Sci Fi Fidelity

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Star Trek: Picard brings back all the feelings of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and builds off of many familiar elements from other sci-fi properties, including bits of plot from Star Trek: Nemesis and the 2009 film reboot. We discuss the brilliance of the show's premise and immediately appreciate the cast of characters that we're introduced to.

The body of our podcast is dedicated to talking about the first two episodes, including the nature of Dahj and Soji and the history that has brought Jean-Luc Picard, Starfleet, and the Federation to the present state. The spoiler zone then digs a bit into the ragtag crew Picard assembles in episode three and specuates about the nature of what's going on with "The Artifact."

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We've enjoyed plenty of Netflix's international fare on the podcast, but nothing quite like The Gift, a supernatural series known as Atiye in its native Turkey. With the same family history dynamic as Dark and with similar crazy visions to Siempre Bruja, this series delves even deeper into the nature of life and death while maintaining its archaeological mystery, fantasy adventure feel. It's a truly unique show that we couldn't wait to review!

The Gift tells the story of Atiye, a successful artist whose works center around a mysterious symbol she's been painting since she was a small child. When the same symbol shows up in a thousand-year-old archaeological dig site, she is compelled to investigate what it means, even when it causes others in her life to question her sanity. As the discoveries start to uncover the involvement of others in her own family, the real puzzle starts to reveal itself.

As is our wont, we discuss the first two episodes of The Gift in detail, laying out the story premise and character development for review. We share our appreciation for the use of a real historical site for the main setting and note the added benefits of watching a show that originates from a culture that Americans could learn a lot from, artistically and otherwise.

In the spoiler zone, the family connections are explored further, and we try to get to the bottom of what Atiye's visions mean, and the reality of her very existence comes into question. We're reminded of our previous podcast discussions of Undone and The OA, both of which also pleasantly tied our brain in knots trying to figure out what was really going on. With plenty of speculation left over for more storytelling, we wonder about a possible The Gift season 2.

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There are certain theme songs from genre television that are immediately recognizable after just a few notes have been played, but what shows have the best opening credits music of them all? The discussion topic each month has the daunting task of narrowing the choices down to three for each of us, and that was quite difficult here in January of 2020.

Even the hosts themselves interpreted the topic at hand differently. In some cases, the iconic nature of the theme was at play. At other times, the instrumentation or the inclusion of hauntin vocals was more important for the theme’s standout status. And then, of course, there’s the sheer catchiness of a theme's tune or an essential singalong quality that lyrics bring. Luckily, we had plenty of help from our listeners, who contributed their own favorites to the conversation in our feedback segment, submitted via our Facebook group.

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There’s no denying that Lost in Space is an edge-of-your-seat space adventure for the whole family, and much of the audience enjoyment comes from seeing how the Robinson family will escape from their latest life-or-death situation. On this week’s Sci Fi Fidelity podcast, we talk about the importance of viewing this series through the right lens, checking any nitpicks about scientific accuracy at the door and just enjoying the ride.

We explore some new details that Lost in Space season 2 introduced about the robot race and talk about the Netflix series’ choice to focus so much of its mythology on the Robot. We break down the first few episodes as usual, including specific praise for the rounding out of the Dr. Smith character and some background context for Judy’s parentage, but by far the most significant success of the season is discussed in the spoiler zone, where we can’t help but be excited that the setup for season 3 indicates a completely new direction for the series with plenty of mysteries to speculate on during the hiatus.

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The Witcher quickly became a favorite here on the podcast as we delved deeper into the three central characters of the show: Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri. The show may be based on a series of novels and short stories from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and a popular video game, but we were able to enjoy the story of the monster hunter and the sorceress and princess whose fate became wrapped up in his on its own merits.

As we are wont to do, we begin with an analysis of the first two episodes of The Witcher, the first of which introduces Princess Cirilla just as her kingdom falls to an invader's attack and she must flee with only one command from her grandmother, the Queen: "Find Geralt of Rivia; he is your destiny!" We also see the witcher himself, as he defeats a fearsome beast on behalf of ungrateful townspeople and a conniving mage. The second episode presents a skillful introduction of a captive sorceress-in-training, Yennefer of Vengerberg, who quickly became our favorite character.

In the "spoiler zone" of the podcast, we share our overall impressions of The Witcher and pay specific attention to two story arcs: that of the genie and the three wishes and final battle of the season, which introduces plenty of questions about where season 2 might be headed since a renewal has already been secured. There is particular praise for the thematic ideas of destiny and legacy, especially as it applies to Yennefer and the many choices that lie before her in the finale and beyond.

We're betting that much of our audience also enjoyed The Witcher and will hopefully appreciate our take on the critically maligned show — all opinions are welcome here!

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Ever since we began our two-episode rule, which keeps our show discussion to the first couple of episodes of the season, we knew we'd have to be flexible. Maybe we'd add a third or fourth episode for a half-hour comedy or if a shift in the story warranted it, and anything else would be in the spoiler-zone if we were able to squeeze in a few more in our own viewing before recording the podcast. But certain shows were just too irresistible for us to stick with just two installments, and others we binged after the discussion even if we didn't necessarily have time.

We each share three shows that we got sucked into this year including Russian Doll, The Umbrella Academy, and more. We even have one or two that drew us in because of an interview or by other means. Then, of course, our listeners get in on the action and tell us which shows they specifically binged because of our two-episode discussion on the podcast. It's nice to know we've been able to draw attention to some new science fiction and supernatural programs since that's exactly why we started Sci Fi Fidelity!

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Dominique Tipper, who plays Naomi Nagata on The Expanse, was the very first interviewee we ever had on the podcast back when we began in September of 2016, just when the Syfy show was getting started, and showrunner Naren Shankar visited with us in February of 2017 during season 2. Now, the two key players in the success of this space science fiction TV show join us once more from the set of season 5, which is currently filming in Toronto, to preview season 4. We asked them to tell us more about the storyline to come taking place on Ilus, the first planet encountered by humans beyond the Ring gates.

The first thing Tipper had to mention was the challenge for Naomi, with her brittle Belter bones, to be planetside for the first time. “We very much get to see this season what it takes for a Belter to change themselves and show what they need to do to their body to step foot on a planet or be in atmosphere,” she tells us. “And so I think there’s a lot of things riding on Naomi going to Ilus… She’s the only Belter perspective in the group, and also her own curiosity and for her and Holden as an option. So there’s a lot riding on it for her personally.”

Not that Ilus is all that hospitable! Tipper told us how cold it was on location on the Ilus set, while Shankar appreciated its sparse beauty. “When you see even the first episode of season 4, it’s a beautiful location,” he says. “We were looking for a desolate frontier, and we shot in an active quarry. We used a lot of drone photography to get the vistas, and it’s really quite striking. And what you’re seeing in there is actually — we did virtually nothing in terms of visual effects cleanup or changing it. That’s the way it looks; it looks alien as hell.”

For more insightful moments, fans will have to wait until The Expanse season 4 returns on Amazon Prime Video on December 13, 2019. In the meantime, enjoy the podcast, in which we announce the winners of our giveaway of The Art and Making of The Expanse from Titan Books.

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