From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:
Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “We Were Family”
“As we get into Three’s backstory we begin to round him out more and more and give him depth; not only to make him a fully realized character, but a character that fans can connect with on an emotional level. We can see through that bad boy exterior to the guy underneath, and we saw glimpses of that last season with Sarah, and we’re seeing that this year in this episode.” Continue reading.Â
From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:
Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “I’ve Seen the Other Side of You”
“We sat down and broke the story over a couple of days. Paul [Mullie] wrote the script, he did a phenomenal job on it, and Steve DiMarco, this was his first directing gig with us, did a phenomenal job as well. This was one of my favourite episodes of the season. It’s a smaller episode, but I just love it.” Continue reading.
We’re three weeks into Season 2 of Dark Matter, and co-creator Joseph Mallozzi has made good on his promise to keep stories zipping at lightning speed. In short order Six was revealed to the crew as the mole, the squad busted out of Hyperion-8 with help from Nyx (Melanie Liburd), Devon Taltherd (Shaun Sipos)Â and Arax Nero (Mike Dopud), One was killed and Five used Bubba.
But as Mallozzi told us during a set visit earlier this year, that’s just the beginning.
What’s interesting about you as a showrunner is that you’re very active on social media and with your own blog. You head off spoilers at the pass and reveal things to fans in advance.
Joseph Mallozzi: If you keep things under wraps and you don’t show what the ship will look like—if you wait and show the blind-the-scenes stuff after the show airs—you’re really only getting to the die-hard fans. If I’m off on hiatus for months and there is anything I can do to keep the interest alive and the fans excited, I’m going to do it. Then people can share the hell out of it.
We’re going to use “Holy shit” moments to propel scenes and lead to a shocking season finale. This season puts the dark in Dark Matter.
Every episode in Season 1 had a “Holy shit!” moment. What was the pacing of the writing like?
I’ve been sitting on the concept for years. When I was working on Stargate, I always knew I wanted to roll into Dark Matter after that. Stargate kept getting picked up, so by the time we got the green light and it came time to write with folks like Martin Gero, we broke the entire season in two and a half weeks because I basically knew where we wanted to end up. I’m not a big fan of shows that set up a mystery and take so long to provide an answer or don’t provide an answer because they’re making it up as they go along. We’ve set up mysteries, but we’ve always provided payoffs along the way.
In terms of Season 1, I knew every story, every beat. And then when we got into Season 2, we knew where we wanted to end up and the arcs I wanted to explore. Season 2 is a very different beast from Season 1. The characters in Season 1 were almost ciphers in a way, they were blanks and the audience was learning things along with them and that added to the mystery. Our characters in Season 1 were more reactive. In Season 2, we have a bunch of mysteries in play. The key card, the old man, Alexander Rook and different characters in play. Right from the get-go we’re dealing with the arrests and betrayal. All of the episodes that ensue, our characters are more proactive. Who is going after the key card and why? Three is going to find out more about his past.
We’re going to use “Holy shit” moments to propel scenes and lead to a shocking season finale. This season puts the dark in Dark Matter.
What can you tell me about expanding the universe and adding new characters?
Season 1 was very much of a micro-level because we were learning about these characters. The big world—the big universe—wasn’t really explored. Now we’re going to find out about different organizations and different colonies and they’ll be a presence. Four will attempt to re-take his throne. Two will revisit Alexander Rook. Who was that old man and why was she created? We won’t get all of the answers necessarily, but we will get pieces that take us into a wild new direction.
You’re also one of the few showrunners I’ve spoken to who listens to feedback from the fans. Why is that important to you?
At the end of the day we’re not going to take dictation—we know what we like and the story we want to tell—but as technology advances audiences feel more of an ownership in the shows, and that’s why I do things like Name the Episode. There is an investment there. It’s not just an hour of your day; they are being rewarded to a certain extent and are part of the process.
Dark Matter airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.
From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:
Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “Kill Them All”
“Season 1 was very much about identity, self-discovery and that slow burn mystery. Season 2 is a journey of discovery and redemption for our characters. There are still many secrets they’ve yet to learn, but now that they’ve found out who they are, Season 2 will be about their pasts coming back to haunt them.” Continue reading.Â
From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:
Link: Dark Matter: Joseph Mallozzi talks “Welcome to Your New Home”
“I wanted to create a show where there’s a revelation in every episode and each episode builds on the next. It’s a show that you want to tune into and watch rather than sit and wait because you don’t want to be spoiled.” Continue reading.
From Starrymag:
Melissa O’Neil, Melanie Liburd & Roger Cross – Dark Matter
“The character of Nyx like she comes in and she’s like, she is strong and powerful and Mel brings like this natural sexiness. So I think it would be it would be crazy for there not to be someone drawn to her character. And I think like in terms of friction-friction, everybody comes with their own set of baggage. And for her to come onto the ship with whatever ends up being her baggage, it’s deciding whether or not the crew of the Raza wants to help her. ” Continue reading.
From Tom Gardiner of ThreeIfBySpace:
Dark Matter Interview: Two, Six & Nix, Part 2
“He is trying to do the right thing. He’s trying to be the authority figure that he discovered that he is. He is a cop, he swore an oath to uphold the law and protect people. And so it’s kind of like what is the higher calling to uphold, this law that’s set out by a bunch of hypocrites that are doing it to control people and make themselves more powerful and wealthy, or do I uphold the greater law of taking care of people and doing the right thing?” Continue reading.
From Michael Idato of The Sydney Morning-Herald:
Link: Dark Matter creator Joe Mallozzi reveals secret behind series’ characters
A little too much? Not enough? Spilling the beans in genre television is a precarious minefield, concedes Dark Matter creator and executive producer Joe Mallozzi, where there are few rights, and a lot of wrongs. Continue reading.
From Andrew Liptak of Barnes and Noble:
How Dark Matter went from graphic novel to Syfy hit
Dark Matter returned last weekend for its second season on Syfy. The action-heavy series about a mind-wiped crew that awakens aboard a derelict spaceship has played a key role in the resurgence of the basic cabler, which returned to its science fiction roots with fervor in 2015, launching one ambitious new program after another, from Killjoys, to The Magicians, to The Expanse. But the road that brought Dark Matter to television was anything but straight. As we gear up for more mysterious adventures, creator Joseph Mallozzi talks about how the series went from pitch, to the comic page, and finally, to the small screen. Continue reading.Â
From Robin Burks of Tech Times:
Dark Matter Season 2 will offer more insight into characters, but also include adventure
“We find ourselves in this budding intergalactic corporate conspiracy. And so while trying to figure out who the heck we’re having to deal with, something so much larger than us.” Continue reading.
