhart, Rosemarie DeWitt, Chris Diamantopoulos, Daniel Dae Kim, Ron Livingston

Created By: Craig Silverstein

Bottom Line: This series delivers an interesting bit of hard sci fi with a dose of cyberpunk that poses some challenging questions on mortality as well as how far we should go with our technology.

Why Is It Worth Watching?

Epic sci fi and fantasy has become all the rage these days on the streaming services with tons of money poured into productions like Stranger Things, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Sandman, The Boys, Foundation, Andor, and more.  Not all the streamers have that amount of money to throw at their originals, but that doesn’t mean that a good story might not be lurking around there on the second-tier services that could verge into epic territory as well.  AMC+’s Pantheon–which is based on the series of stories The Apocalypse Triptych by Ken Liu–goes the Anime route in order to keep costs manageable, but it still tells a story with a pretty grand scope while also presenting some challenging questions on mortality and technology run amok.

This one gets off to a slow start, and I am going to recommend that you give it some leeway and stick around through at least the second episode in case you waiver on the premiere.  It starts out in typical Anime fashion with a young girl having troubles at school and at home and finding herself captivated by strange messages she receives online.  You might think that it will veer into angsty teen drama or cringe-worthy encounters with a cyber-stalker, but this show starts taking some twists and turns early on as it takes a roller coaster ride through an intriguing cyberverse while remaining grounded in reality throughout.

As the story progresses, so does the scope of the narrative as it tackles some pretty grand concepts amidst battles between corporations, governments, and cyber-beings with immortality as the ultimate stake.  It does cover some familiar territory by throwing in unscrupulous companies and overeager antagonists along with some copy-and-paste dialog, but it never feels like a retread as there is enough unique about the show to allow it to overcome its swipes from the genre.  And the first season builds to a pretty epic conclusion that rivals anything the big-budget streaming originals have delivered so far.

The show does wrap up many of its storylines, but still has plenty more packed away that could cover multiple additional seasons.  Whether we will get more of this one, though, remains to be seen.  AMC+ just back-tracked its renewal of the well-received Moonhaven amidst shakeups across AMC Networks.  Pantheon did not receive much promotion and has not stirred up much buzz even though it has been well-received by critics.  For fans looking for full-on science fiction, this certainly fits the bill.  And those looking for some epic sci fi will not be disappointed either.  It may not have the money or promotion that the top streamers can afford, but Pantheon is certainly a genre entry worth checking out.

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The former was filmed concurrently with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (which is set to hit theaters in May 2023) and takes place around the events of that film.  It has a rather silly premise in which Dax and Mantis decide to bring a particular person to Peter Quill as a Christmas present because they believe the holiday was spoiled for him by Yondu years ago.  But the far-fetched nature of their plan works perfectly as a plot gimmick as this 45-minute tale seems to be having a ton of fun acting as a send-up of the many holiday specials that have hit the small screen and it brings plenty of mayhem along with it as well, GoG-style.

The special has the full Guardians crew on tap, but Dax and Mantis get the majority of the screen time.  And this is exactly what a production like this should do.  The films can only give so much attention to the many characters, especially GoG which has a pretty full cast.  These one-shot specials allow focus on characters that may not have been as prominent in the films and/or that fans just want to see more of.  And by filming this at the same time as the third film, they do that while keeping the production costs down.

The MCU dabbled with this previously with the direct-to-DVD Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter back when Captain America first came out.  And now with the Disney+ streaming service cranking out originals, there are plenty of opportunities to produce more one-off specials.  These can either act as extensions to the movies, tryouts for more obscure characters, or both.

And on the tryout front, there is Werewolf by Night.  That 55-minute movie draws from the ’70s comic of the same name while also including several other Marvel horror/monster characters in what is essentially a Halloween special.  It focuses on a group of monster hunters who gather at Bloodstone Manor following the death of Ulysses Bloodstone to compete to determine who will be their new leader and who will possess the powerful relic of his name.  Jack Russell is among those who arrive, but he must hide the truth of his werewolf alter ego and he has a slightly different reason for being there.

