Nightflyers - Syfy's adaptation of George R.R. Martin novella

So, RR Martin in spaaaaaaace! The synopsis reads: "follows eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system aboard The Nightflyer" and is billed as Psycho in space.

I have a feeling this will suck! I mean, not only does it have a freaking telepath (a trope for all kinds of woo), but it also looks like a subplot from Extant, though probably going for Alien type horror.

Alas, I really don't have high hopes for this.

Link contains trailer:
Syfy’s Nightflyers Trailer: George R.R. Martin Presents Space

 

This is the second pass at his story. Looks like their was a movie in 1987.
Nightflyers (1987) - IMDb

 

Does anyone know what's going on with this show? Wikipedia indicates it was supposed to air in July, but that never happened. The show is listed at the SyFy website, but only has a trailer and no indication of when it will actually be shown.

Nightflyers

 

I don't ever remember it being scheduled for the summer. Promos I've seen on SyFy just say coming this Fall or later this year.

 

Scheduled to premier on December 2nd. There is a preview that you can view here. I didn't find it particularly inspiring.

Nightflyers

 

I watched the first episode, which aired on Sunday night, and enjoyed it. George R R Martin is an exec producer on the show, but it's an early novella of his, so it's not got quite the same level of fleshed out characters that GoT has. But the premise is interesting to me, at least so far. Enough to continue watching.

But, they are showing new episodes each night this week, so tonight is Episode 3. I haven't caught up yet. Next week they're showing 4-5 more episodes, and the week after will have the finale.

I think there are/will be ways to binge it as well.

 

Loved both episodes so far

 

I've seen the first two. Production wise, it looks pretty good (in a generic scifi sort of way), and I like some of the characters, but I was also somewhat bored over the two eps. The opening scene was pure slasher flick trope-y. I'll stick with it though.

 

Watched the 1st episode Sunday night.

Impressed by the production of it.

Is the captain the same guy as Mahogony on Supergirl??

 

Is anybody else getting an "Even Horizon"-y vibe from this show?
"DO YOU SEE, CAPT. MILLER!??!"

 

Watched episode 2 tonight.

So far I'm liking it.

 

It's Event Horizon crossed with Solaris. Though both are far better than Nightflyers.

 

I'll you what....
that guy with the beard (and hair) would make a pretty good 'late-period' Stanley Kubrick in a bio-pic about him!

 

That's my take as well. I'm enjoying it but it has been very predictable so far.

Spoiler

I told my wife "it's the computer that is doing all the apparitions. When It was discovered that he was appearing as a hologram and we kept seeing the image of the captain's mother, I told her "she had herself uploaded into the computer". [SPOILER\]

I'm enjoying it anyway. The acting is solid, the writing a bit obvious at times including the unnecessary exposition on things that are obvious as well. The production design and visual effects are handsome.

I'll stick with it as it is enjoyable. I actually think that "Event Horizon" had a lot more potential to examine (and supposedly the earlier uncut version that film which doesn't exist any longer was like that) the whole concept of evil, what was brought back from the other side, etc. in "Event Horizon".

The major difference is the aliens that they are trying to contact. It really isn't exactly clear how the technology of the aliens will help Earth (which is having plagues break out everywhere as is described in the beginning of the first episode).

I don't doubt that the film "Nightflyers" (based on George R. R. Martin's novella) was seen by Paul W. S. Anderson and the writer of "Event Horizon" as there's too many similarities to be seen as a coincidence.

It ain't rocket science but it is at the very least interesting and has some cool scenes. Love the actor that plays Rowan.

Nah it doesn't suck and it is better than the film "Nightflyer" which has, wisely, never turned up on DVD or Blu-ray (it had a videotape release but that was it).

 

I would wait to judge the show until it's conclusion. To be fair, Martin wrote the story that is the basis for the show back in 1980 to prove that, in writing, science fiction and horror can exist together in the same story (much as the film "Alien" demonstrated).

It does borrow a lot though (at least in this version) from "Alien" as well. I think it's better than the sum of its parts. It's not like some of the plot twists are exactly new to "Nightflyer" (there's a reference to the third "Matrix" film as well) but what remains most interesting to me is the way humanity reacts to the Volcryn and, at least in this show, the potential toxicity of meeting another race just because of the incompatibility of humanity and the alien race. It's not Roadside Picnic, Solaris or even "Alien" but it does play with the same themes and plot developments. Is it totally original now? Nope but it's not necessarily the plot twists that matter so much as the overall effect of the series.

 

So no one else has watched the show lately? The last episode (episode 8) was pretty intense and pretty interesting development with the main characters.

 

I've been keeping up with it as best I can in this busy holiday season. Nightflyers is very ambitious sci-fi. Personally, I think the story is too ambitious and crams in one too many concepts to tell its story. I get the feeling the showrunner plotted out a very elaborate plan, but the characters get lost in it sometimes.

 

I agree and, having watched the conclusion, I dislike the way it ended (borrowing from “Solaris” quite heavily vs. giving us an idea of the intelligence of a species that is so vastly different from h7manity to the point that we have little in common with them. I suppose the ending was meant to be a cliff hanger but it isn’t satisfactory to me. Still, it was a solid show even if the series echoed more than producing its own unique voice.

