Defying Gravity - Season 01 - Episode 01 - Pilot
Synced & corrected by GhostedNet
In the northwest coast, while the astronauts make their final preparations
for their Friday launch to the orbiting 'Antares'
from there to Venus and beyond.
Today, they had their final medical examinations
and then they pose for their official portrait in mission control
The next few days for the crew will be devoted
to saying goodbye to Earth and to their friends
Which one are you?
I am not on this one.
...length and difficulty, of this historic 6-year mission...
Which one?
Pop, I am not on the mission!
OK? I didn't make this one.
I know that.
Mars...
My old man calls space travel a fool's game...
He says human beings are 60% water. They eat, sleep, defecate,
can't follow directions, and explode like piñatas
when exposed to the vacuum of space.
Lately...
I've been wondering if he's right.
Are you OK? Calliope, do you read?
Sharon, you guys need to move it. We have to get up out of this.
Calliope, this is Zeus. This storm is on the rise.
You need to get off the planet. Zeus, they're 100 m out.
Let me go out, and I can lead 'em in.
Negative. You will not leave the Lander.
Launch weather parameters are at minimum.
30 seconds. Come on, guys! 70 meters, we can hold.
Zeus, we're holding at 25. Launch weather parameters are at minimum.
Calliope, I am overriding your launch controls.
Donner?
Launch weather parameters are at minimum.
Donner, did you close that valve?
- Just give 'em two minutes, Mike. - We don't have two minutes.
You will die, the mission will fail.
I want that lander off the planet now!
Donner?
Sharon? Donner, we launch!
Launch weather parameters are at minimum. Sharon?
- Donner? - Open the damn valve, Donner!
Launch now.
- Launch now. - God, forgive me.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6...
5, 4, 3...
2, 1, 0!
Oh, my God, Paula, you still look a little dry there.
Don't you dare, Wass'!
I am sorry, Paula! I am sorry! You have 6 years to forgive me.
Remember that feeling?
Oh, yeah. Best day of my life.
Everything's in front of ya', it all looks good.
Yeah, it all looked good.
Yes, it did.
How do you do this all the time. This one is particularly disgusting.
Oh man, you're such a geek, you make me look cool.
Oh, I'm so looking forward to this honeymoon.
Good, because we couldn't afford Niagara Falls.
You are so cheap!
- Congratulations, Commander. - Thank you, sir.
If you call me "Mrs. Commander", I'm gonna give you a fat lip, sir.
Relax, Jen. Tonight I'm just the towel boy.
Hey Rollie, listen, I've scheduled one more media meeting for you tomorrow at 14:30.
How long did they meet today?
- Goss and Rollie? - Yeah.
Three hours.
You're the all-commander,
Aren't you supposed to be present for all briefings?
Well, I wasn't invited.
Huh, maybe you need to talk to your wife about that.
Don't even go there.
That's what you get for marrying the boss.
Welcome to the agency's training facility.
This is mission control.
The flight of Antares will be the most ambitious mission in history.
As astronaut candidates, you will be competing not only with yourselves,
but with many of your instructors.
Thats Shaw and Donner. They were the two on the Mars mission.
I don't think there's anyone in this program
who doesn't want to be on that crew.
Your training will involve everything from
flight systems to launch survival.
Make no mistake, we are gonna challenge you--
--physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
In the end, less than one third of you are gonna make it to the final year.
You know him?
Who?
Donner. 'Cause he sure looks like he knows you.
Despite what it...
- ...says on your brief sheet... - No, he doesn't.
This will not be a soft day of orientation.
- Well, he's smiling at you, smile back. - Jen...
- Come on, don't be such a tight ass. - No!
Excellent. Candidate Barnes has volunteered to be
in the first centrifuge group.
Oh, no! What's this?
This is the bucket. Its an award--
--you're are first one in your class to heave.
Everybody is gonna get one... or two.
With five you wash out.
Hey, wanna meet me at Major Tom's? I'll give you some tips.
You cannot be serious.
What? I'm being nice. I am being serious and I am being nice.
