Pioneer One miscellania

Here is a round up of various P1 miscellania:

Josh and Bracey are interviewed on a Slice of SciFi here (I have to admit I've not had time to listen to this).

There's a Twitter based campaign to get Nathan Fillon to do a cameo on P1. This would be beyond amazing.

There's also a Twitter based competition which would let you name your own character on P1.

This is a great interview with Josh Bernhard with a pretty interesting comment about an 'episode 7'. You can digg it, if that's your thing, I believe it's got to the front page (I signed into Digg for the first time in 2 years just to Digg this).

Name a character in Pioneer One!

There's a competition on to name an upcoming character:

http://www.pioneerone.tv/2011/04/28/name-a-character-in-pioneer-one/

It doesn't cost you a penny and would be great to get Pioneer One to be a trending topic.

The epic sweep beginneth

The term 'epic' is much overused these days, but this episode gave us a hint of what the scope of the whole story arc will be, and I'm guessing it will indeed be epic. The creators have often said that the events at Calgary are only one small part of a much larger story, and we see some of these larger pieces put into place in this episode.

The episode is split into three. Plot 'A' predominantly shows events at DHS HQ, and as I said in a previous episode if you'd only seen this episode you'd be forgiven for thinking McLellan was the main character here. I enjoyed the disconnect between that HQ was thinking about Yuri - that they were beginning to believe their own lie that he was a terrorist - and Taylor's gradual realisation that Walzer is correct (or at least appears to be). I also really liked the combative Collins. We've seen a few lines of his head-to-head a while ago in a teaser and it was good to finally see the whole thing.

Something that struck me here is that McLellan and his men are not the good guys here at all, they basically spend the whole episode lying and scheming, but I found myself on their side (a bit like in Silence of the Lambs when Lector is escaping - you're on his side despite the fact he's the bad guy). Also, McLellan seemed to know that the off-stage Miller was about to be sacked. Is there a conspiracy here going all the way to the White House? We also get confirmation that some level of the Russian government knows about the cosmonauts. I thought this was a pretty big reveal as it tells us at least that this was a government backed enterprise (though I suppose everything was in Soviet Russia).

Back on the base story arc B continues to deliver. Yuri and Jane's romance (we can call it that now) continues to run its course. Why didn't Yuri know the word for lonely? Did Jane get it wrong (can anyone confirm?) or has Yuri never heard the word because he's lived in the same Martian tent with his parents all his life? Note also the way he didn't actually say 'Mars', but 'the world', I bet that's going to become important somehow. The big reveal plot-wise however, and one that almost got lost in the mix, is that Yuri can speak English.

The closing scene showed Walzer on the phone, I'm assuming this was a colleague he'd been getting in to help him with something (maybe Dr. Avery Frank?) or was it something more sinister? And moreover, what wasn't 'a good idea'?

One thing I don't get though: on suspecting a leak about Dr. Walzer's presence on the base, surely they would have immediately blamed Clive Anderton, the hired and fired source of another leak from episode 2?

The 'C' arc showed a number of different TV pieces of people opining and arguing on the events from an outside point of view. These were all skilfully done and gave an excellent perspective as the public begin to put the pieces together.

From a production point of view the little ps and qs are also getting slicker. One of the establishing shots of the DHS HQ seemed to pan round the building as if filmed from a helicopter, I've no idea how you do that on a budget of $6000. There also seem to be more extras knocking about in the background.

I'm going to round off this review by saying that there have been four episodes now: enough to get stuck into story properly, and it would be criminal for the creators not be able to make the story they want to because of lack of funds, so please donate. Not only will you be supporting a great TV show but also helping a paradigm shift in entertainment. History remembers those who shift paradigms, not those who tried to prevent them from happening.

Pioneer One is GO!

http://vodo.net/pioneerone

This is a good 'un!

Episode 4 out 12 pm EST / 5 pm GMT

Currently flogging this from a mobile which is a bit tricky. See pioneer one Facebook page for the announcement.

Tomorrow is the big day!

Don't forget folks, tomorrow is the big day for episode 4. If you've not already signed up for notifications at Vodo I'd advise you to do the same, but I'll be posting download and streaming links as soon as they become available.

I can guarantee you will enjoy this episode. I suppose one of the good things about having such a restricted budget is that there won't be any filler episodes; each one has gotta count and take things in a new direction, which this episode certainly does.

Feel free to post your comments on the blog if you feel so inclined.

Five questions

A few days ago Josh "The Co-Creator" Bernhard proposed I ask five yes or no questions which he would answer. Click through to the Spoiler Section to find out more.

Epiosde 4 Pre-release Review

I have a confession to make. The previous spoiler post was somewhat disingenuous because I have in fact seen episode 4 as a pre-screener. This somewhat gave me a confusing sensation like my parents giving me presents a week before Christmas, but never mind. What follows below is an impressionistic, unstructured spoiler-free review.

As mentioned in the interview, this episode 'Triangular Diplomacy' gives a perspective on the events of the story from the outside world. In fact if this was the first episode you saw you might be forgiven in misunderstanding who the main characters in this are. It's almost a quarter of the way in before we see our friends at Calgary and I think most of the story here takes place off-base. As a result the feel of this episode is much broader and less shut-in than previous couple.

I don't know enough about the technical side of film/tv making, but on an impressionistic level the overall quality of the show is also certainly improving. I don't just mean audio and video quality but things like the framing and the angles seem more developed. As usual the music is spot on. I'm starting to get a feel for the structure of the episodes now; they all have an opening formula.

The final scene also sets up a whole new intriguing plot thread, which of course I shan't tell you here.

Here are some random tidbits:

- There's more unsubtitled Russian.

- Watch for two Lionshare references.

- Watch the clocks.

UPDATE: As per the comments, I realise I didn't actually come right out and say that I really enjoyed this episode. I did really enjoy it. I thought it is an excellent addition to the corpus, which shows a fascinating new angle on the story.

Known Knowns and Known Unknowns

Click here for a spoiler round up for episode 4.

Deimos maybe easier to reach than Mars

There's an interesting article about how it may be easier to reach Deimos - one of the moons of Mars - than Mars itself. You can read it at io9.

I have slightly mixed feelings about Lockheed Martin's involvement in the 'race' to Mars, but that's another story.

Episode 4 release date confirmed

I have received information that the likeliest date for the episode 4 release date is April 28th or 29th. This is provisional however.

There will be some new posts in the very near future.

EDIT: It has been confirmed that it will be the 28th!