While this special draws from the comics, it also hearkens back to the monster movies of old with its (mostly) black and white color tones and its basic look and feel.  It also delivers on the violence and gore and should definitely delight horror fans.  The film is self-contained but also probably intended as a teaser for characters who continue on in more specials or possibly a series.  It did not make it into the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 after its release, so whether we will see more of Werewolf by Night is uncertain.  But it did garner some good scores from critics and viewers (90% Fresh Rating and 90% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes), so hopefully Disney+ will do more in the same vein.

And we can only hope that more one-shots in general will be on the way from the streamer.  This is a great way to expand on the MCU and also provide some character and world building without having to produce a mega-budget blockbuster.  These two films both gave us a nice look at other parts of the MCU and provide a good template for how to proceed with one-shots in the future.

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I am going to pass on any attempt at a synopsis and instead provide the byline given with the book: “When Captain Ed Mercer and the crew of the U.S.S. Orville come face-to-face with one of humanity’s most vile ideologies, they must solve the moral conundrum of who to hold accountable for evil deeds real”.  Any summary of the story could give away some of the big twists, and this book is best encountered spoiler-free.  (And that comes from someone who is in no way a spoiler-phobe).

Once you start reading the book, you will understand why it did not make it as a regular episode.  It starts off in a historical time period (no, I’m not going to tell you when) with no mention of The Orville or its crew on any clear links to the show.  In fact, after about thirty minutes, I double-checked my audiobook info to make sure I was listening to the right file.  It is actually over halfway through before we finally figure out how the historical setting ties to the show.  But once you learn that, it is a bit of a mind-blower.  I had all sorts of assumptions on how it would play out, but I was way off.  And I was really quite pleased with how the story unfolded and started presenting its moral quandaries.

You may feel like I am avoiding telling you anything about the story itself, and that is quite true.  Just know that it is a hell of a good tale in the spirit of the best episodes of The Orville, and I highly recommend it to fans of the show.  Even if you have never watched it, this delivers a damn good sci fi tale and you don’t really have to be well-informed on the series.  Just know that it involves a Star Trek-like ship and crew, and you will be able to pretty well follow along.  For fans of the show, you should know that it does not utilize all of the characters, mostly focusing on Ed, Kelly, and Claire, but there are plenty of episodes that do the same.

The ending was a bit of a letdown for me, but others may be pleased with it.  The TV series at times takes the easy way out on its moral quandaries (some may say the “woke” way out), and I might have liked to see a different resolution, but that doesn’t detract from the central stories or the ideological debates that it presents.  That’s what really gives this one a punch and makes it stand out as strong entry in the franchise.  This would actually make a good two-hour movie, and I would not be surprised if the show goes in that direction for future adventures.

I listened to the audiobook version which runs a quick three hours.  Babylon 5 alum Bruce Boxleitner provides the voice work and he does quite a good job with it.  He delivers a straight-forward reading as opposed to a performance with different voices for the characters, but his narration is quite enjoyable.  As a B5 fan, it is good to hear his voice, and he actually showed up in three eps of The Orville as President Alcuzan.

It is also available in eBook format which sells for a very affordable $2.99 on Amazon.  This should definitely satisfy fans looking for more adventures from The Orville and it also serves as a good introduction to the series.  Just understand that it takes a while to actually incorporate the main characters from the show into the story.  I am hoping that McFarlane will put out more books like this going forward as they should at least act as a consolation if no more episodes are produced.

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House of the Dragon feels like going right back to the world of Game of Thrones because . . . well, that is pretty much exactly what it is doing. It takes place earlier than GoT and has a different set of principals, but it picks up the torch from the parent series quite handily.  The characters from House of the Dragon don’t quite resonate the way that the main players in GoT did because that series had such meaty, well-developed characters and a cast for the ages.  Young Rhaenyra (played by Milly Alcock) and Daemon (played by Doctor Who alum Matt Smith) stand out right away, but when you think of characters like Ned Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Arya Stark, the Hound, Jon Snow, Littlefinger, Cersei Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, and more, House of the Dragon does not quite measure up.  But that shouldn’t be held against it too much because it is a tall order to measure up to the vast set of characters that populated GoT.

