It’s been approximately one year since Dark Matter was cancelled.
Truthfully, it’s hard to pin down an exact day because syfy never gave us a “Thanks for three years” official announcement, but I like to peg the date at around this time last year when, buoyed by the show’s relatively strong overall viewership, I sold my home in Vancouver and moved to Toronto to finish up what I assumed would be the final two seasons of the show – only to learn on the day I arrived, jet-lagged and exhausted, that we were done.
Over at SciFi Movie Page, Chris Suide offers up a nice retrospective of the series –
Dark Matter: Revisiting A Terrific Series On The One Year Anniversary of Its Cancellation
And I offer you some behind the scenes videos from Episode 1…
Opening shot by director T.J. Scott…
Rehearsing the ONE stasis pod reveal…
Rehearsing the FOUR stasis pod reveal…
Introducing Alex Mallari Jr. as Dancing FOUR…
John Stead oversees the anti-gray sequence with Marc Bendavid and Anthony Lemke…
Shooting footage for the Griffin Jones Wanted video…
The boys singing their hearts out…
Stunt Coordinator/Director John Stead runs through the choreography for the big Android vs SIX fight sequence..
Shooting THREE’s tumble…
Zoie Palmer and Alex Mallari Jr. rehearse a stunt under the direction of stunt coordinator John Stead…
John Stead shoots Alex Mallari Jr. and Marc Bendavid in the first training room scene…
Anthony Lemke practicing his gun twirling…
Great times!
P.S. Haven’t given up on that wrap-up miniseries! Someday…
Makes me sad and angry all over again
I still can’t believe Dark Matter was canceled. I truly miss this show and its many characters. I was part of the many fans who helped to save “The Expanse” with letter writing, emails, and texts. It’s a shame fans of Dark Matter weren’t afforded the same outcome. ☹️…I still hope 🙂
As I remember it, news broke on social media the Friday before Labor Day weekend last year. For what it’s worth, I still find the time to troll the dark one’s twitter account, especially to point out the hypocrisy of their decision. I stand with you in hoping for the wrap up miniseries!
If only we had a working blink drive and could travel through time. Imagine what we could change or fix, prevent. However, our failures, our setbacks and hard times can be great teachers and can make us better.
Dark Matter was a great loss, but it was a great 3 seasons and set up many deserving actors for future gigs.
Thanks Baron!
Thanks for sharing the above BTS sequences. So great to see and a tad poignant to be reminded of what could have been.
A year on and it still hurts. I’ve never clung on to the hope a cancelled show will be revived like this before.
So relieved you haven’t given up on a miniseries.
Thank you, Joe
thanks Joe I am glad to hear you have not given up on the miniseries idea. DM fans livelive in hope
Maybe you’ll let me repost my comment to your Sept. 4 blog entry, as I’m just missing Dark Matter really bad right now:
I still want more Dark Matter. Why did The Expanse, Lucifer and now Designated Survivor get picked up by streaming services, but not Dark Matter (and now Colony, for that matter)? Sorry, I know I should move on, as you have, but I have not. I also know that every deal comes down to the details. Still, tomorrow Netflix will be premiering Next Gen, an animated feature film for which they spent $30 million, which (I think) would have paid for an entire 10-episode season 4 of Dark Matter.
Ugh. 🙁
I still can’t believe it. Dark Matter was such a solid show… 🙁
sighs ruefully
I haven’t either and I’m always glad to have you mention the hope either for a mini-series follow-up or hopefully, somehow an actual continuance. Dark Matter is one of my all time favorites – future Earth or not, there was always something about every part of it that touched some now aspect of life and, I’ve also always wanted to mention that while you might have had five years in mind as a whole ark of sorts, there are so many things of interest and depth going on all the time in Dark Matter that I’ve never quite understood a five year limit – and, even more, that is a show which could easily have had worthwhile spinoffs of vastly different types – That SYFY once again didn’t realize the gem that had is just agonizing, and that a pickup elsewhere was as close as it was (given that DM was originally cast as a summer series) says a great deal – to say nothing of all of us who still remember, think about and replay the series from the first season on. I am however excited and very glad that you are to be the showrunner of another show in the relatively near future – Congratulations that there are still people who recognize quality work out there.
