Defiance premieres tonight

Defiance premieres tonight on Syfy. I got the chance to watch the premiere with family and friends a few weeks ago, and we all agreed it has potential. Obviously, it has its work cut out for it, because it's an ambitious storyline, filled with strange alien creatures all coexisting on Earth after a fleet of alien arks crashed and burned all over the planet; their ecosystem is mixing with ours, and apparently the intervening years have included massive geological and environmental disasters as well as wars between the various races.

A war is hinted at, and a disaster that caused the arks to fall to the earth; these things will no doubt be explained further as the show commences.This is from the Defiance wiki entry: "The series takes place sixteen years later in 2046, and largely revolves around the character of Joshua Nolan. Nolan was only ten years old when the Votans arrived in 2013 and he served in the military during the war. With the war now over, he returns to his hometown of St. Louis to find that it is no longer the city he left; it is little more than a border town renamed "Defiance". Deciding that his services are needed, Nolan takes up a position as the Chief Lawkeeper in Defiance, so he can protect the town from dangerous clashes between humans and aliens, military scavengers and other dangerous visitors who occasionally enter the town."

>>Watch the first 14 minutes of the pilot<<

The series is being produced in conjunction with what is called a "massive multiplayer online game," in which the outcome of missions will have repercussions on the TV show, apparently. Like I said, it's ambitious.

Stephanie Leonidas as my favorite character so far, Irisa.

The actors include several genre favorites: Julie Benz (from Buffy, Angel and Dexter); Jamie Murray (from Dexter and Warehouse 13); Stephanie Leonidas (from Mirrormask); Tony Curran (from Underworld, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and — as Vincent Van Gogh — Doctor Who); and Academy Award winning actor Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves).

The show's creators include Rockne S. O'Bannon (who created Farscape, another ambitious series with dozens of alien races); Kevin Murphy (lyricist for Reefer Madness, also worked on Caprica); Michael Taylor (a writer for Deep Space Nine, Voyager and The Dead Zone).

I'll be following this one.