2009: A Space Dud

The premiere of the new space adventure show Defying Gravity had a decent premise and some cool space scenery. Also, it had.... um, well, not much. One problem most space shows and films have is that it's too expensive to simulate everything being in zero gravity, and this show is not set far enough in the future to postulate any form of antigrav breakthrough. The idea of the space suit with some kind of magnetic nanofibers is probably as good a workaround as anyone could come up with, but why doesn't the astronauts' hair float? And the rest is soap opera. The good ship Antares and her mission are interesting, but her crew would never have been cleared for a space mission by the flight surgeons and head-shrinkers of any real agency. Junk it up with a birth-controlling government (which is relevant to what?) and a sinister space agency official (a knockoff of the James Cromwell character from Space Cowboys) and you have....some cool space scenery. Somebody deorbit this turkey soon.