A Fly on the Wall to the Save Dark Matter Campaign
Posted on September 18, 2017 by Tyler F.M. Edwards
As there so often is when a good sci-fi show is cut down too soon, there is of course a fan campaign to try to save Dark Matter.
This has been a bizarre thing for me to watch, stirring up odd and vaguely nostalgic feelings. As longtime readers may remember, I was very heavily active in the campaign to save Star Trek: Enterprise for many years, until it became glaringly obvious that the last hope was gone.
For that reason, I haven't been able to bring myself to be too heavily involved in Dark Matter's campaign. My days of crusading for sci-fi TV are behind me, I think. I simply don't have the heart for it anymore.
But I have been following the campaign here and there. Most of the efforts seem to be focused on Twitter, which does bring out my inner curmudgeon a little bit. "Back in my day, we had to track down the email addresses of CBS executives and send them personally written letters. Uphill! In the snow! Both ways! And we liked it! Now all you have to do is use a bloody hashtag?!?"
But in all seriousness, I do wish them the best. I'd love to see Dark Matter survive for another season or two, or at least get a mini-series to wrap up the story as happened with Continuum.
It does seem the campaign has a lot of momentum, so they've got that going for them. They've even received support from a number of media figures. The one that really surprised me is that Ed the Sock has apparently been quite outspoken in Dark Matter's support. Did not see that coming.
But then again he has been championing the cause of Canadian TV for a while now, and he's always had an interest in nerdy stuff, so I guess it isn't too strange now that I think about it.
If you're not Canadian, Ed the Sock is… Actually I have no idea how to explain Ed the Sock. You're on your own there.
The best place for updates seems to be Joseph Mallozzi's blog, and if his most recent post is to be believed, today will probably be the day we know for certain whether the Raza will rise again or be silenced forever.
I'm expecting bad news, but I hope to be wrong about that. It's a show that deserves to continue.
I've been thinking about Dark Matter a lot over the past couple weeks, and while it's easy to write it off as a simple but fun action-adventure, I can't escape the feeling there is something special about this show.
For one thing, while Dark Matter doesn't go out of its way to beat the drum of diversity the way, say, Star Trek does, the fact is you've got a show with a multi-racial cast of characters with a more or less even gender split led by a badass queer woman. That's pretty impressive when you think about it.
And of course, the characters are all excellent, displaying some real sophistication to the writing that belies the show's pulp feel. As always, being I'm a dude you can take my view on such things with a grain of salt, but I think Two does a great job of being a strong female character without being written as a "strong female character," if you get my drift.
The thing I really about Two is not so much that she's the leader, but why she's the leader. She just sort of naturally assumed that position through the sheer force of personality. She's a natural born leader. It's rare for a show to be able to sell that concept entirely by showing and not telling, and far rarer still for that kind of role to be given to a woman.
And of course Five is simply a triumph, for all the reasons I've enumerated whenever I've gushed over her in my various episode reviews. It's so rare that the geeky, smart characters get to play the hero every bit as much as the fighters. That deserves so much respect.
The others are excellent, too. Really the cast doesn't have a weak link. In the past I might have said Three, but after the latest season even he's wormed his way into my heart. But Two and Five are the ones who deserve the most recognition, in my view.
So yes, I hope against hope that Dark Matter will somehow survive.
This entry was posted in Misc. and tagged Dark Matter, sci-fi, TV by Tyler F.M. Edwards. Bookmark the permalink.
7 thoughts on "A Fly on the Wall to the Save Dark Matter Campaign"
Pip on September 18, 2017 at 5:40 PM said:
Hopefully it will as due to social media now being widespread it does have a bigger impact than filling executives emails (which staff most likely vetted first) with what they would call spam (possibly).
Social media now can have a bigger effect then emails ever could to companies who care about their public face and how their subscribers view them. If a company such as Netflix can see a potential rise in revenue due to taking up Dark Matter then it's a no brainer for them.
No doubt they will be looking at the present subscribers already viewing seasons 1-3 and crunching the numbers to see if it is worth it to them.
No doubt we will find out soon.
spacecolonist on September 18, 2017 at 10:28 PM said:
I have yet to watch season 3 as I do not get the SYFY channel and Netflix has not begun the season. As for the comment about 3, I stopped underestimating his character in episode 7. Before that point, he looked like a carbon copy of Jane from Firefly. In that episode, it became clear that the big dumb superficial jerk was really an act. The strength of his character is that anytime we get a look behind the mask he is able to moments later convince us that we had seen nothing.
Tyler F.M. Edwards on September 19, 2017 at 12:15 AM said:
I felt like the attempt to soften Three's character in season one came too suddenly and too strong. It felt forced to me. But season three has done a much better job of it by employing a softer hand. He's started to feel like a real member of the crew, and the bonds between him and the others are starting to feel very real. In the family dynamic of Dark Matter, he's like the weird grumpy uncle, and everyone needs a weird uncle.
no1zoiepalmerfan on September 18, 2017 at 10:41 PM said:
Reblogged this on Suzie's Blog.
Penny Murua on September 19, 2017 at 10:30 AM said:
Please please bring Dark Matter back. Too many loose ends left unanswered. Best show EVER!!!!!
Love this show.
JR on September 19, 2017 at 6:41 PM said:
This reminds me so much of when Firefly/Serenity went off air. I'm always amazed how SyFy will get a good show going, and just pull the plug on it. All the while, they show professional wrestling, and a lot of shows that aren't Sci-Fi in the least. Their decision making has me scratching my head. They decided to keep Killjoys, which is not nearly as well written and developed in my opinion.
Tyler F.M. Edwards on September 19, 2017 at 9:32 PM said:
I like to think of Killjoys as the poor man's Dark Matter.
I mean, it's not a bad show by any means. But anything it can do, Dark Matter can do better.