Defying Gravity is go for launch

What is this strange and mysterious new science fiction drama series “Defying Gravity” that recently started to air on BBC?

Set in the year 2052 the story is told in a number of timelines, flashing backward and forward with aplomb – so much so that it took some time to get to grips with what was going on and and I’m still not sure what happened in what time period. Let’s hope it settles down over the 13 episodes. Fortunately episode 2 was broadcast straight after episode 1 which gave a better insight into how things are likely to unfold.

We join the story as the crew of the spacecraft Antares prepare for their six year mission touring our Solar System. Two crew members are pulled out at the last minute (Ajay Sharma and Rolle Crane) due to some mysterious issues, and others added, of these Maddux Donner has his own skeletons to deal with (after having to leave two crew members behind on a previous mission), Steve Wassenfelder (who is put into the program even though his appears to fail the swimming element of the training), and Ted Shaw (who is brought in on the secret behind the mission).

The mystery is what holds the attention – clearly there is another agenda which involves the baby crying noises heard by Zoe (they seem to occur every time something bad is going to happen), the link between Zoe and Maddux Donner (they awake at the same moment and seem linked in some way), the strange Pod 4, and the Alpha and Beta references by various members of the upper echelons of ground control. 

Apparently the series was originally inspired by the BBC drama-documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets back in 2004. However, a mix of mystery, drama and fiction has been added to mix it up for the crew during their exploits.

The series has traits and elements of a number of shows including Star Cops, Solaris, SeaQuest DSV (the original series), 2010, and Event Horizon.

The Special FX are particularly good and really add to the proceedings but the constant shuffling of time periods gets too confusing – however there is something appealing about the show and we will stick with it to see how it develops.

Image Credit: BBC