OOPS. I actually accidentally “wallpapered” this post (as in posted OVER it!) by accident when I got booted offline with a couple of posts in progress open in separate windows, then mixed up when restoring and fixing things. So, here we go again – but completely rewritten, as nothing got saved and I HATE redoing articles because I can’t recapture the same tone – yaaaah!)

SO, Defiance seems to have survived not only its first episode with the biggest audience ever for syfy, it also survived an assault by a rather large enemy force thanks to a bit of Deus ex machina that was for me, a rather humorous homage to the first Star Wars movie. That or it was some fine lazy writing by the team that needed to wrap things up and had to fall back on their big action scene to satisfy the fans who wanted their big battle. Still, it was a fine pilot overall, even with way too many characters to keep track of. This of course, will settle out as more episodes air and we get to know who’s who and where their alliances lie. OK, OK, fo those of you who didn’t get it, I’ll get into the Star Wars moment(s) below the jump…

In the original Star Wars (or Episode IV, or a New Hope or whatever you want to call it), there’s that scene on Yavin IV where Han Solo is packing up his pile of loot that he got for helping save Princess Leia and Luke strolls up and ask him why he’s leaving. Of course, he’s taking the money and running before the planet gets vaporized, but as we all know he ended up swinging back to save the Rebellion’s bacon and allow Luke to take that lucky shot. In Defiance, Nolan gets his own Solo moment when he finally gets his gun back from Amanda and is set to leave town until he sees that rather large army headed to invade. Of course, he just so happens to have that fancy space doohickey he’d buried earlier that ends up being a portable Death Star of sorts that gets used against the enemy troops. That whole battle was basically an on foot version of the trench run from Star Wars with the roles of Imperial and Rebel troops reversed if you think about it. But don’t DWELL on it, as it made the episode a bit more fun to watch…

Let’s see now, what else did I write? Hmmm… OK, as I’m not playing the game (thanks to a crappy home connection) but have done the press demo thing for it, I know it’s quite good and a friend who is playing it confirms this (other than a few server hiccups and some downtime thanks to a recent patch). I was actually surprised that there weren’t a ton of ads for the MMO during the show and where there were commercials, they were short and didn’t over-hype the experience. That’s a really great move on the part of syfy and Trion Worlds as they’ve been saying for ages that you don’t need to watch the show to enjoy the game and vice versa… but if you do decide to, you’ll see some nice surprises crossing over.

So, in closing – new sci-fi show, likable and large cast, drama and humor in nice amounts, loads of aliens, handsome guys and gals to ogle for those who want to and even a bit of sexy time (because even in the future, people are still going to have those hormones running). As I’ve said before, I’m sticking with this show for the first season to see where it ends up. I have the feeling that it’s going to be a winner for all involved as so much work went into it that it’s got me rooting for the story to run the course its makers have intended from the start.