Space travel at any cost
I spent last three evenings watching the Ascension miniseries and it was more fun than I expected. I wasn't really sold on the whole interstellar generation spaceship from the 60s. I was thinking maybe it'll be some kind of alternate reality where they used Roswell alien technology to explain why they were able to achieve it so early. However, the story turned out to be more interesting than that.
[Spoilers for the whole miniseries]
First, it turned out they weren't in space at all. Then that the subject of the experiment wasn't the space travel but breeding superpowers and finally that it was really about space travel instantaneous teleportation by said superpowered individual.
It was pretty obvious pretty soon through the first episode that they weren't in space. I wasn't sure if that wasn't just sloppy film making at first but the more clues they added the more obvious it become that it was intentional. From the girl screaming about observers to the physics being wrong (gravity/acceleration and relativistic effects/stars didn't add up) so I realised this must be biodome (or Mars-500) experiment where the subject doesn't know they are in a simulation half way through the episode. Once I saw someone in hazmat suit waking around I knew for sure. It became obvious that the guys on Earth manufactured the alarm to gain access to the ship without inhabitants knowing.
Anyway I'm glad they didn't try to pretend they were really in space as that made no sense. They would've left before the Moon landing and getting this kind of mass off Earth without anyone knowing is ridiculous - if not anything else the ship would've been visible to telescopes while accelerating from Earth for pretty long time (and how would they know there will be any habitable planets at the end of their journey?). And without artificial gravity they wouldn't be able to sustain 1G for so long and they would have to start decelerating soon anyway and generally the only way they can believe they are in space is by having some serious gaps in physics knowledge.
At first I thought that the real experiment was to see how people will behave and if society will be stable and number of people sufficient to sustain the whole thing through the 100 year trip. I suppose they were trying to see if the generation ship would work without people going crazy. A little overboard just to see the effects of isolated society in a tin can but acceptable from the point of view of times that created it. They keep it up in modern times because of the inventions it produces (although 60s tech tablet was funny their PET seemed pretty advanced) so they could profit from it. So they keep them in this weird totalitarian, highly stratified society that's not that different form the communism at it's peak to keep the inventions coming.
But it was pretty obvious there was something special about Christa from the very beginning. By the second part it was obvious she (and others like her) was the true goal of this experiment. The whole place is some eugenic experiment to produce psychics. Basically they are Bene Gesserit trying to produce Kwisatz Haderach and they have pretty much the same control problems as all the other cases. This is the comparison I made after the second episode ended and tonight it turned out Dune was the right track as Christa seems to be able bend fabric of space and time with her mind and jump people to alien planets. She's a Guild navigator and she doesn't even need spice (or even a spaceship). So the whole thing was about space travel but the ship was the decoy from the start as the real goal was creating someone who can teleport people to alien planets cutting down the time and resources needed and have a precognitive ability to know where to go so the planet they choose would be survivable.
This doesn't make the overseers any more likeable. The whole peeping tom thing they have set up is creepy on so many levels. And the main control guy - Harris - with his extra creepy obsession with knowing and controlling everyone on the ship is the worst. Especially, the thing with ship doctor who he's been stalking since they were both children and now he has a look alike wife the he gave the stolen seahorse necklace to and wants her to keep it during sex - even creepier than the rest of this very sick situation. I would've been happy he got demoted to dead if it wasn't for the obvious wrongness of Warren's approach. At least, in his creepy stalker way, he cares about the people inside. And none of this even mentions what they did to set up the experiment with kidnapping and I also suspect some killing off the original scientists (not many old people around
so I suspect most of the ones who were grown up at fake launch died in that convenient fire).
The most surprising part was when Samantha Krueger was killed but she was very bad at this from the beginning - letting every one know she disagrees with the experiment and getting beaten and captured by everyone. I was shocked noone realise she was to going to try to destroy the experiment sooner and I felt it was because she was supposed to be the audience proxy and the moral core and therefore safe from consequences which is the main reason I was surprised they killed her off. Unfortunately, being audience proxy and moral heart usually make for poor character (see Skye through most of season 1 of AoS) so I didn't care too much. However, it added up to 3 women murdered in those 6 hours of the miniseries - one to get the plot going (Lorelai) and the other two (Warren and Sam) to keep the status quo (keep the guys in charge in charge) in case someone decides to make this into a series. Not nice Ascension, not nice. (Men who die are basically background, disposable mooks so it's not really comparable.)
Also Syfy - typecasting Tricia Helfer as manipulative seductress - also not nice. Even when she wins and gets what she wants. I expect you to let her keep executive position that doesn't require her to have sex with creepy old guys if this ever comes back because that ending was the only thing that made it any better.