Whats wrong with being serious and nice?
You have to lighten up, bro.
So light, I am floating.
- He was making a pass at you. - He's not my type.
What? The smart, good-looking, American hero type?
- He left two people on Mars. - Okay, fine.
The tragic American hero. Even better.
Oh, you're not gay, are you?
No, I'm a geologist who wants to...
travel to another planet without unnecessary complications.
Right.
- A space nun. - A what?
A space nun or she's gay.
- No, she is not gay. - First-hand knowledge?
I don't do astronauts, Rollie. You know that.
Yeah, well, you may wanna reconsider.
Oh...
What?
My place, now!
- Really? - Mhmmm.
We have six years of screwing to do in one night...
- ...and I don't wanna miss one minute. - Whoa, let's... Ah!
Woman, damn you bite hard! - Mmhmm
The door will be unlocked. I'll be in the bedroom.
- Did she mark you again? - Yeah.
Yeah, she did.
That, think that's a German thing. Deutsche Mark.
So, uh, so my mother is saying that Mercury is in retrograde...
and that we shouldn't launch... at all.
Well, listen to your mother on that, definitely.
I try not to. It's, it's hard to stop.
Yeah...
I always thought out of the two of us you'd be the one flying.
So did I.
Sorry... It's no offense.
No, none taken.
- Hey, you see any cows on Venus... - You will be the first to know.
Zoe, picture!
Have a good time.
The flight of Antares.
Six years, seven planets, and eight astronauts.
A grand tour of the solar system.
The most ambitious exploration in the history of mankind.
Today is the day! But, why a manned mission?
Why send men prone to mistakes, when probes and robots can do the job?
It's a six years mission, to seven planets. It's far too complex.
Would you call the last manned mission to Mars a success?
Three of us came back. We'd all say yes.
Despite deserting two astronauts on the planet's surface?
We knew what the risks were 10 years ago...
And these people know what the risks are now.
Do they? It seems to me that, aside from your Mission Commander, this is a very green crew.
I know there this is going. Never mind of it, Donner.
This crew was picked for its skill and compatibility.
But, clearly not its experience.
I'd say you're fishing, Trevor.
Well, then I'll be more specific.
I think we in the press were surprised
when Donner and Shaw were not selected.
Did it surprise you guys?
They're alternates.
But, why? Does it have something to do with what happened on Mars?
Man just said that it didn't. But that's not what I heard.
Well, you're hearing what you want to hear.
The truth would be nice for once.
The cockpit recorder conveniently pixelated before launch...
There's been no public record.
Why haven't the cockpit transcript...
Yeah, it's, it's pretty simple. We had a storm. We had to launch, so we did.
But, did you have to? Did you have to launch?
Or did you and Shaw panic and blow out of there to save your own skin. Its a simple question...
C'mon! Whats the matter with you?
Here!
Donner, get off. Get off.
What kind of a stubborn cowboy are you?
You jumped British television on launch day
- They jumped me, Mike. - And you jumped back!
It's not your job to handle him, Donner. It's not your job to talk about Mars.
And it's definitely not your job to question my judgment.
Your job is to back up Ajay, and make sure that that ship is running properly.
Yea, I know what my job is.
Do ya? It's not going to be your job for much longer.
because as soon as I can bring someone else up to speed
I'm having you discharged from the program.
Now, get out there and say goodbye to the crew.
Your collection's in the vid bank, all 369 hours of it...
You did it!
But you gotta crack the code first. Satan!
Vodka on launch day?
You're at least a .12.
Then ground me, Claire. Why you letting me go?
Because there's nothing to drink up there, Evram.
I'm saving your life.
Wassenfelder and I thought you rocked.
Well, I guess Goss didn't.
One more reason you got the suit, I got the sweater.
Goss knows that there's no way I can do this without you.
You, me, that ship, we're a three-way, Donner.
- Team. - Yes.
- Trio. That's... three-way is different.
We are each essential.
Okay.
You cannot blame yourself for not being chosen for this mission.
Clearly, you're path is here on Earth.
