Eye on Sci-Fi - The X-Files, Star Wars, The Martian, SyFy does what it does - cancel shows

October 2015

By Ken Parker

Lots of series canceled, lots of stuff coming up and a look at The Martian movie.

Continuum Series - So after 4 seasons, Continuum is done.  I followed the show since day one and for the most part I found the entire thing enjoyable.  I felt the show never ever was on track with a true direction and that might be representative of the time travel nature of the story.  The show was constantly trying to find an identity and often changed direction.  I don't think it ever figured itself out and even in the final mini season, it just barely managed to put all the pieces together.  It was not a bad show and the ending approached a satisfying conclusion but not sure it was worth the 4 years to get there.  If you are looking for a time travel, conundrum and paradox show that looks at how and why one might want to change history, this series has some great concepts and excellent characters.

Continuum Comes Back for One Last Season - 6 Episodes

Is this is the first word that we had that the show was even renewed?  You would think that they would have started shooting already.  Still, with only six more episodes planned for its 4th season, Continuum will be back and more than likely wrap everything up.  That is good because there is a lot to wrap up and thankfully this show will have a final ending and not just end in mid story.

This show has had a lot of excellent things going for it but I think it also has been largely directionless.  Hopefully they will put it all together for the final episodes. No word on the airing dates yet.

Continuum Season 3 Review (Some Spoilers)

By Ken Parker

I have to admit that there are some shows I watch that I am not “into” as much as others. Continuum is one of those shows that I feel I must watch but that if it got canceled that I would not be upset. I do often get wrapped up with these shows time and again and will find myself at a point where I can't get enough. Continuum is one of those shows and I will attempt to document why I have trouble with it.

Spoilers

Summer 2014 Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV

The following is a list of of shows airing this summer -

Under the Dome (CBS) - Mondays 10pm - Season 2 starts June 30

Beauty and the Beast (CW) - Mondays 9pm - the final 6 of this season air in June and July

Extant (July 9) - Wednesdays 9pm - starts July 9

Defiance (SyFy) - Thursdays 8pm season 2 starts June 19

Dominion (SyFy) - Thursdays 9pm - starts June 19

Continuum (SyFy) - Fridays 10pm - season 3 continuing through June 27

Orphan Black (BBC America) 9 pm - season 2 continues through June 21

Outlander (STARZ) - Saturday 9pm August 9

Penny Dreadful (Showtime) -Sundays 10 pm - through June 29

The Last Ship (TNT) - Sundays 9pm - starts June 22

Falling Skies (TNT) - Sundays 10pm - season 4 starts June 22

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/guide/summer-2014-grid/

Continuum Series 1 Episode 8 "Play Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Series 1 Episode 8
Play Time 
By Andrea Stevens
Reviewed By Lara Luke

The future at Sad Tech: Lucas demonstrates a new piece of technology that has the potential to neutralize aggressiveness in criminal, using soldiers as test subjects. Kiera is present at the demonstration, where Jaworski is the guinea pig. However, during the demonstration, Jaworski is able to break through the control.

2012: A group playing paintball is shocked when a young man comes in and shoots the CEO of their company as they are involved in a team building project, and then proceeds to shoot himself. 

A man is waiting for the train. A young woman walks up to him and grabs him, pulling him and herself in front of an oncoming train.

Vancouver PD, seeking a connection between these two murder/ suicides, traces the two killers to a video game company called Ten Dyne Systems. The two were employed as beta testers. Carlos, Kiera and Betty visit the company and are introduced to Fred Nettinger, who supervised the testers. He shows off a new immersive game that’s in the works. It uses an impulse beam that goes directly into the retina in order to give one the virtual reality effect. The programmer is concerned about a glitch he’s been working on; however, Nettinger is confident it is safe for a demonstration. Kiera and Betty don the head gear and find themselves in a snowy setting firing upon the enemy. A “bullet” comes straight at Kiera and upon impact she goes down in real life.  With her HUD acting fried. Alec is alerted and calls her on her cell phone. After explaining the situation he feels he must reboot her system.

Continuum Renewed For Series 3

Showcase has green-lit a third series of Continuum.  The popular science fiction drama that star Rachel Nichols in the lead as Kiera Cameron has been put through the ringer this season as she still tries to stop Liber 8 from changing the future as she also tries to find a way back to the future.  This is good news for Continuum as Series 2 is at the half way point, just starting in the UK and will be airing soon in the US in June or July.

