S01.E03: Episode Three

[formerlyfreedom]

When the ship mysteriously veers off course, suggestions of sabotage abound, fueling the onboard paranoia. A perilous spacewalk is required to bring the ship’s systems back online.

[Skyfall]

I died at "Not yet." xD

[thuganomics85]

Oh, One.  Just because a pretty woman asks you to spot her when doing sit-ups, doesn't necessarily mean she was hitting on you. Knew what kiss was coming and it was going to end awkwardly.  But judging from their reactions at the end, I"m guessing those two totally had a relationship before they lost their memories.

 

I also see that the crew apparently found some new clothes.  In particular, Two traded her black midriff from the first two episodes, for an odd looking grey shirt.  I guess you can't be choosing over fashion, when stuck in a ship like this.

 

The ship starts messing up, and everyone thinks it could be sabotage, and naturally friction and tensions escalates.  The Android figures out the problem and fixes it, but then gets taken out of commission outside of the ship.  This leads to Three and Four going rogue, and trying to blast off with her still in danger.  The group stops that (thanks to Five of all people), but those two clearly are not on the same page as the rest.  Then again, I don't even think Four is really with Three: that guy is just doing whatever the hell he wants almost.

 

Five finds a dead body, so now one of them might be a killer.  Also, everyone now knows about Five's dreams.

 

Liking the Five/Six bond: mainly because I know Roger Cross best on Continuum, so I enjoy seeing him be a nicer, gentler character.  Which means I'm totally prepared for him to be the worst of the bunch, if/when they get their memories back.

Edited June 27, 2015 by thuganomics85

[Chaos Theory]

"Six strangers and a Robot" would have actually been a great title for this show which I am enjoying.

Three needs to be tossed out an airlock. I don't like him.

I do really like the robot though. She is funny.

I am starting to like Five too.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[edhopper]

Looks like One will finally get interesting next week.

[rove4]

I don't mind Three. He at least has some personality. One, on the other hand, is pure milquetoast.

[supernatural666]

I like three he reminds me of Jayne from Firefly.

[Mars477]

Yeah, Three's a douche but at least he can deliver a line and be funny. Still, though, some of this dialogue is just awful.

As far as "hot young ambiguously non-white actresses playing tough female leads who by rights should be cast 8-10 years older" go, Hannah John-Kamen (Dutch from Killjoys) displays a lot more confidence and command presence than Melissa O'Neil. Ignoring that it actually makes sense why Dutch could be in her mid-twenties and still be the senior partner to 35 year old Aaron Ashmore, due to her upbringing. There's Asian Guy With Swords, who is the Asian Guy With Swords, and Roger Cross could have a personality if 3/6 crew members weren't already in "Too Nice To Be A Pirate" territory. And Five is annoyingly mopey, dear god.

That CGI was Under The Dome bad, huh?

This episode was better than #2, but #2 largely consisted of battle scenes that were hilariously incompetently shot, with horrible choreography (including extras who were just given the "Jerk around like you're having a seizure and then fall down" direction with no coordination to the special effects guys and absolutely no squibs or even signs that a bullet has entered a body). So it'll be hard to become even worse than episode 2.

Looks like One will finally get interesting next week.

Not even. Real Jace Corso might prove to be an interesting character (although come on, who are we kidding here?) but One will remain dull as toast. Edited June 27, 2015 by Mars477

[Jack Kerouac]

Oh, One.  Just because a pretty woman asks you to spot her when doing sit-ups, doesn't necessarily mean she was hitting on you. Knew what kiss was coming and it was going to end awkwardly.  But judging from their reactions at the end, I"m guessing those two totally had a relationship before they lost their memories.

 

Well, she did stroke his face that one time and give him the fuck-me eyes last episode when saying "It will give us time to get to KNOW each other better." I get why he kissed her, but not really why she wasn't into it. She seemed pretty receptive the last two episodes.

 

Also, I think it would be much cooler if the dirty Jace Corso was actually the fake and the ship version was the real killer.

[arjumand]

Well, she did stroke his face that one time and give him the fuck-me eyes last episode when saying "It will give us time to get to KNOW each other better." I get why he kissed her, but not really why she wasn't into it. She seemed pretty receptive the last two episodes.

