Defying Gravity

When I originally reviewed the two hour pilot, I said I'd be keeping my eye on this series and I did. This show tackles in a fairly realistic way the catastrophic consequences of a major solar flair on a long term manned (And woman-ed) space mission. The science depicted on this show is still a little flawed ( a grand tour of the solar system made in just six years before the end of the 21st century is really stretching it I think)but I can live with it. The main characters seem a little unstable at times to be believable as real astronauts, but I find I can live with that too. This is quality science fiction. A rare and special thing for prime time T.V.

So.. this time the backstory is all about following orders and that is just a lead in to the decision the commander has to take: say what he is told from the ground or follow his instinct and see what is behind those closed doors.. And I mean, the tension is there all the episode.. The question of what really happened in last episode and some of them do not believe the halo explanation. And turning the episode, they already are going to the sidelines, trying to see what is hidden.. and the end.. that was brilliantly exciting: the trill, the thing what happened in lab.. and then the ending.. Good one

Goss is talking to the crew about the contaminated HALOs and says their systems should now be free of the psychotrophic effects. The crew don't look convinced, possibly because some of them have not been hallucination free at all. Eve tells Goss that Claire can't guarantee they will remain hallucination free. Everyone on Earth looks worried which is making Ajay nervous. Donner asks when the communications are off if they are all buying the HALOs story but Ted asks if he has a better explanation ans changes the subject, telling him to fix the toilet and sending the rest of the crew off to do jobs. Evram tells Paula to get ready for some tests after her thumb incident but W points out that as the rest of them will be so busy she could go and practice with the Lander. On Earth Claire, Goss and Eve discuss the crew's medical status and Claire asks when they will be told to which Goss replies "after the election". Who's election? Ted and Nadia are working when Nadia shuts off the comms and says the HALOs are not causing the hallucinations as she has never worn hers yet is hallucinating as bad as anyone. She demands to know what's going on but Ted tells her to do her work. Donner's voiceover says there is comfort in following orders as it absolves you from responsibility. He is fixing the toilet when he has a hallucination of Sharon, this time without the dust. Jen and Zoe are in the lab and Jen says she is freaked out that there will be 6 years of no HALOs as prayers and pure thoughts aren't going to work. Zoe says it wasn't the HALOs and tells Jen about the dream she and Donner share. In flashback Ted is telling Donner about what Eve told him about Mars but Donner says that he doesn't buy it and the other crew members would have made it. If its true why don't they go public? He tells Ted that Eve is playing him and he doesn't trust her. He goes into the changing rooms and sees Zoe with a towel over her head suffering a hangover. She says she is a rule follower and he is a rule breaker. Just then Nadia smacks Donner on the ass. Ted approaches Jen with a smile but she isn't impressed that he didn't show up last night. However she offers to put on her costume and come over to his place. He says she probably won't be in the mood after training. Donner then announces that they have 10 minutes to get dressed and then run 5k and assemble. Goss gives them a lecture about mistakes, the chain of command and following orders. He says Donner and Ted already know about this as they followed orders at a critical time. The test is about making the cadets follow orders and tells them to run another 5k to W's horror. In current time Donner asks Ajay to go to private comms for some plumbing advice. He then asks if Ajay knows what's going on. Ajay says he is not in the loop of Eve, Goss, Claire and Rollie. Donner says the HALO story is crap and Ajay agrees but tells him to follow orders. In flashback the trainees are starting another test and Zoe offers to go first. She has to match the flashing lights but after a minute if she gets one wrong she gets an electric shock. This is to teach them that even though orders might be painful they have to be obeyed. Zoe keeps getting shocked to the other's dismay. She eventually says enough and is sent to run another 2k. The others all do the test and llok uncomfortable except Paula who has pure determination on her face. In current time Donner and Zoe are in the kitchen chatting about the dream and the HALO story when Zoe hears the baby crying. Donner says she doesn't have to tell him what it is, only where is it coming from. They follow the sound to storage pod 4 and 'Beta'. Donner brings the pod around which automatically alerts the team on Earth and Ajay tells them they are being watched. Both Donner and Zoe try to open it but their handprints are denied. Donner asks Ajay to check why and what it contains. Meanwhile Goss tells Ted to out them to work. In flashback the cadets are running again and W is suffering. Jen tells Zoe to pace herself and asks if she learned nothing from the night before. Zoe replies that mixing painkillers and drink is a good way to lose weight. Jen comments that there's more to life than the programme but Zoe says not for her, not anymore. Eve approaches Donner and says she tried to