User Reviews

I forget the title of the book, but it was possibly by Frederick Pohl, was written in the 60's or 50's. The meta plot was exactly the same. A giant multi-generational ship is launched, but its really just an experiment, and the crew has no idea that they are actually still on earth. I remember in the book the point of it was to make geniuses breed with each other, and give them no entertainment except for scientific problems and see what these bottled-up geniuses end up sending "back" to earth. In the book they solved numerous mathematical problems that had befuddled people for centuries, as well as numerous other scientific things. This is touched on in at least once scene in the series. About halfway through the book the funding for the project was reduced and the spinning motion of the ring (which is not on the show) was stopped, which was immediately noticible to the crew. Only one super genius kid was able to figure out that there was no way that the amount of gravity they were feeling was from the thrust of the engines of the designs that they had and that they must be sitting on a planet. Again, as with the mini series, there was an inside man who was fully aware of the outside world, but he had an actual way to get into and out of the ship. I wish I could remember the title and author but I immediately recognized it when I watched the show so maybe some other old school scifi fans out there can find out who wrote the original book some 50 years ago?

I couldn't wait until this mini-series came out. I looked forward to seeing it since the previews came out. It was suppose to air in November than it was moved to December. When shows start to get shuffled around that's a red flag to me. On Monday when it first aired I was shocked, because I really wanted to like this mini-series; but I thought it was extremely slow. I will say that the ending did wake me up; and I did a WTF. Other than that the first 1 hour and 40 minutes was a bore. I am one of the few that didn't give up on it though. I did watch it all and it did get a little better. By brining in new characters such as the little girl, Krista, the investigator, Sam Kruger, was a plus. I still had problems with the series, the whole Stewardess crew did not add anything to the show. It downgraded females, and made me cringe. I'm sorry and this may seem petty, but it made young women look like a bunch of air-headed Barbie sex maniacs. On the finale, it was about the same as part two. I do find it hard to believe all those people not realizing that this was just an experiment. What was the point years go by and nothing failed earlier. The ending was dumb, and I know they will try to make it into a series. They just don't make sci-fi mini series like they use to. One of the best and still is to this day is V The mini-series/V The Final Battle. If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it. Don't miss out on this classic cult TV series from the 80's. Pass up Ascension, now V/V-TFB is great sci-fi. THX, Kris L. CocKayne

Ascension is a really good science fiction epic. It's got strong characters, lots of atmosphere, and some really visionary ideas. So why am I giving it 1/10 and STRONGLY recommending you give it a miss? See below.

The premise is classic: to examine the weird culture that evolves on board a sub-light starship, halfway through a 100-year journey to Proxima Centauri. By now, everyone on board has been born in space, and Earth has become just a distant memory. The kicker (an early reveal, so not really a spoiler) is that the ship left Earth at the end of the 1950s. Now it's a frozen slice of that rather tense culture.

The characters are superbly-drawn. The brick-jawed Captain, for example, turns out to be a weak, desperate man. And he knows it. (He comments that the first captain and the last will be remembered as heroes; he, the 'middle' captain, is doomed to be forgotten.) The visual design is equally good. Not too much can be said about the story, without giving things away, but suffice to say there are some big revelations, and the writers have been willing to let major characters come and go and change. In short, this is high-grade cerebral SF, of the sort we rarely see on TV or in movies.

So why am I warning you NOT to watch? One word: SyFy. The network that hates science fiction so bad they don't even know how to spell it. The network that will ALWAYS steal your valuable time and let you down in the end.

Ascension makes the THIRD time they've shafted me. First, there was Stargate: Universe. SyFy killed this superb show in midstream, leaving a strong story arc on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger. Then there was Alphas, an unusually gritty, credible 'superhero' series. SyFy dropped it after two seasons, again, on an agonizing cliffhanger. Now we have Ascension. And here's my **spoiler**: IT TOO IS NOT A COMPLETE STORY! None of its main story arcs is resolved, and new ones are begun just as the series STOPS COLD.