 

 

Yeah, I was really urging her to make the move - but no. M&M's motto seems to be "No cliche left unused!"  Cute guy kisses cute and previously receptive lady, but she rebuffs his advances for no real reason (look, she's hot, and he's hot, and they have 12 hours to kill)! Black guy dies first, but is brought back by the Magic of Electricity! Yes, gather round friends, as a man killed by electrocution is brought back to life by more electrocution! Just once, I would like the all-knowing cyborg to say "I detected that his heart was in ventricular fibrillation, so I discharged bla bla bla". Or nanites, for fuck's sake. Everything's coming up nanites, nowadays. Nope. Welcome to the future, where electricity is MAGIC: this is my pet peeve on a show, along with people giving up on CPR after two seconds. That's two strikes for Dark Matter, in one episode.

 

Also, I think it would be much cooler if the dirty Jace Corso was actually the fake and the ship version was the real killer.

 

 

It would be much cooler, which is why it won't happen. I'm calling it - the ship guys are all clones. There was an SG1 story like that, only they were robots.

 

I love how everybody forgot about the dead kid in the freezer once the bullshit technobabble menaced the ship. And in THE FUTURE there's no DNA? They couldn't put his face through the face recognition thingy like the crew? And where did the blood go after he bled to death? And when you bleed to death, you lose consciousness, thus closing your eyes.

 

Although I'm on the verge of saying, fuck it, I'm done, I'm actually really enjoying the nitpicking and eye rolling. The scene in the "Space" "Station" was particularly bad. I mean, sure, the CGI was bad, but CGI's expensive, so I kind of accept it being bad on a tv show. But acting and sets have to be good, then.

[miracole]

 

I died at "Not yet.

Loved that. He became my favorite character after that line.  I also think the actor's very pretty.  He reminds me of a Basco.

 

I don't even think Four is really with Three

 

He's not with Three at all. He seems to be in "Imma try this let's see what happens" mode. 

 

I liked Five this episode.

 

The Andriod is always awesome.

 

Don't really want 1 of One, let alone 2 of One.

Edited June 27, 2015 by miracole

[Shanna Marie]

Aw, I kind of like One, but I'm a sucker for earnest good guys. Also, he's basically Not!Simon, and Simon was one of my favorite Firefly characters.

 

So whoever called that these might be clones or otherwise copies of the identities we were shown might be on to something, unless we have an actual Evil Twin situation. I kind of want the Evil Twin, just because if you're going to be cheesy, you should go for it, all-out.

 

Unfortunately, this episode just seemed to be about piling up contrived crises that had nothing to do with the overall storyline, and it came too early in the season for us to care too much about how they got out of a random bit of car trouble. I guess they were trying for the "put them in crisis and see how they react" form of character development, but it didn't do much other than reinforce what we already know. The pattern for the series seems to be mostly ho-hum episode with a big twist or hook in the last second that makes you want to see the next episode, even though you spent the previous 57 minutes knitting while occasionally glancing at the screen.

[FormerMod-a1]

I was actually with 3 on this one.  They were all acting like the android was a person and it's not.  It's one thing to risk your own life to save some "valuable equipment", but all of their lives?  Not good, people.  I half expected another android to awaken after this one "died"/went offline.  I kind of wish it had.  I also kind of wish someone had died because of their stupidity, but of course that didn't happen either.  We had to prove 3 was wrong, after all.

[MissLucas]

Well One remains the most useless character on the show (I deal with Evil-Eyeliner-One later). I was hoping he'd show off some wit/brain/spark-whatever throughout the whole episode. Do something clever to stop the stand-off in the bridge - nope, Five had to be the one (he!). Perform CPR for more than a couple of seconds. Do something other than the completely expected move on Two. But nope, nope, nope. The most interesting thing about him is of course Evil-Eyeliner-One, sigh.

 

Three might be annoying as hell but he's consistent. He trusts no-one. And he's the only one safeguarding his quarters against Five which I thought to be a pretty clever move.

 

I thought the conflict about saving the Android somewhat forced. Three and Four were doing the rational thing whilst the others came off as bleeding hearts. But saving the Android could have been presented as just as rational a decisiosn as jumping to FTL. She's the one (rather vital) player they can't replace (unless behind that door a Terracotta army of Androids is slumbering) - so getting her back in one piece should be a priority even if it means losing a crew member.

 

And about that door: How come Three of all people is the only one who has done a full sweep of the ship and managed to find it? As this episode showed this ship is full of nasty surprises so it would make sense to finally have a good look around. Only Three and Five seems to have had the idea so far.

 

MVP goes to the Android and Five.

 

ETA: Forgot about the one clever thing One did in this episode - using the Android as lie detector. Even if it did not produce any definite clues to what's going on it was good thinking.