Continuum Series 1 Episode 7 "The Politics of Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Series 1 Episode 7
The Politics of Time
By Sarah B. Cooper
Reviewed By Lara Luke

The tone changes in this episode as friendships and trust are tested. In the future Kiera, Greg, and their good friends, Vicky and Trevor are out to dinner. Kiera excuses herself to the restroom. Trevor follows her in and makes a pass at her. She goes all Protector on him, slamming him into the wall with a few stern threats and boots him out of the restroom.

2012 As Kiera and Carlos are leaving work Carlos offers Kiera a ride home, but is interrupted by a phone call. Alec encourages Kiera to ask him for dinner. Kiera reminds him that she’s married. He responds that she needs friends in 2012. However, the best laid plans are put on hold as Carlos has to rush off to the aid of a friend in need. 

Trailer For This Sunday's Continuum Series 2 Ep5 "Second Opinion"

Continuum Series 1 Episode 6 "Times Up" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Series 1
Ep 6
Time’s Up
By Jeremy Smith and Jonathan Lloyd Walker
Reviewed By Lara Luke

As the protectors sort through the remains of a riot scene at a company called Piron, Kiera voices her disgust at Liber8. While the group sees itself as revolutionaries, she only sees vandals. Her opinions waver as she finds a box that one rioter had dropped and discovered it contained food. This led her to question why the food hadn’t been distributed as it was its purpose. Suddenly she has compassion on people stealing food, because they are starving. Questioning this, her partner, Elena, informs her that it’s best they don’t ask the hard questions. With Kiera’s response; “But if not us, then who?” it seems a seed of doubt has been planted. 

In 2012 the lines are further blurred. A demonstration in front of the local corporation, Exotrol, draws Kiera  and Carlos. Kiera cannot believe the local law enforcement allows such gatherings. Carlos explains a show of force can cause the situation to escalate.  In Kiera’s experience, they always escalate. As the crowd wants transparency with the business practices of the corporation, Liber8 takes full advantage of the situation. Recruiting a local group of young people and drawing Julien into the fold, the protest becomes violent. With mayhem on the loose, Liber8 is able to kidnap the CEO of the company, Henrietta Sherman. 

Continuum Season 1 Ep 5 "A Test of Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Season 1 Ep5
A Test of Time
Written by Jeff King
Reviewed By Lara Luke

A futuristic helicopter made its way through the Vancouver skies carrying Protectors who are seeking the manifestation of a report that Liber8 was after a high value target. With Martial law declared, the Protectors focus on a Sad Tech warehouse.

2012 Kagame is in meditation when Sonya interrupts him with the news the group has assembled as he had asked. After reassuring him of her loyalty to him over Travis, they join the other members. Kagame lets the group know that Kiera’s presence in this time will cause some alterations to their plans. Travis mentions the 60 year mix up also changes things and Kagame ignores him. Kagame wants to start working on public opinion right from the beginning by influencing the youth of the time ,in order to  prevent the Corportate Congress from evolving at all.

Matthew Kellog shows up bearing a fruit basket. He insinuates that fresh fruit is not something the inhabitants of his time period enjoy on a regular basis. While the group is suspicious of his intentions, Kagame chastises them for attempting to harm one of their own. He also comes down on Kellog for his self-indulgence. 

Alec is approached by his step brother, Julien, regarding his dad’s meeting. When Alec bows out Julien chastises him for not spending time with family. Alec informs him that he is not family and he does not want to “sit around with a bunch of conspiracy freaks wearing tinfoil hats.”

Continuum Series Two Trailer

Continuum Episode 4 "A Matter of Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum
Ep 4
A Matter of Time
By Sam Egan
Reviewed By Lara Luke

Kiera arrives home to find Greg and a friend celebrating his promotion as project leader for Sad Tech. Gathering her baby in her arms, the power goes out. A nervous mother is concerned for the looting that tends to follow. Greg reassured her that the power will be back on in ten seconds. 

2012 As Kiera prepares for her day, the power fails. Alec reassures her that a car hit a telephone pole. Simultaneously Carlos calls with a case he’d like her input on as it reminds him of Liber8’s style.  A professor from the university perished in what appeared to be an accident in his lab. There was a single entry wound penetrating his body, and in fact through several floors, down into the basement. While Kiera is able to ascertain some details through her implant, without her suit, frustration sets in because she can’t obtain all the Intel she wants.  Alec offers to help with the suit, but Kiera explains it is not wired like a machine; it is regenerated like living tissue. Alec recognizes the technology from a theory of his father’s. 

