One of the reasons ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’ resonate so much with female sci-fi fans is because of its protagonist: a hard hitting pulse rifle slinging won’t-take-crap-from-a-chest-bursting-alien, Ripley. While there really hasn’t been a heroine in the genre like her since, that may change if Steven DeKnight has a say on the subject as he’s currently developing a new sci-fi series called ‘Incursion’ for Starz.
DeKnight’s name may sound familiar as he’s currently a writer and executive producer for the Starz series ‘Spartacus’, but he’s also worked on ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Smallville’, ‘Angel’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ Now he’s in the process of developing a series called ‘Incursion’ and it will center around a female heroine during a time of interplanetary war.
“I have always loved war movies… and I’m a huge science fiction fan,’ said DeKnight when the project was first announced at last year’s Comic-Con. “It’s about a squad of soldiers, fighting this war. It’s basically like World War II in space. Each season is a different planet,”
A sci-fi female soldier protagonist! Not only is this great news, as female sci-fi characters. lately, tend to play second fiddle to their male counterparts, but DeKnight seems to be the right person to actually do this right considering the TV shows he’s work on in the past. Also sounding promising is the fact that the writer/creator has stated that a major influence on the project was James Cameron’s film ‘Aliens’.
“Nobody does future military better than James Cameron,” says DeKnight, “ His designs are just brilliant, and we definitely wanted to push that even to the next level.”
But ‘Aliens’ isn’t the only popular media that has influenced ‘Incursion’:
“If you love things like ‘Halo,’ ‘Band of Brothers,’ ‘Black Hawk Down,’ that kind of thing, then I think you’ll really enjoy this show. It’s like ‘Black Hawk Down’ on an alien planet…We’re going for gritty realism. We have military consultants, so we’re trying to be as militarily accurate as possible.”
While all this talk may seem wonderful to read, there is a draw back. Starz has yet to give the project a green light. “It is a massive, massive undertaking with many moving parts, because we are really trying to build a feature-level epic,” DeKnight explains. “[The set work is] just incredibly time-consuming, so getting that green light is taking a little longer than it normally would.” He is, however, “hopeful” and “confident” that the show will be getting a series order and anticipates that ‘Incursion’ could air next year.
Source: Huff Post
