# Another Life - Netflix First Contact SF series



## ctg (Jul 12, 2019)

> When a mysterious alien artifact lands on Earth, Commander Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff) has to lead humanity’s first interstellar mission to its planet of origin, while her husband (Justin Chatwin) tries to make first contact with the artifact back on earth.  Another Life explores the miracle of life, how precious life is in a universe mostly empty of it, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love.


 An Interstellar War Looms in the Latest Trailer for Katee Sackhoff’s Sci-Fi Series Another Life


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## REBerg (Jul 12, 2019)

I've made a mental note. I hope I can remember where I put it.


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## ctg (Jul 12, 2019)

> _The Walking Dead_ star Elizabeth Ludlow has already found her next role and it's coming to Netflix. Having moved on from her role as Arat on AMC's zombie show early in its ninth season, Ludlow quickly appeared in _Godzilla: King of thee Monsters_, now with her next role coming in _Another Life_. Ludlow shared the first trailer for _Another Life_ on her social media channels on Tuesday.
> 
> "She's a young recruit from the streets," Ludlow tells ComicBook.com about her _Another Life_ character Cas Isakovic. "A young woman of color who wants to do something better with her life. Katee Sackhoff takes me under her wing and we form this relationship and this bond. We go to space together and we have a whole other group of young kids that we take with us. I don't want to say too much, but it's definitely more action coming your way, for sure."


 Netflix's Another Life Trailer Released With The Walking Dead's Elizabeth Ludlow



> "It was a pretty intense shoot," Ludlow said of Another Life. "It was three months, 10 episodes, in Vancouver and it was block shooting, which can at times prove to be a little difficult. Overall, I think [_Another Life_ and _The Walking Dead_] work pretty similar. I can't think of any major differences."


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## Vince W (Jul 13, 2019)

Looks interesting but Netflix's offerings haven't really grabbed me for the most part. I hope this one does.


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## ctg (Jul 13, 2019)

Vince W said:


> Looks interesting but Netflix's offerings haven't really grabbed me for the most part. I hope this one does.



I hope it's as good as the promises. I'd hate, if it were another generic first contact, they are evil bs. There has been too many of them and none of the other kind.


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## Vince W (Jul 13, 2019)

First contact stories are a difficult sell to the masses if they aren't shooting at each other. The general public these days probably don't have the attention span to let the story unfold. Fingers crossed though.


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## ctg (Jul 14, 2019)

Vince W said:


> First contact stories are a difficult sell to the masses if they aren't shooting at each other. The general public these days probably don't have the attention span to let the story unfold. Fingers crossed though.



I got a first contact story in the finishing piece and it broke taboo, because while it is first contact, it's also accepting that they have always been here. That the humanity was watched and there was never an invasion in the plan. 

All the first contact stories we have had in past ten years has been invasions. Even Garland's Annihilation was one of them.


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## Vince W (Jul 14, 2019)

Would you consider Arrival/The Story of Your Life an invasion first contact story?


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## ctg (Jul 14, 2019)

Vince W said:


> Would you consider Arrival/The Story of Your Life an invasion first contact story?



No. I wouldn't, and I had completely forgotten it. It just shows how rare one of those are.


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## Vince W (Jul 14, 2019)

I wish they weren't so rare. I'm getting more than a little tired of the CGI explosions every five minutes in films.


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## Lumens (Jul 25, 2019)

Watching the first episode of this. Good premise, but... I just don't believe it. It feels awkward to me. The dialogue is weak, the effects (including sound effects) already feel dated, the acting seems off, (or it is the directing? I can never tell), plus more.. The writing isn't great either. The characters seem a little one dimensional. The science is messy...

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I'll give it a chance, hopefully it (or I) gets better.


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## Vince W (Jul 26, 2019)

The reviews I've seen so far range from poor to god awful. So Netflix fails to deliver yet again.


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## ctg (Jul 26, 2019)

Vince W said:


> The reviews I've seen so far range from poor to god awful. So Netflix fails to deliver yet again.



I couldn't sleep so I watched first five episodes. I cannot see how they failed to deliver. This is a very different first contact story from the others.


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## Droflet (Jul 26, 2019)

I'm hard.


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## svalbard (Jul 26, 2019)

Droflet said:


> I'm hard.



Hmmm...


