OUTCASTS (2011->, SciFi, TV)

You can never have too many poets. But who will the scriptwriters choose to let live:
The female poet Nobel laurate, or the charismatic evacuation administrator?

33 minutes into ep.1 of

The president speaking to the captain of the approaching ship ferrying colonists from Earth:
      ”Are you carrying any VIPs?”
      ”Margaret Baker. Poet and Nobel laurate.”
      ”Good. You can never have too many poets!”

The English can’t write decent dialogue. They spell everything out AND show it too. It makes for long, boring, predictable scenes, drawn out character building or characters with a flimsy, singular trait – she’s sensitive, so she cries; he’s scizo, so he’s violent; the president is the president, so he’s wise and all fatherly. But no american production company would allow the above quote. In my book, that alone gives the English credit.


Newly colonized planet, 10 years ago, has lost contact with Earth, and is eagerly awaiting new arrivals, 5 years underway.

Trouble is brewing on the planet, so Jamie Bamber couldn’t help say yes to the role of psychopath after his many years aboard the Galactica, but still hasn’t learned how to vary his acting, and therefore may not be such a big threat after all, well, probably not… No-no, he surely won’t be leading the rebellion away from the safe city and into the wilderness, as is mentioned a suspicious number of times. So, other trouble will come, probably from the criminals out there, who should have been executed, but weren’t. Then Jamie will probably come to the rescue, with or without acting lessons.

And the great ship from Earth will probably make it through the atmosphere, despite heat shield problems, which has proven catastrophic for other ships. The reason for this: The president wrinkled his nose over the mentioning of a certain VIP on board the approaching ship – someone he would not love to see contesting his leadership in the city, so at least this guy will make it safely to the ground. Whom the script writers can invent spanners for to cast, throw, deposit or slip into, over time, well defined wheels and cogs in the city’s administration and general well being.

Not much meat on this. So, unless the Tygers, several times referred to, chiefly by the darling, brainwashed son of Jamie Bamber, are neither among the approaching ship, nor harboured as rebels among the citizens, but rather already on the planet in some significant number and force and ready for a quick shoot-out, BBCs usual 8 episode seasons won’t be enough to provide this series with any real corpus.

Too bad. But do keep trying; it IS refreshing to see the British try to move into space. Not holding my breath, though. They’ve seen way to many American SciFi movies!