Nightflyers (Syfy)

[Al Jackson]

What do you think of it?

As a long time science fiction reader (60 years) and a fan of George Martin I always considered Nightflyers a lessor work. I remember reading it back in 1981 and thinking it was OK.
When I saw it was being adapted I thought 'there is better Martin SF'.
I found this production flatfooted. The source is really a prose story of circumscribed length so I expected some tap dancing and got it.
Critic over at The Daily Beast said
"Alien and Event Horizon, with a dash of Cronenberg and the Wachowskis thrown into the mix..."
and I thought yeah that what it feels like.

I am looking forward to Wild Cards and much more unique source I hope they do that right!

 

[REBerg]

Martin has said that he wrote Nightflyers because he felt challenged to combine horror and science fiction.
I found that to be an odd explanation, considering that Alien had so successfully done that a year earlier. Nothing I've seen on Nightflyers thus far has made jump like scenes from Alien.
I am, however, enjoying the series, which still rises above most current scifi TV offerings.

 

[Al Jackson]

Martin has said that he wrote Nightflyers because he felt challenged to combine horror and science fiction.
I found that to be an odd explanation, considering that Alien had so successfully done that a year earlier. Nothing I've seen on Nightflyers thus far has made jump like scenes from Alien.
I am, however, enjoying the series, which still rises above most current scifi TV offerings.

Yeah I had seen that quote too. Well you know the 1951 Thing from Another World (very loosely based on Campbell's Who Goes There) is really quite scary and that predates Alien by a lot. I think this old 50s film kind of gets forgotten.
As TV science fiction, this series is , for me, light years behind The Expanse. (Which George mentored in a way.)

 

[REBerg]

As TV science fiction, this series is , for me, light years behind The Expanse. (Which George mentored in a way.)

 

[ctg]

As TV science fiction, this series is , for me, light years behind The Expanse. (Which George mentored in a way.)

SyFy isn't able to create series like the Expanse every year. Not even in every decade. To me the series works as SF psychological horror. I said in my first review that it lends hard SF, like weightlessness in space and spinning star ship bodies from other hard SF things, like 2001. But it also has fantasy elements, like the aliens, and the telepaths.

The Nightflyers has many flaws, but it doesn't make it as bad as you paint it. It has good scenes and it advanced the audience knowledge on things, while it certainly keep them entertained. Maybe much more than JJA's Cloverfield Paradox, which too came out around this time.

I, for one, are having fun on trying to figure out things before they're spelled out and for SyFy's notorious record they've done quite remarkable achievement by using the lessons they learned from the Expanse, but also from the other series/movies. To be honest I'm quite surprised that they still keep producing even though they aren't as big as CBS, FOX, CW or HBO. But if someone like AMZ or Netflix partners with them, SyFy can make things like the Expanse or the new BSG.

For GRRM, and his recent work with the GoT universe, this isn't even close, but it's no less entertaining either. We could say that this is a proper presentation of George's earlier works, and back when he wrote the Nightflyer in the first place, he wasn't as great as he is now.

Who knows maybe it'll take thirty years for me to get recognition and by that time my skills as a writer and a storyteller must be very different.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler: 1.04 White Rabbit

The circumstances attending the return of the White Rabbit defy explanation.
A month after the probe was launched toward the Volcryn, it pops up in D'Branin's quarters with more than a 1,000 years on its chronometer AND a new set of organic blood and guts innards that bear D'Branin's DNA.
Why is the probe's presence driving Batsh!t Crazy Ship Mom even farther off the rails? Maybe Captain Eris needs an exorcist to cast her out of the ship, How about Thale?/SPOILER]

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler: 1.05 Greywing

The horror side of this series appears to be overpowering the sci-fi side--complete with a haunted mansion.
I hope balance is restored soon. I'm not much of horror fan.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler: S01E04 - White Rabbit

For being a man who lively a lonely life, the Captain loves life. It seems that he chose to be a hermit for his mother's sake. Almost like Bates chose to stay at the motel, while listening to his dead mothers wishes.

