Another Life - Netflix

If like me you watch a lot of sci-fi on Netflix UK, you will have seen the pop-ups for Another Life, a Katee Sackhoff vehicle about an alien artefact falling to Earth, and humanity’s attempt to (1) decide what to do with it, and (2) go visit who sent it. So what’s it all about, Alfie - and is it any good?


Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!
Here be SPOILERS for Another Life!

First of all, let me just say that I like Katee Sackhoff’s work and the reason I was moved to try this out in the first place is because she was headlining it. I am not a rebooted BSG fan, but that has nothing to do with who was in it and everything to do with the tired storylines and the miserable atmosphere to it. I liked her in Longmire, Riddick, and especially in Sexy Evil Genius. I think I recognised three other people in this new Netflix series - Jake Abel (who some may recall, as Adam Winchester, is still sitting in a cage in Hell at this juncture between seasons 14 and 15 of Supernatural), Tyler Hoechlin, and Samuel Anderson.

So where do we start?

Story

Promising. I mean, we get a suitably weird and wonderful craft of other-worldly origin introducing its sinewy, shape-shifting self before smacking into (thankfully) somewhere American and digging in. It becomes a huge crystal-like entity that looks dark and inert. A team of scientists try to figure out what it’s for and why it’s there, but as they can’t even get it to react to them, they decide to send a team of people (Americans) to go to where it came from and ask nicely.

Hmm. At this point I was wondering where all the other people in the world were and what they were doing. I didn’t expect this near-future Earth to be a utopia of co-operation and peace, but I did expect some other world powers to decide they wanted to help, or at least get there first. However this aspect was ignored and The Powers That Be pick Niko Breckenridge, mostly-happily married Katee Sackhoff, to lead the space mission that will track the path of the ship back to its source and ask the owners for answers.

The story is split between the antics of the crew members on the ship (self defence that ends in death, getting high, threesomes, weird VR sex, slingshots that don’t work, space viruses, radiation, and gory, gory death) and the science of the artefact on Earth. The weird thing is that, all these things that happen to them are a bit tired. We’ve all seen a ship take damage, lose some supplies, and have to make a stop on some dodgy moon / asteroid to restock, only to find a threat lurking and then have to hightail it back to the ship. Will someone die? Does it matter when you can just wake up another crew member? We’ve all seen people contract viruses, and everyone else try to work out how it’s transmitted and how it can be killed. We’ve all seen a crew get to the point of No Return, where everyone will die, and then someone miraculously pull a solution out of their arse. We’ve all seen AI units of varying advancement gain and lose emotions, and how that has an impact on others. It’s not how many times you see these things, it’s how they’re done. I don’t think i could ever get tired of AI units trying to figure out humanity. What I do get tired of is the actions of people repeating - but that’s for the next segment.

Characters

Did I mention Niko’s husband is the scientist in charge of trying to get the artefact to communicate? Well he is, and their thankfully not irritating young daughter stays on Earth with him while Niko launches with a crew of people who don’t entirely trust her.

Something of a mixed bunch with this one; they’ve made everyone intentionally grey so you may root for someone one moment and then think they’re a complete prick the next. When done right, this can really make you think about someone’s motivations. When done wrong, it feels like the writers swapped jobs every week and there’s no baseline for a character so you have no idea how they’ll react to anything - you never really get to know them. In this show characters fall into routines and stereotypes quite easily.

They’ve thrown in a few things like Niko sacrificing 10 people on a previous mission in order to save hundreds of others - and the sister of a deceased crew member being on this mission. Then there’s the ship’s computer interface, William, that follows her around and gradually develops feelings, not least of all for Niko after a bizarre night of characters getting high (and perhaps writers just getting bored). We have poor Sacha, the unwanted son of a high-ranking diplomat who doesn’t appear to have much backbone until he finally makes a decision; there’s a plethora of forgettable and young scientists on board; there’s Bernie the walking stereotype (all big dudes have long hair, a beard, a big heart and get themselves into trouble by meaning well), which leave Cas and Zayn. Cas at least has some kind of dark past, and came to all this space stuff late. Zayn appears to be a physician and a counsellor - saves space on the crew roster, I suppose. We have plenty of extra characters on standby if we need them, as the ship has a tonne of people in cryotubes waiting to reach this destination and then be woken up so they can be useful.

In Niko, we have someone who you would believe could captain a mission this important. She does what she needs to do, she rules with an iron fist that holds an olive branch, and she isn’t afraid to shout someone down or defend herself physically. Unfortunately, the writers have also decided that she should make specious decisions nearly every episode and then apologise to crew members for them. I don’t think there was a single episode where she wasn’t apologising for something. However, she stuck to her guns and tried her best to get on with things, sometimes without any support from any of the crew bar William, her hologramatic computer interface. The best he could do to begin with was state rules and regulations, until she started asking him for his opinion instead. I think he was the character I liked the most - while Niko was strong-willed and desperate to save Earth, it was William who had any kind of character arc. Everyone else during the talky, emotion-heavy shenanigans (and I don’t use that word in a fun way) simply went on as before - I didn’t see a lot of growth. The only time anyone showed any evidence of change was when they were about to be killed off - and then they were. But hey, it’s ok, we have more people we can wake up (and then kill).

Questions

Not as many as I thought I’d have, actually. Maybe because a part of me was still watching because there was nothing else on. Let’s face it, if the new series of Star Trek: Discovery was on then I wouldn’t have given this pilot the whole hour. One question I did have was why the writers or producers thought it would be a good thing for people to run in their underwear so often. But hey, it’s not like it would be cold on a spaceship set for human life.

I think I’ve been spoilt by shows like Farscape, ST: Disco and The Expanse - I expected more from this show, and I did not get it. It’s a shame, because it could have gone far and accomplished so much. Instead it retrod old ground without bringing anything new to it, wore out a few tropes and padded out the episodes with the usual space stories until they got to the quite frankly anti-climactic let-down of the final episode. This could have been a great 5 part series, but at 10 episodes it’s slow, bulky and too talky.

I hate to say this of anything Katee Sackhoff is in, but I think it should stop here. Free her up to go do something else - a recurring role in The Expanse would be ideal, please - but don’t force her to continue this show. She’s done her best, but you can’t bail out the Titanic with a bucket.

And that, my friends, is all there is to say about it.

Soopytwist.