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## Vince W (Jul 26, 2019)

ctg said:


> I couldn't sleep so I watched first five episodes. I cannot see how they failed to deliver. This is a very different first contact story from the others.


I've not seen it myself yet. I was just going on the reviews I've seen. What did you think of it?


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## ctg (Jul 26, 2019)

Vince W said:


> What did you think of it?



I quite like it. I wanted to do the whole review on the first half today. But I'm afraid I have to postbone the whole things, as I'm crying and having hard time. What I can say is that the whole case of unknown alien species coming to a world that has suffered through the whole catastrophe due to the climate change. They give a subtle references, like for example one of the space crew said, "I'm miss St Petersburg. It was so beautiful city before it was swept away by the floods."

The only unbelievable cases are the FTL and the fact that the two main characters are a couple, with a little girl between them. Katee's character head off into the unknown after the alien craft lands, and her crew goes through hardships and deaths. You can easily spot many concepts that we have spoken in the chronicles before and the writing is exciting. In fact, there is things we can learn from it,  like for example the alien sitting on Earth. 

It is as mystifying as Garland's Annihilation species and it shares some of the unique features like the crystal matrix with Garland's creation and the use of whole spectrum of colours. But, as this is a series involving us going to unknown to find out about the source of the alien species, the First Contact case goes way beyond, and it even claims that there is life in space. 

You will find AI's, advanced space-ships running with anti-gravity and FTL engine similar to the Alcubierre drives. They have figured out hibernation and other things, but yet, they are only around seventy years ahead of us. Maybe a century at max.

The series never touches in the first half what really happened to the humanity, but it really deals with the situation about what happens, when we encounter aliens and realise that we are not alone in this universe. I'm also glad that there has not been multiverse concept or TT at the first half.

If you want to see an alternative series, heavily dealing with the futurism and SF concepts, I warmly recommend this series.


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## Vince W (Jul 26, 2019)

That's the first intelligent and positive thing I've heard about the series. Cheers.


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## Lumens (Jul 26, 2019)

Vince W said:


> That's the first intelligent and positive thing I've heard about the series. Cheers.


Indeed. I'll give it another shot, with my critical side toned down.


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## Lumens (Jul 26, 2019)

Lumens said:


> Indeed. I'll give it another shot, with my critical side toned down.


Nope, I just can't do it. 

Sending out a bunch of sketchy amateurs to save, or represent, humanity doesn't work for me. One of them isn't even trained? 

It reminds me of Danny Boyle's Sunshine, and that was much better than this. It feels incredibly rushed.


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## ctg (Jul 26, 2019)

Lumens said:


> Sending out a bunch of sketchy amateurs to save, or represent, humanity doesn't work for me. One of them isn't even trained?
> 
> It reminds me of Danny Boyle's Sunshine, and that was much better than this. It feels incredibly rushed.



Well, yeah, the series needs an intelligent watcher, because there is not one moment where it tells you the whole picture. Everything is drip fed as it has been thought. What they could do better is linking the scenes, but overall I have no real complains about the crew. I get why they were chosen and they show personality in the situations, where you could use formally trained silent professionals.

That however wouldn't make the drama as it is intertwined into the plot. Things happens and they have reasons. Those reasons becomes more complex plot points, when they get dropped in. What is that you would expect from the crew that is going to save humanity? Stoic professionalism instead the personalities they've gathered into the crew?

None of them have really shown bad acting, and I loved the scene in the alien moon, where the girls were confessing about their true feelings in the 'magical forest.' The alien plot has advanced considerably towards the end, and it seems as if it's a truly plausible scenario.


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## Lumens (Jul 26, 2019)

ctg said:


> What is that you would expect from the crew that is going to save humanity? Stoic professionalism instead the personalities they've gathered into the crew?


I would expect them to be professional astronauts, the best of what that humanity can produce, being smart enough to play mental chess (for example) and have multiple talents, to follow orders without emotional outbursts or self doubts, and especially not to crumble at the first sign of trouble. I realise that there may be a reason for every single little detail that happens, but the two first episodes don't convince me to suspend my disbelief, at all.

The acting is probably the best aspect of it. They don't have much to work with...


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## svalbard (Jul 27, 2019)

I watched the first episode and thought it was all over the place. The acting is good, the characterisation poor. I will give it a few episodes and hope it improves.


