Corbenic
Episode 1 of Beacon 23 kicks off proceedings with a tense scene. Briefly, we see our protagonist – or perhaps antagonist – Solomon trapped in Air Lock 1 of the space light tower, Beacon 23. He is supposedly the Beacon Keeper. Although he professes to be Solomon, that man is actually Halan. He begs Aster (Lena Headey) to open the door as a mysterious ship approaches B23. However, Aster leaves him to fend on his own.
Just like in the real world, these beacons are responsible for helping spaceships navigate the tricky pathways in outer space. These “beacons” of hope are huge but led by a single person. Halan has been acting as the beacon keeper after its original safeguard went missing.
We travel to an indefinite moment in the past when Halan deals with an incoming ship named Crest. Due to some malfunction, his Gravity Wave Board (GWB) is overridden and he cannot warn Crest against entering their sector. The presence of dark matter makes it a suicidal move but Crest doesn’t know this.
He watches in horror as Crest crashes into the dark matter. It is completely obliterated to pieces. The ship had eight on board, of which only one survived the crash. Halan takes out a PKR to retrieve the floating pod, which is revealed to be housing Aster. She wakes up abruptly and Halan helps her get back to normal. He is coy with details and quite a recluse. Halan barely engages with Aster, who has every intention of “poking around.”
He introduces himself as Solomon, which raises suspicions in our minds as to what his true intentions and nature are. Aster introduces herself as a scientist. She says that the Crest was carrying supplies and she boarded it in response to reports that Solomon had sent a year ago. These substances can potentially have groundbreaking mineral deposits. Halan is naturally puzzled as it was Solomon who had sent these. However, he pretends to recall sending them.
Aster is less than convinced and makes her intentions clear. She wants to take a look at the rocks that Solomon mentioned in the reports. But Halan doesn’t know where they are. He starts to get agitated as Aster goes around the ship and accesses a video that clearly shows Halan is lying. The hovering drone, which is presumably the real Solomon’s AI assistant, helps her with this ordeal. By this time, Aster has contacted her own personal AI, Harmony, and also armed herself with a knife.
It comes in handy as Halan approaches her to tell the truth. He claims that Solomon stole his ship and that’s why he had to take over the B23. She stabs him but Halan easily overpowers her. When she wakes up, Aster is fettered by an ankle lock. Harmony helps her out of it and then traps Halan in the airlock. She calls him a “deserter” from the force, who went AWOL and is now hiding at this Beacon.
The drone is called Bart and can now communicate in English with help from Harmony. It accuses Halan of torturing and brutally killing Solomon, which he resists. Aster looks at him with kindness. She has called for someone to take her back and thinks that Halan will be apprehended by them. However, she senses that Halan is suffering from PTSD, something that doesn’t exist anymore due to advanced medication. But Halan perhaps missed his bus as he went AWOL when the invention came. She provides him with the right medication that calms him down.
Halan helps her navigate the complex machinery of the beacon to reach the stones, which are kept in the store room. They see it on video and go to the unexplored section together. Halan starts having a trauma reaction when they reach it, running away in terror. “There was something there,” he insists. “It came at me. I saw it.” Aster administers a sedative to help him calm his nerves, although Harmony has been looking at all of it with derision and caution.
The episode ends with the opening scene and Harmony warning Bart to stay within the limits of the nature of its invention,
The Episode Review
Lena Headey and her power struggles, swapping Westeros for outer space surrounded by dark matter, didn’t take away her steely resolve. She shines brightly in the opening episode of Beacon 23, as does Stephan James, who definitely has the more meaty part.
The outer space setting is replete with brief shots from the outside, which weren’t anything special. I found the set design to be unconvincing as it didn’t look like a real station at all. However, we should allow some leeway in a sci-fi show.
Episode 1 didn’t drag on for too long, even though the writing lacked urgency. It kept finding a way out due to good direction and constant progression of the story. The dialogue scenes weren’t too special so that needs to improve from the second episode onward. If the characters are to warm up to us in any way, the actors need better weaponry to make it happen.
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You can read our Season 1 review of Beacon 23 here |
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Episode Rating