SPOILER ALERT
Anyone who has not seen season 1 of the sci-fi/drama TV show Another Life is hereby advised that this post may contain a few unavoidable spoilers.
My wife and I are seldom happy unless we’re watching at least one TV program with space ships in it and having recently completed Star Trek: Enterprise, we were very much in the market for another space opera. And so we did the only thing we could: dipped our hand into the televisual nest of vipers that is Netflix, only to get bitten by Another Life.
I was cautiously optimistic about this show. In the opening scenes, a mysterious alien object crash-lands on earth and grows into an enormous crystalline monolith (dubbed ‘the Artifact’) which begins sending transmissions to a distant world. Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff), captain of the Salvare, is ordered to travel to this planet to learn what the aliens are doing, while her husband, Erik (Justin Chatwin) remains on earth to study the Artifact while trying to raise their young daughter.
Sounds good, right?
Yeah. That’s what I thought too.
However, if we ever do have to send a manned spacecraft out on a dangerous mission to make first contact with aliens who may or may not mean us harm, I seriously hope we send a slightly more seasoned (or at least, trained) crew than this mob. These guys seemed to see no problem in eating alien plant-life, taking off their helmets while mining on alien planets or (my personal favourite) vaping alien narcotics, nor did they ever once learn from their mistakes. Their idiocy finally culminated in them deliberately installing a mind-altering alien implant, which they knew virtually nothing about, into a sick colleague’s brain. And as if being stupid weren’t bad enough, this crew, who presumably represent the crème de la crème of America’s astronauts, lost their heads every single time one tiny little thing went wrong– when they weren’t having sex, of course.
The sexual elements in this show (I refuse to exalt them to the level of ‘romantic subplots’, for they were neither romantic nor were they developed enough to be called subplots) lacked any substance or purpose whatsoever. All of the characters were pairing (or tripling) off in ways which seemed forced and unconvincing, finally fizzling out in the episode ‘How the Light Gets Lost’ where they all get high and have sex. Only the chemistry between Niko and the holographic William (Samuel Anderson– easily the best character in this show, by the way) seemed remotely natural or like it was contributing to the overall story in any way, only to be spoilt when Niko and William have really weird ‘hologram-pretending-to-be-my-husband’ sex and then it all went wrong for them too.
‘Big Brother in Space’ is how my wife described this ship and its crew and I am forced to agree.
Anyway, let’s look at some characters.
Niko: One of the few competent people aboard the ship. A bit of a control freak and a hard-nosed no-nonsense space captain who was anxious to protect her family back on Earth. Fairly well written.
William: Best character in this show and easily the most likeable until the ‘Lame Sci-Fi Trope Monster’ got him too and he started to malfunction because he fell in love with someone who treated him badly.
Erik (Justin Chatwin): Your bog-standard American dad trying to raise his daughter all by himself even though he’s also got a really important job to do. Lots of potential but a little too superficial for my taste.
Sasha (Jake Abel): I liked him better after he became a bad guy. He made my skin crawl, which I think was the effect the writers were going for.
Cas (Elizabeth Ludlow): A little preoccupied with her own issues which were never fully explored in this season but generally likeable. Cooler in a crisis than most of the crew.
Michelle: Swears like a trooper but apart from that, she seemed to serve no function whatsoever aboard the Salvare, (I just checked back to see what her job was, turns out she was the communications expert. Ha!) and I was downright glad when she died because she was just such a torn-faced, potty-mouthed pain in the fundament who dragged down both the pace and the tone of the show with her shrill dialogue.
All in all, Another Life failed to live up to its potential. This first season (which ends on a cliffhanger, by the way) was a sloppy mish-mash of sci-fi/horror cliches, pointless sexual tension and a bunch of characters who, for the most part, were as irritating as they were incompetent.
My rating: 🌟
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ATTENTION AUTHORS:
Every Tuesday, I post a new edition of Spotlight: a short post which shines a proverbial spotlight on a published novel or collection of short fiction. If you would like to have your book considered for a future edition of Spotlight, drop us an e-mail including a short synopsis of your book and a link to where we can buy it. Better yet, send me a copy of your book and I can include a mini-review.
I’m still looking to interview fiction authors here on Penstricken, especially new or indie authors. Whether it’s books, plays, comics or any other kind of fiction, if you’ve got something written, I want to hear about it. If you’re interested in having your work featured on Penstricken, be to sure to drop us an e-mail or message us on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest.
Please be advised that due to a recent surge in interest, I am presently committed to a significant number of reviews/interviews over the next couple of months. If you would like an interview or review, I would still love to hear from you, though it is unlikely that I will be able to begin work immediately.
You can check out our previous interviews here:
- Sharleen Nelson, author of The Time Tourists [2]
- D. Wallace Peach, author of the Shattered Sea duology [2]
- Jacob Klop, author of Crooked Souls
- H.L. Walsh, author of From Men and Angels [2]
- G.M. Nair, author of Duckett and Dyer: Dicks for Hire
- Georgia Springate, author of Beyond
- S.E. Morgan, author of From Waterloo to Water Street