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## Daysman (Jul 27, 2019)

Almost finished the first _season_...

Like someone asked what would Roddenberry produce if he were writing today...

The result?

Anti trek SF with US horror movie tropes...

Horribly stale tech, oddly retro throughout...

Entertaining crew, nice ensemble, Katee Sackhoff is great...

A disco dancing AI...

And they solved the red shirt problem using another SF trope, but the implication is chilling...

I like it more than Nightflyers...

Agreed, it bares comparison with Sunshine.

The other touchstone mentioned is Arrival but it also reminds me of Moon...

Kinda fun.


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## Eway (Jul 28, 2019)

Lumens said:


> Nope, I just can't do it.
> 
> Sending out a bunch of sketchy amateurs to save, or represent, humanity doesn't work for me. One of them isn't even trained?
> 
> It reminds me of Danny Boyle's Sunshine, and that was much better than this. It feels incredibly rushed.


I can't stand how the crew has no regard for basic safety.  It's like they're on a field trip.


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## ctg (Jul 28, 2019)

Daysman said:


> I like it more than Nightflyers...
> 
> Agreed, it bares comparison with Sunshine.
> 
> The other touchstone mentioned is Arrival but it also reminds me of Moon...



Yes, it certainly is all of them and Netflix learned from the Nightflyers. To me, personally, there was too many editing mistakes and the scenes didn't link enough of with each other. The plot was drip fed, and even if you guessed some of it, you could not figure out the ending. 

As a First Contact series it did the whole thing very differently and it pushed the genre TV in the new direction. I especially liked that not all alien species are evil. There were also technological nuances that could have helped the character crew to solve some of the issues, if they would have bothered going with the full cycle of back engineering. 

In a way Lumens is right, because going in with a level-headed crew would have been nicer instead of the personalities they'd gathered together. I thought about it a lot today and the only defence I can give is that often crews are made from personalities and the meek are not shown on the camera. 

There were places were I disagreed with Katee's character decisions and I'd have done certain things differently. Still, I would love to see the season two and see how they can answer to the criticism shown on this series.


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## Lumens (Jul 28, 2019)

I was thinking at some point (after watching) that maybe vast amounts of humanity have perished and the crew was scraped together in a rushed way in order to save whoever is left on the planet. That would also explain a few other things, like why there isn't much of an infrastructure and/or scientists gathered around the alien crystal structure in the field.


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## Daysman (Jul 28, 2019)

Lumens said:


> I was thinking at some point (after watching) that maybe vast amounts of humanity have perished and the crew was scraped together in a rushed way in order to save whoever is left on the planet. That would also explain a few other things, like why there isn't much of an infrastructure and/or scientists gathered around the alien crystal structure in the field.


Underresourced but overpopulated, someone said 9 billion people back home, and the crew are available volunteers at time of launch...

_Feels like _they redacted reams of backstory but maybe it was never there?

It was only when someone mentioned national security I realised there was no obvious international involvement, onboard or earthside...

All my other thoughts on this are trending political, so... time for coffee.


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## ctg (Jul 28, 2019)

Daysman said:


> _Feels like _they redacted reams of backstory but maybe it was never there?



Yes, there are scenes that indicate they shot much more than what did end up in the small screen. 



Daysman said:


> It was only when someone mentioned national security I realised there was no obvious international involvement, onboard or earthside...
> 
> All my other thoughts on this are trending political, so... time for coffee.



Don't be afraid of saying what you want.


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## farntfar (Jul 28, 2019)

I've watched the first episode.

I liked the alien ship. It had a nice slippery Mobius feel about it.
But a question for the Earth team. If they haven't made first contact yet, where did they find the Vulcan ship designer?


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## Daysman (Jul 28, 2019)

farntfar said:


> I've watched the first episode.
> 
> I liked the alien ship. It had a nice slippery Mobius feel about it.
> But a question for the Earth team. If they haven't made first contact yet, where did they find the Vulcan ship designer?


Wait 'till you see the engine room...


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## ctg (Jul 28, 2019)

farntfar said:


> I liked the alien ship. It had a nice slippery Mobius feel about it.