I was to point out that they also seemed to kill their only main black character (right after they killed the lesbian one) but it turns out he's just the first (hu)man on another planet. Of course we are left with poor Aaron stranded on same alien world all alone. With nothing to eat. At least the atmosphere doesn't seem toxic. I wonder what happened to the other guy.
[Spoilers for the whole miniseries]
First, it turned out they weren't in space at all. Then that the subject of the experiment wasn't the space travel but breeding superpowers and finally that it was really about space travel instantaneous teleportation by said superpowered individual.
It was pretty obvious pretty soon through the first episode that they weren't in space. I wasn't sure if that wasn't just sloppy film making at first but the more clues they added the more obvious it become that it was intentional. From the girl screaming about observers to the physics being wrong (gravity/acceleration and relativistic effects/stars didn't add up) so I realised this must be biodome (or Mars-500) experiment where the subject doesn't know they are in a simulation half way through the episode. Once I saw someone in hazmat suit waking around I knew for sure. It became obvious that the guys on Earth manufactured the alarm to gain access to the ship without inhabitants knowing.
Anyway I'm glad they didn't try to pretend they were really in space as that made no sense. They would've left before the Moon landing and getting this kind of mass off Earth without anyone knowing is ridiculous - if not anything else the ship would've been visible to telescopes while accelerating from Earth for pretty long time (and how would they know there will be any habitable planets at the end of their journey?). And without artificial gravity they wouldn't be able to sustain 1G for so long and they would have to start decelerating soon anyway and generally the only way they can believe they are in space is by having some serious gaps in physics knowledge.
At first I thought that the real experiment was to see how people will behave and if society will be stable and number of people sufficient to sustain the whole thing through the 100 year trip. I suppose they were trying to see if the generation ship would work without people going crazy. A little overboard just to see the effects of isolated society in a tin can but acceptable from the point of view of times that created it. They keep it up in modern times because of the inventions it produces (although 60s tech tablet was funny their PET seemed pretty advanced) so they could profit from it. So they keep them in this weird totalitarian, highly stratified society that's not that different form the communism at it's peak to keep the inventions coming.
But it was pretty obvious there was something special about Christa from the very beginning. By the second part it was obvious she (and others like her) was the true goal of this experiment. The whole place is some eugenic experiment to produce psychics. Basically they are Bene Gesserit trying to produce Kwisatz Haderach and they have pretty much the same control problems as all the other cases. This is the comparison I made after the second episode ended and tonight it turned out Dune was the right track as Christa seems to be able bend fabric of space and time with her mind and jump people to alien planets. She's a Guild navigator and she doesn't even need spice (or even a spaceship). So the whole thing was about space travel but the ship was the decoy from the start as the real goal was creating someone who can teleport people to alien planets cutting down the time and resources needed and have a precognitive ability to know where to go so the planet they choose would be survivable.
This doesn't make the overseers any more likeable. The whole peeping tom thing they have set up is creepy on so many levels. And the main control guy - Harris - with his extra creepy obsession with knowing and controlling everyone on the ship is the worst. Especially, the thing with ship doctor who he's been stalking since they were both children and now he has a look alike wife the he gave the stolen seahorse necklace to and wants her to keep it during sex - even creepier than the rest of this very sick situation. I would've been happy he got demoted to dead if it wasn't for the obvious wrongness of Warren's approach. At least, in his creepy stalker way, he cares about the people inside. And none of this even mentions what they did to set up the experiment with kidnapping and I also suspect some killing off the original scientists (not many old people around
so I suspect most of the ones who were grown up at fake launch died in that convenient fire).
The most surprising part was when Samantha Krueger was killed but she was very bad at this from the beginning - letting every one know she disagrees with the experiment and getting beaten and captured by everyone. I was shocked noone realise she was to going to try to destroy the experiment sooner and I felt it was because she was supposed to be the audience proxy and the moral core and therefore safe from consequences which is the main reason I was surprised they killed her off. Unfortunately, being audience proxy and moral heart usually make for poor character (see Skye through most of season 1 of AoS) so I didn't care too much. However, it added up to 3 women murdered in those 6 hours of the miniseries - one to get the plot going (Lorelai) and the other two (Warren and Sam) to keep the status quo (keep the guys in charge in charge) in case someone decides to make this into a series. Not nice Ascension, not nice. (Men who die are basically background, disposable mooks so it's not really comparable.)
Also Syfy - typecasting Tricia Helfer as manipulative seductress - also not nice. Even when she wins and gets what she wants. I expect you to let her keep executive position that doesn't require her to have sex with creepy old guys if this ever comes back because that ending was the only thing that made it any better.
I was to point out that they also seemed to kill their only main black character (right after they killed the lesbian one) but it turns out he's just the first (hu)man on another planet. Of course we are left with poor Aaron stranded on same alien world all alone. With nothing to eat. At least the atmosphere doesn't seem toxic. I wonder what happened to the other guy.