As the third season of Syfy hit DARK MATTER makes its way to DVD, our Production Manager gives his personal view on why we shouldn’t be overlooking this show…
I am always looking for a good sci-fi show that involves spaceships and zooming around the galaxies. So two years ago, I invested my time in what was then a new show called Dark Matter, and it was a wise investment – this show wasn’t a Star Trek clone nor a Marvel or DC-type series, but to my way of thinking, turned into a good old space romp with characters that were well-rounded and interesting.
Dark Matter is a Canadian science fiction series created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, based on their comic book of the same name. For those who have not caught up with the wonderful world the pair have come up with, the simple synopsis is a spaceship crew awaken from stasis. Since they awoke on the derelict spaceship with no memory of who they were or how they got there, they have managed to piece together some of their past – but only at the price of becoming ensnared in betrayal, vengeance and deadly interplanetary secrets, culminating at the end of Season Two with the EOS 7 space station blowing up with some of the team still aboard. The survivors must stay alive and find the missing crew members in as the story continues to the third season.
In Season Three, Dark Matter took advantage of its strengths of the first two seasons, and concentrated on the extraordinary origins and complex pasts of the crew members of the spaceship Raza. One of the reasons I love the show so much is that it has androids – in fact, two on the Raza in Season one. The first, The Android (Zoie Palmer) is an outsider, constantly searching for acceptance from the crew. She has a child-like demeanour, desperate to fit in. As she engages with the crew, she both grows and learns to understand human actions and emotions. Sure, she’s not technically alive, but thanks to some upgrades, The Android actually feels – well, sort of. Not altogether unlike Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, then. With the mind of a computer, the curiosity of a child, and the protectiveness of a mother cat for the Raza crew, The Android might be the most human of them all – particularly in Season Three. All I can say is “boobs, boobs, boobs”, but that’s not my quote, but The Android herself. Zoie Palmer’s portrayal of the character gives us so much throughout the seasons you cannot help but admire her every performance.
The other android is Wendy (Ruby Rose), an entertainment model android that the crew of the Raza found disassembled in their cargo hold vault. They decided to put her back together, and once her entertainment protocols engaged, she quickly set about charming most of the crew through culinary service, a massage for Ryo Tetsuda (Alex Mallari Jr), and even a sexual encounter with One (Marc Bendavid, who left the show in Season Two). She later attempted to kill the entire crew, but was decapitated by Ryo, before being partially reactivated when the crew needed information stored in her memory. She was subsequently unplugged once this had been retrieved. During this information retrieval process, the crew also discovered that she had been deliberately placed on the Raza to sabotage it and kill them all. It’s like The Terminator all over again – never, ever trust an android, or should you?
But Dark Matter isn’t all about androids. In Season Three, the scattered survivors of EOS-7 battle to regroup amidst the backdrop of corporate war. Ryo Ishida, now emperor of Zairon, makes an enemy of his former allies, while the past comes back to haunt the crew of the Raza. Interestingly, the impending corporate war feels like it could be our future, and like so many good sci-fi stories, you feel that future portrayed may not be that far away from real life. Just when I think I’ve got something figured out, it completely fools me, and that is one of the many reasons you are hooked. Don’t trust everything you see, even salt looks like sugar.
I cannot praise this mid-budget TV show enough, from its entertaining storylines to its crafted acting performances. And, to add, we don’t have that once-a-week different alien approach to the story – of course, there are small issues within the plots that are unfolding, but not enough to stop you buying into all the characters and enjoying the ride on the Raza. I now only hope we get a Season Four, as I am not sure I could handle another Firefly situation – that just doesn’t bear thinking about.
As one of the creators of the show Joseph Mallozzi says, “Viewers tune in for the hook, but they stay for the characters. It’s a lesson I learned working on Stargate. As much as fans enjoy the sense of adventure, the action, and the dazzling visual effects, it’s the characters at the heart of each show that draw them back, week after week. Whether it’s SG-1, the Atlantis expedition, the crew of The Destiny, or the crew of The Raza, fans check in with the characters they love because they’ve formed a connection with them. They are, in a way, extended family members they can visit with every time they watch an episode. I think that one of the things that makes Stargate and Dark Matter special (and you can include Killjoys in this unique grouping) is that they offer science fiction fans something unique and, frankly, atypical of the genre – a sense of fun.”
DARK MATTER Season Three and a box set of the first three seasons are available on DVD now.