find him to tell him what she told Ted. She knows he doesn't believe her and he replies that if she has data he'd love to see it but he was told he'd seen it all. She admits there is classified data but can't tell him why. Donner replies that he can't take her at her word and asks what exactly she does. He knows she is involved in selection but isn't sure why. Eve says she works for a Corporation that has invested 3 trillion dollars in the mission. Her job is to protect the investment which, even though Goss disagrees, includes Donner and Ted, so she checked if they were 'clean'. Donner is furious and says that's its terrific that following orders means he's clean but his gut says the others would have made it and until he sees something different that's what he believes and he storms off. The orders continue in Round 2 where the cadets have to follow orders that cause distress to another cadet. Ajay and Zoe are paired. Evram and Nadia compare it to a Nazi study during WW2 "I was only following orders", a sadistic test. Ajay has to shock Zoe and looks very distressed at her pain as do the rest of the cadets. In current time W is playing computer games when Donner and Zoe come looking for Paula. He admits she is in the Lander. She tells them the storage pod has surplus supplies. Ajay confirms this and says that it remained empty until the last delivery from the same Corporation that Eve works for. On the way back to the pod they meet Ted who also says it's surplus so Donner says he should be allowed to see it. They argue and Ted insists it's classified so he won't open it until ordered. On Earth Rollie, Eve and Goss look very nervous. Donner says whatever is in there is endangering the crew and that some of them could have died yesterday because of the hallucinations. He says Eve has given Ted a heavy burden, to screw the orders and do what's right. Suddenly we get this week's emergency, a solar flare. Eve tells Goss it isn't 'Beta' and the crew only have minutes to shut down all the systems and get to a radiation-proofed room. In flashback Claire and Evram are paired up with Evram being hurt when the fire alarm goes off. Ted and Donner lead the cadets upstairs past the door out that W points to. In real time Jen is shutting down the lab but stops to go back for Rufus. The crew is gathering and they only have minutes before the flare. On Earth their comms are out until the radiation passes. Jen is trying to rescue Rufus and once again endangers a crew member's life for the sake of the rabbit as Zoe goes back to get her. Donner feels like he's back on the Mars mission being told to get inside the room and leave Zoe and Jen behind. The others force him to get inside and the door shuts. Evram says Jen and Zoe should be ok if they get under radiation blankets and that the rest of them are protected in the room, although Nadia quips that it will change in 20 or 30 years when they get cancer. On Earth Rollie finds Eve alone and tells her not to give into the fear. He cleans his kitchen table every night because Jen hated it messy and he hopes she will come back in the door some day. Sweet. Claire, Ajay and the other guy are discussing how bad the flare will be and how the last big one was in 2036. In the ship W compares them to a quantum physics experiment where you put a cat, some chemicals and radioactive material in a box simultaneously, until you open the box you don't know if the cat is dead. Just then they get the all clear. Ajay asks the other guy to look at the profile of the 2036 flare and it's identical to the one that just happened. They look suspiciously at Goss. In flashback Donner and Ted are still leading the cadets upstairs. Jen realises that Zoe is missing and goes back for her despite Ted's orders, when he informs her it was a test and she is now 'dead'. On the ship the crew discover no signs of the flare and Goss tells Ted it was an exercise, a drill. Eve and Claire are horrified but Ted is furious that Goss didn't tell him. Goss replies that Ted was losing control of the crew and that their attention had to be refocussed and the chain of command re-enforced. Nadia and Ted get called to the lab where the rest of the crew are staring in wonder at vast amounts of tomato plants growing everywhere, spiralling around the lab. Ajay demands of Rollie to know what's going on as does Claire of Eve. Eve says 'Beta' wants them to know. When Ted sees the plants he tells the crew that there was no solar flare, it was a distraction. Donner demands to know why. Goss says they'll come up with an explanation for the plants but Ted says they already have one and it's time for the rest of the crew to know about it. Eve agrees but Goss orders them to return to their duties. Ted says part of his duty is to protect the crew and that means telling them what the mission is about. Eve tries to stop him and tells him to think about it and to trust her but Ted replies that that ship has sailed. Goss orders him not to enter the storage bay but suddenly a loud noise echoes around the ship, like whale music. 'Beta' is singing. Donner's voiceover says that the capacity to blindly follow orders turns ordinary people into monsters or heroes depending on the order. The crew follow the song to the storage pod. Goss orders the power to be shut down but Ajay says it't not responding even though he does nothing and neither does anyone else. Ted ignores Goss and brings the pod around. Zoe's handprint works now and the door opens. It ends with the crew all staring in amazement. Much better episode and great cliff-hanger.