It surprised that the Chief Biologist could simple ignore Mother's psychic visions as the truth is now out in the wild. But he is completely baffled by the White Rabbit in Karl's room. The only way I can logically explain it is that the Nightflyers are going through a time-paradox. A loop that allows for weird reasons things like that happening.

If want to know why ask Father of the Time of why he likes so much of the weird stuff? All you can do is to assume that the things will break in spectacular way, and if the ship has been in the loop for a thousand years, it might the same length that has broken the Mother, while everyone else got rebooted.

So, how is that all the organic stuff gets rebooted and mechanical stuff preserves all the wear and tear it has gathered over time? I don't know. I cannot explain it. All I can do is speculation. Then again that is what the leaders of our world do everyday. But if I use it and associate it with the fact that the probe appeared in Karl's quarters and it has a power to telepatchically affect Captain Ares, tells me that the probe has always been there in quantum level terms.

Think it as the famous Schrödinger's Cat in the box. We don't really know if it's in the box when it's closed, but at the moment Karl and Chief Biologist learned Ares secret, the probe appeared. In the quantum level terms the cat or the White Rabbit was always in the box or in the Karl's room. In the physical terms it might have been picked up much later, but in the quantum realm its place is in that room. Not elsewhere.

But if that is the law then all those people should be present in the Nightflyer forever. They might have died thousand times, and the Nightflyer has always recorded it, and because those data is so corrupted due to the varying time stamps Mother has gone mad.

It is weird to think in that level, but in this psychological thriller illogical thoughts are only way to create sense in the chaos. Who knows maybe they are as true as everything else. If it has happened so many times before, it could explain all the weird death dreams.

Strange as it Chief Biologist was the only one, who was using scientific methods to understand the bizarre events. He was right to call Karl as the phenomenon. But in the same time, he couldn't understand the big picture because he's living in it. None of them can. All the Nightflyers can do is to get on with their lives, before they die in a bizarre way. Maybe because the Nightflyer tried to eradict them as the error in their system.

It would explain why the message-in-the-bottle is the only way to fix the paradox, because if they let it drift in the space forever they might break the loop. Otherwise everything that is associated with the ship happens again.

Loomie says that White Rabbit recorded a layer over layer of data, further proving that they're flying through a time-paradox.

 

[REBerg]

Loomie says that White Rabbit recorded a layer over layer of data, further proving that they're flying through a time-paradox.

Or a new layer was started every time the previous layer was filled.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler: S01E05 - Greywing

I'm not much of horror fan.

I am, but I'm not a huge fan of thing that cannot be explained traditional way. It's too much of Lovecraft and Barker thing to play with the strange. George as we know him writes logically. But back then he was just like us, trying to write the best he that can produce. For the eighties product the Nightflyers is a great story, but for the modern audience, what you see is too much.

My understanding for the beginning dream sequence is that is what Mother is going through in her synthetic brain, and the illusions that spill out, manifest themselves in the reality. She cannot handle the loop and many error codes creates.

Loomie says that Volcryn sent the probe back in time and space is to give the crew an idea that they're going through paradox. She is almost in the conclusion as she says that she needs to go into the machine to trap Synthia in there. I assume that she doesn't survive because she's not present, when the-message-in-the-bottle is sent outside. Or then all the carnage we see is because Thales went mad in the space as the paradox started playing with his mind.

He was brave to go in for ride inside Synthia. In the cyberpunk literature that we know the runners in the cyberspace becomes part of it. Just like Loomie experienced Synthia's world. Thing that she saw locked doors, appeared as firewalls in the reality. Music that she heard was data, the covered paintings time stamped items.

Knowing those stories, it wasn't surprise to me that Synthia, the Ai appeared as the little girl as within deep in our souls we know ourselves as the little ones. She asked Loomie to leave before she was going to get hurt. But she didn't said that the security system within the Ares machine was presenting herself as Synthia the adult.

My mind translates the dark man as the time paradox, all the corrupted data that should be purged from the system. But the problem for is that Thales doesn't understand the cyber realm as Loomie does or even as I do.

