Across the Universe

So bad even the AI constantly looks sad. Got to be the worst crew of a spacecraft ever.

Episode 1.01 (2 out of 5 stars).

After a mysterious alien object lands on Earth. A space crew led by Niko (Katee Sackhoff) are sent on a mission to trace the origins of this object. And to find out the purpose of the object.

The plot and concept idea are borrowed from other sci fi space movies. Like Arrival, Annihilation, and Alien. Except this series has dumb characters. The space crew alone are selected to save our planet except they are arrogant and dumb. Niko is already conflicted with one of her crew. Who is trying to challenge her in leadership. Which he risks putting the crew in danger for his own decision. The sub plot with the crew questioning Niko's loyalties is dumb. Meanwhile, her husband (Justin Chatwin) is trying to communicate with this alien object.

The script and direction is terrible. Characters are making stupid decisions, dialogue is dumb, and it is just unbelievable. The pilot episode is also very dull with its direction making it hard to watch the next.

Sci-Fi fan of 50 years here, so I've seen a lot of it. It starts off just 'okay' but then steadily improves. Yes, some of the characters are annoying, but then drama formula writing always has a wide range of characters so that is only to be expected nowadays. With so much excellent stuff available on Netflix and other platforms, something has to be good in order to keep me watching. This one did, the first episode was interesting enough to make me come back for another episode. I'm pleased I did because, as I write this, I have two episodes left and can't wait to see them.

Couldn't continue watching after the first episode. It just wasn't thought through. Just too many questions. An important mission with this team with such unlikeable characters? How? Why? Did who ever send them form a team so incompetent? Did they matched their skills and personalities? Did the team know eachother beforehand? Did they train together before send into oblivion for an important space mission? Truly, I'm amazed at how stupid this is. Nope, not for me.

It is hard to parse just how bad this writing is. A talented enough cast, but what were they thinking? Even ignoring some glaringly stupid basic science mistakes which were needless with this kind of budget.

A crew of pouty, whiny 20 somethings who don't wear uniforms and have zero discipline are sent off to save the Earth. Did competent and sane people go instinct for some reason? Was there some massive planetary extinction event that wiped out everyone of intellect and reason?

I love starship shows. I really do. I love them so much I am going to continue watching this complete trainwreck. I may, however, be rooting for every single person to die terrible and gory deaths.

Given two stars because at least every single character is believably loathsome and stupid so I can only assume is sticking to the script pretty well. The sets are also decent.