House of the Dragon also gets off to a slow start.  It is not so slow that the show is boring, but it takes a while for the story to develop.  When they get to the eighth episode and things start really happening at a quick clip, you start to wonder where that pacing was all along.  But there is still enough story to carry the show and I rarely found myself bored, though some episodes could get tedious at times.  And while House of the Dragon does has the dragons of the title, it has little else in the way of fantasy elements.  Like Game of Thrones, its story is driven heavily by political intrigue and interpersonal relationships.

If High Fantasy is your thing, then The Rings of Power is the show for you.  It has elves and dwarves and orcs and magic and many of the elements expected from the genre.  (Which of course makes sense seeing as LOTR is one of the seminal fantasy works.)  I enjoy the backstory that this show is creating that looks like it will lead directly into the movies.  I’m not a scholar of Tolkien lore, though, so I don’t always know where the show is taking liberties, and I assume it is doing that quite often.  So I understand that some will not be pleased when it diverges from Tolkien cannon.  (But for those objecting to the non-white actors used in the show, read my thoughts on that at this link.)  The movies took their liberties as well and I pretty much expect that, so I don’t count that against the show because it is very much in the spirit of Tolkien’s work.  The characters in this one stand out quite well and I like pretty much all of the principals, though I don’t know that they had to make Galadriel into a superhero-type badass.

My biggest complaint with both shows is the bloated episode length.  The episodes were an hour or more (sometimes considerably more) in most cases, and they really seemed to drag out.  In House of the Dragon, they seemed to spend a lot of time brooding, especially Daemon who I feel was not fully utilized.  In The Rings of Power, they lingered on their exquisite CGI shots, which was nice eye-candy but got tedious after a while.  I believe that both of these could have been trimmed down to under an hour for most episodes and that would have helped the pacing.  That is mostly a nitpick, though, and I wouldn’t say it completely dragged down either show.

So which of the two is best?  For my money, I enjoyed The Rings of Power more, but then I am a lover of High Fantasy.  The political intrigue of House of the Dragon is still interesting, and I think they did it quite well.  But I found myself looking forward to each episode of The Rings of Power more (I binged it over two weekends), even if the ending was a bit unsatisfying (House of the Dragon, on the other hand, went out on a high note).  I am definitely eagerly awaiting the second season of The Rings Power (probably won’t arrive until 2024, though), but I will watch the next batch of episodes from House of the Dragon as well (again, likely in 2024).

Really, we should be glad to have both of these shows because they are quite excellent with high production values, and they really bolster the fantasy genre.  Considering that we also have The Witcher, The Wheel of Time, the upcoming Willow, and more this is a great time to be a fan of epic fantasy.   We should enjoy them while they last because there is no telling when the Peak TV bubble will burst and we won’t have nearly as many shows to choose from.

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The new Quantum Leap takes place in the present and follows a team that has been studying the work of Samuel Beckett and trying to figure out if they can bring him home. However, lead scientist Dr. Ben Song (played by Raymond Lee) makes an unauthorized jump ahead of schedule and finds himself in the same predicament that Beckett was in. Ben’s fiance Addison Augustine acts as his liaison to the present, though he does not remember their relationship because the jump has affected his memory. The team also discovers that Ben had been carrying on research they were unaware of and that his jumps are following a pattern. They try to solve the mystery of what he was doing while also trying to help him return home. Bellisario is back with the show in an executive producer role, but Bakula has not been involved so far.

To level set before proceeding any further with this review, I was never a huge fan of the original series.  I acknowledge that it was an important sci fi entry and that it had some excellent episodes and pushed the boundaries of television, but it also had a lot of filler eps that just did not interest me.  I also disliked the fact that Sam knew nothing about the person he leaped into and that the writers would use that to put him in cringe-worthy situations that dragged out too long through the episodes.  Still, I loved Bakula as Beckett and Dean Stockwell as Al and the show could be quite entertaining at times.

