Dark Matter: Season 3 (4/5)
So, when I reviewed the two prior seasons, I effectively had these previous ideas - season 1 has great character development, but sparse worldbuilding. Season 2 signfiicantly improved the worldbuilding, but didn't do as well on character development. Season 3 is somewhere in-between. That said, if I had to rank the show's seasons, I'd go 1>3>2.
So, I'm going to deal with the major issue that this season has, and that it does far more 'telling' rather than 'showing.' For instance, at the end of the last season, the team failed to stop the space station bomb going off, which resulted in the corporate war that season 2 had been building up to. We keep hearing about this war, but basically never see any of it. I mean, I'm not talking about a lack of space battles, but, I dunno, see refugees on space stations or whatnot. Like, Babylon 5 for instance didn't show us that much of the centauri and narn fighting against each other, but it made it clear that the titular space station was being affected by it, such as refugees coming in, or being caught in the crossfire. Here? Not so much. It's further compounded by the war between Pyr and Zairon also not being shown, but there, that's done slightly better, in that it's made clear that Zairon is steadily losing.
There's also another issue (if you call it that) that like season 2, season 3 has some new characters come onboard the 'Raza' at the start, but neither of them stick around. Six leaves, but comes back. It's like they want to change the status quo, but not so much. And poor One isn't even mentioned in this season. From what I can tell, killing him off at the start of season 2 was kind of an editorial mandate, but, well, y'know...
That all said, what does this season do well? Pretty much everything else. Characters are still strong as ever. The plot continues to develop. Joseph Malozzi spoke of a five year plan for Dark Matter, and it's clear that a lot of the stuff here was planned as far back as season 1, with the pieces getting in position. There's also the more 'out there' stuff, granted. For instance, there's two time travel episodes (one where they go back to the early 21st century, one where Three is stuck in a time loop), and they're easily two of the funniest episodes in the series. Also, extra-dimensional invading aliens. That's...neat. Like I said, the characters are still strong, and I'm going to give particular shoutouts to Four. When the season started, I wasn't fond of him, as he was a bit of a stock 'space samurai' character. We had two seasons building up to him taking back his throne, only for this season to shoot it down and reveal that maybe he isn't such a great leader after all. Basically, Dark Matter's greatest strength has always been with its characters and their dynamics, and that remains true with this season. Now all I need to do is wait for season 4 and...wait...
Wait a minute...
What do you mean Syfy cancelled it? What do you mean they did it because they lacked merchandizing rights? What do you mean that things end on a cliffhanger because of corporate penny pushers? What do you mean that a sci-fi show that's managed to end up in my top ten will never be resolved? What do you mean that...that...
So yes, I am pissed. Yes, I knew going into this season that Dark Matter was cancelled because of assholes on Syfy, but god damn it, it really does piss me off. There's practically no hope at this point for a continuation, except as a comic or something. Frankly, I'd take that over nothing, but yeah. I'm peaved. People may lament Firefly being cancelled before its time, but me? Dark Matter kind of takes that spot now.