Worse, unlike SGU and Alphas, Ascension was actually PLANNED this way. The series was deliberately written, filmed and aired without a proper ending, IN FULL KNOWLEDGE that a sequel was highly unlikely. This is beyond despicable. It's just not that difficult to write an ending that will hold up on its own, while leaving room for a sequel. There's NO GOOD REASON to leave your audience hanging!

After Ascension, my disgust with SyFy is truly cosmic. I wish I could sue for the value of my wasted time. Better yet, I wish every executive at this network could be sentenced to have someone come in and interrupt every movie or TV show they ever watch, for the rest of their miserable lives. For them, it should be "Luke: I am your... (click)." Charlton Heston should be riding down the beach, and suddenly, sticking out of the sand he sees... (click). Dave Bowman's last message to Earth should be "Oh, my God: it's full of... (click)."

It's a real crying shame, because Ascension (like SGU and Alphas) is full of great ideas and engrossing drama. All wasted. IF AND ONLY IF SyFy pulls its finger out and runs a further series, you MIGHT risk watching Ascension. But even then, it would be a good idea to first wait and see if anyone complains that the SECOND series also ends on a

It started out nice with a 10 (just saw episode 3). But now it becomes a bit incredible (6). With this girl with super duper powers. A shame because it started really nice. But it becomes more one of those 13 in a dozen... Loved the first episode and the 2nd but the kid is too smart again. And in the 3rd episode it is getting really a pity. Something that started so good. The secret should have been kept more episodes for the viewer. Teleporting the guy to a planet??? No oxygen in 10 minutes in this huge ship? It has been a secret for 50 years and the guy walks out with the blond as there was only 1 security guard (who loses his gun as they always do...) in the garden? Don't see any good in continuing this series, we now the end after 3 episodes.

Class struggle! Power politics! Strong women have sex (in order to further their husbands' careers)!

The dialogue is really over-dramatic and unrealistic with "mustn'ts" and such. Only a few actors move beyond the level of "CW teen drama", with Brad Carter and Ellie O'Brien being the standouts. The constant sex and nudity is clearly an attempt to be seen as "edgy" and to boost ratings. Christa and her powers are never fully explained, nor is the bomb in the seed silos. The former is clearly meant as a carrot-on-a- stick to get a second series, but the latter is just lazy. After 100 years on the ship, what was going to happen to the colonists? Would they just be let out and told "Sorry we lied to you?"

I reviewed this title after watching the first episode and found it unsatisfactory. Now it is finished I feel I have to add a few comments. If this had been the pilot of a series I might have found it workable but it has been touted as a 'drama in six parts' for which you can change to three parts here in England. The whole premise of the show being that a spaceship with several hundred people is 50 years into a 100 year voyage to another star system, the kicker being that they have never actually left Earth but are in some underground complex. Leaving aside the absurdities and impracticalities of the subterfuge I would like to know how we are supposed to rate this drama highly when it finished with a whole raft of unanswered cliff-hangers. Now I don't mind having some open-endedness in a film where you are left to make up your own mind about a situation but really, there were so many of them. Was it really Lorelei's ghost that appeared to Christa? If it wasn't a ghost what was it? How come it appeared to Aaron at the end of the film? What happened to Stokes once he had escaped from the Motel? Who was the woman that murdered Samantha working for? Was Aaron teleported? If so, how? Where to? What happened to the thug that was lying on top of him trying to throttle him? What was the real reason for the lie? Was Crista evolving, if so into what? Are we supposed to believe this evolution happened in a mere fifty years? If so, why did they have to create a multi-billion dollar project with hundreds of 'prisoners' to oversee it? I'm all for suspending my disbelief in the name of good science fiction but the Clifton Bridge would have trouble holding this up. If it had played out to a resolution I might be able to forgive the film makers but this travesty felt like going to the cinema and having the film break down half way through. It's a shame because it was well made but good production can't make up for sloppy writing. I can't recommend this to anyone.