Edited June 27, 2015 by MissLucas

[Terrafamilia]

Oh, One.  Just because a pretty woman asks you to spot her when doing sit-ups, doesn't necessarily mean she was hitting on you. Knew what kiss was coming and it was going to end awkwardly.  But judging from their reactions at the end, I"m guessing those two totally had a relationship before they lost their memories.

They seem to be doing all the lazy things in the relationship building department.

<snip> Just once, I would like the all-knowing cyborg to say "I detected that his heart was in ventricular fibrillation, so I discharged bla bla bla". Or nanites, for fuck's sake. Everything's coming up nanites, nowadays. Nope. Welcome to the future, where electricity is MAGIC: this is my pet peeve on a show, along with people giving up on CPR after two seconds. That's two strikes for Dark Matter, in one episode.

<snip>

I love how everybody forgot about the dead kid in the freezer once the bullshit technobabble menaced the ship. And in THE FUTURE there's no DNA? They couldn't put his face through the face recognition thingy like the crew? And where did the blood go after he bled to death? And when you bleed to death, you lose consciousness, thus closing your eyes.

Sometimes I just want to storm into the writers' room, start shaking people, and yell, "Why are you people not even trying!"

I was actually with 3 on this one.  They were all acting like the android was a person and it's not.  It's one thing to risk your own life to save some "valuable equipment", but all of their lives?  Not good, people.  I half expected another android to awaken after this one "died"/went offline.  I kind of wish it had.  I also kind of wish someone had died because of their stupidity, but of course that didn't happen either.  We had to prove 3 was wrong, after all.

On the one hand, the android doesn't seem to be at the Data level of being an actual person, on the other hand she does seem pretty irreplaceable given that no one else seems interested in getting up to speed in terms of shipboard operations (even Two, who in the premiere was really insistent on being shown how to do things), on the gripping hand she is totally in on whatever's been going on and Three is completely justified in not trusting her.

 

In this episode I am left wondering where places are in relation to one another. Last episode Two was able to warp out, find people she needed to talk to in a rival megacorp, and warp back as the cavalry in what was like several hours at most it seemed. This episode they are warping to the nearest civilized outpost/space station and it was still 26 hours away when the show opened. Have the producers/writers worked out the basic building blocks of this universe beyond Mercenaries!Megacorps!Mystery!?

 

I'm getting a sinking feeling that this show will end up a low-budget version of The Event or even Heroes. Start off with a really interesting premise but then decay into something that should be studied in film school as an example of how not to do it, replete with dropped/undeveloped/questionable plot points and wasted opportunities. If the writing and acting are there the budget constraints become a lot more bearable.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I'm getting a sinking feeling that this show will end up a low-budget version of The Event or even Heroes.

 

Oh, that's pretty harsh invoking 'The Event' -- it's got a long way to go to reach that level of WTFery, but I get what you mean.  I hope this show improves.

[Wynterwolf]

This still reminds me of a mediocre video game with 5 as the player.  Everyone is written as a caricature rather than a character, and the main thing I'm finding even moderately entertaining is that I like all the actors (except 1.  Even 3 got a lot less annoying, though not any less of a jackass, this ep) and they are enjoyable to watch.  And it's summer, so I have a lot of room on my tivo.  

[Snarkette]

It feels less like a game by ep 3 (not that it's lost that cut scene bad acting quality, but less). I am sick of ZoieeøE Palmer. Can they hire the guy from Holly/Red Dwarf instead? Every time she shows up, I feel heretofore unknown rage at her character and her acting. In fact, I think this show needs a lot more evolved cats and vindaloo.

[arjumand]

It feels less like a game by ep 3 (not that it's lost that cut scene bad acting quality, but less). I am sick of ZoieeøE Palmer. Can they hire the guy from Holly/Red Dwarf instead? Every time she shows up, I feel heretofore unknown rage at her character and her acting. In fact, I think this show needs a lot more evolved cats and vindaloo.

 

Oh, why did you remind me of Red Dwarf? Now I'm going to hate Zoie Palmer even more. I can't believe a BBC comedy show with a laugh track had better characters and acting than this supposedly dark and gritty (i.e. small lighting budget and shouty) serious drama. Here's one of my favourite moments.

 

[Jazzy24]

One is okay I like a good guy and no he's not the most exciting actually none of the characters are at all that interesting. But I like the idea of the show so I'm going to try to stick with it.