 

Yep. I wanted to keep my powder dry until I finished it, which I now have.

Oh dear, where to begin? Martin should stick to writing geo-political fantasies and not science fiction (+ horror?). Not that there's anything scientific at all about one of the show's main conceits - woodoo mind powers. It's about as lazy as you can get in science fiction.

Worse is the plot structure. Basically, you have two competing plots - conscience uploading and mystery-box aliens. Each plot-stream detracts from the other because it muddies the narrative focus, all the way to the end.

Of the two competing plots, the conscience uploading one felt unnecessary, padding. They could have done away with that completely and had much better focused series with perhaps 8 episodes (though it was a treat to see Josette Simon, Blake's 7's Dayna).

None of the cast had any soul or real charisma. They were glum, emotionless automatons for the most part, so no help there to uplift the series.

And the final episode was simply atrocious - from the stupid dialog to the non-ending, and that terrible song at the end. Urghhh! Not recommended.

 

They've been showing these back-to-back in the afternoon here...
I fell asleep, and the wife was like, "you're not watching this, are you."...

 

To be fair this was published back at the beginning of his career as a writer in 1980. Martin Wrote science fiction before jumping into fantasy. The mishmash of plot elements was expanded upon by the show runner/creator of the show. Although Martin IS credited as an executive producer it was really nothing more than a title as he was tied down with “Game of Thrones” designed I think to pay him for any “unofficial” advice he gave.

Keep in mind the whole series is not representative of his novella (although it touched on the main plot points). I would disagree with you that the comment about the plot and subplots although I do feel that they’ve been done better elsewhere. I agree about the f8nale unless there is a second season despite tend to deal with the implications of the end (which worked much better in”Solaris”).

Yeah it was disappointing after much promise. For exam0le, the loose ends are disturbing. Where did the fungus/mold come from and what precisely was its purpose? Are we no more than a Petri dish to the aliens?

 

I've only watched episode 1. I find it very well produce but I went asleep while watching it (I'm serious) and before that I was finding it boring. I'll keep on watching to see if I end up liking it.

 

The competing sub-plots may have worked together if Nightflyers was on HBO and allowed to go more in depth with its characters. But attempting both sub-plots within the constraints of ten normal-length episodes was a bridge too far. To fit everything and make it work, they had to jerk the characters around from episode to episode.

 

Lazy? Telepathy was pretty common to science fiction in the 60's through the 80's particularly with folks like Robert Silverberg ("Dying Inside), Phillip K. Dick, Larry Niven, etc. If you haven't read Martin's science fiction including other "Thousand Worlds" fictional world stories, I'd suggest checking them out. They ARE well written. Now you may not care for stories with telepaths but that hardly makes it "lazy" writing.

He was quite an accomplished science fiction writer (and of course fantasy) in his day before shifting his focus. "The Sand Kings" won a Nebula Award for best novella. "A Song for Lya" won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1975. "The Way of Cross and Dragon" was the Hugo Award for Best short story. So, again, I would hardly call it lazy. The guy is pretty well respected by other writers as well.

The problem is I think you are confusing the author with what you've seen on the series which, while based on his novella, develops some elements quite differently as I recall.

I agree with @PhantomStranger that the subplots would have worked better in a series supported by an HBO or even a Netflix (or Amazon). I think that the ability to expand a bit into further episodes would have been to the benefit of the series. I didn't think the structure was so much the problem as the ambition of the script with the subplots being far too prominent without having the room to develop them.

I do think that the darkness (or intended darkness) of the series did result in some of the characters as muted and underdeveloped (I would have, for example, loved to see the world that Lommie came from with its anti-tech bend). I thought that the cast did a fine job with what they were given particularly Angus Sampson with his (at first) elusive xenobiologists Rowan, Eoin Macken as the damaged astrophysicist Karl, Maya Eshet as Lommie. I do think that Gretchen Mol's character was a bit underdeveloped considering the large role she had and Sam Strike's Thale was pretty interesting at first coming off as villainous but, later, as quite a sympathetic character even with the dark quality of his character.

Having said all of that, I think that the problem is the fact that the story ideas are a bit too familiar for today's audience. The variation on the conscience uploading developed in another direction might have worked better.

Certainly there were problems with the series but none of them HAD to be fatal. I do think that the resolution could have been handled better and, I suspect, that the series was designed for a season two (even if the story is played out). I will be interested in seeing where the series goes if it is picked up and hopefully the makers will learn a bit from the flawed narrative.

I agree and there felt like there was elements that were eliminated for Syfy that would have made the series flow a little more smoothly. I also feel that the unlimited freedom provided by an HBO or Netflix (or Amazon) would have allowed a better developed story.

 

Yes, it's lazy in general, but especially in a visual adaptation (where all you need is to make a constipated face and stuff happens). I'm not denying it's been used many times before in literary works, but I never cared for it as plot driver, even in an otherwise well written work. There's simply no scientific basis for it and I like my science fiction to have at least some basis in reality.

I guess it just rubs me the wrong way as the subject belongs more in the camp of pseudo-science bunkum like mental powers, telekinesis, spirit energy, talking to the dead, fortune telling, precognition, mysticism, etc, etc.