![An asteroid approaches the Earth [image credit: Photo via NASA]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/18/660x290/b_502x220x82/an-asteroid-approaches-the-earth-image-courtesy-of-nasa_1641287.jpg "An asteroid approaches the Earth [image credit: Photo via NASA]")
Deadline Hollywood has reported that CBS has decided to give “Salvation,” it's summer drama that used an asteroid headed for a collision with Earth as the McGuffin, a second season to air in the summer of 2018. The announcement will be welcome to fans of science fiction and political melodramas. The awesome thing about “Salvation” is how many genres it managed to encompass in one show.
The first season ended with a cliffhanger
As fans of the show may remember, the final episode of season one ended with a cliffhanger. Not content to be under threat of an asteroid collision, Russia, and the United States may have initiated a nuclear exchange.
At issue was the paranoid (and to some extent well-founded) belief that the United States had developed a way to weaponize asteroids to attack its enemies. The fear had complicated the notion of countries combining forces to stop the asteroid, which threatened to end all life on the planet.
The celebration of commercial space
The show centered around an MIT grad student named Liam Cole and an Elon Musk-type tech billionaire named Darius Tanz who ally in an effort to stop the asteroid. They use a piece of real-world technology that has proven controversial called the EM drive that uses microwave energy to create thrust. They are aided by Grace Barrows, a Pentagon press spokesperson, and Harris Edwards, her on again off again fiancé, who ends season one as secretary of defense.
The show notes that Darius’ operation, being more nimble and cost-effective, seems to be succeeding while the more massive and more cumbersome government effort. Darius also has a backup plan using a space ark initially intended to send colonists to Mars.
The show has everything
Besides the main plot. "Salvation" has cold war-style intrigue, an X-Files-style government conspiracy, a separate rebel hacker conspiracy, romantic triangles, and multiple family dramas.
The show, oddly, proved to be greater than the sum of its parts. It managed to pull off a number of seemingly improbable twists and turns through the first season.
What happens next?
The sad part is that fans of the show are going to have to wait until next summer to find out about the resolution of some of the cliffhangers.
Will the incoming nuclear missiles be stopped? What was that last bit that Liam told Darius about his solution to the overarching problem of halting the asteroid? Who is really behind the hacker conspiracy and what is his deal? Who will Grace wind up with?
The DVD will be out in December. In the meantime, those of you all who have pay for view cable may be able to catch up on the on-demand feature.
