Hermione Norris & Ashley Walters are Outcasts
It’s almost four years since the BBC first commissioned Outcasts, a high-concept, space-set ”survival of the species” series but after many twists and turns, the drama is about to get a prime-time BBC One screening.
Created by Kudos (Spooks, Hustle) and produced with BBC America backing, Outcasts will appeal to the sci-fi audience that flocked to the revamped Battlestar Galactica. But – this being a BBC One show – the focus is on the inter-personal relationships and the director issued a ban on any guns firing red lasers.
Like all sci-fi shows, Outcasts opens with a shot of a giant ship gliding through space but from then on, the action is largely earth-bound. The earth in this case being Carpathia, a desolate planet where a bunch of humans have been sent to create a new frontier community, the old Earth having suffered some, as yet, unexplained apocalypse.
Hermione Norris (Ros from Spooks), is Stella, the head of security for the settler town of Forthaven, not too much of a stretch from MI5 possibly – the series was created by Spooks writer Ben Richards, who jokes that he blew up Ros to get Norris for his new venture.
Led by President Tate (Liam Cunningham), the settlers are an idealistic community but there’s been a virus which nearly destroyed the humans and there are hints of dark forces locked outside the city gates.
In a smart move, Jamie Bamber, (Lee Adama in Battlestar Gallactica) is cast as Mitchell Hoban, Head of the Expeditionaries. He certainly isn’t happy about something and his decision to go off in a sulk and incite a rebellion is the focus of the opening episode.
Why the settlers have been chosen – the series is called Outcasts so they must have had a dodgy track record back on Earth – how they survive on Carpathia and why it’s taken five years for the last transporter ship to reach the planet are questions Richards has deliberately left unanswered in the opening episode.
Viewers are expected to bond instantly with Stella, desperately awaiting news of the daughter she hasn’t seen for 15 years, idealistic security officer Fleur (Amy Manson) and Tate, who may have done something very bad in order to protect his band of humans.
The design is deliberately grungey. “I was inspired by the idea of pioneers building a settler community,” says Richards who cites Blade Runner and Galatica as his sci-fi touchstones. “We didn’t want that gleaming, white spaceship look.”
That must have helped budget costs, a chunk of which was spent on a location shoot in South Africa. The producers wanted a blasted, desolate backdrop for Carpathia’s mountains and dunes. First choice Wales “looked too much like Earth” and one possible setting in South Africa “could easily have been Keswick”. They eventually found their alien world in an outpost outside of Cape Town.
The opening episode has plenty of pace and drama, if tantalisingly little explanation. But it looks like things are really going to get going with the arrival on the planet of Ugly Betty star Eric Mabius, whose anti-hero character Julius Berger knows the secrets of the earth evacuation programme and will challenge Tate’s leadership of the community. Do tell us more, Julius.
Is the whole settler storyline an allegory for the colonisation of the US and the genocide of the native Americans…And will that go down well on BBC America?
The concept could have been too similar to BBC One’s axed series Survivors. But a brief montage of the seven episodes to follow suggest plenty of thrills, a Galactica-style storyline questioning who the real aliens on the planet are and some dark secrets about cloned human beings.
And as Spooks-watchers know, with a Kudos show, you can never be sure if a lead character viewers have invested in, will actually survive the opening episode.
Outcasts will begin in February on BBC One
Totally ludicrous! I agree, it does look as if they have all shopped at Primark. And was it only the U.K. part of the world that was destroyed? And if this situation were to ever happen, why would you want to save the most boring people who have ever lived? Mind you, with this lot, why not send them off to another planet. I agree with the late Aunty Joan; ‘what a load of shyte!’
As my late aunty Joan would say; ‘what a load of shyte.’ Judging by the cheap tacy costumes, it’s obvious that Primark still exists in the future. The whole thing is absurd. A complete waste. Who, with half a brain cell would commission this trash?
Pace and drama??? Were we watching the same show? This was SO disappointing – the script was pedestrian when it was moving at all, the acting was robotic, the effects were non-existent and the end couldn’t come too soon. But, overall, the overwhelming sense was one of unutterable BOREDOM – this is the poorest thing from the BBC in a long time. None of the suspense and sharpness of Spooks, and absolutely no characters who we give a toss about. DREADFUL STUFF!
This is a mixture of very good acting from some and very bad from others. The Story Line is great, but the script is appalling. Sorry, Battlestar Gallactica was brilliant, this is no match.
Well I did like the first episode very much, mind you — not so much the second. Surprised to read we were expected to bond with Stella Isen, I found her quest for her daughter to be a bit too over the top. Yes, she is a grief-striken woman, but we see other characters who are dealing with their own personal drama (everyone has lost a relative) in a much more sober, less drama-queen-y, look-at-me way.
now watch downloaded or caprica or SAAB or earth 2! to name a few! wheres baltar when your need him?
MMM! Battlestar avalon! oh! oh! no! even better albion firefly lol! something like that! Thank The Godds Sci_Fi