Wait till you see a fleet of them, it gives you a weird feeling, when you see them flying in the deep space, especially as those rings keep rotating around the mobius strip. It's like infinite symbols flying in infinite space, doing things that are clearly beyond the grasp of human technology.  



farntfar said:


> But a question for the Earth team. If they haven't made first contact yet, where did they find the Vulcan ship designer?



There are a lot of unknowns and the information about the past comes in at latter episodes, where they show some older designs, before time they had FTL drives. I forgive them a many things, especially around "the exotic matter reactor," because it's not an easy thing to imagine, when we have no such things. The science is however plausible.


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## Av Demeisen (Jul 29, 2019)

Dumbass show.


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## ctg (Jul 29, 2019)

Av Demeisen said:


> Dumbass show.



What did irk you the most?


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## Av Demeisen (Jul 29, 2019)

ctg said:


> What did irk you the most?


That is was stupid on so many levels. It's just too much to take. Stupid overload.


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## REBerg (Jul 29, 2019)

Three back-to-back episodes in, I am being firmly drawn to this series.
Despite all the nay-saying, I think _Another Life_ is at least as good as (or possibly better than) _Dark Matters_ and _Nightflyers_. Granted, neither of those are award winners, but I'll happily watch the reincarnation of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace as  Niko Breckinridge for another seven episodes.


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## ctg (Jul 29, 2019)

REBerg said:


> reincarnation of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace as Niko Breckinridge for another seven episodes.



There are many times when she's like a StarBuck in this series, but then again, she's not as Katee is not putting herself in the same place. She's a captain on hell-bent mission trying to find facts about alien intention, before it's too late. There is one episode where she don the costume is housewife, including a floral dress and all the other frills, and to me personally that was a scary thing. 

She's best when she's sitting on the pilot chair or barking at others to get their s*it together. Still I think that the 'magical forest' scene is the best as it closely encapsulate similar kind of scene from the Avatar. The cosmos is big and when they go out there, the space actually feels infinite and the humanity at child shoes as we know nothing.


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## REBerg (Jul 30, 2019)

I just finished watching the tenth episode, and I’m ready for more.

The show is an entertaining mixture of drama and action, although it did have its questionable moments.



Spoiler



Giant spider monsters? Yikes! Flying monkey aliens? Holy Wizard of Oz!

Escaping a black hole by tapping into a mechanical spider’s micro fusion reactor was a stretch. That big, colorful cable feeding power from Sasha to the ship was a hoot.

Petra’s nervous system literally bubbling from the back of her neck was a real _Alien_ experience. At least the nerve-creature had the decency to die as it attempted to crawl away, instead of escaping, growing into a powerful monster and killing the crew one-by-one.



On the plus side …



Spoiler



Michelle’s sacrifice was redeeming. Up until then, she had been the character I most loved to hate.

William’s development from AI to an independent individual entity as he struggled with human emotions was well done. I didn’t foresee William becoming “mother” to a new AI. In as much as she evolved from William’s therapeutic Niko program, I think Niko should be the proud new mom, with William filling the paternal role.

The cliffhanger ending, as always, made me think that Netflix plans at least one more season for the show. I would definitely watch it.


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## ctg (Jul 30, 2019)

Spoiler






REBerg said:


> Giant spider monsters? Yikes! Flying monkey aliens? Holy Wizard of Oz!



Yes. I did had those same thoughts, when I saw them and I thought that the giant spiders were somehow linked to the Archiec. It became clearer that they were native species, when Earth didn't receive one those and it finally locked down the giant, winged monkeys showed up. But that is also the thing, they got a confirmation that there's at least three hundred other civilisations that possibly might look for a salvation one way or another. 

To be frank, if I'd apply human nature in there, Katee would be flying between those systems, destroying them one by one, or forcing the aliens to destroy them, effectively creating a barrier between the places. Going back to Earth instead of fixing the long range communication is in my mind a mistake. What good they are going to do on Earth? 

I also thought about the Earth sending out the signal and it attracting the unwanted attention. What if, somewhere out there, are powerful allies who can change the course, why would  want to stop broadcasting radio signals? 



REBerg said:


> Escaping a black hole by tapping into a mechanical spider’s micro fusion reactor was a stretch. That big, colorful cable feeding power from Sasha to the ship was a hoot.



