Options

Ascension (UK)

135

Comments

  • Options
    coopermanyorkscoopermanyorks Posts: 21,215
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    PhilH36 wrote: »
    I don't know what version you were watching but it was shown over 85 minutes on Sky!

    Agreed,I recorded Episode 1 on my Sky HD box and it says 1 hour 29 mins with any padding before and after ( my box is set to automatic add to start and ending of a recording) and Episode 2 is recorded @ 104 mins
  • Options
    nightporternightporter Posts: 981
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    As last nights was starting the credits said Episode 103 by .........., and Ep 104 by ....... I think they edited 2 together.
  • Options
    coopermanyorkscoopermanyorks Posts: 21,215
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Seems like we got 1 and 2 as 1 episode and then 3 and 4 as episode 2 etc
    On October 13, 2014, the network announced that instead of airing as a weekly series for six weeks, Ascension would air as a three-night "event"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_%28TV_series%29
  • Options
    MandarkMandark Posts: 48,005
    Forum Member
    Seems like we got 1 and 2 as 1 episode and then 3 and 4 as episode 2 etc



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_%28TV_series%29
    Probably didn't think it was strong enough to go 6 weeks. Implies that there will be no follow up.
  • Options
    TardisSteveTardisSteve Posts: 8,077
    Forum Member
    second episode was ok, have feeling that the guy that got thrown out at the end of the first episode and then locked will be "escaping" soon, and will try to carry out his threat
  • Options
    LondonKiwiLondonKiwi Posts: 2,115
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Watching Ascension reminds me partly of a story by the author Frederik Pohl called Starburst.

    If you are interested here is a link to a brief synopsis of the book: https://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/starburst.html
  • Options
    Chester666666Chester666666 Posts: 9,020
    Forum Member
    I figure they were edited togethor so people cipdnt see them via the net sooner
  • Options
    MandarkMandark Posts: 48,005
    Forum Member
    LondonKiwi wrote: »
    Watching Ascension reminds me partly of a story by the author Frederik Pohl called Starburst.

    If you are interested here is a link to a brief synopsis of the book: https://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/starburst.html
    Yes it looks like they borrowed a lot from that story. Sometimes they want to film a book but can't get the rights (or they're too expensive) so they write a similar plot.
  • Options
    PhilH36PhilH36 Posts: 26,373
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Thought.....if each of the three parts is really two episodes edited together, given that part one (ie episodes one and two) only had an eighty five minute slot on Sky and clocked in at around sixty four minutes once ads were removed, how long were episodes one and two in their original format? I can tell from the listings that eps three, four, five and six would have been the usual hour (with ads included).
  • Options
    koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    PhilH36 wrote: »
    Thought.....if each of the three parts is really two episodes edited together, given that part one (ie episodes one and two) only had an eighty five minute slot on Sky and clocked in at around sixty four minutes once ads were removed, how long were episodes one and two in their original format? I can tell from the listings that eps three, four, five and six would have been the usual hour (with ads included).

    The episodes get longer with each episode (double).

    Ep 1 was 1h 6mins

    Ep2 1h 20mins

    Ep3 1h 26mins
  • Options
    DiamondfishDiamondfish Posts: 36
    Forum Member
    LondonKiwi wrote: »
    Watching Ascension reminds me partly of a story by the author Frederik Pohl called Starburst.

    If you are interested here is a link to a brief synopsis of the book: https://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/starburst.html

    Yes it definitely reminded me of that story, but I read it many years ago and couldn't remember the title or the author. So thanks.

    The 63/70 conspiracy theory also seems to be inspired by the hoax documentary Alternative 3, broadcast in the 1970s, in which the mysterious deaths or disappearances of a number of eminent scientists were related to a secret project to colonize Mars.
  • Options
    brangdonbrangdon Posts: 14,113
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    TrebleKing wrote: »
    The cost would've been way too prohibitive for the United States, especially with them fighting proxy wars all over the world and spending billions on their own war in Vietnam not to mention the Apollo missions, and there's no way the USSR could afford it.
    I gather there's a way to make a lot of nuclear bombs very cheaply. Orion originally was a military project, who would have been OK doing that. However, they couldn't justify it militarily as its not a weapon. Then NASA was set up, and they could justify it, but being a scientific organisation they'd want to publish all their methods and data, and nobody wanted them publishing the cheap nukes thing. So Orion fell through the cracks. We had the technology but politically no-one could use it.
    Mandark wrote: »
    The one bad thing has to be this investigator woman. She's there to report on a top secret project - she's part of the loop. So why is she working with outsiders to investigate it like she's some sort of investigative journalist?
    Because she'd not part of the loop. She should be, but that chap running it is hiding information both from her, and his boss. I don't think the boss lady knows about the psychic kid, for example.


