Last post I talked about Nightflyers, the new science fiction-horror TV miniseries based on George R.R. Martin’s novella of the same name. As much as I said I was looking forward to its premiere episode, I didn’t watch it. That is, I didn’t watch it on its premiere night which was last Sunday. It was on in my area at 10 and I normally try going to bed before that time on Sunday nights. So I taped it on my old TV-VCR-in-one and finally watched the debut episode last night. (No, I don’t have a DVR.)

The debut episode came across well as the science fiction-horror that the novella was made to be. It would be a 100 percent slasher-in-space if violent gore was at the centre of this series in which so far it isn’t. What is at the centre is a power that kills people and is hiding on the spaceship. Like all great science fiction-horror, the setting is fitting. The series takes place on a colony ship called the Nightflyer which is dark and gigantic yet claustrophobic in it’s interior much like the Nostromo in Alien. The episode provided plenty of suspense and good pacing of the movement of events. It opened good in introducing the conflict: the ship’s biologist has gone psycho and is swinging an axe, chasing the ship’s psychiatrist. Then the story goes back to the beginning of events to unfold its way to show what started the killing spree which, of course, we won’t know the complete cause until the end of the series. So the opening scene serves as a kind of preview of coming attractions. The biologist isn’t the only one that goes psychotic on board the ship, by the way, and so the terror doesn’t end at the beginning. You can take comfort in that.

As with many of today’s science fiction and horror TV series’s episodes, Nightflyers Episode 1 ends leaving the viewer in suspense, in this case with a cliffhanger. I definitely have no problem with cliffhangers, in fact, I like them. The problem that I do have with TV series that’s episodes leave off at suspenseful points is when they are too dependent on doing so. When they’re too dependent on the suspenseful ending, they often drop off with out any kind of conclusion which this episode does.  Of course, the episode can’t have too solid of a conclusion since the series is built on a continuous story line. The problem is that it doesn’t have a satisfying conclusion on the subplot level. Because of this nothing is resolved and so there is no sense of completion. An ending like this is a big let-down to the audience because it’s making viewers want to watch the next episode and so is serving not much more as a marketing gimmick. Hopefully it won’t be that way with every episode in this series.

Most everything else about Nightflyers, so far, is done well. The characterization is okay and believable enough, the visual and sound effects are good considering that it’s a television show, and the story presents itself clearly.

Nightflyers is airs Sunday through Thursday, 10 PM/9PM Central on the SyFy Channel. If you miss an episode or the show’s scheduled time slot doesn’t work for you then record it on DVR or, if you’re a vintage rat pack like me, VCR. Or you can watch for free past episodes streamed at SyFy.com!

Have you been watching Nightflyers? If so, what do you think of it so far?

Until next time . . .