It's not easy learning who you are after having amnesia for so long.
On Syfy's Dark Matter, that's the challenge faced by the crew of the Raza spacecraft, who wake up one day with no idea of who their identities. In season one, the crew ended up assigning each other numbers instead of names, denoting who woke up first. However, as the season progressed, they began to learn about who they really are, and the results were a surprise.
In season two, those characters will face even more challenges as some strive to become who they once were, while others try to hang on to who they were before they remembered. In a recent press call, Dark Matter stars Melissa O'Neil, Roger Cross and Melanie Liburd discuss the second season of the science fiction series.
"We continue that journey but we find ourselves in this budding intergalactic corporate conspiracy," O'Neil, who portrays Two, said. "And so while trying to figure out who the heck we're having to deal with, something so much larger than us. And it turns out that we have a very important role to play if we can get our hands on a couple of really important pieces."
Cross, who portrays Six, spoke about the freedoms that a second season gives the characters.
"Yes, what's great is that, now that we've, you know, in a sense, established who the characters are, now actually that we can now explore outwards as well as just inwards," he said. "And so now we can go out and you can see these people in action in their elements a little bit more and not so much questioning and try to figure out who they are. I mean, of course, after they get over the betrayal and all that sort of thing — if they get over it — and it's more, I guess, we can go on more adventures this season and not have to discuss as many things."
O'Neil promised that the show will still have some of the same introspection as seen in the first season. Because now, these characters have to understand who they were before they forgot.
"While we're continuing to figure out who we are based off of the morsels of information we were able to get last season, it's also trying to decide what we think of each other as each person has integrated that new information and whether or not we feel like that person is capable of changing or if they were able to start with a blank slate or not," she said. "Yes, it continues to be a lot of introspection with a lot of adventure at the same time, too."
Liburd is one of the newest members of the cast, so her character, Nyx, has other issues to deal with.
"Nyx, I think she's been looking and I think she comes across the crew of the Raza and she — I mean, she's a strong individual that's been looking after herself and she has a kind of a secret that will come out later on," Liburd said. "But she needs the crew of the Raza for different reasons as well as finding like people that she identifies with and a new family.
"But she also has a secret that she kind of, she's almost been looking for a team of people like that to help her with other things, which will become apparent. She is a very interesting character and also quite a closed character. She is non-trusting because she hasn't really had any family or had anyone that she's been very close to for a while because she has been on her own for such a long time and in and out of prison."
For Six, though, the toughest challenge lies ahead: his true identity puts him on the opposite side of his former crewmates, leading him to betray them. How will that affect the characters' relationships in season two?
"Naturally, there'll be people who are more hurt than others and people who will be more forgiving than others, and then we just have figure out how we move forward or don't move forward," Cross said. "And maybe you can't move forward and maybe that causes a whole other thing with us. And so there's a lot to play with there because any kind of betrayal — and we know generally in life people might do things and wrong you in a certain way and though you may forgive but not forget — and so that might loom a little bit, and even with the forgiveness may come other issues."
O'Neil also commented about how relevant the series is to the modern day, specifically with its science, in spite of being a science fiction story.
"I think what's really interesting about that is, if you look at what's happening in today's science news, it's very topical like we are, it just so happens that Joe [Mallozzi, the show's creator] is writing about things that is like at the cutting edge of science right now," she said. "So yes, this is going to be enjoyable both for people that are fans of the sci-fi fiction element and also how we've kind of integrated some really topical themes in today's science news, too."
Dark Matter airs on Syfy on Fridays at 10 p.m. EDT.