Kiera and Carlos question Professor Ames’ graduate student. From him they learn that Ames was working on a project called Calisto which involves a way to contain and harness unlimited clean energy. The team suspect Ames had been murdered using Calisto. The student, Shane Mathers, claims all the files he previously backed up were deleted. 

Continuum Episode 3 "Wasting Time" Review By @Rivergate31

Continuum  

Episode 3 

Wasting Time 

By Simon Barry

Reviewed By Lara Luke

 

2077 Kiera and the protectors raid an apartment complex looking for terrorists. We hear Kiera say “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. “ She tries to scan the unit from the outside with her implant, but is unsuccessful because the room is shielded. Blasting into the room, they see a man passed out on a mattress and arrest Sonya Valentine: a former military doctor and a part of the bioenhancement program run by the military.

2012

As Kiera briefs the Vancouver Police Department on the members of Liber8, the group is facing a crisis. Leader, Travis Verta’s (Roger Cross) health is failing fast and tension mounts between the remaining members. Sonya has killed two men using an instrument that has bored into the back of the head.

Continuum "Fast Times" Reviewed By @Riversgate31

Continuum

Fast Times 

by Jeff King

Episode 2

Reviewed By Lara Luke

2077 As a new recruit, Kiera Cameron is given a quick orientation of the headquarters. It is here she gets her chip implanted and activated and her CMR (Cellular Memory Recall) wired into her cortex. Informed that she is now a passive recorder and her CMR can hold 36 hours of video for use in court. She is next given her service weapon and a multi tool and is told, “Don’t trust your gut. Trust the tech.”

 2012 Eight members of Liber8 were sent back in time, however Kagame didn’t make it. Stefan Jawarski (Mike Dopud) was killed in episode 1. Although five of the six remaining members want to return to 2077, Matthew Kellog (Stephen Lobo) has other ideas.  He desires to remain in the present, taking advantage of a life still free of the Corporate Congress and to use his knowledge for financial benefit. Lucas Ingram (Omari Newton) is a scientist formerly in the employ of SadTech. He has been working on a way home using the time travel device still in their possession. He theorizes the local power substation can supply what is needed to accomplish this. As the group heads out, Kellogg asks them to pass his regards on to their brothers at home.

Continuum Episode 1 "A Stitch In Time" Review By @Rivergate31

There is a new show sweeping the science fiction world. Canadian born Continuum is a time travel drama created by Simon Barry and filmed in Vancouver, B.C.  Debuting in May 2012 on Showcase, Continuum has since caught fire spreading across the globe gathering a strong and dedicated fan following.

Simon Barry’s new hit is set in the years 2077 and 2012. A law enforcement officer, Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) finds herself sent back in time with a group of terrorists called Libera8, to the year 2012, leaving behind a husband and young son. Although desperate to find her way home, she joins forces with the Vancouver Police Department to stop Liber8 as they wreak havoc in the city.

Episode 1

A Stitch in Time by Simon Barry

Reviewed By Lara Luke

 

Padding barefoot across his carpeted office, Edouard Kagame (Tony Amendola) sits at his desks and proceeds to watch a recorded message of himself under the banner, Liber8.  The year is 2077 and through his message we learn 20 years prior, corporations bailed out a failed and bankrupt government. The group, Liber8, feels society has become slaves to a Corporate Congress, who are the “undoing of human rights and dignities”. They feel they are “fighting for the survival and success of liberty”. 

Continuum Season Two Teaser

Continuum TV Series - Review of Season 1

Continuum

Season 1 Review

by Ken Parker

Mild Spoilers

I recently caught up with this Canadian series and I have to tell you that I was unimpressed to start with. Right away I felt this was too similar to the boring Alcatraz series that was canceled last year. We have convicts of the terrorist group Liber8 from the future traveling back in time to 2012. Followed by a police officer from the future, the convicts are attempting to stop the development of a government run by big businesses. Meanwhile the cop, Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) must attempt to stop the dangerous criminals and their plans to manipulate time as well as keep her presence a secret from the 2012 police force she has teamed up with. She is helped by young hacker Alec Sadler who will end up inventing much of the technology Kiera uses in the future. She has with her a suit that can do all kinds of things like stop bullets and cloak.

Trailer For Tonight's Continuum "A Test of Time"

Continuum Series 2 Filming Pics

Found these over at IO9 and the pictures are credit to YVRShoots.

Trailer For Tonight's Continuum "Matter of Time"