Dark Matter: Episode Seven

July 24, 2015 2:02 PM - Season 1, Episode 7

The crew finally gain access to the secret room in the ship's underbelly and among the items they find inside are a sunny android and a desperately ill woman who reveals a connection to Three.

Orange is the New Black actor Ruby Rose will be guest-starring in this one.

posted by rednikki (8 comments total)

I like this show, I really do, but the most memorable plotline of this episode is how terrible one is in every way. If the show didn't keep going out of its way to reward him, I'd swear he was some sort of parody.
posted by humans are superior! at 2:00 AM on July 25, 2015

Just finished watching this and although it was full of by-the-book tropes, it was a lot of fun to see the "jealousy" between the androids.

I'm glad 1 and 2 finally discovered addition - or some other algorithm.
posted by arzakh at 4:46 AM on July 26, 2015

So I guess this happens in a universe that includes Earth.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 4:09 PM on July 27, 2015

I felt so-so about this episode. I liked getting to see more of 3/Marcus's story, but thawing someone out just to fridge them was not very clever writing.

I thought there was some good humor with Wendy.

I can't understand why the writers are so interested in getting 2 together with Space Ross. I'm not interested at all in that pairing, and there seems to be nothing at all about Space Ross that 2 would find attractive. Unless there's something about their forgotten past that would make it make sense, but I sure would like to see some evidence of something between those characters.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:25 AM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

New to the party but caught up. I've enjoyed the show immensely until this episode. It was just . . . off. The sexbot and the frozen love interest felt too much and too forced. The beginning where Two was dressing, a) they were basically retreading what had been said just an episode or two ago but made it sound new b) there was a weird over dub from Two- and actually it sounded like possibly another person's voice. Mean while, at the end, Sarah's death was weird. The idea that her disease took her and not the malfunction of the stasis pod just seemed rushed and without impact. I wonder if it were a last minute change?

Which brings me to the next point. This is episode 7. I wonder if they shot six episodes and got an order for the other six, but only with sexier robots. I'm hoping this is just one sloppy episode in a collection of great episodes?
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:55 PM on July 29, 2015

I've just caught up with the show... Enjoying it as "light entertainment". It's not Babylon 5 but it's a nice diversion.

I was surprised how lax the crew were about security... Turning on an android of unknown origin is about as smart as finding a box with a big red button saying "PUSH ME" and immediately pushing it. They should have at least had Blonde Android run some kind of scan on her before they activated her.

Thanks petticoat for "Space Ross," you've summed up absolutely everything about #1 in two words. (I actually like Ross on "Friends", but this character certainly has the same flaws.)

I was dubious about the Android being "jealous" at first, but she had so much over-the-top fun with the different accents that I wished they had had an entire "Android goes crazy enough to put the crew in danger" episode.

Interesting note: from the backstories virtually everyone is turning out to be "Not as bad as people think," with the exception of #2.

#1: Not actually Jace Corso after all
#2: ???
#3: Ruthless mercenary with a heart of gold (Once. Otherwise he shoves children out of airlocks)
#4: Didn't really kill his dad.
#5: generically innocent runaway kid
#6: Didn't really mean to blow up that space station.

My theory, based on Space Ross's attitude of being better than everyone else, is that he's an undercover cop who used the "transfer transport" mechanism to transfer his mind into a clone of Jace Corso to get onboard the ship. Can't wait to see the episode where they find this out and argue for an hour about whether to space him...
posted by mmoncur at 12:26 AM on August 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

I loved Android getting all jealous of Wendy. LOVED it. Laughed like crazy.

I would really like to see a male sexy space android that seduces the women one of these days. Really. The trope as shown in the episode is getting tired.

I was disappointed that Three's girlfriend was not developed, and even more that she was fridged (as under_petticoat_rule pointed out, literally). I liked seeing more about Three (I suspected the actor had range, but now I know). I just wish they hadn't fridged his girlfriend to do it.

I think Space Ross was their attempt to create the Daniel/Eli for the show, but it's not working. And I was disappointed with Two for going with him. Four and Six are far more appealing.

Once again this show passed the Bechdel test, repeatedly. That's a plus.
posted by rednikki at 9:12 PM on August 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I really liked how they showed 3 actually changed over the course of the episode, but I hate that they had to fridge Sarah to do it. And yeah, that's about as literal of a fridging as you can get, to the point that it seems like it was done on purpose.

There was a lot to like about the episode, but like #5 (also written by Paul Mullie) it did not work for me. A major plot being about an android that is programmed to kill you all once you have sex with it? Ugh.

I was also disappointed that the reveal of the secret room was... nothing? I mean, sure they found some stuff but it wasn't anything big or revelatory or not dispatched with entirely already. It was just more of the "it'll take some time to explore the room" approach they've had to everything.

With Space Ross (I tried to resist the name, but what can I do) opening as the "good" character and how he is dealing with 2 I am really hoping he turns out to actually be quite a horrible person/the one who erased everyone's memories/the worst of the bunch. There's a lot that would make sense about that, but... I'm not confident.
posted by mountmccabe at 9:31 PM on November 16, 2015