3 out of 5

Created by: Philip Levens and Adrian A. Cruz

Even though most of SyFy’s bids for legitimacy during 2013/14 have been iffy, the effort is to be appreciated, especially when it produces interesting – if ultimately uneven – projects like ‘Ascension.’  The hammy dialogue and frequent Tricia Helfer butt-shots still somewhat peg the station as flirting with B material, but sticking it out through these 6 episodes (condensed down to 3 ‘specials’ when aired) is worth the viewing time, some ideas and dialogue poking out to indicate the station is actually attempting to pursue its genre namesake.  ‘Ascension’ proposes that in 1963, a secret government project (bearing the show’s title) was commissioned, launching 350 volunteers into space aboard a ship capable, with the crew’s assistance, of sustaining life aboard for 100 years, the endgame to land on and colonize a planet near Proxima Centauri.  Joining the ship some 50 years later, we have a generation of adults and children born in space, unaware of any of the major events that’ve taken place on the planet since.  Life has certainly progressed aboard Ascension, but there’s that dose of Pleasantville niceness and soft lighting, nicely juxtaposed when we join Harris Enzmann (Gil Bellows) on modern day Earth, dismissing the questions of a conspiracy theorist who believes Harris’ father was involved with a certain secret mission…  Harris denies it; we know Ascension exists.  The first part of the series definitely milks this for a couple of truly key surprises, and it’s true that the show can’t really match those twists for the rest of its runtime.  Thankfully, though, it doesn’t try to, and it’s better that it drops those early, as it lets us focus on the development of humanity in this closed environment.  Ultimately, the show has to drag its feet at certain points to withhold some information and to exposition us through certain ship rituals.  The dialogue is particularly stilted and the actors don’t do much to try to liven it, but at least everyone speaks in the same flat manner so the show maintains a consistent vibe.  The eventual direction in which things develop is surprisingly organic (given the setup), but this has the minus of robbing the show of a build up; it progresses, its logical enough, and the conclusion happens.  Should this go to series, it would be best served by keeping the padding down, as the commodity of this mini was absolutely to its benefit, keeping things from wandering too far.