With the Synthia's escape the evil AI came back in the picture big way. We didn't knew that it was Captain's Mum in the first place, but with Karl's first death it is obvious. I personally at that point would have packed everyone in the shuttle and tried to leave.

I did find it strange that Ares acted like an Android as Synthia attacked the systems outside her network. My question is, how many networks there are inside the ship?

When Loomie locked Synthia, the adult in the room with paradox, she also created a patch by creating an encryption that appeared in the Synthia's world as a crossbar. Does it mean that they've broken the paradox? I don't know. To me, as long as they keep on the mission to contact the aliens, they are still in the same loop. And as long as Synthia, the adult doesn't break the encryption, the ship should be fine. So, in a way, she's not the ghost, she's the wraith-in-the-system. But all of this should teach us that we shouldn't dabble with the organic AI.

 

[ctg]

I don't understand SyFy's schedule. Why did they stop before the weekend arrived?

 

[REBerg]

Looks like the series fires up again tonight (Sunday, here) and winds up on Thursday. Maybe Syfy is allergic to Saturdays?

 

[ctg]

Looks like the series fires up again tonight (Sunday, here) and winds up on Thursday. Maybe Syfy is allergic to Saturdays?

Or then they are targetting audience that they know is not present until Sunday evening. Maybe the mini season break does wonders for the audience figures.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler: S01E06 - The Sacred Thing

Loomie is smart. She knows that Mummy dearest isn't going to be stuck in her virtual prison forever. There will be time when she's back with vengeange. You can see that from the fact that nobody destroyed the Crystal Matrix as her presence filters into the telepathic dreams.

Strange as it is nobody thinks the organic Ai or the Crystal Matrix as a lifeform even though one contains the soul and the other shows all characteristics for being a real intelligence. Instead it is strange that all these scientists focus on chasing the Aliens and not study the new "old" thing as an example.

3D printed food in weird. Especially seeing the machine printing out cardboard, styrofoam mug and a properly cooked hotdog. I cannot even think about what that sort thing would taste, but as of now I'm freaked out by the 3D printed styrofoam mug getting filled with water at the same time. It must be one tasty mix of chemicals.

For the first time the XO addressed the ship past. He said that in the earlier years the Nightflyer explored the Outer Planets and the Kuiper Belt. So all the wear and grime now have an explanation. But for being typical executive he acted foolishly for being one of the mission heads, when he claimed that "there cannot be life in the void."

Ask Disney or check out SW Rebels if you're unsure about it. But honestly just last week ISS got coated with bacteria and the waterbears are known to survive in the vacuum of space, making them as space-traveller, possibly even interplanetary travellers.

Captain Ares went along the same route and he said: "It is an error. No other ship has made it this far." And then they showed us this,

Man that ship looks very similar, if not a bit more advanced than Captain Ares pride and joy. Ares claims it's much older ship, from the Europa project and it's part of the series of vessels called surprisingly Eagle. That one being Eagle 16 or as he said: "Evil Six."

If you think about my quantum theory, the Eagle 16 presence nearby the Nightflyer kind of makes sense, because it might be part of the whole loop. We know that the White Rabbit came back as a biomechanical being, so it is very likely that the other ship has similar kind of things hidden in it, from seeing biological growth and blood splatters on the walls and doors.

It creeped me to see that all Eagle 16 passengers were mostly older females. But if the mission happens at the end of this century how those females can be all aged so perfectly. The Matriach said that they've been drifting in the lifeless ocean, and in that time they learned to make food in space with minimal energy. She also explained that men creates chaos and "it wasn't until all men had passed that we reached Harmony."

Although you see young ones, they don't explain how they reproduced without the men. Maybe they had sperm stored in a cryo-storage or then maybe the sister made synthetic sperm to deliver handcrafted genetic code to the egg.

My sense of disbelief was broken with this hundreds of meters long well going one end of the ship to the other. Why would the space travellers need well and ladders to traverse it to get from A to B? Wouldn't it make more sense to not have zero-gravity in there and use the freedom of flying instead of being scared of dropping? But if it's needed to be in normal gravity, wouldn't the builders seen the harm and built a cage around the ladders or installed a lift?

