Steven Symes

If you want to watch a thought-provoking modern sci-fi television series without having to sign up for yet another streaming service, you might want to check out Extinct. The show aired on BYUtv and can be watched for free online. Just know it also only survived one season before it too went the way of the dodo.

I recently ran across Extinct and started watching it without ever hearing of the show before. What really hooked me was the simple fact it was written by Orson Scott Card. Thanks to his masterful storytelling skills, Extinct is engaging and goes deeper than most television series these days. Perhaps that’s in part why it was doomed, since sadly many seem to be obsessed with the shiny new thing, instead of appreciating good craft.

Instead of spectacle or titillating scenes, Extinct serves up reflections on what it means to be human. The special effects are a little corny at times, but if you ever watched sci-fi shows in the 90s and early 2000s, you know that doesn’t mean the story is bad.

In fact, I would say the storytelling is the strongest point of the series. Some of the acting is hit-or-miss, which is to be expected from something that doesn’t come from one of the big Hollywood studios. Overall, the show has an independent feel to it.

Directed by Ryan Little of Saints and Soldiers fame, Extinct tells the story of three people who wake up in a pool of water in the middle of an unfamiliar desert. Those people don’t know each other and have no memory of how they arrived at where they are.

A floating drone directs the humans to a settlement a few miles away. Along the path, some nomadic people attack and try to capture the confused group. After arriving at the settlement, the three start to learn they are part of a program to bring the human race back to Earth after an extinction-level event entirely wiped out humanity four hundred years in the past.

Their memories, personalities, etc. was all scanned and preserved before their death. Not only do they get a new body, made after the prime of their life, they get everything else that was in their brains. It’s an interesting concept which comes with some curious twists and turns later.

There are also strong themes of starting fresh, mourning the loss of old connections, and what constitutes life experience.

Helping the reborn humans are a couple of droids, which are directed by a mysterious group who never shows itself. In the meantime, the trio starts to realize the alien invasion they remember from before was what led to not only their deaths, but the end of all humans on Earth. Those aliens aren’t all gone, with some still around and bent on annihilating the new settlement, wiping out humanity again.

I was about halfway through the first season when I learned the show had been cancelled. The reasons surrounding the move aren’t entirely clear, but BYUtv did get new management and according to what Orson Scott Card told Ben Shapiro in an interview a few years ago, the new head honchos weren’t interested in continuing the series since it didn’t fit their overall vision.

Considering BYUtv is a non-profit station geared at family-friendly entertainment, it’s no shock the show didn’t do well. Most fans of sci-fi aren’t tuning into such stations in search of new things to watch. And it doesn’t sound like the station did much to promote it. I never saw a single ad anywhere for Extinct. I would’ve watched it back when the show was new if I even was aware of its existence.

Ultimately, Extinct is a great example of how solid writing alone doesn’t always sell. Well-executed marketing is critical for any project: writers and those who work with them can’t ignore that fact. After all, if people don’t know your TV show, movie, book, or whatever even exists, how could they possibly want to try it out?

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Images via BYUTV