I didn’t remember the bad timing of moving to Toronto and the cancellation. Yikes! I’ll never understand their decision.
Thanks James Gamble for the info, it worked!
I refuse watch anything on SyFy now. First Stargate and then Dark Matter….I am done with them. Please don’t tell me your new show will be on that network.
A wrap up mini series would be wonderful!
I remember the cancellation happened right before DragonCon last year and multiple Dark Matter fan panels were spent getting sad and angry, but also plotting ways to help it get picked up. I remember how much fun we had with Tweetstorms for most Fridays after. Dark Matter was a special show and will always have a huge place in my heart. Thanks for sharing it with us!
I’m still disgusted about it. I want to see Two’s baby. I wanted to see what would happen with the Android war. I wanted to see the Android grow. I wanted to see what they would do with Four…. 🙁 Not happy. Man, it doesn’t seem that long ago.
No matter syfy’s all too shortsighted decision,
Always remember
nothing and no one
can take away the heart and soul of a truly great story
once its been shared and cherished by others.
No bout a doubt it.
Dark Matter ‘will’ live on in one form or another in all of us.
And for those of you who can’t get enough of Zoe Palmer’s
beloved Android
here’s an excellent 10 minute clip I found on YouTube tonight
with some of best visual fx to ever grace the small screen
via the masterful wizardry of Lawren Banckroft-Wilson and
his amazing team.
A greatly missed series, creators, actors & actresses. Good to hear the miniseries is still on your mind. Thank you Baron for all the good times.
I JUST found out this was cancelled (obviously I don’t keep up with things), REALLY sad to hear – have been re-watching the series in anticipation of the 4th season. “SyFy” network should be cancelled. Horrendous decision. This show was magic. Thanks to the writers, cast, and crew (including Benjamin Pinkerton’s fantastic work) for giving us the best science-fiction show of the decade.
Did I ever post my filk here on the blog? I should have! 😯
Here is what I wrote during the campaign last year: ❤️ 💔
“People Of The Raza Rise Again”
http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?/topic/80390-people-of-the-raza-rise-again/
SFG
As I said on Twitter….
😢 Saddened to even be considering that it’s the One Year Anniversary of #DarkMatter being cancelled, when we should be celebrating news of another Season!
Oh man. I remember that, I was particularly pissed off about the fact that they announced it on the exact day you moved to Toronto.
I mean, that was way beyond rude. It was one of those things you just don’t do. And yet they gave two more seasons to that biohazard waste train wreck that is Crinjoys.
It still rankles that it was cancelled even after a year. Other shows that have come and gone you get over more quickly but this one for some reason, well, the wound is still sore…….
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a year since my hatred of SyFy reached its apex. Time flies.
Quite a sad reminiscence, but amazing load of videos. Thanks for this, Joseph!
Sony is giving Timeless a 2 hour wrap up movie airing “around the holidays” which I hope means this year, not 2019. It gives me hope for DM coming back too. Hear that Ntflx? Hulu? Amazon? I’m off to explore the vids on youtube as soon as my explorer stops glitching.
I really thought that Dark Matter would have been an easy sell to a Netflix or a Amazon type streaming service. The twitter campaigns seemed to be pretty successful in multiple markets. I still haven’t completely given up hope, although I realize the more time that passes the more expensive it all becomes to put it all back together.
In the meantime, SyFy continues to operate in it’s own universe. I was under the impression that ratings were the absolute bottom line. Dark Matter had them covered but it apparently didn’t do any good. I’ve lost track of how many shows they’ve canceled without just cause, but it’s a lot. Every time a show gets the ax, the reaction from fans is the same. Everyone has had it with SyFy, boycotting the channel is the first thing out of viewer’s mouth. But the truth is, the next time an anticipated genre show is picked up by SyFy, fans get excited and will tune in. I think that there are currently more fans who now hold off watching said show until they see how it shakes out with SyFy, just to avoid the inevitable disappointment.
