I have finished rewatching it on August 11^th and my wife and I really are bumped out that this is it, there is nothing more! And with most SCI-FI shows, Defying Gravity also needed to start-up properly, it needed a few episodes, although I love every episode of it, but especially when the crew of the Antares gets to know the true mission, the episodes definitely became even more stronger.

Characters:

This show did had a very large cast, so therefore I will try to be brief as possible but still give enough information to make it interesting.

Maddux Donner (Ron Livingston) to me is the most interesting character, 10 years ago he and Ted Shaw left behind two crew members on Mars. They thought they still had time to save them, but mission commander at the time, Mike Goss, ordered them to leave them behind. On top of that, one of whom he had to leave behind, was his girlfriend Sharon. He is carrying this with him for 10 years, the guilt of it, convinced that he could have saved her and the other astronaut.

Zoe Barnes (Laura Harris) was an astronaut in training. She and Donner had a thing during the training period of the Antares mission. Even though he got a vasectomy, he got her pregnant! She had to chose between keeping the child or flunk out as an astronaut. Zoe is not only beautiful, but she also has a gentle soul, and often I perceived her as being sad, conflicted.

Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba) was also on the Mars mission 10 years ago, like Donner, he is also carrying this guilt with him. Ted Shaw ultimately becomes the mission commander of the Antares Mission.

Mike Goss (Andrew Airlie) is the mission control flight director, based at mission control. He was the one who ordered Donner and Shaw to leave the astronauts behind because they were too far off the ship while a huge Mars storm was threatening their lift off back to Mars orbit. Donner and Shaw both hate Goss and the feeling is mutual.

Evram Mintz (Eyal Podell) is the ship's doctor and psychiatrist. He has a relationship with Claire Dereux (Maxim Roy), who also was training for the Antares mission. She has a position on the earth mission ground floor. Mintz is from Israel where he served in the Israel Defense Forces. He too is carrying guilt from that war, not being able to save a young girl. He severely burned his back during that incident. Claire Dereux is the flight surgeon on earth, working at mission control.

Jen Crane (Christina Cox) is a biologist, she's married to Rollie Crane and had a past relationship with Ted Shaw. She is the only one who does not see Beta, to her it is invisible which makes her doubt her reason for being on the Antares. She’s Zoe’s best friend.

Nadia Schilling (Florentine Lahme) is a pilot. She also has casual sex with Donner, she doesn’t really like his and Zoe’s relationship, she feels threatened by it although she doesn’t let this on to him or her.

Paula Morales (Paula Garcés) is the payload specialist, she is also responsible for the communication regarding the day to day operations to the people on earth. Her guilt is buried deeply and only becomes clear in the series finale.

Steven Wassenfelder (Dylan Taylor) is a theoretical physicist, he also loves his porn! There is no logical reason why he is chosen for this mission because during training he usually ending up being last or close to last. The only logical explanation is that the alien object Beta wanted him there. He has a odd but close relationship with Paula, not romantically.

Ajay Sharma (Zahf Paroo) was the original flight engineer but after a heart problem caused by Beta he was reinstated to mission control. Goss at first didn’t wanted him back on the floor because he was supposed to be unstable, but the crew on the Antares as well as on mission control, demanded for his return.

Eve Weller-Shaw (Karen LeBlanc) works alongside Goss. She works for the Bertram Corporation and was in charge of crew selection. Eve is married to Ted Shaw. She is the one who ‘found’ the alien object Beta in Nazca, Peru. Actually the object lured her by musical tones she kept hearing. This object found in Peru is named Beta, there is also an object named Alpha, it was on Mars and the Donner and Shaw’s mission to Mars 10 years ago, was actually a mission to retrieve Alpha, but the crew didn’t know that at the time.

Rollie Crane (Ty Olsson) is the former Antares commander and currently works at mission control. Like Ajay, he too had to be replaced because of a heart problem caused by Beta. It is believed that Beta wanted Donner and Shaw instead of Ajay and Rollie. Rollie is married to Jen Crane. After having too much to drink, Rollie critically injures a women on a bike, she is in a coma. Goss gets him released but he cannot live with the guilt.

