Need a Space Western? Try "Defiance"

I have subjected myself to so many mainstream pandering, emphatically mediocre science fiction series lately, it is a tremendous relief to find one like Syfy's new show "Defiance," that is classic geek bait. Here we have a show with not just one or two very human-looking aliens, but at least half a dozen species of them living alongside humans, ranging from the albino-looking Castithan race, to a big guy who looks like an orangutan. And we don't just have a standard post-apocalyptic future, but a future where the entire planet Earth has been terraformed by alien colonists so that Antarctica is now rumored to be a tropical paradise, and a couple of major wars between the humans and the aliens have made a lasting impact.

The action centers in and around the city of Defiance, formerly St. Louis. It's known as a place where human beings and many of the newly arrived alien races decided to stop fighting and live side by side, banding together against the myriad threats posed by the rest of the world. Theirs is a frontier-like existence, and the whole series definitely has a lot of Western vibes. The pilot episode is all about how newcomers to Defiance, former soldier Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler) and his adopted alien daughter Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), end up becoming the new sheriff and deputy, after a raucous adventure that involves a hand-to-hand fighting match, getting involved in a family feud, solving a murder, a visit to the local bordello, and turning back an invading army of machine warriors called the Volge.

What I have always loved about science-fiction shows like this is the characters. "Defiance" has a lot of the types that you'd expect. There's the inexperienced mayor Amanda (Julie Benz), steadfast deputy Tommy (Deshane Williams), the sultry bordello and bar proprietress Kenya (Mia Kirshner), no-nonsense Doc Yewll (Treanna Keating), and a pair of feuding families, the McCawleys and the Tarrs, with offspring that turn out to be lovebirds, of course. But when you've got characters like Datak Tarr (Tony Curran) and his wife Stahma (Jaime Murray) under a couple of layers of makeup, you can buy them acting broader, and larger than life than if they were human characters. The Tarrs are the show's mob family, clearly devoted to each other and their son Alak (Jesse Rath), but they handle a lot of unsavory business, and have the temperament to match. Datak Tarr in particular gets to chew a lot of scenery. This makes them a lot more fun to watch than the human McCawley family, comprised of father Rafe (Graham Greene), son Quentin (Justin Rain), and daughter Christie (Nicole Muñoz).

I was surprised at just how much "Defiance" gets done in its two-hour premiere. There's a lot of backstory missing - we don't yet know where the aliens came from or why - but the show's creators do a great job of establishing a very weird and interesting status quo. It was very encouraging to note that one of those creators is Rockne S. O'Bannon, who also worked on the similar "Farscape" series. I don't think that "Defiance" is as visually distinct as "Farscape," but it's definitely aiming high. You've got several major alien characters in complicated makeup, a setting that may as well be on another planet, and loads of special effects for everything from the vehicles and weapons to the drinks at the bar. This isn't anything that we haven't seen before in science-fiction television, and it's certainly not pushing any new boundaries, but the execution is so good, I'm already invested in the show. I got a real kick out of how fast it managed to set up all these different relationships and conflicts while hinting at many more to come.

There are some elements that I think could use some work. One character who didn't come off very well is Irisa, who is a familiar sulking teenager for most of the pilot, and doesn't say much. Even though we know from the start that Irisa considers Nolan her father, it takes longer than it should to work out how they function together. Hopefully she'll open up a bit more in the coming weeks - she's already got a potential love interest lined up. Also, I'd really appreciate a little more worldbuilding information like timelines and better introductions to the different races to start getting a clearer picture of how the "Defiance" world operates. There's something to be said for being thrown into the deep end like this, but only if the show is able to follow through on its ideas.

I have a really good feeling about this one though, for the simple reason that "Defiance" has so much action and humor and cheeseball fun. This is the first new show in a while that feels like the lighter, weirder, more adventurous science fiction I always liked best.
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