"Dead Air" is the 4th episode of Season Three of Defiance and the 29th episode overall. It aired on June 26th, 2015 on Syfy.
Synopsis
Nolan & Amanda plan their escape after they're captured while excavating a buried weapons cache. Meanwhile Berlin and Irisa are forced to work together investigating a Votanis Collective bombing in the heart of Defiance. Stahma's clandestine relationship with T'evgin, the mysterious Omec leader, takes a turn.
Syfy's Fun Facts[1]
- This isn't the first appearance of hologram technology in the world of Defiance. Players of the Defiance video game can acquire a special power for their EGO device called "Decoy," which allows the player to project holographic duplicates of themselves which can be used to distract their enemies.
- "Datak has evolved with the help in no small part from his wife, Stahma. Evolved into what, though ... a better man or a better hoodlum? We shall see." - Tony Curran
- [What was it like shooting in Toronto in the dead of winter?] "I've lived in the Arctic, on Baffin Island for two winters, and it wasn't as severe as what our cast and crew experienced earlier this year. Brutal, just brutal! Congratulations to everyone that survived and got the T-shirt." - Conrad Coates, "T'evgin"
- Pottinger named his four Biomen John, Paul, George and Ringo. At least now we know where Pottinger falls in the Beatles versus Stones debate!
- "Station Arrowhead is the most civilized and contemporary environment that the Defiance world has seen in our three-season series. It was meant to be an anachronistic remnant of the old world, hidden and untouched. It also served as the canvas for Niles Pottinger’s own brand of insanity. The hints are all there if you look for them and can be found in the art chosen for the walls." - Steve Geaghan, Production Designer
- A singularity bomb creates a small, focused wormhole that consumes all matter in a predetermined radius. Portland fell victim to such a weapon in the early days of the Pale Wars. Hundreds of thousands of humans died in the explosion, along with a large number of Votans. In the wake of this devastation, the VC became reluctant to deploy such weapons of mass destruction again, or risk obliterating the very planet they sought to inhabit. The experimental technology that powers a singularity bomb is the same technology behind the Kaziri's engines, which allowed the ship to reach Earth thousands of years before the rest of the Votan fleet.
- "Station Arrowhead turned out to be the environment that was furthest from our post-apocalyptic Defiance world. It was meant to be more of the 20th century. It is a gigantic, self-sustaining underground bunker that Niles Pottinger has taken over with a small company of Biomen. The environment was designed to perfectly exemplify his madness and eventually bring about his undoing." - Steve Geaghan, Production Designer
- The man in the portrait is Connor Lang (as played by Gale Harold). Also on display are Connor's signature coat and fedora. Pottinger developed an obsession with Connor during their time at school. However, these feelings were not mutual. The other boys would make fun of the way Pottinger followed Connor around like a puppy dog. If you go back and rewatch the scene in Season Two, Episode 5 where Pottinger is suffering an EGO-induced hallucination of Connor Lang, their conversation should now make a whole lot more sense!
- "It's always exciting having new characters on the show and working with Lee [Tergesen], Nichole [Galicia] and Conrad [Coates] has added some dark and unexpected layers to Season Three." - Tony Curran, "Datak Tarr"
- The Omec evolved as carnivores, dangerous hunters who took great pleasure in tracking their prey. When the so-called "lesser races" rebelled and drove the Omec back to their home planet, the Omec found themselves without a food source. They developed protoform (the synthetic protein upon which the Indogene were built) to suit their needs. Over time, the Omec tinkered with the Indogenes' genetic code to make them smarter, more entertaining prey. It wasn't entirely surprising that the Indogenes followed their comrades and fled planet Omec, once again leaving the Omec to subsist on whatever they had on hand. T'evgin has spent many hundreds of years in space, subsisting on the Omec equivalent of emergency rations. For him, something as simple as pancakes must be a real treat.
Votan Translations
David J. Peterson, the creator of the Votan languages, has made translations available on his Archive of Our Own page.
Translations for the Votan spoken in this episode can be found at Conlang Dialogue: Defiance, Episode 304.
Highlighted Quote
STAHMA (KINUK'AAZ)
I wish to be enchanted.
TRANSLATION
T'ep ingavuuri gatsevimadzuset.
Trivia
- Because the first two episodes of season 3 aired together as two hour premiere, they are sometimes referred to as a single episode (despite having separate episode titles), making this the third episode to air, but fourth named, individual episode of the season.
- This episode marks Niles Pottinger's first appearance since season 2 and his last ever appearance on the series.
- The sex scene between Stahma and T'evgin earned Defiance its first ever TV-MA rating[2]
Deleted Scenes
- Berlin and Irisa search for the V.C. spy, finding him dead in his shop beside a suicide note/confession which they suspect is fake and that he's a scapegoat.
- An extended version of the dinner scene between Nolan, Amanda, and Pottinger in his bunker.
Behind the Scenes Images