Yeah, okay. Okay. Go get 'em.
I've always been one of those people who
believes that you create your own destiny.
And through a few bad decisions, I've certainly made mine.
But, as much as I believe in self-determination,
there are those who simply do not.
It's that kind of thinking that makes me nervous.
Because being an astronaut is all about control.
From the walk to the launch pad to the final touchdown.
You don't want surprises.
10... 9... 8...
It's not about fate.
Is anyone aware that Mercury is in retrograde?
- 5... 4... - It's about planning.
- We have tower seperation. - 2...
And ignition...
And lift off.
First step on Antares voyage to the planets.
In space there is simply no room for error.
How many of them do you think would have gone if we'd told them.
Well, that's a weak-minded question, Eve.
But the answer is all of them.
Every single one.
Thank you, I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Godspeed, Horizon II, Godspeed!
T minus 120 to burn. M.F.B. is go.
Hydrogen go. Deuterium sequence is holding.
Donner, where are you on the thrusters?
I'm making progress. Do not stop the sequence.
Ted, do you copy me?
Continue the sequence.
Stabilizers set to 140. Positioning thrusters are at 797.
Oh my God, she's out!
Ted, I got Zoe out in the airlock.
She's, she's is in airlock 4. Do you copy?
How the hell'd she get out?
Maddux?
Zoe... Please, don't.
Somebody get down here. Stop her!
Ted, do you copy?
Zoe!
What's the status?
Off watch crew is in their quarters.
EECOM is working on a small vent leak.
It's no biggie. We should go home.
Get some rest. Yea.
They're playin' that every hour.
We're not getting away from it, are we?
Mars is just gonna haunt us till the day we die.
Headline in our obits.
You're a Buddhist, right?
Raised as one.
Where you guys come down on fate? Fate?
Yeah. Predestination, that uh, the future...
And what happens is somehow outta your control.
I don't believe that... And neither did Buddha.
It's garbage, right? Through and through.
Alright.
So, this is night 1 of day 1
And we are still in near Earth orbit.
Um... They want us to talk about anything. About how we feel.
I am so proud to be the engineer on this ship.
She is my path, my responsibility.
This voyage with her, my karma.
I am filled with awe, an indescribable joy...
I know, you guys are monitoring this.
I mean, you tell us its private, but seriously?
So, I'm going to pull my pants down, and show you crack.
Uh... Yeah, it feels strange not to be sleeping with Rollie, but...
It's good for crew morale, I guess.
And, I mean, you know, we were in celibate for 3 months
during crew orientation last year, so...
I'm OK with it... I, I guess...
- Hey baby. - Hi baby.
Turn the camera off!
And mother, if I ever let you see this...
it was a perfect launch, a flawless docking and the ship is in incredible shape, so....
...so much for your horoscope.
You're pregnant?
Well, I'm puking in the morning, and I'm puking at night, so...
You're the biologist, tell me. This is a.. It's a urine sample.
I dribbled a little. Sorry.
Oh, you're serious.
You know, they used to sell tests in the drug store.
Yeah, I'm not looking for a history lesson.
If I go to my gyno, the program will know.
So you're not a space nun?
I am now. - Who's the father?
Don't ask, won't tell.
And you did it without protection?
I was drunk. He swore he had a vasectomy.
Please, don't make me feel any more stupid.
If you're pregnant, I mean what the hell are you gonna do?
Zoe...
Are you OK? You were just standing there.
Did you just hear something?
Hear something? - Like what?
I don't know...
High pitched. Like crying.
Ummm... No.
It's probably just a rotator arm cricking.
Right.
I'm sure that's what it was.
Hola estudiantes [Hi, students!] Bienvenidos a Antares [Welcome to Antares].
Live from the flight deck of Antares.
This is our first broadcast from space. And I'm going to give you... a little tour.
Anybody mind if I change the channel?
At the moment we're on the fight deck, which is where we control the ship.
Mission commender Rollie Crane and pilot Nadia Schilling
are programing the injection burn, that will send us on our way to Venus.
