Site Update - Shoot 2011

Just a quick post to say that images from my recent shoot are now on the website. Check them out!

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Outcasts - New BBC Sci-Fi/Drama

If, like me, you were blissfully unaware of this series until you accidentally caught the premier whilst pessimistically scouring the usual tripe on TV that passes for entertainment, it will no doubt have almost been a pleasant surprise to find out the BBC had commissioned a relatively gritty sci-fi drama set in the not-too-distant future.

As a long-term Twitter user (I refuse to refer to myself as a Twit, especially since Piers Morgan used it to describe his Twitter presence...) I was startled by the flood of negativity that was directed towards Outcasts from the Twitter public. Seeing as I had only caught the middle 10 minutes, and then read the various complaints about it, I decided to watch it from the beginning on iPlayer to see just how appalling it was, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was. Perhaps it was because from the various tweets I'd read I was expecting the acting to be on par with a primary school's rendition of Hamlet and the plot to be just as flimsy as cling-film, but Outcasts certainly didn't strike me as being that bad. There were a few minor flaws in it, but nothing that robbed it of it's overall enjoyability for me.

The premise for the show definitely has potential.It's the not too distant future and the surviving handful of humanity have fled Earth after what is hinted at as being World War III. They set up a new civilisation on the Earth-like planet of Carpathia, and soon enough they've established a fully functioning bureaucracy on their new world. Yippee for them. There are mentions of a curious disease (C23) that killed off quite a lot of their children, and also that there are people who do not share the ideals of their society (a feeling I know all too well!). Whilst all these subtle mentions scattered throughout the first and second episodes are evidently an attempt at constructing a history, it just didn't feel 'real' enough for me (let alone the fact it's only 30 to 50 years in the future... Space is bloody big, so how the hell did they find a nice habitable planet so quickly?!). I'm willing to accept what they're showing me as the present, but something about the past feels very hollow. But, I think Outcasts has a lot of little surprises up it's sleeve yet to come, so perhaps there's a good reason for this?

What I believe Ben Richards (writer for Outcasts, also known for penning Spooks and Party Animals) is going for with this series is that underlying aspect of human nature that will always be a part of us. Towards the end of the first episode, Mitchell Hoban (Jamie Bamber) posits the questions 'do you really think human beings can live in peace?', which I think neatly encapsulates the premise of the show. We want to believe we can live in peace, like to think everything will be all shiny and happy, but the chances of things turning out that way are incredibly slim given our penchant for discrimination, war and generally putting others down. I'm not saying everyone is intrinsically a self-motivated warmonger-er, that's far too cynical even by my standards, but I do believe that everyone has a different view of what is morally beneficial to society and themselves.

Admittedly, the end of the first episode had left me a little dubious, seeing as they killed off one of the characters, who not only seemed like they were going to be a focal character, but was the only one who had appealed to me within the first half an hour. I don't consider that a brilliant sign, as I don't see many of the characters as being particularly likeable, so it's hard for me to have any real sympathy for them when things start to go horribly wrong... It's also exceptionally slow paced, so unless you're willing to give it a chance to explain itself or are capable of tolerating bouts of boredom this probably isn't the show for you. I just like to think that it's pacing itself appropriately. Would the reimagined Battlestar Galactica have been so successful if they hadn't included several space battle sequence in the first episode? That would have been astoundingly slow in the opening mini-series were it not for the Cylons being all murdery and what not...

Quite frankly, if I didn't often think about the absurdity of society, human nature, and how it could possibly be improved (if you're interested, email me, not all of my ideas are genocidal!), Outcasts might appear to me as another one of those boring series disguised as a quite interesting one, so I can understand where some of the critical reception is coming from. Whilst it qualifies as Sci-Fi, don't expect robots, aliens, lasers, or many spaceships, as technically this belongs in the drama category, just with all the extra stuff Sci-Fi can give you. If anything, I'd say the only Sci-Fi thing about it is that it's a completely different planet, which allows the show to literally start from scratch and recreate human society, without all the trappings of our Earth-bound demographic.

It is a series I will definitely continue to watch to see where it goes. I think it has a lot of potential that a lot of viewers didn't realise in the first episode, which was redeemed for those who continued to watch the second one. There are a lot of things brought up that could really make an intriguing series, but unfortunately by not making this obvious from the get-go I fear it may have lost a large portion of it's viewing figures (who would much rather watch Big Fat Gypsy Weddings instead, apparently...).

The third episode airs tonight at 9 on BBC1, so if like me you'll be watching the telly instead of spending time with a loved one, I would recommend giving it a go. The trailer for Outcasts can be seen immediately below.