Arnel Poe (William C. Vaughan) works at mission control. He lost his leg during his training for qualification for the Antares mission. He becomes more and more frustrated about the situation, because of what happened to him but also the secrets and the lies he has to deal with. What isn’t told in the first season is that Zoe, who at first flunks out, gets another chance because of Arnel’s accident. This was told by the creator himself afterwards, see link below.

Trevor Williams (Peter Howitt) is a journalist from the United Kingdom. He suspects that ISO isn't telling the truth about the Antares mission and tries to find out. Arnel seems to be his way in.

The Premise:

The fake story is that 8 astronauts visit 5 planets in 6 years, doing all kinds of scientific research. But in reality this mission is nothing more than collecting all alien objects from these planets and dwarf planet Pluto (episode 9, Eve At the Apple): mission control flight director Mike Goss reveals that, besides Alpha on Mars, 5 other focused signals have communicated with Beta over the years. The Gamma object is on Venus, Delta on Mercury, Epsilon on Europa, Zeta in the rings of Saturn and Eta on the surface of Pluto. Mike then reveals that collecting the objects is the primary goal of the Antares mission. Goss didn’t want Shaw and Donner on this mission, so Rollie Crane and Ajay were chosen but Beta had other plans, and gave them an illness so that they had to be replaced. Beta gives most of our crew members hallucinations, including Eve, who is at mission control. Donner keeps seeing Sharon from the Mars Mission, Zoe continuously hears a baby crying. Paula sees her dog dying on the street but resurrect somehow, Shaw also has Mars hallucinations, Nadia keeps seeing a man who looks like her, could be her twin brother (possible answer, check the link) and Evram Mintz keeps seeing the girl he could not save. These hallucinations are about guilt of what has happened in the past, it continuously lets the crew get back to that moment. Only Wassenfelder and Jen don’t have hallucinations up to the Venus mission. The reason Jen did not get any hallucinations, is also Beta’s doing but we did not learn that in the show itself, it was told by the creator of Defying Gravity, please see link below to find out what it meant.

Set-up of the show:

Obviously this is very heavily story-arced show, it is one big story but what is extra special about this show is that we as a viewer continually see flashbacks of their time as a trainee, which I also found very interesting. So, each episode you jump from the Antares mission to the past when they were training for this mission. The creator James Parriott already had 3 seasons mostly worked out and the plan was that it would last 5 seasons. Here you can read what he was planning for the rest of the series. I really would have like to have seen this, such a shame.

The Episodes:

I deliberately did not go into the details of the episodes, it is something I am going to try more in my future blogs. Because this is one big story, in my opinion, there is no weak episode, if I had to chose a favorite episode, I think it would be episode 9, “Eve At the Apple”, where Eve finds Beta and where the crew learns what the real mission is. And what turned out to be the series finale “Kiss”, where Zoe is on the surface of Venus, too far away to get the Gamma object but again she hears a baby crying and she decides to get to it, even though it is too far. We also learn that Beta was involved in ‘undoing’ Donner’s vasectomy.

My favorite character:

My favorite character is not the captain, the mission commander Shaw but Maddux Donner, the chief engineer. Obviously, at least to me, is that he is the main character. His story with him losing Sharon, his girlfriend is something that is the common thread of the series, at least to me. This is what attracted me the most, constantly being reminded what he left there, being blamed by many, the Beta object constantly bringing him back to that moment, was just very powerful to me. What I also really did like that throughout the series, Donner narrated the story, which I also found really powerful, I felt, it gave the show credibility.

Final Word:

The blog has already become too long but for some reason I have a lot of passion for this TV show that is only watched by a small audience. Every time I rewatch these 13 episodes I get so sad that this is it, there will never be anything more. If only there had been a decent promotion for the show, or if the Syfy channel did purchase the show, then perhaps there would have been more than just these 13 episodes, but we will never know. So every few years I will rewatch this, because I think it is good television! Finally, if you are really interested in this show, please check out the link in this blog, it is a very interesting read.

with some help from Wiki & Fandom Wiki.