This three-part mini-series that was run last week on the SyFy channel started with an interesting scenario: A 600-person "colony" of carefully-selected Americans had been launched on a hundred-year space journey in the early 60's in a gargantuan spaceship. The ship was large enough to accommodate all of the living and recreational needs of the colony, including even a faux-beach where they could bask in the artificial sunshine and take a refreshing dip in crystal-clear waters. The destination of the ship was a habitable planet where they would colonize and ensure the continuation of the Human Race.
The length of the journey meant that several generations of the colonists would be involved, and strict rules ensured that reproduction was limited in such a way that the population on the ship would always be 600, more or less. The culture on the ship remained early-60's and the producers of the mini-series ensured that lot's of eye-candy would make the program an enjoyable one to watch. Several sex scenes were highlighted with back-only nudity, but still...
But it was all a ruse. The "ship" was constructed in a government warehouse near Washington, D.C., and the colonists were going exactly nowhere, monitored perpetually by government scientists and bureaucrats. The scenario was similar to The Truman Show, but with everyone but One Guy on the ship in the dark about the real nature of the journey/experiment.
The predictable ending of the show would be for some catastrophe aboard the "ship" requiring a premature termination of the experiment and a stunning revelation to all of the colonists that they were actually back on earth and basically had been unwitting "lab rats" for their entire lives.
SPOILER ALERT
But no. A pre-pubescent girl on the ship was somehow psychically aware that something was amiss, and she also had supernatural mental powers to make things happen. The program ends when she causes one of the main characters to evaporate from the ship and wake up, apparently, on the planet that was the supposed destination of the "ship." With the "colonists" none the wiser. And the implication is that this little girl is an advanced human species that the original scientists had hoped to "breed" with this 100-year experiment.
Are you kidding me?
This mini-series was apparently nothing more than a promo for a future series where the colonists continue their "voyage," and never actually find out that they are still hanging around on good old planet earth.
This is the worst debacle since they decided not to end Under the Dome when the book ended.
Am I missing something?
The length of the journey meant that several generations of the colonists would be involved, and strict rules ensured that reproduction was limited in such a way that the population on the ship would always be 600, more or less. The culture on the ship remained early-60's and the producers of the mini-series ensured that lot's of eye-candy would make the program an enjoyable one to watch. Several sex scenes were highlighted with back-only nudity, but still...
But it was all a ruse. The "ship" was constructed in a government warehouse near Washington, D.C., and the colonists were going exactly nowhere, monitored perpetually by government scientists and bureaucrats. The scenario was similar to The Truman Show, but with everyone but One Guy on the ship in the dark about the real nature of the journey/experiment.
The predictable ending of the show would be for some catastrophe aboard the "ship" requiring a premature termination of the experiment and a stunning revelation to all of the colonists that they were actually back on earth and basically had been unwitting "lab rats" for their entire lives.
SPOILER ALERT
But no. A pre-pubescent girl on the ship was somehow psychically aware that something was amiss, and she also had supernatural mental powers to make things happen. The program ends when she causes one of the main characters to evaporate from the ship and wake up, apparently, on the planet that was the supposed destination of the "ship." With the "colonists" none the wiser. And the implication is that this little girl is an advanced human species that the original scientists had hoped to "breed" with this 100-year experiment.
Are you kidding me?
This mini-series was apparently nothing more than a promo for a future series where the colonists continue their "voyage," and never actually find out that they are still hanging around on good old planet earth.
This is the worst debacle since they decided not to end Under the Dome when the book ended.
Am I missing something?