[Jordan27]

Show is still at average or slighty above.  Nothing really special here so far. 

 

I wonder if Seven of Nine will show up.  :)

[maczero]

I was actually with 3 on this one.  They were all acting like the android was a person and it's not.  It's one thing to risk your own life to save some "valuable equipment", but all of their lives?  Not good, people. 

This made me scratch my head as well.  I'm guessing androids are fairly common in this universe so it kinda felt like they were risking their lives for their universe's equivalent of an iPad.  OTOH, people do have emotional attachments to inanimate objects so risking your life for a piece of equipment that just saved your life isn't all that crazy. 

 

Well One remains the most useless character on the show (I deal with Evil-Eyeliner-One later). I was hoping he'd show off some wit/brain/spark-whatever throughout the whole episode. Do something clever to stop the stand-off in the bridge - nope, 

Yeah, that's starting to become annoying.  No leadership skills, no piloting skills, no tech skills.  Hell, I thought he'd shine with some medical know how.  No such luck.  He seems to only serve as the crew's conscious which also crosses over with 6's role but 6 can also pilot the shuttle.  

 

Someone in the ep 1 thread called that the crew were clones of the original Raza crew.  I'm backing that theory after seeing the evil version of One.  My bet is that the rest of the original crew is behind the mystery door.

 

Speaking of One, please tell me that they didn't give him the evil goatee. 

[TexasChic]

The android seems to be a walking, talking version of the ship's system. If she hadn't alerted them to the danger they were in, would they have known?

Another thought, there was one scene where Two said to Android, "Just get back in one piece, we can't do this without you" and Android said, "Well, you can". What did that mean? My very first thought was, "Whoa, Two is an android too!" But that might be a bit of a leap.

Edited June 30, 2015 by TexasChic

[DEM]

But saving the Android could have been presented as just as rational a decision as jumping to FTL.

Exactly.  The dialogue gave sort of passing lip-service to this point, but then it went right back into Good vs. Bad territory. I would have preferred a more complex argument.

 

Furthermore, given the general lack of curiosity about the ship, I doubt the crew had surfed to the Android Store to find out how much it would cost to replace a ship's system-grade android should the need arise. For all they know, it could cost half the price of the ship itself.  Given that none of them are completely captain-ready in terms of knowledge of the ship, blithely throwing her away when there's still a chance wouldn't make sense.  

 

The memory wipe thing still bugs me.  It's completely psychologically implausible.  They have a whole bunch of skills & knowledge, but --rather conveniently-- not all of them. If they were clones, that would (somewhat) resolve the 'psychopathy is housed in long-term memory' nonsense, but it wouldn't clear up all of the other inconsistencies.

 

And yet, despite the fact that Really, Really, Very Bad Psychology should turn me right off, the show's interesting enough to me to stick around for a couple more eps at least.  I only hope that every week is not going to be a morality play.

Edited June 30, 2015 by DEM

[tennisgurl]

I can get them wanting to save the Android. People get very attached to anything with a human face let alone someone who basically acts like a person. She is basically another crew member, even if they know, intellectually, that she is just a machine. Plus, as 4 pointed out, its an expensive machine to replace, from a more pragmatic standpoint. 

 

I like One, but I hope there is more to him than "nice". I hope the "real" One showing up brings more conflict to him. Or at least inspires him to wear eyeliner. 

[call me ishmael]

I can completely understand them wanting to save the android. She is the only one who can really handle the ship, she fixes everything if it breaks, and for all they know she may be a key to protecting them. In a way, 3 and 4 are more perplexing. Why should 3 care about 1 and 6? If he is all he claims then one of two things happens: they come back in a couple of minutes with the android or they die and then it becomes clear that 3 is right and they should sell the ship.

I agree that 1 making it a morality play was both predictable and silly.

Edited July 1, 2015 by call me ishmael

[FurryFury]

This episode felt a bit better than the previous two. 100% bottle, but it worked... for the most part.

 

Ugh, One. I guess this episode has sealed the deal for me, I can´t stand him. Such an insufferable character. Does he have to kiss every woman his age he comes in contact with? This is super annoying. And his moral high ground talk is getting tiring.

 

I guess I've warmed up to Three. He actually made sense this episode. But then, I have a weakness for this archetype because they are always dynamic and stir up the shit among the team, and conflict is good (unless it's too contrived).

 

Five is most intriguing character by far. I also like the actress. Hope I won't be too disappointed in her deal.