Indeed it was, even bigger stretch then the mini-fusion reactor. If they found all those alien implants inside the alien skulls, why not collect all of them and backengineer or connect them to the power-grid? Does it need to be a living person to operate the fusion-reactor? 



REBerg said:


> Petra’s nervous system literally bubbling from the back of her neck was a real _Alien_ experience. At least the nerve-creature had the decency to die as it attempted to crawl away, instead of escaping, growing into a powerful monster and killing the crew one-by-one.



When it happened I was convinced that it was the monster, and I was screaming at them to get the flame-thrower and burn the sucker off from the deck. Nobody listened.



REBerg said:


> William’s development from AI to an independent individual entity as he struggled with human emotions was well done. I didn’t foresee William becoming “mother” to a new AI.



In the book 2 I described an AI model, where the AI clones a version of themselves, and the child becomes the new AI and they almost copied it. So, I cannot be beating the wrong horse if they got it in theirs as well. The whole problem with the cloned AI is that it is rarely the same personality, and even bigger problem is that due to the cloning, whatever "powers" they posses, the child might have inherited them as well. Or put in simply way, they could have inherited the AI passwords for the systems, and that is a problem.


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## REBerg (Jul 30, 2019)

ctg said:


> When it happened I was convinced that it was the monster, and I was screaming at them to get the flame-thrower and burn the sucker off from the deck. Nobody listened.


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## Vince W (Aug 5, 2019)

I finally got through the first episode. I have very conflicting reactions to it. I like the basic story well enough, especially the storyline on Earth. And Katee Sackhoff is good. However, the crew Salvare is so monumentally unlikable that I doubt I'll be in any hurry to finish the series.



Spoiler



The fact that they mutinied and then proceeded to nearly kill themselves was so eyerollingly stupid I had to turn it off for a while before I could bring myself to finish the episode.



Netflix really needs to hire some decent editors with the power to really change things. Also, they need to test screen these things before releasing them.


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## Dave (Aug 14, 2019)

I've only watched the first episode so far.


Lumens said:


> I would expect them to be professional astronauts, the best of what that humanity can produce, being smart enough to play mental chess (for example) and have multiple talents, to follow orders without emotional outbursts or self doubts, and especially not to crumble at the first sign of trouble.


Ian is a violent pathological idiot. I can't believe that (whenever this is set, post 2026) in the future, they don't have, at least, the same psychological tests for astronauts that they already have today. The crew looked unfit both physically and mentally for such an important mission.

I also can't understand why, if they already have this interplanetary ship and previous missions undertaken, they haven't yet spotted the humongous local dark matter cloud that bends starlight. 

Apart from that, it was okay (but not making me need to see episode 2 immediately.) I'm a little tired of shows that link everything back to the same family, and try to make a strong mother-child relationship. That is especially unbelievably here as in the comm after months of sleep, the daughter was way down her list of questions.


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## ctg (Aug 14, 2019)

Dave said:


> I also can't understand why, if they already have this interplanetary ship and previous missions undertaken, they haven't yet spotted the humongous local dark matter cloud that bends starlight.



Yes they have the ship and no, the mission into the interstellar space is the first one. Before they have only done interplanetary missions.


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## Vince W (Aug 14, 2019)

ctg said:


> Yes they have the ship and no, the mission into the interstellar space is the first one. Before they have only done interplanetary missions.


All the more reason to send a seasoned, professional crew and not some whinging snotty brats that are so clearly terrified the best they can manage is empty bravado.


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## Dave (Aug 17, 2019)

I've watched 3 episodes now and it didn't get better. Looking at the comments here should I bother any further? The science is dodgy? The crew are ill-disciplined and very stupid. Their leader has no leadership qualities. The mission is compromised. Why can't they find better people to man this very important first contact mission? The b-story with the husband on Earth is going nowhere very fast - just sack him and get someone who knows what they are doing!


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## ctg (Aug 18, 2019)

Dave said:


> Looking at the comments here should I bother any further? The science is dodgy? The crew are ill-disciplined and very stupid. Their leader has no leadership qualities. The mission is compromised. Why can't they find better people to man this very important first contact mission? The b-story with the husband on Earth is going nowhere very fast - just sack him and get someone who knows what they are doing!



