The folks behind the scenes at SyFy seem to be taking their potential audience a little more seriously these days as they see ratings coming in for shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones prove good genre TV is alive and well. The announcement of SyFy miniseries based on two SF classics (Larry Niven’s Ringworld and Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End) bodes well for fans as does the premiere of the new series, Defiance, coming this Monday. The special effects for Defiance look pretty sharp – not something we normally expect from SyFy – and there’s a lot of peripherals going on with the show as far as a video game and digital downloads including a book about the series and so forth. SyFy needs a bonafide show like Battlestar Galactica (remember when you’d ask your friends if they saw the latest episode because you just couldn’t believe what happened?) before the network teeters off into the realm of completely irrelevant cable channels. Early indications are Defiance could be this kind of show as long as the writing is solid and the production is fresh; I like Eureka more for Colin Ferguson leading the cast rather than the approach the show took because, in the end, every episode was extremely formulaic.
From SyFy:
In the year 2046, it’s a new Earth – with new rules. Over thirty years after various alien races arrived on Earth, the landscape is completely altered, terraformed nearly beyond recognition. To the town of Defiance, on what used to be St. Louis, comes the mysterious Nolan (Grant Bowler) and his charge, Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas). As they settle into town – overseen by the mayor, Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz) and filled with residents like the powerful Rafe McCawley (Graham Greene), enterprising lounge owner Kenya (Mia Kirshner) and the ambitious, alien Tarrs (Tony Curran and Jaime Murray) – events begin to unfold that threaten the fragile peace this border town has fought for.
