Dominion 1.01 “Pilot”

Remember that movie called Legion from 2010? It was written and directed by Scott Stewart and was basically about God losing faith in the human race and therefore sending his angels, led by Gabriel, to destroy humanity. But the Archangel Michael saw that there were good humans, sided with them, and managed to contain Gabriel’s fury, in some pretty cool fights.

These were not your typical beautiful angels, but creepy beings – fallen angels – that were able to possess humans and have them walk over walls, have impossible strength or demonic appearance. Plus there was a pregnant woman who was going to give birth to humanity’s savior.

Ok, so even though the movie didn’t get great reviews, I remember enjoying it, so when I learnt that there was going to be a SyFy TV series, with a pilot written and directed by Stewart again, telling the story of what came after the events of Legion, I jumped in. And here we are.

Dominion starts strong; presenting us with a rebellious low-ranking soldier named Alex Lannen (Christopher Egan) – part of a half-futuristic, half-Middle Ages-style Corps – of a new nation state called Vega, where the city of Las Vegas used to be. This soldier hunts and kills two of Gabriel’s angels, who, as in the movie, are occupying human bodies and have all kinds of creepy abilities, being declared enemies of the humans and all who stand with the Archangel Michael.

After this initial dose of action, a great deal of time is devoted to presenting the diverse characters and the style of life that the humans have. Through the dialogue between these characters we find out that the Archangel Gabriel – the bad guy – and his hordes have wiped out almost all of humanity, and Vega is a caste system, democracy forgotten, much like in the Middle Ages.

The city is run by the House of Riesen, and specifically by General Edward Riesen (played by Alan Dale), whose daughter, Claire Riesen (Roxanne McKee) is secretly in love with Alex and plans to tell her father the truth, believing he will approve of their marriage. However, Alex, knowing his place in the structure of things, believes the only way for them to be together is to escape Vega and start a life of their own.

To make matters worse, there’s another ruling branch in Vega, the House of Whele, and its leader, David Whele (Anthony Head), intends to marry his son William (Luke Allen-Gale) to Claire, forming a coalition and gaining power over Vega. While Edward Riesen is portrayed as the tired ruler, reconsidering his way of doing things and even thinking his abdication and going back to democracy, Whele is the other side of the coin: craving power, he tries to instill fear in the hearts of the people of Vega – control by fear, much like many of today’s most powerful countries do.

And then there is Michael (Tom Wisdom), overseeing things from the shadows, with a Matrix-esque look. He is, from his first appearance, a grim character with a mysterious look on his face, which makes it difficult to wonder if his intentions are good or evil.

However, maybe the best part of the episode is left for the last half hour – yeah, the pilot lasted 90 minutes! – where viewers not only get a dose of Michael vs. powerful angels (called the Powers) in the service of Gabriel (Carl Beukes) – as they fly their way from Gabriel’s stronghold to Vega, endangering the city’s nuclear power plant – but we also get very interesting character development for Alex Lannen and his missing father, Jeep (Langley Kirkwood), now back in the fold after being thought dead for years.

As it turns out, Jeep had been missing from his son’s life because he was investigating the meaning of the strange markings all over his body, which not even Michael could understand. During this fruitless investigation, he found proof that Gabriel is readying an army of angels to start a war.

Through the whole episode, there had been talk of “the chosen one” who would save humanity. I had my guess as to who that would be, but it isn’t almost until the end, because of a character’s death, that it stands revealed. I liked how this was presented, and how this revelation might change the characters’ lives going forward.

Overall, this was a good pilot; Well balanced, ambitious, and while maybe too many characters were introduced, by the end one had a good sense of what was going on, even if the last minute cliffhanger left us with some questions to solve.

The war is about to start. Let’s hope the ride – or should I say flight? – is a strong one.

I’ll be here, watching the skies.