If it's a pain then yes, why bother? There is no point on watching anything that doesn't appeal your senses of satisfaction. Over the years there has been a number of first contact stories, and many of them has been about hostile aliens and even this turned out to be about one. But, the way they went telling the story was very controversial as instead of strict military code followers they sent out a punch of radicals. You take a sample of current scientist and you'll find out that there are a number of them that follows same patterns. 

I do agree that the producers should have put a bit more effort on making it more official, just like it was in Nolan's Interstellar. Wait, no, they put a farmer in ship and sent him in the study a black hole. At the end it was very Kubrik like movie that hinged on the success of Nolan's previous products. Not a great success in my eyes.

In this one, towards the end, they got more of the plot together and they showed some progress towards a real plot. What I didn't liked was that once again they were showing humans against a god like species, that has been doing things in this corner of the galaxy for a long time. Yet, nobody never saw anything. UFOs were denied until one landed in the North America and said nothing. 

I was surprised that they didn't tried to nuke it. No, instead they got together talented, smart kids who knew how to think outside the box, where as similarly aged military people would have ... personality issues in the space, while they were hunting the source for the alien species. Why is that there cannot be something similar to the Sagan's Contact or Spielberg's Close Encounters of Third Kind? Why does all the stories that end in the small screen has to go through the similar type of plots that at end are nothing more than invasion type stories? 

In fact, why there are no stories about the Alien Artefacts or super old history that get uncovered in our solar system, which then leads to a hunt for the source ... wait, am I describing the Expanse and Babylon 5, as both involved history and aliens to explain cosmos teaming with life. What if whenever we finally go out there, that we find out that is the case, and Another Life was just a fantasy?

I'm sorry that this series didn't please most of you, and I'm apologise for getting your hopes up for something good. Sorry.


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## Lumens (Aug 18, 2019)

ctg said:


> I'm sorry that this series didn't please most of you, and I'm apologise for getting your hopes up for something good. Sorry.


No need to apologise, at least not to me. I still respect your opinion and hope you continue to share it. I am often far too critical of scifi series and hope to ease up a bit, but I am just so spoiled for good tv that it's not easy.


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## Dave (Aug 18, 2019)

Certainly, no need to apologise. I have Netflix and it suggests that I will like it with a 94% match. I may still watch this but the fact is that we are spoilt for choice today (a very good thing) and I have other series to watch first. 20 years ago, in the absence of any other choice, I may have even been saying how amazing this was.


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## REBerg (Aug 18, 2019)

Dave said:


> ,,, the fact is that we are spoilt for choice today (a very good thing) and I have other series to watch first. 20 years ago, in the absence of any other choice, I may have even been saying how amazing this was.


Excellent point.
Even 20 years ago television science fiction offerings were not that bad. Imagine going back another few decades to a time when _My Favorite Martian_ was the best I could do.
Choice is a wonderful thing, even if a few less than tasty items occasionally appear on the menu.


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## Vince W (Aug 18, 2019)

ctg said:


> In fact, why there are no stories about the Alien Artefacts or super old history that get uncovered in our solar system, which then leads to a hunt for the source ... wait, am I describing the Expanse and Babylon 5, as both involved history and aliens to explain cosmos teaming with life. What if whenever we finally go out there, that we find out that is the case, and Another Life was just a fantasy?


They why hasn't someone adapted James P. Hogan's *Inherit the Stars*? There's a story that could work extremely well. And the less said about failed *Rendezvous with RAMA* adaptations the better.

And there is no need to apologise. If anyone should apologise it's Netflix and everyone involved in Another Life.


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## ctg (Aug 19, 2019)

Vince W said:


> James P. Hogan's Inherit the Stars



I had to google it as I've not read it. The only problem I have is the multiverse. It cannot be edited out from the Giants saga. It would destroy the story. But that long timeline also creates a kind of conflict as it would have to be spoonfed to the audience. However I kind of like that it explains almost everything and while certain things has artistic license, it's acceptable. They would have to do it same way as Amazon is allegedly doing with the Asimov's Foundation. You know how difficult that has been over the years to bring on the small screen. It is not a small feat.


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## Dave (Aug 26, 2019)

I've now watched episode 7. I think the series took a sea-change for the better with this episode. It is no longer just about a ship of fools on a fools errand, and has now become a much deeper story about the intentions of the aliens. Some diverse story strands are getting pulled together now and the possibility of dark secrets. I particularly liked the alien's method of communication since "alien communication" was a discussion within another thread on Chronicles, and I mentioned then that it may not be verbal or even a language, and cited the music in _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ as an example.