I kinda imagine that it’s the same with creators. From reading your blog, you’ve got roughly (5?) potential shows in play. I’m pretty sure that probably the last place you’d like to see any of them end up at is SyFy. But do you turn them down if they want one of them? That would have to be a difficult decision to make.
Up until SGU was canceled, I thought that actors had the roughest jobs in the TV business. I should say, I thought getting a job as an actor in the TV business was the toughest job. But now I realize that actors don’t have a lock on the disappointment only rejection can bring. It seems to be equally shared starting with creators, and writers.
So, the writers room still on schedule to be opened on Monday? Hope so! I’m anxious to get a few details as soon as you can share. As always, good luck!
#TeamRaza hasn’t given up hope. I’ve personally been rewatching the series a 3rd time on Netflix. I encourage everyone to stream Dark Matter on whatever platforms that you can. Give those dirty data collector’s the hard data that Dark Matter has a fan base thirsty for more content. Thanks Joseph for always keeping the fans in the loop. It’s a fan thing. Too bad SyFy doesn’t understand that.
Loved it. Pretty much everything I wanted in a scifi show.
I’m glad you haven’t given up on a miniseries to conclude your story but as you know I also make no secret of wanting a full 2 Seasons (Hey, I’m greedy when it comes to Dark Matter!).
So here’s a hypothetical question for you.
Say either Netflix or Amazon approached you and said “We’re thinking of picking this back up but crunching the numbers can’t see a miniseries or just 2 seasons cutting it for us. If you could stretch it to 5 seasons without diluting the content we’d pick it up”.
Would you? Could you?
I’m glad that there is still a chance of a miniseries. Thanks Joe.
I miss this show… Android had to be my favourite, it sucks SyFy cancelled this great show. Then they followed up by dropping expanse, which thankfully did get picked up… Seems like SyFy is less scifi these days and more teen horror and wrestling…
One of my favorite shows got so deep into it could have been one of the greats wish you would come back
Love the first BTS video of the long shot down the Raza corridor with the theme music to The Thing! John Carpenter makes a mean musical score.
Thanks for all the BTS videos. A walk down memory lane and a reminder of just how talented, fun, hard working, and dedicated the cast and crew was. I just recently bought Season 3 on DVD after finally having to erase the Season from my DVR. I still haven’t forgiven SyFy.
This show was better than KillJoy or whatever it name and that show still taking up space. Pour BS
And when you need a campaign for that, I’ll be ready to help.
@shinyhula The “reply” function in the comments section doesn’t work so let me post this way and hope you’ll see it. Timeless wrap up is Christmas 2018. 🙂
I was waiting for the next season to start and it never came. Did my googles a couple of day ago and realized its over. Most of us dont even know its cancelled .I honestly dont understand why? Dark Matter was a great show. Was looking forward to the android revolution.
So, let’s get Five and Android in the room with the SyFy Big Bosses.
I bet you Five will greatly enjoy to say one more time: “Kill them all!!!”
Let the Black Ships be always in their dreams.
Aww, wait!! What’s the fuss with the black ships, man?
Love you,
Cristian
i just finished season 3, what a cliffhanger!
im surprised netflix/amazon havent hit you up.
it can’t say like this, we need an ending, hell even a 2 hour movie like netflix offered sense8.
We demand two more seasons! And both must include ukelele duets in French (a favorite moment)!
Just finished all the 3 seasons on Netflix. You made a great show, I’m going to contact Netflix letting them know they have a great show on their platform that comes to an abrupt ending, I’ll ask them to do something about it. Got out onto your show by a couple of top 10 scifi series on youtube. Dark matter was always placed high.
Thanks!
I found myself quite thoroughly entertained by this show. Unable to look away, I binge watched it on NETFLIX. Got to the season 3 cliff hanger ending last night. Did some digging, only to find out that some genetically recessive, ill-bred, breech-birth, knuckle dragging cretin pulled the plug. No…I am not amused. Apparently the story arc is for five seasons, not three. Somehow, someway there’s got to be two more coming. This is a work unfinished. It needs to be finished. I will let NETFLIX know that there is a following of this program that want it brought to an acceptable conclusion, myself included. My sincerest apologies to the amazing cast and crew who were demeaned by the ignorant decision to kill this show. Just stupid.