The Other Crystal Matrix doesn't look as alien or as organic as the one holds Synthia. You can also see that it's surrounded by a pretty normal looking servers. There's racks after racks of auxiliary machines around it. But as soon as the other CM was turned on, the females went crazy and started to slaughter men ... or rather harvest them for the seed to be used in their clone program.

Does it surprise anyone that Eagle 16 passengers had turned to cannibalism when they started drifting? I was totally freaked out by the sisters milking program as it as mechanised as us milking the cows. Man I would be screaming instead of moaning in pleasure that the men seemed to experience. So I was glad that Loomie rescued the XO and Chief Biologists, who was claiming that "there are many others way to do it..."

For being freaked out by the Sisters and their Matriarchy why is that the Nightflyers didn't lock the airlock open to eradict the freaks as they were so willingly murdering them in the first place? Why is that they need to subjucate others to the Eagle 16 horrors in the future?

A very freakish and scary episode.

 

[REBerg]

All right! A big swing toward the SF end of the Nightflyers mix.

Spoiler

Lommie to the rescue, again! She really has become a central figure in the plot.
As well as being the physical heroine of the cast, Lommie is taking precautions to keep Ghost Mom Cynthia from making a comeback. She is also the only crew member who knows of the XO's enamored devotion to Cynthia, thanks to his destruction of the Eagle 16 crystal intended to become GM's new retirement home.
No doubt XO Auggie will play a part in Cynthia's escape from her digital prison cell. I did much appreciate getting a break from GM's chain-rattling antics for at least one episode.
I didn't find the man-milking matriarchal cult that developed as the Eagle 16 drifted through space for more a decade to be too far-fetched. I did find their chanting of "fresh seed!" as they assaulted the Nightflyer males to be somewhat over the top.
Of all the people I suspected of being an "L," Agatha was not one of them. I wonder how many eye-bleeding climaxes Karl can handle. /SPOILER]

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

I did find their chanting of "fresh seed!" as they assaulted the Nightflyer males to be somewhat over the top.

Yeah, I was thinking they were going shag them to death instead of that milking machine.

I wonder how many eye-bleeding climaxes Karl can handle?

I couldn't even write about it because having someone else in your head, while you're having sex is so weird, so unnatural. And that someone else is not physically in the room. That man is a real mind f-ck.

These lyrics fits the scene

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

I couldn't even write about it because having someone else in your head, while you're having sex is so weird, so unnatural. And that someone else is not physically in the room. That man is a real mind f-ck.

Spoiler

I initially thought that Thale, who obviously has a carnal interest in his psychiatrist/nanny, was telepathically participating in her tryst with Karl. When Karl abruptly realized that Martha is an "L," I concluded that the good doctor, herself, had added that little extrasensory oomph at the end.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

When Karl abruptly realized that Martha is an "L,"

If she is a telepath someone did a huge cockup, be cause I don't think Nanny's are meant to be one of those. Or then it was done deliberately and someone wanted people go nuts. So far the unwritten rules has said that if telepath touches you their connection is enhanced. Therefore Karl being literally inside Martha and he should be totally controlled by Martha.

If she was an empath then Karl would flying in the pleasure island. I don't know what would happen with female multiple orgasm, but if it works, it would be more effective then the Sister's Milking Machine. Your nuts would be aching cause they would so empty.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Last three words of the episode, Karl to Martha: "You're an L".
No immediate denial from her. Wouldn't that give her an advantage as Thale's handler.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

Last three words of the episode, Karl to Martha: "You're an L".

I must have missed them. Well, sh*t. George knows how to write shocking sex scenes. Man, but how come she has ended in a position of caring for pretty strong telepath and nobody has noticed it before?

Wouldn't that give her an advantage as Thale's handler.

I'm not so sure. If she had known that she's one then sure. She would know what to do and how to treat someone else having whatever telepaths have on a bad day. But if she didn't, who is going to be in the stronger position and why she wasn't using her powers at the opening sequence?