Cult-TV Review: Defiance (2013)

By my estimation, Sy Fy’s epic new TV series Defiance is one of the best things to happen to science fiction television in the last several years.   

We’ve had a rash of mediocre remakes (V, The Prisoner), mysteries that went, precisely, nowhere (Flash Forward, Alcatraz) and time travel stories/alternate universes that not only failed to convince…but failed to make sense on even a rudimentary level (Terra Nova).

Developed by Rockne S. O’Bannon (the creator of SeaQuest DSV and Farscape), the impressive Defiance features a strong cast of characters, motion picture quality production values, an intricate but compelling narrative, and even the embedded social commentary we’ve come to associate with the genre on TV.

The naysayers -- and there have been quite a few so far -- may note that Defiance is but a Western rehash translated to a futuristic setting. Yet undeniably the Western remains America’s core mythology, and also served as the inspiration for Star Trek, which creator Gene Roddenberry playfully termed “Wagon Train to the Stars.” 

The important point to consider, however, is that Defiance concerns the present more than either the storied past, or its fictional future.  Like all the best science fiction programs in history, Defiance is set in another time and place, but concerns, very much, the issues and ideas of today. 

In broad-strokes, Defiance dramatizes a story about immigration, and of unlike groups of people learning to live side-by-side with those may not share their religion, belief system, or even basic biology.  In a setting like that, what people hold in common becomes more important than what separates them.

Defiance’s narrative -- though set in a chaotic and disordered world -- is optimistic in the very spirit and tradition of the original Star Trek because it reminds the viewer that everyone doesn’t have to be exactly the same to get along, and that no one demographic has the monopoly on humanity…or righteousness.

Defiance is set in the mid-21^st century, after Earth has accidentally been terra-formed by refugees from another star system.  These refugees are known collectively as “Votans” (apparently for their doomed star system…), but individually as the Castithans, the Irathients, the Indogene, the Liberata, the Sensoth, the Gulanee, and the Volge.

These aliens had at first hoped to find Earth uninhabited, but when they arrived at our world and registered our presence, began to negotiate for the right to settle here.  What followed was assassination, war, “Arkfall,” catastrophe and the accidental reshaping of Earth itself.

Now, decades later, human beings and aliens attempt to erect a new world in the town of Defiance, a metropolis built over the ruins of St. Louis.  The town is run by an inexperienced but compassionate Mayor, Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz), and the first episode installs a war veteran and scavenger, Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler) as the city’s chief law man.  His adopted daughter is Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), an impulsive adolescent alien called an Irathient.

Defiance’s pilot episode sets-up the series premise, with Mayor Rosewater and Sheriff Nolan defending the town from an onslaught of Volge warriors.  Meanwhile, the audience is also acquainted with Romeo and Juliet-styled intrigues.  It is not the Capulets and Montagues who argue and maneuver for dominance here, however, but a Castithan family and a human one.  The two families are brought together by the next generation’s love, but still cling, in some way, to hate and suspicion.

.

I’ve read some reviewers who profess confusion regarding the details of Defiance, but frankly, I wonder how confusing a Western can really be at this juncture.  Defiance is actually a pretty straight-forward (though intelligent) “frontier town” story, one where diverse people must work together against outside threats, and succeed in building a new community on the ruins of the old. 

Though the episodes are indeed filled with inventive tech like “stasis nets” and “charge-blades,” it’s all mere window-dressing for the central motif which, as I wrote above, concerns immigration and diversity…and getting along with those who appear different, or live differently.

Without getting directly into politics, it is clear that the year 2012 revealed something important about America, and the sort of country it hopes to be in the future.  We have seen the left and right come together -- with some stubborn hold-outs, naturally -- to affirm the humanity and equality of homosexual citizens, and also those in the immigrant community who are here illegally, but who hope to find a path to citizenship.  There are growing pains to be certain, but on these two issues bigotry and fear are apparently losing, and human rights are winning.

Of course, some folks still view these aforementioned demographic groups as frightening ones that somehow threaten “traditional” values by their ways and mere presence.  Yet the arc of American history has always involved the assimilation of new immigrant groups and the recognition of individuals formerly disenfranchised.

In a very real and profound sense, this is the key conceit of Defiance: the notion that people of various stripes all love their children, all deserve the same dignity we enjoy, all want to succeed, and all wish to be secure.  The strange aliens of this fictional frontier town, with their (to us…) bizarre faiths, rituals, and even “alien” bodily functions, stand-in for the demographics I’ve named dropped above.  The series set-up reminds me of a great line from Space: 1999 (1975 – 1977) in 1976: “We’re all aliens, until we get to know one another.”

Defiance is about that process of getting to know one another, with all the mistakes, false starts and conflicts one might expect.

Delightfully, Defiance reveals these aliens to be fully human in their complexity.  The various aliens are multi-dimensional, and portrayed sometimes as cranky and self-righteous as well as loving and compassionate.  They can be violent and irrational…just like us “humans,” and that’s the point.  We’re all in the same boat, and that condition makes us natural allies, not enemies. 

So when outside invaders like the Volge threaten the safety of the town, thee “aliens” take up arms right alongside the humans to defend the town.  We all want to protect our homes, right?  That’s something we can all agree on.   

Light on moralizing but strong on sub-text, and heavy on action, Defiance feels like a breath of fresh air because the characters all speak with intelligence and humor, and because the series projects this timely and necessary vision that differences among us don’t make us weak, they make us stronger.

Defiance’s pilot episode features the aforementioned Volge march on the imperiled city, and I’ll be direct about the production values: I’ve never seen so sustained an action set-piece -- of such superior special effects -- featured on television before.  One need only remember the blurry dinosaur movements of Terra Nova to see what a quantum leap forward in effects Defiance represents.

I would feel more comfortable, frankly, if Defiance were airing on HBO or Showtime -- like Game of Thrones, for instance -- where it might be granted better odds for survival. Sy Fy (formerly The Sci Fi Channel) doesn’t have a great track record for supporting original science fiction television, so I hope Defiance “defies” that programming trend and gets a nice, long, healthy run.  This is a story and set of characters worth following for at least five years, assuming that the quality of subsequent episodes lives up to the worthy premise.