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## BAYLOR (Aug 26, 2019)

Vince W said:


> The reviews I've seen so far range from poor to god awful. So Netflix fails to deliver yet again.



The trailer alone is discouraging.


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## Dave (Aug 26, 2019)

Well, I think it was worth sticking with now, but maybe you'd be better spending that time sitting reading a book.


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## Dave (Aug 27, 2019)

Given this is unlikely to get a second season, the ending was rather unsatisfactory, but the latter half of the season was a big improvement on the first half. Whether anyone is willing to hang on in that long is debatable.


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## Vince W (Aug 27, 2019)

I've seen numerous comments by people on other sites who said they hate-watched the series only to scream at their screens. Seems like a waste of time to me.


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## ctg (Aug 27, 2019)

Dave said:


> Given this is unlikely to get a second season, the ending was rather unsatisfactory, but the latter half of the season was a big improvement on the first half. Whether anyone is willing to hang on in that long is debatable.



What was the biggest fail and the biggest success in your mind? Personally to me, I hated the goofiness, but I loved that the producers did some very bold moves with the aliens, and how they are. At the moment the antagonists feel overly powerful, but if the Netflix can get the producers and writers to really think how they move forward, this series could get amazing at the next season.


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## Dave (Aug 27, 2019)

ctg said:


> What was the biggest fail and the biggest success in your mind? Personally to me, I hated the goofiness, but I loved that the producers did some very bold moves with the aliens, and how they are. At the moment the antagonists feel overly powerful, but if the Netflix can get the producers and writers to really think how they move forward, this series could get amazing at the next season.


I still don't believe they would choose a crew that stupid or irrational, with so many psychological problems, and with no discipline or regard to the safety of the ship. They were also obsessed with sex, getting naked, and have zero depth of character. Or when they need someone to die, they summon a crew member up from stasis.

While not very original, both the aliens were sufficiently unusual, and I liked that they are still a little mysterious, but that was tempered a little by making the main guys genocidal. Also, both planets visited had flowering plants as their vegetation, another bug bear of mine.


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## ctg (Aug 27, 2019)

Dave said:


> Or when they need someone to die, they summon a crew member up from stasis.


That annoyed me, because when they had the first crisis by that blue star, I thought they were going to wake the whole crew to get ship fixed. They didn't. Instead it was that small crew even though the logical choice would have been to wake up everyone and then allow these extraordinary personalities to take charge of the play. 

This is the same problem that Matrix write Lana had with the Sense 8. There were too many personalities that needed to be on the screen at the same time, and some of them weren't logical choices. In the Jupiter Ascending that whole thing was magnified and the end result wasn't that great. So, I identify it as a writer problem, and the series writers were willing to put in these ones instead of the professional types, even if they could have filled in the background places as we have seen in the Expanse. 

I guess Netflix has to roll die if they go forward and give a go-ahead for the second season as they've done with many productions.


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## Vince W (Aug 28, 2019)

I imagine Netflix will give it a second series. They pretty much have to since they are losing so many shows and films to Disney+.


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## Dave (Aug 28, 2019)

You both really think so with the kind of reviews it's getting?

IMDb gives it only 4.8/10 and the comments have now become Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Is Netflix performing pain-threshold psychology tests on its audience with this show?
Q: When should I rage-quit this show?
Q: Should the show be renamed to Space Homo's?

Rotten Tomatoes gave it 4.54/10 and said it was a "hodgepodge of science fiction homage, _Another Life_ lacks the distinctive spark necessary to set it apart from the array of stories it aspires to be."

Metacriticgave it 33/100, based upon "generally unfavourable reviews."

Those are really terrible scores and if it were only the critics saying that you could ignore them, but it is viewers too.

I'm not sure such very poor scores are deserved. The story could be described as a "hodgepodge" of ripped-off ideas, but then the same could be said of _Star Wars_ too. All stories can be boiled down to the same handful of basic plots - is it three, six, seven or thirty-six? And every spaceship based drama inevitably gets compared to _Star Trek_. As I said earlier, twenty or thirty years ago, we would think this was 10/10, but now it is being measured against _The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica_ and an array of films and TV shows. It cannot compete.

