I'd like to contrast two new science fiction tv series, Terra Nova and Pioneer One.
The first is a muti-million dollar epic from Fox with Steven Speilberg as one of the producers:
It follows the fortunes of a family sent back in time from a poisoned future to the Cretaceous period, the era just before the final extiction of the dinosaurs, about 85 million years ago, to start a new life.
It is, as you would expect, a lavish spectacular, with all the latest special effects, CGI dinosaurs, etc. It's main problem is that it's somewhat safe, even predictable.
To contrast, there's Pioneer One (Below is actually the entire first episode, not a trailer):
The is a low budget, web based tv sci-fi drama. An object from space crash lands in Canada containing a young man, speaking only Russian. It turns out that he's from Mars, a survivor of a small colony sent there by the Soviets in the 1970's.
I like it. Yes, you can tell it's low budget: there are no special effects and the actors are not "names", but it is rather charming and thought has gone into character and plot, rather than gimmicks. It's funded mostly through donations and I've got a mention in the credits for the season 1 DVD for mine!
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