
A TV tie-in edition is due on February 7.

To gear up for the show, the original 23,000-word novella was published in the UK in 2018 as a hardback book with elegant, otherworldly illustrations by David Palumbo. Neuhauser.But first, Nightflyers needs to prove its worth. Martin, Jeff Buhler, Brian Nelson, Mike Cahill, Andrew McCarthy, Gene Klein, David Bartis, Doug Liman, Alison Rosenzweig, Michael Gaeta, Lloyd Ivan Miller, Alice P. O’Byrne, Angus Sampson, Sam Strike, Jodie Turner-Smith.Įxecutive Producers: George R.

10 episodes (five screened for review.)Ĭast: David Ajala, Maya Eshet, Eoin Macken, Gretchen Mol, Brían F. (Not every new show can be “Game of Thrones.”) But the gap between potential and reality is emphasized as “Nightflyers'” characters soar between the stars and as we’re trapped in their neuroses from familiar soil. This series falls short of that admittedly lofty goal, which is perhaps not flaw but simple acknowledgment of most series’ limitations. We know of Martin’s ability to not merely use genre but to bend it towards radical novelty. (Does David Ajala’s mysterious and reclusive corporate head onboard the ship need to be as mysterious and reclusive as he is before the point is made? Must the computer have had a big red eye just like “2001’s” iconic HAL?) But space, in its infinite capacity, can give us more. “Nightflyers” is propulsive enough, ginning up fear and terror even as it relies on hoariness.

(In this, he’s not dissimilar from Sean Penn’s character in this year’s Hulu series “The First” - a space adventurist fleeing trauma at home - among many other astronauts of fiction.) That he ended up having boarded a ship controlled by a computer determined to not merely thwart his mission but to evoke his worst memories is the consequence to his adventurism. The show follows lines of reasoning that shimmer with obviousness: Macken’s Karl D’Branin fought, hard, for the idea that his mission to space might yield first contact with intelligent life that could help earthlings, all while fleeing his life at home.
