More on Fox's Beyond

This TV show might turn out to be rather amusing when it airs in the fall.

Merrin Dungey (Kelly on "The King of Queens") has landed a role in the drama pilot, about the scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

the futon critic

And I've only found vague plot summaries. IMDb says that it involves "a radical plan to deflect a pathogen-infected meteor currently on a collision path with the Earth". Futon critic has all the cast info together.

At least it's not as near as bad as Three Moons Over Milford

The happily married mother of two teenagers, [Janet] finds her sedate suburban existence rudely disrupted when a meteor crashes into the moon, fragmenting it into three parts, any of which could plummet towards Earth and destroy the planet at any given moment. The strong-willed [Janet] is trying to pretend that nothing is amiss, but meanwhile all around her are melting down, including her scientist husband, who quits his job as the president of a huge biotech company and goes mountain climbing in Africa with no thought to the financial devastation of his family.

the futon critic

Let's hope that they actually do some on-location shooting at JPL. That'd be cool. Some coworkers and I have been trying to come up with some engaging dialog. First, it's a trifle worrisome that all these descriptions mention scientists and not engineers. Does Fox realize the difference? It's critical! Second, we're hoping that Beyond will introduce Cog E into the national lexicon. Personally, I'm just waiting to hear what kind of technical jokes get stuck in the script.

Finally, David Nevins described it as "it's going to be a smart ensemble drama about scientists who must become action heroes". I think he's implying that the engineers are already action heroes, and that the scientists are finally going to join the team. I think he could have been a bit more tactful, but you know those Hollywood types.

According to My Entertainment, shooting started last week.