Another Life
Created by: Aaron Martin
Starring: Katee Sackhoff, Justin Chatwin, Samuel Anderson, Blu Hunt, A.J. Rivera, Jake Abel, Alex Ozerov, Alexander Eling, JayR Tinaco, Lina Renna, Selma Blair
No. of episodes 10 (list of episodes)
Executive producers: Aaron Martin, Noreen Halpern, Chris Regina
Producers: Justis Greene, Katee Sackhoff
Production companies: Navy Productions, Halfire Entertainment
Distributor: Netflix
Another Life should have worked. It featured an intriguing plot, eye-popping special effects, great set design (the ship is LOVELY) and they picked good actors for the roles. Captain Breckinridge is played by Katee Sackhoff, best known as Starbuck on the Battleship Galactica series, and professional Tough Broad.
The problem is the writing. For example, the ship’s second-in-command, Beauchamp McCarry (played by Greg Hovanessian) was meant to be captain but replaced by Breckinridge at the last minute. Their first onscreen encounter after coming out of hibernation when the ship’s computer discovered the star they were aiming for wasn’t where they thought it was. Some technobabbly about a dark cloud of ‘dark matter’ ensues, and why didn’t they notice that when they pinpointed the source of the transmissions to begin with?
McCarry pledges no hard feelings and lifelong subservient allegiance to the replacement Captain. All fine and good, except a half hour later, he mutinies. Why?
He wants to change course by doing a slingshot around Sirius B (after three orbits around the star, which is inexplicable, not to mention the fact that a ship capable of FTL isn’t going to get much use out of a slingshot maneuver) and then off in the right direction, around the dark matter and on to new worlds. The alternative is to simply change course once to avoid the dark matter, and again to reset toward the destination star. But that would add seven months to their journey, which McCarry argues will put the Earth in mortal danger (the alien artifact on Earth has thus far shown no hostile intent, or any intent at all). However, the ship’s computer calculates that the orbital maneuver around Sirius B (and once again they picked the wrong star) entailed an 11% change the ship and its occupants would destroyed, ending the series and possibly dooming the Earth.
So: one-in-nine chance of mission failure, or add seven months safely to deal with an alien culture that thus far has done nothing more than exist?
So naturally they mutiny, and the ship goes into orbit around Sirius A. It’s he larger, companion star of Sirius B, and the brightest star in Earth’s sky. It is, in absolute terms, about 500 times as bright as it’s companion, Sirius B. It’s AO on the main sequence. Sirius B, a placid white dwarf isn’t visible from the ground.
The ship drops into tight orbit around Sirius A, well within reach of the vast prominences and in an environment that would flash-fry anything made of matter in EM flux and instantly lethal radiation.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t go well.
So Breckinridge gets back control of the ship, because the fellow with the much longer training on how to run that ship can’t do it, and she saves the day, apparently by venting hydrogen. Yeah, I know, I know. Anyway, McCarry shows his gratitude by literally trying to stab Beckinridge in the back. That doesn’t go well, either. Professional tough broad, remember? Fuck not with Starbuck.
They could have saved the show by getting some undergraduate astrophysics student to point out the obvious scientific flaws. But the writing deficiencies aren’t limited to scientific credibility; the interactions between the characters are odd, and shift abruptly and often illogically. They could have spent $100,000 to get a competent science fiction author, say a Brin or a Robinson, to consult and apply spackle as needed. Then it would be a good show. Right now it’s TOS without the charm, or at best Battlestar Galactica, the Lorne Greene version.
Now on Netflix.