Another sci-fi series. Another bleak dystopian view of the future.
The thing is that Defiance looks immensely promising, both because of its imaginative premise, but also because of the ability it will have, if properly exercised, to look at major social issues such as immigration, social cohesion and scarcity of resources.
Defiance is set on a ravaged future Earth, after a devastating war waged by 7 alien races (grouped in a fractious alliance called the Votan) have unsuccessfully sough to wrest control of the planet from humanity to use as their new home following the destruction of their own solar system.
During the war they dropped terraforming agents on the planet which have left it a dry, scorched wasteland, and its cities mere shadows of their former selves. After the war was fought to a bitter stalemate, aliens and humanity were forced to find a way to share a planet that is nothing like it once was.
But what hasn’t changed is a lust for power and resources, one true constant among all the true races, and there series examines what happens in one refugee camp called Defiance, which is built on the site of old St. Louis, Missouri. The events of the series are seen through the eyes of Jeb Nolan (Australia’s Grant Bowler) who arrives back to his hometown after fighting in the war to find it a wholly different place and one in need of some law and order.
So he takes up a position as Chief Lawmaker, seeking to keep the calm between the eight races seeking to make the frontier town home, and protecting them in turn from unscrupulous visitors seeking to use the struggling populace for their own gain.
He will be joined by Julie Benz as Amanda Bridgewater as the ambitious mayor of Defiance, Tony Curran as Datak Tarr, right hand man to Amanda, and Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa, a warrior member of an alien race called the Irathients, who serves as Nolan’s deputy.
It is being developed for television by Rockne S. O’Bannon (Alien Nation, Farscape) in conjunction with Trion Worlds who will release a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game at the same as the TV series premieres in April on 2013 on syfy.