Article first published as ASCENSION Review on Seat42F.
SyFy will soon present ASCENSION, a
six-part miniseries that will air over three nights, and if the ratings
are good enough, be picked up as a full-blown show, a la Battlestar
Galactica. I’ve watched the first two parts, and while it is nowhere
nearly as well written and acted as BG, it is an intriguing premise with
some really gripping stakes.
The story begins with a murder, which is
soon revealed to have taken place aboard the USS Ascension, a massive
ship on its way to a new planet. See, in 1963 President Kennedy secretly
ordered the launch of several hundred human begins into the unknown,
set to colonize a new planet and ensure the survival of the human race.
These people are nearly halfway through their mission, setting it
approximately in the present day, and while it’s presented as a twist on
the show, marketing materials have made it clear that’s what’s going
on, so I don’t feel bad about spoiling it.
The ship is captained by William
Denninger (Brian Van Holt, Cougar Town), who is coming to grips with the
fact that he is the “middle captain,” who neither launched the ship nor
will lead it to its final destination, so will likely not have a
memorable legacy. His wife, Viondra (Tricia Helfer, Battlestar
Galactcia) is a sneaky manipulator, who wields her own power, separate
from her husband. These two are in charge of many things, sometimes
benevolently, sometimes not so kindly.
The Ascension itself is interesting
because it obviously has very advanced technology, as developed in the
1960s, meaning monitors are black and white and most control panels are
knobs and lights, not interactive computers as we think of them today.
I’m not sure that I buy that our country was capable of constructing
such a thing in the 1960s, and the way the place is presented may not
completely make sense.
If this has you wavering in your
enjoyment, as it did me, stick through the first night and your patience
will be rewarded. This would be a very different article if I was
writing to viewers who’d seen the full two hours, and while it isn’t the
best series on television, with many flaws, I am completely hooked and
on board after night one. Trust me and watch. ASCENSION deserves a
pick-up. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Oh, yeah, back to the murder, since
that’s the driving story, even though I’m much more interested in the
logistics of the ship itself. This small community has virtually no
crime, and this is the first murder committed since the launch. That
means there really isn’t a structure in place to investigate and punish
the wrong-doer. Enter Oren Gault (Brandon P. Bell, Hollywood Heights),
the noble executive officer who steps up to the task.
Rounding out the cast are: Dr. Juliet
Bryce (Andrea Roth, Rescue Me), who isn’t getting along too well with
her daughter, Nora (Jacqueline Byers, Blizzard), a strong-willed
individual deeply affected by the murder; Chief Astronomer Emily
Vanderhaus (Tiffany Lonsdale, G.I. Joe: Retaliation), the elder sister
of the victim; Chief Safety Officer Duke Vanderhaus (Ryan Robbins,
Falling Skies), Emily’s husband, who doesn’t like that Gault is heading
up the case; James Toback (P.J. Boudousque, Coldwater), a maintenance
worker and love interest for Nora; and Harris Enzmann (Gil Bellows, Ally
McBeal), the son of the man who headed up the Ascension mission, who is
back on Earth.
Yep, we get to see what’s happening on
our own planet, too. What does Harris know? What will he do with that
knowledge? This is another subplot that draws me in.
My biggest complaint that I currently
have about ASCENSION is, where are the old people? The ship launched
fifty years ago, roughly, so there should be lots of senior citizens on
board who made up the original crew. We don’t glimpse this, with the
focus on those who weren’t born yet when the mission started. This is a
nagging query not addressed in these two hours that has to be
satisfactorily explained for the series to be any good.
There are weaknesses in ASCENSION. I
feel like some of the actors are woefully miscast. For example, I adore
Brian Van Holt on the sitcom he’s been starring in, but his take on
Captain Denninger doesn’t have the weight it should, at least in my
opinion. Some of the happenstances are a little hokey and formulaic, and
far too many people are cheating on their significant others. But there
is a very strong mythology here that could override those problems, and
given the nature of the show, the beginning cast doesn’t necessarily
need to stay front and center over multiple seasons. The best parts of
the miniseries beg for further exploration, and that’s why I ask you to
please tune in, at least for the entire first night, and then make your
decision about whether or not to continue watching.
ASCENSION begins Monday, December 15th on SyFy.
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