En este momento, estamos en la... [At this moment, we are in the...]
- Fight, this is surgeon. - This is flight.
Got a couple of weird EKGs from Rollie and Ajay.
They're similar, so it's probably a glitch.
I'm gonna have Evram adjust their mad patches. Just advising.
Fido, whats the max time we have left in orbit?
We need the Venus burn in 30 hours and 16 minutes.
It's a pretty hard window.
You seriously didn't hear anything strange last night?
Strange? No.
Then it was the rotator arm.
That's your story, and you stick to it, OK?
Yeah.
I don't know. I haven't been sleeping much. Weird dreams.
Some things are in zero gravity and some things are not.
Well, our grav-suites contain nanofibers
that pull us towards the deck electromagnetically.
But anything without the nanotechnology, like Jen's tomatoes.. would float.
Neat, huh?
Ajay, we need to check your med-patch.
Is there a problem, Evram?
Think it's just an adjustment.
Sorry Paula.
Gracias por su ayuda. [Thanks for your help].
Bueno, estudiantes... [Well, students...]
Esto es nuestra laboratorio de biologia... [This is our biology laboratory...]
What's up with that? Esto es nuestra laboratorio de biologia... [This is our biology laboratory...]
What's up with that?
Rollie and Ajay have a glitch in their med-patch.
We're trying to get a cleaner read.
That's not clearing up anything, Ev.
Now?
Negative.
Could you relay that this is a complete waste of time and I got work to do?
Why don't they try a couple of new ones?
Ev, try a couple of new patches might be the contact points.
Copy that.
Ah, our favorite place... The observation deck
Where we look at our amazing universe,
and watch movies, and youtube from our databank.
Any one of our vista panes becomes screens.
Ha--and this is our physicist. Steven Wassenfelder.
Looks like he's doing something very complicated.
Can you tell us what you're doing, Steven?
- You probably don't wanna know. - Oh, come on.
Don't be so condescending. Tell us. [Diganos].
Well.. Actually... I'm trying to crack a 512-bit encryption code.
Aha!
to get to the porn...
that my friend loaded into the bank for me.
Arnell [?] always finds the dirtiest stuff.
- What's the delay there? - 30 seconds.
- Then you got 20 to put a lid on it.
- And Ted? - Sir?
Let's give our boy genius a spanking.
Ok... See that blip here? Between the S1 wave and the S2?
It's a mid-systolic ejection murmur.
And both of them have it? That's impossible. It's a mid-systolic ejection murmur.
And both of them have it? That's impossible.
Well, these are the old patches. Let's see what the new ones say.
No, these are the new ones.
We're gonna have to do heart scan before I can clear either one of them for flight.
It's just not possible for both of them to come down with heart murmurs.
Has to be an equipment error.
Yeah, it has to be right?
And... and you said that Mercury is in retrograde, so maybe this is a Mercury in retrograde thing.
Please, don't encourage my mother.
In a strange way, your mom's kind of right. I mean, we're hopeless dependent on planet alignment,
We've got like, what, 28 hours to leave Earth's orbit, or we're screwed...
and the next launch window isn't for like 6 years.
Well, then we have to use Rollie and Ajay.
Actually, no.
I'm not following.
Then you didn't read the latest flight schedule.
There's a service pod headed for the space station tomorrow morning.
And Ajay and Rollie's alternates could possibly be on it.
- Hello Ted. Hello Donner. - Don't you dare go there.
6 years alone up here with the old boyfriends.
This is calcified plaque... Here, here, and here...
It's on their aortic valves, which is causing the stenosis.
Now, I don't know how it got there, or why it wasn't there three days ago.
But I've checked the results 5 times, and it's real
The odds of this... of two men at the same time...
Off the chart.
Okay Claire, put a med team on it.
Check for everything: diet, environment, viruses...
And run a detailed analysis of every crew member's genome.
We've gotta find out what's causing this.
I can't clear these men for space travel.
I think we got that.
You're excused.
I'll have Vandenberg get the pod ready.
I want a few minutes.
You don't need more time, Mike.