    It would be a bit like someone being asked to report independently on the Manhattan Project for Congress and then working with journalists who are wondering why so many top physicists have moved to Los Alamos. Doesn't make sense.[/QUOTE]
  • Options
    PhilH36PhilH36 Posts: 26,373
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    The episodes get longer with each episode (double).

    Ep 1 was 1h 6mins

    Ep2 1h 20mins

    Ep3 1h 26mins

    Thanks, but that wasn't what I was asking I was asking how long the two halves of part 1 would have been individually if they had been shown as originally intended, ie as two separate episodes.
  • Options
    CorwinCorwin Posts: 16,623
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    PhilH36 wrote: »
    Thanks, but that wasn't what I was asking I was asking how long the two halves of part 1 would have been individually if they had been shown as originally intended, ie as two separate episodes.

    Unless someone on here was involved in the production you won't get an actual answer to that.


    I would guess that some scenes were left on the cutting room floor when the episodes were merged (maybe too repetitive to show in one episode but ok if they had been in seperate ones) as I seriously doubt they would get away with airing 33 min episodes in an hour slot.


    It's been a few weeks since I saw the mini series is there any obvious point in the merged episode where the original episode 1 would have ended?
  • Options
    MandarkMandark Posts: 48,005
    Forum Member
    You'd have thought they'd have had better security on that escaped Stokes guy. Our office has better security!!
  • Options
    MandarkMandark Posts: 48,005
    Forum Member
    Well that was a bit unexpected. Left more open than a barn door!!
  • Options
    raymartin01raymartin01 Posts: 1,898
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Perhaps I'm just thick, but I didn't understand the ending!

    Can anyone explain? (Please hide spoilers!)
  • Options
    koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    Perhaps I'm just thick, but I didn't understand the ending!

    Can anyone explain? (Please hide spoilers!)

    It's all very simple. They didn't have any faith in the show so they ended it early.
  • Options
    MandarkMandark Posts: 48,005
    Forum Member
    Perhaps I'm just thick, but I didn't understand the ending!

    Can anyone explain? (Please hide spoilers!)
    The show seemed to imply if you keep a bunch of smart people and genetically gifted people in a confined space then over three? generations of breeding, you'll create kids with super powers who can use force lightning and teleport people to exosolar habitable planets. And that seemed to be about it!! :confused::D
  • Options
    RebelScumRebelScum Posts: 16,008
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Perhaps I'm just thick, but I didn't understand the ending!

    Can anyone explain? (Please hide spoilers!)
    Well basically the purpose of the project was to kick-jump humanity to the next level, to ascend, by way of long term social engineering, controlled environments, drugs, etc.
  • Options
    MrGiles2MrGiles2 Posts: 1,997
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I watched the first episode which was ok, then last night i started to watch two and three but gave up half way through because I found it boring. None of the characters are likeable, lacking charisma and style. Shame really because the idea seemed sound. Another example of USA Twaddle, although I did love Fringe which I watched on Netflix.
  • Options
    CorwinCorwin Posts: 16,623
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    It's all very simple. They didn't have any faith in the show so they ended it early.

    How did it end early?

    It was a Miniseries that may or may not get a continuation as a full series.

    Just the same as Battlestar Galactica whose initial miniseries ended on just as big a cliffhanger (probably bigger) as this did.

    In BSGs case the Miniseries was well enough received to get commissioned as a full series we don't yet know if that will be the case with Ascension.
  • Options
    koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    Corwin wrote: »
    How did it end early?

    It was a Miniseries that may or may not get a continuation as a full series.

    Just the same as Battlestar Galactica whose initial miniseries ended on just as big a cliffhanger (probably bigger) as this did.

    In BSGs case the Miniseries was well enough received to get commissioned as a full series we don't yet know if that will be the case with Ascension.

    It was only a mini series because they ended it early.

    It was going to be a full series but you can tell from the way they cut it short and showed it in 3 parts that they ended it early.
  • Options
    Matt35Matt35 Posts: 30,335
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I read somewhere that the ending was tied up nicely just in case it doesn't get another season. Was there another ending because that's the complete opposite of that.
  • Options
    RebelScumRebelScum Posts: 16,008
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Well, it ended because as far as we know they aren't making anymore, but that doesn't mean it was the end of the story. Storywise, it was just the beginning.

    There's the exploration of Christa's abilities, the social and political relationships in and out of the ship following what happened. The guy on the run. Christa is also referred to at one pont as the Star Child, so they could even introduce a religious element. Not saying it would have been good, or bad, but there's certainly plenty mileage there for a full series.
Sign In or Register to comment.