Nightflyers
By GeorGe, it’s a scary space thriller
SEASON 1 US BROADCAST Syfy, TBC UK BROADCAST Netflix, 2019 COUNTRY Of ORigiN US
You might feel like you’ve missed something when you watch the tense opening scene of sci-fi horror Nightflyers. gretchen mol’s Agatha is chased around an abandoned, beaten-up spaceship (the Nightflyer) by a crazed crewmate, before we’re treated to a moment every bit as shocking as you’d expect from a show inspired by a george RR martin novella. luckily, we’re assured it will all make sense – eventually.
“We show that scene right at the beginning,” says executive producer gene klein. “then the show [goes back and] catches up to that point in episode nine.”
“the first season follows the arc of the novella, but we set up the end of the show so that it can go further,” adds fellow eP David Bartis. “But we really follow the template that [martin] laid out in the book. the book’s only 100 pages – it’s not Game Of Thrones – but there’s multiple books [in the thousand Worlds universe], so it’s basically a launching point.”
martin’s novella, about a group of scientists on a first contact mission, may be brief, but creator/showrunner Jeff Buhler says it hints at plenty that’s not explicitly on the page. “We went in and took the characters, that world and the structure of the story, and filled in all the places in between. it also gave us an opportunity to explore technology on the ship that opens up worlds that don’t exist in the story itself – we have this memory sphere that allows you to access your memories at any time. But everything that occurs in the novella happens in season one. We cover it pretty much from beginning to end.” RE