I just watched episode 1.08 and you know what - it was REALLY good. I enjoyed the solar flare drama and OMG finally, a cliffhanger with purpose. I am hooked on this show now and so are 1.6 million other people so let's the rest and another season please. I like the show very much. Now you know, I am in Canada, so I get the last 3 episodes of season 1 - I think that sci-fi fans have a couple of things they watch on ABC and what are they? I don't know - truly there is so much junky reality TV I don't know where you should slot this ABC - I am thinking about it. The best place to put defying gravity is right before lost obviously. Now you've made a mistake by not including a garden resort area on the spaceship (which future ships will have)- because flashbacks and dreams do not sexy make. If people get a gander at Zoey they will love it. It's awfully easy to leave Lost on. And for god's sakes get those damn sex halos off the crew - what kind of ratings are you going to have on a soap opera if they're incapable of falling in love - jeez louise (good start to the show).

Speculations about the near future and space travel at that time is the main theme seen so far on "Defying Gravity".



Of cause it is only natural to make a show about longer space-travel, now when NASA has set their goal on the planet Mars.



This show is the best one to date to speculate on what could happen in interstellar space-travel.

We see many inventions allready discovered, a handful of what is on the dawing table at NASA and other space reserchers and a few that are "out of this world".



From the get-go we see that a "higher power" is slowly accelrating its manipulation on the crew and other that it has come in contact with. And little by little [trough re-caps to year long training] we see that the intention of the mission is other than indicated in the first couple of episodes.



We [the wiewers] can only hope the show keeps up the pace and will not go too far into a "X-files" direction with "operation Grudge", Roswell aliens and governmental cover-up.



The material presented so far will fit well in a miniserie or max a couple of seasons of maybe 15-20 episodes each.



Though it is true that "the truth is out there" please do not stall and continue trough to many series (like Lost). Bring out the point and stay accurate.



May the passion for making the greatest Sci-Fi show ever not be drowned by the power of "the all mighty dollar"



"Live long and prosper".

ABC pulls a fast one on the American public. They announced that this was the SEASON FINALE of Defying Gravity next on ABC. Of course there are three more episodes at least in this season but ABC has made the decision to end the show on their network obviously.



A wonderful episode pointing out the importance of when you need to follow orders and when you need to do the right thing. Much better episode overall because the flashbacks we saw were very specific to the whole of the story. Also we understand Donner better for who he is and what he believes. AJ becomes a more important part of the mission as well.



We see that Goss has no business being in his position. He is comfortable lying to anyone and everyone about everything to keep things on his schedule. The whole solar flare bit was a ruse. Even AJ suspected as much before it became clear that is what was happening. How did Goss pull that off without any of the other primary people knowing?



Fantastic last twenty minutes filled with suspense and the last few minutes were truly terrific. So ABC chooses to punt right as the show is hitting its stride. This was overall one of the best of the first eight episodes. Hopefully as this is a joint project between CTV, the BBC, and ABC the remainder of the episodes will get shown somewhere. Thanks for reading...