bad ratings from the get go, it has been canceled after only 8 episodes. A total of thirteeen were shot and will be availabel on disk at some point. I also suspect they will wind up on some cable channel sooner or later.

Here's my forensics on the show:

The close connection to mission control on Earth was a flaw on several levels. The unbelievable tight control by mission control over the crew gutted the command structure on the ship and the air of conspiracy was off putting for me. Assuming that this was some sort of alien contact, they should have made the crew aware from the beginning and the mission objectives should have been clear.

The unexplained ability of mission control to communicate in real time over those distances was unacceptable to the hard scifi fan that would have at least provided a core of support. The timeline was nearly 50 years in the future so they could have at least given some lame explanation. Either way the meddling of mission control was a minus factor.

Also for many I think the mission was ill conceived. It would have been better to make it a mission to explore Jupiter's moons. Pretty much everyone knows that Venus, Mercury and Mars are boring for everyone but the scientist studying them. Maybe not Mars but it has been done to death.