Syfy's new series Dark Matter takes a peek into the terror that comes with waking up on a spaceship not knowing who you are or where you came from.
Dark Matter started out as a comic book series published by Dark Horse, written by Joe Mallozzi (who also serves as executive producer of the series), telling the story of six people who wake up on a spacecraft with no idea of who they are.
In an interview with Mallozzi and series stars Melissa O'Neill, Marc Bendavid and Anthony Lemke, we discussed what it's like enacting that world, as well as the direction the series plans on taking throughout its first season.
How much does the original comic book story play into the series?
MALLOZZI: You can expect to see all of it. Actually, the comic book was based on the pilot that we have envisioned. So, if you read the first two issues of the comic book, it's almost word for word, the first episode of the series. The issues three and four of the comic book are very close to episode two. In terms of spoilers, you guys are going to get a sneak peek at episodes one and two by reading the first two issues of the comic book. But then, after that, all bets are off.
How would you describe the series for those unfamiliar with the comic books?
O'NEILL: Although it has no singing in it, It has a quality that I want to call it a space opera. There is just so many wonderful things happening and the storylines are fantastic. And the fact that we're an ensemble, you get to see a little snippet of everybody's past and where they might go. And I think that's really exciting.
MALLOZZI: I would describe it as a sci-fi series with a cable sensibility. I've always been a big fan of cable shows with twists and turns and surprises that always leave you at the end of the episode going, "I can't wait until next week" and you get to the boards, you discuss them or you go to work and it's the first thing you talk about in the morning. That's the show I wanted to create.
It's something that has a lot of setups, but a lot of payoffs along the way: the mystery at its heart. It has a sense of humor — it's fun, ship-based sci-fi which, I think, fans have been dying for. But at the end of the day, it's really about the characters and this great group made up of this crew. I've often said viewers tune in for the hook, but they stay for the characters. And we've got an incredibly colorful bunch of characters in this show.
With this being a ship-based drama, how much of a part does the ship play into the series' tone and setting?
MALLOZZI: I think the ship is a reflection of the characters. When designers designed the ship, we wanted something kind of badass, kind of smaller. I describe it as almost like a little gold box just retrofitted with weaponry. She has a lot of experience, a lot of battle scarring, but it's the type of ship that you kind of look at and underestimate, but in battle, she's more maneuverable, a lot more savvy. The hero ship doesn't get the upper hand on ships because of its size. And I think that the ship is a reflection of all our characters who you don't know very much about them on the surface, but as you dig deeper, you know, there is a richness there, an aspect that will surprise.
LEMKE: Often, you see ship-based shows and they're being driven kind of like how we drive our own cars today. And it's not always the case. But our interaction with the ship can be very manual in that way. But it also goes through the android character. So in a way, the android was a real sort of interface with the ship for us.
BENDAVID: I think Anthony brings up an interesting point that the android is a reflection of the ship in a way. I think it's not an accident that he will be one among us who knows how to fly the ship and it feels like the ship is, in a sense, kind of mother to the crew. There are a lot of mysteries about the ship that we don't know yet, that we don't understand, and we can't quite compute how they influence and inform our personalities. But in a strange kind of way, the ship takes care of us.
How did you, the actors, feel about going into the show without knowing who your characters were?
BENDAVID: It might seem sort of contrary to what you often hear actors saying about preparing their role. I found it really liberating and unusual because there's very little to go on. There's very little to prepare other than a kind of openness and to what I would react like myself to these people in these situations. So, there is no history.
LEMKE: One of the things you learn very early on in your acting career or when you're studying acting is that preparation is key. You should definitely answer all the questions about your character. You should have done all of that homework. And then, when you show up on the first day of shooting, you should forget it all and just play the role and play the reality of the moment because that's going to be there. In a way, the forget it all part is where we started. And that is incredibly liberating, and we were discovering things about ourselves as characters.
O'NEILL: I actually loved it. Being a first-time performer on television, I didn't really know what to expect, and I thought that it was such a lovely thing to encounter that we were going through what our characters were going through. We were just piecing it together as it came to us.
Dark Matter premieres on Syfy June 12.
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