DEEP SIX **** Canada 2018 Directed by Davin Lengyel. Written by: Mika Collins, Davin Lengyel. 6 episodes, total running time 70 minutes approx.
A crew of astronauts on humanity’s first deep space mission find themselves stranded after a strange explosion and the loss of their best pilot (Tahmoh Penikett). In a last ditch effort to save their own lives, and the lifeforms on Tau Ceti (the planet they’re studying) Neiman (Mika Collins) embarks on a dangerous solo mission.
The motto of the crew of DEEP SIX is, “Space is hard.” Which fits, because in popular culture, space is usually portrayed as doing its best try and to kill any and all characters unlucky enough to be in it. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. The Terminal they use to get food and supplies from Earth is creating dangerous shock waves—but the real suspense comes from the looming threat that there’s something else out there with them.
The production value, having been made on such a small budget, is really impressive. You can see it was a labour of love, and it has the feel of classic sci-fi which was so often made on a shoestring budget. There’s no shortage of spacey, scientific-sounding terminology either, because DEEP SIX is hard sci-fi. Very hard. It’s full of in-universe jargon that takes a second to wrap your mind around—like trying to read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE for the first time.
The creators took time to develop relationships between the crew, and over the short, 11-minute episodes you’re able to get really invested in the story and characters. Overall, this is a great miniseries—although just as the story starts to get really interesting, it ends. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a second season.
Review by Julia Lynch
Watch the whole series by clicking HERE.