I honestly don’t know how I missed this scifi show. I caught up on it three weeks ago and was impressed by the show, the acting and pretty much everything. The fact is that I wasn’t expecting much.
For the first few weeks in August, I kept seeing Defying Gravity in queues. I expected it to be some kind of extreme sports show. That is until I stumbled upon someone mentioning it as scifi. I did my homework and started watching the 7 episodes that I had missed.
I was surprised at how interesting this show was.
Warning: spoilers ahead
* * * * *
The show is all about a mission in space, in the near future, by astronauts. They are on a grand tour, visiting all of the planets of our solar system. The mission will take six years. The astronauts don’t know the whole truth behind the mission, as they will all discover in episode 9.
Until then, they have unexplained hallucinations, which endanger the mission. Meanwhile, the backstory of the show is also shown. It goes back 5 years when the mission was being planned. Donner and Ted are two of the astronauts that went to Mars 10 years ago. Two of their fellow astronauts were still outside when a storm hit. They had to leave the planet. They were ordered by Mike Gauss, who was still on the spaceship. Donner and Ted complied, but under extreme duress.
Donner’s lover was left on Mars, as well as another astronaut. This has haunted and tainted them ever since. They were part of the training team, but Mike was under orders that they should never be able to go to Venus. As it happens, at the last minute, Donner and Ted were taken aboard after two of the astronauts developed health problems.
Eve goes on about how they were chosen for this. Eve is now married to Ted, who was involved with Jen five years ago. Right now, Jen is married to Rollie, one of the two astronauts who was grounded. Donner is involved sexually with Nadia, the German astronaut, but is in love with Zoe, who was also involved with Donner 5 years ago.
Anyway, there is quite a lot happening in the past to explain the situation of all of the astronauts. It’s quite intriguing. I’ve watched nine episodes and I’m still hooked.
There are only a couple of issues that I see. Sometimes, the recaps are long. By recaps, I mean when the astronauts talk about their past. The astronauts are all linked. Beta is making both Zoe and Donner dream the same dream, although their hallucinations are different. Donner keeps seeing Sharon while Zoe keeps hearing a baby crying.
Also, I don’t like how they addressed the gravity issue. In space, there is barely any gravity. Usually, spaceship designs include rotating habitats to simulate gravity with centrifugal force. However, in the rest of the ship, the gravity is simulated by their high-tech jumpsuits, which are made out of some nano-fiber that “clings” to surfaces. I don’t really know much more, as it’s only been mentioned a few times.
Even if some people at Mission Control, those being Claire, Eve, Mike, Rollie, and other unnamed higher-ups know of the real mission, the astronauts have still to discover what it really is. We discover it at the same time when they finally open up pod 4 and bask in the glory of alien life.
The crew knows of the real mission now. They are on an alien treasure hunt to collect alien living objects. The objects communicate via hallucinations. They won’t be able to do anything except what the object wants. Donner makes a startling discovery at the end of the episode. Something is wrong with Jen. She can’t see it.
* * * * *
A radio telescope is getting a strange music transmission from Mars. There is another transmission from Peru. The one from Mars is called Alpha and the one on Earth is Beta.
The crew gets into pod 4. It looks empty. There is something in a small pod. It’s shinning a bright light. It’s some kind of alien. It’s singing and organic. It looks like molten laval. It’s alive. Mike tells the Mission Control that this is Beta. Woss says that Beta is fractal-like. Donner discovers that there are more of them. There are seven containers. Some music is playing. It’s not coming from Beta. It must be coming from Alpha. There is another on each of the landing sites. Donner guesses that they are going to be collecting these things. Ted doesn’t know anything more.
Mike and Eve brief the crew on what happened. A signal was discovered 15 years ago by the Hawk Creek telescope. The signal originated on Mars and there were replies from Nazca, Peru. Eve says that she is here solely because of the object. She was a relief worker in Peru. Honestly, I don’t give a shit about Eve. She says that she had trouble acclimating to the altitude. Then she started hearing music at night. She was the only one hearing this music. The music was a song from her childhood, one she thought that she had composed herself. She tried to find it. She keeps going on about the music. It’s a very annoying story. She says that they came, the Bergen Corporation. They make her tell them where the music is coming from. The actress that plays Eve is really annoying. She’s a terrible actress. They find Beta while digging. They told her to walk back to her camp. She ran back.
The object is organic, though made out of elements unknown to man. Its shape and movement is mathematically fractal. The Alpha object is on Mars. Five other signals are on different planets. Gamma is on Venus, Delta on Mercury, Epsilon on Europa, Zeta on the rings of Saturn, Eta on the surface of Pluto. The primary goal is to pick up these objects.
5 years ago, Mike is briefing the new astronauts. They are meeting the press. Mike tells Ted and Donner that they aren’t going to talk to the press. They are banned from the floor. Eve tells them to chill.
Rollie tells Jen that she was chosen by Beta. The astronauts are all dealing with this in different ways. Paula sees the divine. Nadia has got enough of the music. The music is everywhere.
They all talk with some counterparts. Ted questions Eve. He doesn’t trust her anymore. She’s still a shitty actress.
Eve continues her boring story. Mintz wants to know about guilt. His hallucinations are deeply rooted in guilt. Neither Jen nor Wass had hallucinations. Paula doesn’t say anything about hers.
Bergen came to get Eve when the object was dying.
Jen isn’t handling the news well. Zoe is disappointed in the way that Jen is acting. Jen is upset at the science taking a backseat. She goes to her lab and chops up the fractal tomato plants.
AJ tells Donner that the locations of the other landing sites haven’t been uploaded. They are being withheld. Donner talks with Nadia and Ted. Nadia tells him to retrieve them themselves. She says that when there was the glitch on the lander and the landing site, the lander kept switching to the tertiary landing site. All of the tertiary sites must be the locations of the objects.
Donner has got a bad feeling. They are going back to Mars to the Alpha object. They were there 10 years ago to get the Alpha object. Sharon and Walker new, as well as Goss.
At Mission Control, all of the crew gets updated to level 12 security.
At the end of the episode, Jen is staring at the object. She doesn’t see anything at all, while Zoe sees it, as well as the others.
* * * * *
Relevant Posts
memoirs on a rainy day 
Leave a Reply