DEFYING GRAVITY 1.7 - "Fear"

[SPOILERS] I've gone space-crazy. My consciousness drifts in and out of Defying Gravity now; a glazed expression descending every time Donner (Ron Livingston) gives us another of his easygoing, patronizing voice-overs. It's all very didactic and stilted. Anyway, it's Halloween (prematurely scheduled in the US, belatedly so in the UK), and "Fear" revolved around the Antares crew having to act in a live, televised commercial for a confectioners who have pumped $10 billion into the mission. I guess selling chocolate is big business in 2052; maybe everyone who isn't affiliated with NASA are fat, chocoholic couch potatoes glued to the mission on TV?

"Fear" was dull, sadly. Worse, while it featured an abundance of the hallucinations that have kept my interest during all the boring episodes before now, they were cumulatively just as tedious. It's all dusty helmets, Martian storms, crying babies and trapped girls, which has just become monotonous. The only vision that piques my interest is of the Russian astronaut seeing what looks like herself in a fake beard -- is her tragic back-story that she used to be a man?

Defying Gravity keeps reminding us that mysterious cargo "Beta" is having an adverse mental effect on everyone, and it's now belabouring the point. The only upside here is that events spiraled so out of control (with the live advert ditched when they all freeze in various states of reverie before a space-walk), that they all had to admit what's been going on. Maybe now the show will progress and start giving us some firm answers about what "Beta" is. But I'm not sure I really care now, and I've never trusted the show to give us a good answer anyway. If one does materialize -- thank God for small mercies. If one doesn't -- I'm going to throw a brick at the screen. Why weren't the crew just told about "Beta" and its affects, anyway? Ted (Malik Yoba) was later briefed and he didn't react angrily to the news, so why not just tell them what's going on?

I've been told the show suddenly becomes very watchable from hereon in, as the mission approaches its end, but we'll see...


21 November 2009
BBC2/BBC HD, 10.40pm

written by: Chris Provenzano directed by: Jeff Woolnough starring: Ron Livingston (Maddux Donner), Malik Yoba (Ted Shaw), Andrew Airlie (Mike Goss), Paula Garcés (Paula Morales), Florentine Lahme (Nadia Schilling), Karen LeBlanc (Eve Weller-Shaw), Ty Olsson (Rollie Crane), Eyal Podell (Dr. Evram Mintz), Maxim Roy (Claire Dereux), Dylan Taylor (Steve Wassenfelder), Christina Cox (Jen Crane), Laura Harris (Zoe Barnes), Ari Cohen (David Sellner), Barclay Hope (Candy Exec), William C. Vaughan (Arnel Poe), Dante Lee Arias (Roy Shaw), Michael St. John Smith (Board Member), Lara Gilchrist (Sharon), Bruce Dawson (Vapor Trails), Nicole Muñoz (Palestinian Girl) & Bob Paris (Beta Tech)