The spaceship Antares is about to go on a grand tour of the solar system, a manned mission to seven planets in six years as they line up in a fortuitous, and rare, pattern. A multi-ethnic crew is picked from a huge number of applicants to take part in this historic mission, but on the eve of the launch, two of the pivotal crewmembers are discovered to have undetected heart problems.

DEFYING GRAVITY aims to be an ensemble character drama set in space, an extra-terrestrial ER or GRAY'S ANATOMY. Unfortunately, where they are slick and stylish and smooth and polished, this opening episode is lumpy and uneven, much as you might expect from a show with an eye on offsetting its large budget by selling to every TV region and thus covering every ethic base possible in the choice of crew and the coverage of those characters.

It's a big cast to be getting on with as well and not that many stand out from the crowd. John LIvingstone's Donner is clearly the focal point, but he proves to be a bland and less than interesting centre and is saddled with a truly dire voiceover that really could have been dispensed with. Others that make an impact (though don't necessarily convince) are Zahf Paroo's Ajay, Andrew Airlie's mission commander Mike Goss and Laura Harris's clearly off her rocker Zoe.

We're told that the crew have been picked for their skills, compatibility and stability in the face of such a long mission in close proximity, but so many of them have issues (hearing babies where there aren't any, having lost colleagues on a mars mission, not taking being bumped at the last minute well, failed vasectomy) that it's more obvious that they have been picked to conflict at the earlies possible moment.

Soap operatics aside, the plot is too dull to be a successful launch pad for the show. It's the start so we have to be introduced to everyone through a series of flashbacks to the training exercises, but the central problem to be solved (mad hindu sat on the front of a spaceship about to launch into the far ends of the solar system) is so ridiculous, and short, that it derails everything. There are hints of sabotage that may liven things up later, but this is a show that is going to need livening up, and fast, or it's going to feel every inch of its six year mission.