Monday 29 June 2015

Dark Matter: S01E02

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

Leading straight on from last week's ending, the crew are debating if they help the miners on the planet or not, now that they know that they were supposed to be the nasty people coming to exterminate the colony. Going for the middle ground, the consensus from "Two", who has assumed leadership role, is that they give them weapons and then clear off as the miners can't win the battle against the overall big boys who paid for the crew to do the job. How they really know anything about the intentions of their employees and anything else though, is massively overlooked throughout the show. Memories wiped, but only their past, but yet, not all their past? They know nothing, yet they know quite a lot despite no plotline to explain them learning half of what they seem to figure out. I'm not talking about flying ships or sword fighting, but actual knowledge of FTL and figuring out politics quicker than any of us could ever do.

Anyhow, whilst some of the crew are on the planet saying goodbye, the big bad people arrive. Well, those who are wanting to claim the planet as theirs; Ferrous Corp. They send a crew of their own down to the surface, leading to an altercation with our crew of the Raza (that's the "good" guy's ship btw). Looks like the Ferrous Corp are from the 1990s, as they arrive in the futuristic equivalent of OTT body armour, literally hanging off them. Goodness knows how they run or fight with all that clobber. As it turns out, it's also highly useless armour. Ineffective against knives and swords. Useless against bullets. Which gives you the impressions they'd probably do a lot better without the armour, but I guess they'd then not look so military. Anyhow, our Ferrous Corp boys are taken down quite quickly by the Raza and now armed miners, although it was just a group of six or so Corp boys.

Back on the Raza ship, lady leader, Two, is greeted by the captain of the Ferrous Corp ship, who looks so smug, you'd think he was an android too. Having heard what has happened on the planet, the Corp leader offers lady captain extra money to leave now without her crew on the planet. She accepts right away, of which you just know that's not going to last.

On the planet, sword wielding asian guy member of the Raza interrogates one of the captured corp soldiers, who despite saying interrogation is ineffective, gives up information easily, and without too much torture, given later on he's up and running about quite nicely. Curious ...

So, the Raza crew on planet help train up the miners against another bigger attack from the Corp, which all kicks off very nicely as the DJ ramps up the background music and we see some decent action sequence as they 99% win the battle against the corp, before that classic double cross as a few of the miners release one of the captured Corp soldiers in the hope of trying to save themselves from what they think is a lost cause. Yes, the corp guy they release looks like the one who was horribly tortured by the looks of it, but I might be wrong.

Up on the Raza, they return to orbit with two ships from a rival Corp, leading the Ferrous Corp to have to admit defeat and leave with their tails between their legs. The Raza crew say their goodbyes, whilst Han Solo Raza crew guy, "One", gets to snog one of the miners before he goes; the cute young lady one of course. Awww.

Things on the ship at the end take a little twist when the kid of the crew reveals to leader lady, Two, that she can read the mind of one of the crew, who she knows deliberately deleted their memories, but she's not sure who. I'm predicting that when we find out, it'll be quite interesting to know why, but that everything will end happily and all is forgiven because they are now nicer people. Too obvious? We'll see if this show plays procedurally or surprisingly.

What I liked

Nice action sequence within the confines of a reactor. Should they be firing guns down there? The DJ background music actually works as this is a cheese fest of eye candy action, and thus really plays up to the hamness of the show.

All the characters are likeable and now playing nice so it's easy to forgive multiple oversights in plot and memory inconsistencies.

Decent opening story, and a natural feel good factor, as the Raza help out those less fortunate, although sort of make enemies along the way.

What I Didn't Like

Although it's easy to like the crew, that's mostly because they are all so nice to each other, which given they've lost their memories of who they are, you'd think there would be more tension and less buddy like if they don't know each other. However, if you ignore this fact, it's easy to forgive them because, well, it's just easier for us viewers, although less realistic. Anyhow, it is spaceships in space. How realistic can it be?

What the Raza crew remember and don't remember really doesn't add up. They are quick to highlight what they don't know (like we need reminding!) and then gloss over the lots of other facts like how they so readily accept each other's company, and can figure out general basics of language, walking, eating etc as well as global politics after little in the way of information that we've seen. As said before, if we ignore this oversight, then it just makes the show more likeable ;)

Huh?

Raza kid member of the crew is worried about not being on the list of crew last episode, but, umm, neither was the android that she was discussing it with, was she?
Ineffective against swords, knives, bullets, blast weapons and close combat. So, why drag all that bulk armour about?
And Finally

Essentially part two of the pilot episode, this episode keeps up the enjoyment by being reasonably fast paced, witty dialogues, and popcorn action sequences. It's easy to ignore the inconsistencies in the crew's memories and general simplified costumes/ships when everyone is too darn likeable!

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