You know damn well what's causing this. And they're going.
This is our mission.
I am not gonna let that thing dictate anymore of the crew.
- Wassenfelder's bad enough. - We don't have a choice.
- Do you think for one moment I wanna send my husband? - Well, that makes two of us.
And Donner for about a hundred reasons.
And who's to say this thing isn't gonna give them heart murmurs?
Well, there are no guarantees, Mike. None.
We're in uncharted territory here.
But this seems to be what it wants.
Whether you wanna face it or not...
it has to say a lot more to say in this mission than we do.
Remember last night I asked you about fate?
Told you I don't believe in fate. I'm a Buddhist.
Yeah. I didn't tell you something. I'm having a dream about this mission.
And...
You and I are both on it.
You're both gonna need immediate physicals.
You'll have tonight to get your personal things in order...
then launch in the service pod tomorrow morning.
Reported to medical now?
- Yes, Donner, leave us. - Roger that.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Ted, you have no idea.
We need to see the new mission commander upstairs.
Clean bill of health, but the pants stay off.
- Sorry? - You need your vasectomy, Donner.
I don't understand.
Your sterilization. It's painless.
Yeah, actually, it's not. I had it done when I got back from Mars.
Well, yeah, um. According to your chart you did, but not according to your scan.
When were you gonna tell everybody else?
In 43 days...
when you get to Venus.
I've always believed that this was my mission,
my ship,
that I was traveling on the path that Ganesha wanted for me. That this ...
out here...
was where my challenges and obstacles lay.
I feel so lost now.
I cannot understand this.
I cannot.
Who needs this path more than I?
Pop, I'm going on a mission.
It's six years, and... I don't know if you're gonna be here when I get back.
You had the sweetest slider I ever saw.
Fastball, change up,
monster curve.
You had all the tools.
I wanted something else, Pop.
Pour me another before you leave.
Maybe I can request a replacement.
I could come back on the pod.
No, there's no time for that.
Jen, forgive me.
I want you to know that I was gonna be there with you.
You'll be there with me.
Yeah.
What?
For everything.
Just remember how much I love you.
Okay?
Show me.
Let's kill the flight, no deck cameras.
Give the mission commander some privacy with his wife.
The way I see, they are lucky.
You can't call an ambulance on the surface of Mars.
You realize this all points to a common cause...
I mean there's no way it occurred randomly. It could be viral, environmental...
something they were eating...
we... were... eating.
They're looking into everything.
Claire's been monitoring us all very closely
Did you hear that?
What?
That!
No.
No?
It's the uh... the rotator arm.
I'm gonna go check on Ajay.
Oh! Tell him I've got the porno up and running so he can pop his halo off and just enjoy.
Zoe Barnes?
I'm Ajay... Sharma.
- Hi, Ajay. - Hi.
It's a good thing that you won the bucket.
- I am not so sure about that. - No, it...
Upchucking, it is an obstacle that we all must face eventually.
And you...were just fortunate enough to face it first.
Ah, there is... I...
Ajay, scram... Girl talk...
Oh, uh... Okay. Now that I'm... Um...
Can I get uh, a Vodka Cran,' please?
Somebody's got a boyfriend.
That's vodka, drink up.
Thank God, I'm not pregnant!
Oh, no. No, you are pregnant.
You're just not gonna have a baby.
Well, last time I looked it was the law.
It's a stupid law.
You know, a couple of justices kick and it'll be reversed.
- Zoe, you have more than one option here. - I don't know.
There were over a thousand qualified applicants for your slot alone.
I mean, getting into this program was winning the lottery.
Believe me, I know. I know.
Okay, so you can not give it up for a one night stand.
I mean, you just can't.
I know of a guy. He's a doctor.
When you're ready, just give me the word.
I think I need some air.
- Zoe. Hey... - Not now.
Dude, you don't stand a chance.
Ajay?
Mission control, this is Antares.
Antares, this is control. Do we have permission to put up the cameras?
You do indeed, mission control. And... thank you for your discretion.
Yeah, well, we didn't want that to end up in Wassenfelder's vid bank.