 

And speaking about their deals, it's high time for some answers. I don't want to wait a whole season for an infodump. Spread out some hints if you want me to keep watching.

 

Speculation: Six was the one to sabotage the ship and he didn't make a mistake, he wiped his own memory specifically. Or he's lying that he lost it, another possibility.

 

Aw, I kind of like One, but I'm a sucker for earnest good guys. Also, he's basically Not!Simon, and Simon was one of my favorite Firefly characters.

 

I *loved* Simon. One is no Simon, he just sucks.

Also, knowing Joss, Simon would have turned into a morally ambiguous criminal mastermind a few seasons later and I'd have loved him anyway. Probably even more.

Edited July 2, 2015 by FurryFury

[Mars477]

This episode felt a bit better than the previous two. 100% bottle, but it worked... for the most part.

 

Ugh, One. I guess this episode has sealed the deal for me, I can´t stand him. Such an insufferable character. Does he have to kiss every woman his age he comes in contact with? This is super annoying. And his moral high ground talk is getting tiring.

Seriously, what the hell was this about?  Come on, One, you were macking on hot rebel miner chick (5 minutes after her dad died, no less) a few hours ago and you're already putting the moves on your boss?  Slow it down, why don't you.

 

Three is actually amusing at points, and Six is Roger Cross.  Four is a nonentity and I really hate Five for how mopey she is being.  I can't say the show is precisely knocking it out of the park with the characters so far, and considering that the characters (and what happened to them) account for basically all of the show's long term prospects it's not looking too promising.

[Ely]

I wonder if Seven of Nine will show up. :)

 

Stop it. I'm struggling with the Android as much as it is ;). She was so annoying in this episode, varying between smug to innocently smartass-y - she laid it on thick. But contrary to One and Two I think this was just a one-episode-thing where they're trying to find the right tone for her.

She's seems to be a mix between 7 of 9 and Data. Without the subtleness of the latter. To be fair, playing an android is pretty hard. I'm willing to give her a chance.

 

Three's one of my favourite characters - he says it like it is and is funny. Six is amazing because - as was rightly said - Roger Cross. It is what it is. Four is good enough. Five is ok. She's not too much. Yet. One needs to dial back on the lost-puppy-schtick and Two - I cannot really roll my eyes as much as I want with her. Can't do it.

I feel she knows more than she lets on, she's always so quick to accept the fact that they all lost their memories.

[gibasi]

I do better with names than numbers and can only remember that 2 is the self appointed leader.  Roger Cross is so good and I really like him, and the shit disturber and the aloof Asian guy.  One is not doing it for me at all and I had to come here to remember his number.  His looks are strange for me-like his head is too big for his scrawny little body or something.  So far I am just watching it to watch it and could fall out of the habit very easily.

[AudienceofOne]

I do better with names than numbers and can only remember that 2 is the self appointed leader.  Roger Cross is so good and I really like him, and the shit disturber and the aloof Asian guy.  One is not doing it for me at all and I had to come here to remember his number.  His looks are strange for me-like his head is too big for his scrawny little body or something.  So far I am just watching it to watch it and could fall out of the habit very easily.

 

 

I could handle One being the conscience if he was a Daniel Jackson character. As it is, the desire to "do the right thing" seems to come more from a general ineffectualness rather than morality.

 

And of course they had to save the Android - none of them remember anything. They'd be dead in space in a day without her.

[gibasi]

I am way behind on my viewing, but this:

 

 

I could handle One being the conscience if he was a Daniel Jackson character. As it is, the desire to "do the right thing" seems to come more from a general ineffectualness rather than morality.

 

 

I think you hit the nail on the head with this!  It is his ineffectualness that makes me dislike him.

[Clanstarling]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2015 at 1:03 PM, Terrafamilia said:

They seem to be doing all the lazy things in the relationship building department.

Sometimes I just want to storm into the writers' room, start shaking people, and yell, "Why are you people not even trying!"

On the one hand, the android doesn't seem to be at the Data level of being an actual person, on the other hand she does seem pretty irreplaceable given that no one else seems interested in getting up to speed in terms of shipboard operations (even Two, who in the premiere was really insistent on being shown how to do things), on the gripping hand she is totally in on whatever's been going on and Three is completely justified in not trusting her.

I'm way late to the party (too much on my DVR list last summer, and thankfully Netflix has this up before the second season). I just had to tip my hat to "the gripping hand" - I haven't thought of or used that expression in years, but it gives me warm fuzzies. Thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite books. It just jumped the queue on my re-read list.