Good production design, everything intentional is in focus, some good actors. And that's it. What have we done to anger the gods of good SF to get so many shows like this:
I mean, lighthouse and victorian mansion in a storm (maybe bonus: the bridge is washed out) are the classic isolation for drama or monsters, so spaceship in space (or mining colony etc) is the modern version. Lighthouse in space needs to go above and beyond not to be just tropes upon tropes.
What really annoys me about this and much other bad SF is the lack of world building. We didn't get 2 minutes of just how the place works, even if not explicitly explained, before it goes straight to acton and conflict so we're not oriented to these truths, and instead everything that happens with future stuff seems like it's a macguffin.
- A new element
- Gears control electricity
- Future power sources explode catastrophically
- Mercenary team
- Everyone on the mercenary team has a distinctive hair style
- Everyone on the mercenary team hates each other
- Transparent displays
- Gravity... but sometimes not
- Hacking!
- Give away the action in the cold open
- Everyone is a jerkass
- Space is small
I mean, lighthouse and victorian mansion in a storm (maybe bonus: the bridge is washed out) are the classic isolation for drama or monsters, so spaceship in space (or mining colony etc) is the modern version. Lighthouse in space needs to go above and beyond not to be just tropes upon tropes.
What really annoys me about this and much other bad SF is the lack of world building. We didn't get 2 minutes of just how the place works, even if not explicitly explained, before it goes straight to acton and conflict so we're not oriented to these truths, and instead everything that happens with future stuff seems like it's a macguffin.