On the other hand, I've seen plenty of better series cancelled that were liked and loved.


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## Vince W (Aug 28, 2019)

Execution is everything. While it may be true that the same sort of plots are reused it's up to the writers to present them in a way that's interesting and engaging to the audience. Making all your characters narcissistic sociopaths is the perfect way to annoy viewers. After that nobody is paying attention to any sort of plot.

And please don't bring up Firefly. Or Space Above and Beyond.


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## Anthoney (Aug 28, 2019)




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## ctg (Aug 30, 2019)

Dave said:


> You both really think so with the kind of reviews it's getting?



I said they have to roll a die, ie make a hard call. Another Life can be salvaged, but in order to do that they'll have to do a lot of work to get it right. Either way it's going to be harder to get these things in the small screen at the future, because it was such a huge cock-up.


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## Phyrebrat (Aug 31, 2019)

I watched it and personally think they hadn’t a sense of where they were going with it until past the halfway episodes.

This show smacks of pantsing to me. So much going on but in an unedited, unrelated way.

Many things were derivative and the amount of handwavium was disturbing. I actually splutter-laughed at the reactor-distributor-cap.

Katee showed a nice softness to her Starbuck template and William was engaging. As for the rest. Nawp.

When this show is going up against stuff like _The Expanse_, there’s no hope for it.

Lots of lazy writing and derivative stuff.

Netflix, see me after class...

pH


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## Vince W (Oct 30, 2019)

Another Life has been inexplicably renewed for a second series.
Katee Sackhoff's 'Another Life' Renewed for Season 2 on Netflix

Good news for some I guess.


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## ctg (Oct 30, 2019)

Ain't that interesting?! I think it's all about her pull. Thing is, Netflix is known for giving second chance to controversial shows like the Another Life. They also have a chance to finish the story in ten episodes ... if they so choose.


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## Elckerlyc (Oct 30, 2019)

I really wish but can't seriously contribute to this thread. I gave up on Another Life halfway the first episode.


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## ctg (Oct 30, 2019)

Elckerlyc said:


> I really wish but can't seriously contribute to this thread. I gave up on Another Life halfway the first episode.



You can comment. Don't be afraid.


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## Vince W (Oct 30, 2019)

Apparently Netflix considers a show to be viewed if you've managed to get through 70% of it. I managed, with difficulty, to get to the end of the first episode.

Netflix can do what they want as I plan on stopping my subscription shortly. I rarely watch it now.


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## ctg (Oct 30, 2019)

are you amazon boy now?


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## Dave (Oct 30, 2019)

I'm really quite surprised by this. The quality of Netflix shows had been getting steadily better. However, there is little on at the moment that I wish to watch. This didn't deserve a second series based on the first. Meanwhile, the BBC is making His Dark Materials and Runestaff. Netflix need to up their game.


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## svalbard (Oct 30, 2019)

On the plus side of this is that it can only get better.


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## Vince W (Oct 30, 2019)

ctg said:


> are you amazon boy now?


I have Prime and its shows aren't that great either. However, my book addiction will keep me hooked for a while yet.

I've just been disappointed overall with Netflix's original offerings.


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## ctg (Oct 20, 2021)

Well, the season two popped up in the Netflix last week and I have to say that they went all over the place, but at the end they fixed it and it is that ending that makes this at least a good series. It is a very different take on the First Contact stuff and in places, the actors actually voice "Ef the First Contact."

The second season is more mature, they still don't have a completely functional crew but overall everything is a bit better and far more grim then in the first season. I'd say watch it with open mind and take it as a classic view on science fiction, in a way SyFy has done it for a long time. 

Katee Sackhoff really pulls all her acting talents and the ending is quite amazing to watch as she struggles to contain the McGuffin within her body to deliver a blow. There are a number of classical tropes in the second season, and some that are boldly original. It is that originality that also adds to this series strengths at the end. 

All I can that the ending really wrapped the series well, but it is unlike that we'll see a season 3 as that is going too far from the original scope. It would have to be called something else. 

What did you think? Note that this has been on Netflix top ten for about a week now.


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## svalbard (Oct 20, 2021)

Forgot about the second season. Will give it a watch over the weekend.


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## ctg (Feb 22, 2022)

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1495849955411755010
Cancelled.


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