The revival picks up thirty years later and works off the same formula as the original.  But television has matured since the ’80s and ’90s and the new version manages to smooth out the rough edges from the show’s initial run.  It focuses on more than just the leap with the team back home trying to solve the mystery of Ben’s intentions which gives the expected ongoing story arc.  Because of that, there is less time to focus on the cringey moments of Ben not knowing who he leaped into, leading to tighter episodes and less padding.  And the leap stories each week have been solid so far even if they have not delivered any of the heavy-hitting moments that the original was known for (though I am expecting we will get some of those in future eps).

The cast is solid with Raymond Lee and Caitlin Bassett adding their own interpretation to the roles that correspond to Sam and Al from the original and making this very much their show.  Genre veteran Ernie Hudson is a welcome presence as well along with new faces Mason Alexander Park and Nanrisa Lee.  The team comes together and there is a definite chemistry among the actors that gives the show the right spark.  The new series is also very respectful of the original with one of the characters having an interesting connection to Sam (no spoilers).  Whether Bakula will appear in the show remains to be seen (sadly, Dean Stockwell passed away in 2021).  They are definitely setting it up as a possibility, but the actor has indicated that he will not be part of the revival.  Perhaps they will convince him to change his mind at some point.

Through its first five episodes I have enjoyed it and I plan on sticking with it through its first season.  The ratings for the show have not been spectacular, but it has been doing well in delayed viewing and it may be performing well enough for the 10 PM hour to carry it into a second season.  It did receive a pickup of six more episodes which will give it eighteen total for its first year (the once typical 22-ep order is not as common for sci fi entries on the broadcast networks for cost reasons).  The new Quantum Leap has delivered a solid genre series thus far in its run and it is about as good as you can expect from a reboot/revival these days, especially on the broadcast nets.  If you have not checked it out yet, it is certainly worth a look and you can catch up with the show on the Peacock streaming service.

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What Is It?

The Man Who Fell to Earth acts as a sequel to the 1976 film of the same name, taking place nearly forty years after the events of that film which followed an alien coming to Earth to utilize the resources of our planet to help his own.  In the series, an alien taking the name of Faraday comes to present-day Earth hoping to complete the mission of his predecessor who took the name Thomas Newton.  Faraday contacts former physicist Justin Hall looking for her help in completing Newton’s efforts to create a powerful energy source that would make it possible to transport water back to their home planet where it is desperately needed.  But there were reasons that Newton never completed his mission and now Faraday is running into the same obstacles.

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris, Clarke Peters, Bill Nighy, Jimmi Simpson, Kate Mulgrew

Created By: Jenny Lumet, Alex Kurtzman (based on the book by Walter Tevis

Bottom Line: This is a thoughtful series with some interesting concepts and characters and a spot-on cast and it respects its source material while telling a good science fiction story in its one season.

Why Is It Worth Watching?

There are far too many reboots, revivals, and remakes out there these days trying to capitalize on the name recognition of a known property, all the while proving that the entertainment industry has lost its ability to capitalize on new concepts and original ideas.  But there are a few movies and TV shows worth revisiting showing that revivals can work from time to time.  The Man Who Fell to Earth is a cult sci fi classic which had David Bowie in the lead role, and I only vaguely remembered watching it years back on cable in the ’80s.  I seemed to recall that it was a retro-70s sci fi film that could really get kind of freaky at times, and when I recently rewatched the movie, it lived up to pretty much exactly to how I remembered it.

It might seem like an odd selection for a reboot/revival seeing as it never counted as a huge hit, but apparently Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumett believed it had some potential to attract a modern-day audience or they were just huge fans and really wanted to revisit the property.  Kurtzman has become notorious of late among sci fi fans for his work on the Star Trek TV shows which has involved large amounts of action and special effects and which have diverged from the spirit of the franchise’s past.  And yet The Man Who Fell to Earth is an intelligent and thoughtful series with interesting sci fi concepts and a story that respects the original film while also finding the potential to carry it into an ongoing tale.  He and Lumet contributed to the writing of all the episodes and the show hearkens back much more to his work on Fringe with little of the excesses we have seen from the recent Trek entries.  The Man Who Fell to Earth does drag at times and it might have delivered a tighter story with a couple of less episodes, but for the most part it is engaging throughout and delivers an excellent example of sci fi TV.

