Nightflyers: all the trailers, updates, and commentary for Syfy’s next big sci-fi show

The Syfy channel has canceled its space horror series Nightflyers after a single season, according to The Wrap, just a couple of months after the series aired on the network.

The 10-episode show is based on a novella by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, as the Syfy channel prominently splashed across its marketing in the lead-up to the series. Martin’s novella follows an expedition to an alien starship, during which the scientists and engineers realize their ship is home to a malevolent presence. The series, a slow burn of a horror story, largely asked whether humanity deserves to be saved.

Tonight, the Syfy channel will launch its latest big science fiction show: Nightflyers, based on a story from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. The series poses a big question for viewers: does humanity deserve to be saved?

The story is adapted from a novella originally published in 1980 in the science-fiction magazine Astounding Science Fact and Fiction, long before Martin was a household name. He wrote it to refute a critical statement he read, claiming that science fiction and horror were opposites, and couldn’t be mashed together. “As a lifelong fan of both, that assertion struck me as nonsense, so I set out to prove it wrong by blending the two genres together. Worked out pretty well for me,” he posted on his LiveJournal in 2017.

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend.

“Sandkings,” the two-part premiere episode of Showtime’s mid-1990s The Outer Limits revival. The second iteration of the 1960s science fiction / fantasy / horror anthology was generally more adult than the original (sort of a hard PG-13), but it told the same kinds of creepy cautionary tales, often adapted from the work of some of the era’s best genre writers.

Spoilers for the general plot of Nightflyers ahead.

In the first episode of Syfy’s new series Nightflyers, Karl D’Branin (Eoin Macken), head of a scientific expedition meant to intercept an alien spaceship and establish first contact, talks with xenobiologist Rowan (Angus Sampson) about the mission. Karl views the incredible energy given off by the ship as mankind’s salvation, but Rowan expects the aliens haven’t responded to repeated messages from Earth because they don’t want to talk.

Syfy will screen the first episode of its upcoming space horror show Nightflyers later today at New York Comic Con. Ahead of the premiere, it announced that the 10-episode series will series will debut on December 2nd; the first five episodes will air between Sunday and Thursday starting December 2nd, while the second half of the series will air the week starting on December 9th. Each episode will be available online as soon as it premieres on television through on demand and via the network’s website and app. The online episodes also won’t be locked to subscribers; anyone can watch them.

Based on a novella by George R.R. Martin (of Game of Thrones fame), Nightflyers is set on a spaceship, as its crew sets off on a mission to search for extraterrestrial life. When they reach the edge of the solar system, they encounter an unspeakable horror that’s already onboard their ship. Martin described the story as “Psycho in space,” and it’s a show that Syfy has high hopes for. The Hollywood Reporter says that it’s the most expensive show that the channel has put together, and it comes after recent cancellations of space-oriented shows like The Expanse and Dark Matter.

Today at San Diego Comic-Con, the Syfy Channel hosted a panel with its cast and crew for its upcoming space horror show, Nightflyers, and it showed off the first full trailer for the series. The show, based on a novella by George R.R. Martin, teases the horrors that the crew of an interstellar spacecraft face when they embark on their mission.

When we got a first look at the show in March, Martin said that it would be like “Psycho in space.” This new trailer teases out a bit more of the story: Earth is dying, the crew of the Nightflyer is going farther into space than anyone has before, and it is humanity’s only hope of survival. But once the mission gets underway, there’s a “malfunction” that kills several people, and the crew begins to realize that there’s something wrong with the ship, and it can’t return to Earth. In Martin’s original novella, the crew is bound for an alien spacecraft, and we’ll see how that figures into the series when the show premieres at some point this fall.

Syfy has released a first look at the upcoming adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Nightflyers, which will adapt the 1980 novella into a 10-episode television series. While the trailer doesn’t do much beyond show off a few of the actors and offer some behind-the-scenes hype for the show, there’s a clear horror vibe coming across here. As Martin himself teases: “It’s Psycho in space.”

Syfy is betting big on Nightflyers as a major series. The novella follows the crew of a spaceship — also called the Nightflyer — as they search for a mythical alien species until things go wrong with the ship’s computer and people start dying (as it tends to happen in space horror stories). The novella was already adapted into a film back in 1987, but the TV show is looking to tell an expanded story that’s more true to Martin’s original tale and characters.

Last week, George R.R. Martin revealed that the Syfy channel picked up an adaptation of his 1980 novella Nightflyers for a 10-episode first season, and said that if all goes well, the show should premiere in summer 2018. In a new post on his LiveJournal, he commends the production for correcting a longstanding complaint he had with the art for his novella, and the story’s 1987 film adaptation — whitewashing.

In his post, Martin outlines a bit of Nightflyers history. His original story is about a group of scientists who hire a starship — the Nightflyer — to transport them to an alien starship they hope to study. The three main characters are Karoly d'Branin, the expedition’s leader; Royd Eris, Nightflyer’s captain; and Melantha Jhirl, a genetically enhanced human, who’s described as “a head taller than anyone on board, a large-framed, large-breasted, long-legged, strong, muscles moving fluidly beneath shiny coal-black skin.” Martin later expanded the story, which appeared in a paperback collection in 1985, where for the first time, a cover artist depicted Melantha Jhirl — as a white woman.