Otherworldly Odyssey: A Sci Fi Recap – Week of 12/11/18

This is the first edition of what aims to be a regular column that focuses on science fiction and speculative fiction on the small screen. Let’s see what’s been on recently.

MST3K – The Gauntlet (Netflix)

MST3K held its annual Thanksgiving marathon a little early this year, giving us The Gauntlet. Evil Scientist Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and Max, TV’s son of TV’s Frank, (Patton Oswald) returned with a crew of literal boneheads to torture Jonah (Jonah Ray) as the permanently stranded factory worker and his robot friends. There were also lots of the faces from last year, with a big surprise guest towards the end (I’m not telling. Go watch it). One of the best throwback moments for me was the return of the Pod People song. I had forgotten about that insane song. Overall it was a solid series of movies, and like older episodes, I’ll happily watch them again. I also can’t wait to refer to someone as a “walking long island iced tea” or review a movie by saying “and the movie ends as it began, as a garbage fire.” As a long time viewer of MST3K, there were lots of little Easter eggs thrown in, and a giant throwback in the form of the Pod People song, but as always there’s plenty of fresh material and references to classic bad cinema. If you haven’t watched The Gauntlet, it’s currently streaming on Netflix.  #butts

Doctor Who (BBC America)

Roz, Karen, and I have been talking about Doctor Who all season. Check out our roundtables and other coverage of Doctor Who here.

This week Doctor Who wrapped up what many felt was a very uneven season. Despite some weaknesses in writing, I am thrilled with the new Doctor and companions. In typical Doctor fashion, she does rush in and puts her companions at risk, but she’s brilliant in both the American and British usage of the word. One of my favorite aspects of this Doctor is the camaraderie with the companions. I’ve never been a huge fan of the story arcs that give us romantic/awkward feelings between the Doctor and companions. I’m much happier to see a team that relies on and trusts in each other based on a relationship of mutual respect. I think fam is the right word for this new configuration, and that’s all right with me. There will be a New Year’s Special on January 1, and after that we’ll sadly have to live without the Doctor until 2020. But, Jodie Whittaker will be continuing on as the Doctor in 2020, according to all reports. You can catch up on recent episodes on BBC America.

Nightflyers 1.1-5 (SyFy)

The biggest new sci fi this week was SyFy’s Nightflyers, a space horror. The first 5 episodes of a 10 episode run dropped last week, with a second 5 coming this week. Right from the show’s grim start, it’s clear that Nightflyers is going to make good on its promise of horror. Astrophysicist Karl D’Branin (Eoin Macken) and psychiatrist Dr. Agatha Matheson (Gretchen Mol) have brought an L1 named Thale, a human with psychic abilities, on board the Nightflyer to join the crew in its attempts to make first contact with the Volcryn, alien life first detected by D’Branin. Unfortunately, the crew distrusts Thale from the start, not that he doesn’t give them reason, and the crew turns on him when things start to go wrong on the ship. Following each episode are behind the scenes extras with the cast and crew, as well as George R.R. Martin himself.

Nightflyers: Gretchen Mol as Agatha, Eoin Macken as Karl D’Branin. Photo by: Jonathan Hession/Syfy

Nightflyers 1.1 – All That We Left Behind

The crew sets off to intercept the Volcryn, but quickly runs into trouble. Karl is troubled by memories of the wife and daughter he left behind, and the crew quickly turns on Thale after a second accident involving Mel.

Nightflyers 1.2 – Torches and Pitchforks

After Thale gets out of his chamber, the crew is panicked. Karl and Agetha are trying to prove that Thale isn’t responsible for the ship’s malfunctions, but that may be difficult to do. Thale meets a calming, but confusing, crew member in the domes. Can she get him to change course? Meanwhile, Mal and Rowen send off a drone as a last resort. When Mal confronts Eris, he reveals that there might be a bigger problem at play. When Karl learns that is was Thale that attacked Murphy, Eris helps him cover to keep Thale safe. But the crew isn’t out of danger yet, and Eris has to deal with something that’s trying to stop the mission.

Nightflyers 1.3 – The Abyss Stares Back

Rowen seeks to find a way to make Thale more useful to the mission, so brings him the gift of a white rabbit, but the rabbit ends up hiding a disturbing surprise. Karl investigates the continuing sabotage of the mission with the help of Mel and Lommie, and Mel finds herself in so much danger that Eris is drawn out of hiding to help her. Karl and Rowen end up in Eris’ apartment as they investigate the ship’s disturbances. Hartley is haunted by his lost crewmates and being on the ship. He finally goes over the edge, and Eris handles things there before confronting Karl and Rowen during their break in. The captain’s not a projection any more.

Maya Eshet as Lommie. Photo by: Jonathan Hession/Syfy

Nightflyers 1.4 – White Rabbit

Eris explains how his mother’s consciousness took over the ship and how she affects him. The ship continues to terrorize crew members, and Thale by extension. Karl and Rowen are shocked to find that the drone is back, and Karl is convinced it is their first contact. Eris’ mother is less than pleased with its arrival though, and she’s driving him mad. Now they’re under the gun to figure out the probe to keep the ship from destroying them all, and learning that the drone is filled with living tissue with Karl’s DNA makes it all the more pressing.

Nightflyers 1.5 – Greywing

Rowen goes to the bee lady as he tries to figure out why the cells from the probe seem unable to die, and he theorizes that  they’re using it as a means to communicate. In an attempt to rid the ship of Cynthia, Lommie tries to find her and contain her, while Thale and Eris listen in. Lommie is ultimately able to lock Cynthia out of the system, but it isn’t pleasant and we may not have seen the end of Cynthia’s influence over the ship.

The Nice Girls have some great Comicon coverage of Nightflyers if you want to learn more about the show. Nightflyers is available to stream on SyFy and new episodes will be released each day until Thursday when episode 9, Icarus, arrives

NIGHTFLYERS -Pictured: (l-r) Gretchen Mol as Agatha, Maya Eshet as Lommie, David Ajala as Roy Eris, Jodie Turner-Smith as Melantha, Eoin Macken as Karl D’Branin. Photo by: Jonathan Hession/Syfy

Manifest (NBC)

Manifest had its midseason premier recently. The Nice Girls have been doing weekly roundtables, and you can see what they’ve been saying about the show here http://nicegirlstv.com/tag/manifest/. Manifest will return January 7, and past episodes are available to stream online.

Coming This Week:

Nightflyers 1.6 – 1.10 (SyFy)