Of course, the cast is key to that with Chiwetel Ejiofor delivering an Emmy-deserving performance as Faraday.  He provides a nuanced and engaging portrayal of an alien who has little understanding of Earth and its people but who slowly adapts and learns how to deal with his surroundings.  Naomie Harris offers a good counterbalance to Ejiofor’s Faraday, but it would have been nice if they gave her more to do than just object to everything going on all the time (count that as a nitpick, though).  Bill Nighy does an excellent job of stepping into Bowie’s shoes as the elderly Thomas Newton, I just wish he had more screen time.  And the entire cast–including Westworld‘s Jimmi Simpson and Star Trek: Voyager‘s Kate Mulgrew–steps up in this production to help take this show to the next level, and I believe it will eventually become a cult classic on its own.

Sadly, The Man Who Fell to Earth was cancelled by Showtime after only one season.  The network did not do a good job of promoting it and apparently the property did not have enough nostalgia value to draw an audience on its own.  But it did wrap up its storylines so as not to leave the audience on a cliffhanger.  There was definitely more story to explore, but the one season ends on a satisfying note and is definitely worth checking out.  It is available for streaming on Showtime’s website and app and will likely have encore runs on the cable channel as well.

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What Is It?

Salvage Marines takes place in a grim future where mega-corporations have control of much of the known galaxy and most people find themselves in a status of debt servitude. When factory laborer Sam Hyst learns that his wife is pregnant, he decides to join the Salvage Marines in order to pay off his family’s debt and make a better life for his son. This specialized group of foot soldiers is tasked with recovering “salvage” that the company deems to be profitable. But life is hazardous and often short for those who sign up for that service.

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Armand Assante, Jennifer Wenger, Kevin Porter, Linara Washington, Peter Shinkoda

Created By: Rafael Jordan, Jamie R. Thompson (Based on the book Necrospace by
Sean-Michael Argo)

Bottom Line: While this show is definitely quite cheesy, it is driven by a good story and well-assembled cast and overcomes its limitations to deliver a decent military sci fi tale.

Why Is It Worth Watching?

Before addressing the strengths of this series, I will level-set and warn that it is certainly a cheesy affair, so set expectations appropriately before venturing forth. It does not have that mega-budget that Netflix and many of the other streamers throw at their originals, and that is apparent right from the start. The CGI looks like retro-Babylon 5 effects when at its best (which is fine for me since I am a huge B5 fan) and bad video game renderings at its worst (the trailer above gives a good idea of what to expect). The acting can vacillate from downright wooden to camp excess at times. The dialog has its share of copy-and-paste as well as just outright bad lines, and the directing can be choppy and stiff. Basically, much of what you would expect from a B-grade sci fi movie or series. (I grew up with films and shows like that, so my tolerance level is high.)

But if you stick with the show, it proves that it has a decent story to tell, an interesting universe, and characters that will quickly grow on you. It pulls in many of the expected military tropes, though it does not descend too far into cliche and manages to keep the viewers attached to the characters. The series focuses on Tango platoon of the Salvage Marines and shows the tough decisions they must make as well as the consequences that follow. Personaly, I consider it to be descended from the same stock as Space: Above and Beyond and fans of that ’90s entry will probably enjoy the newer show. Some may feel that it pushes a bit hard on the pro-union message, but I look at that more as anti-megacorp and I don’t believe that it takes the story too far into unnecessary socio-political commentary. And you have to expect some of that from the dystopia setting it delivers.

Casper Van Dien does a good job of leading the cast and I don’t understand why he got relegated to B and Z movies after starring in 1997’s Starship Troopers. But even though he is the main focus, this is very much an ensemble show with all of the cast pulling their weight. The first season only runs six episodes, so it is a quick watch. And it wraps up most of its storylines so it does not leave you hanging at the end. But there are six books in the Necrospace series, so there is more story to tell should this one continue into a second season and beyond. It is currently streaming for free on PopcornFlix and Crackle which are available on multiple platforms and directly on the internet. For fans of military sci fi, this is definitely one to check out. And anybody who likes a good, gritty dystopian tale should enjoy it as long as you can deal with the cheese factor.

Stream Salvage Marines on PopcornFlix

Stream Salvage Marines on Crackle

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