Uh, listen Rollie...
We just had the cameras and operation controls for the airlock corridors go offline,
We can't seem to get them back up.
Yeah, we're seeing that too. I'll get Ajay down to look at it.
Actually, I think Ajay's the problem.
I just saw him enter the airlock corridor
I tried to follow, but he locked me out.
Flight, I'm show a UVA and MMU pack up and running.
Dammit, he's going for a walk.
How soon until we can override his instructions?
We're working on it. Give us five minutes.
If he's in that suit, we don't have five minutes.
Where the hell is Donner?
On his way in.
- What's the time to Venus burn? - Six hours, nine minutes.
Ajay's heart rate and BP are spiking.
Antaris, this is control. Have you made contact?
Negative, control.
Rollie's running through the channels.
Looks like his comm's off.
This guy tested the most stable in the entire program.
Does anyone know if Hindus commit suicide.
No, they don't. At least I don't think they do.
- Let me talk to him. - He's turned his comm off.
Well, that's not good.
- He's moving away from the ship. - Don't do that, Ajay.
Space travel is a fool's game.
Human beings are 60 percent water.
We sleep, eat, defecate,
can't follow directions,
and we explode like piñatas when exposed to the vacuum of space.
What's he doing?
Putting himself in orbit.
Oh, Ajay.
Well, wherever he's going, I hope he makes it.
Flight, we just may have been able to override his programming. We now have control over the airlocks.
Antares, this is control, did you copy that?
We have that here.
I'll go out.
I can go out and get him.
We wanna go out and get him. Do you copy?
Yeah, let her go.
Mike, let her go.
Negative.
I'll eat the loss of an EVA suit, I can't afford to lose another crew member.
You and Shaw ship out in two hours.
Get your ass in gear.
- That's it? - That's what?
You're just gonna let him die?
I got 6 hours to launch a $10 trillion mission on its way to Venus...
I don't have time for Ajay and his silly little meltdown...
and I sure as hell don't have time for you.
Don't piss me off now, Donner. Not now.
As soon as I get back, I quit.
Arnel, how much time has he got left in that suit? Eight hours?
Give or take.
My old man is right about every single item. Except the initial premise.
Man belongs in space because of exactly what he brings into the void.
We carry the baggage of our past...
Our fears, our superstitions, our failings...
Mercury went direct 2 hours ago.
It's too late for Ajay.
No, it isn't.
But we also carry our hopes and our dreams...
the hard lessons learned from our lives.
Donner, Shaw, you dock your craft in the Antares right now!
Uh, negative flight...
Unless you can override these controls, I think we're gonna take a little detour.
They're on 41.
Hell of a view out there, huh?
Ganesha and I have been enjoying it very much.
Ganesha?
He is the lord of obstacles.
But, he is also the lord of new beginnings.
All right. Well, you wanna hitch a ride back in and start something new?
This is my path, Donner.
Right here.
On the way to Venus.
Correct me if I am wrong here, Ajay, but if you stay out here
doesn't that mean that you've gotta start all over in the next lifetime?
Now, I mean... I'm no expert
But you're the one who's always telling me that...
that each of us has a lesson to learn, and obstacles to overcome.
So, maybe this is your big one, you know?
Maybe you overcome this and you take big step towards Nirvana.
You don't understand.
Wait, wait, wait... Wait a second.
You think I don't understand?
I think I do.
My path is here on this ship, with these people.
Your path is back on Earth, Ajay.
But, you know what? We can't do it alone.
You, me, the ship, we're a three-way.
We need each other.
For all our faults...
and whether we're guided by our destiny, or we guide it ourselves,
we're resilient, we can adapt.
There's something I must do first.
Yeah.
Yes.
We can find redemption in the simplest acts of humanity.
I've never heard of a robot or a probe that was able to do that.
So...
If space travel's a fools game, than...
Uh... Hey, that's what I am. So, be it.
But, I've never felt more alive,
Or more human.
Antares, you are go for Venus, in five...
4, 3, 2, 1.
Ignition!
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