Despite having been against its creation, chaplain Peter Leigh agrees to travel to the first human colony, Oasis, when he receives a personal plea from the colony’s founder David Morgan. But once he arrives there, things are in turmoil – Morgan has vanished and the crew are unsettled…

Based on Michael Faber’s novel The Book of Strange New Things, Amazon’s latest SF pilot has elements of Solaris and the short-lived BBC series Outcasts about it, with a carefully written script asking a lot of questions and making you want to know the answers… even though you are fully aware that there’s no chance you’re going to get them in his opening one-hour instalment.

Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden is well cast as the priest at the centre of things, and there are plenty of things we still want to find out about him – not least exactly what happens between him and his wife, why he was opposed to Oasis (the place, not the band)… and precisely what’s going on at the cliff-hanger. There’s a strong cast supporting him, even if some of them are having to do the “mysterious” bit for the moment – an almost unrecognisable Haley Joel Osment and Mark Addy are the stand-outs, with a scene between Addy and Madden probably the best of the entire episode.

The world-building – both on Earth and Oasis – is deftly handled by writer Matt Charman and director Kevin MacDonald: it’s set 15 years in the future (although seeing “2032” on screen may somehow make you think that’s a lot further ahead than it really is) so there’s much that’s familiar, but the Earth scenes feel very like the dystopia that Nigel Kneale created for his final Quatermass outing nearly 40 years ago. Oasis itself – filmed in Namibia – constantly feels like a threat, and you can understand why the crew are starting to believe they’re not welcome there.

Verdict: Putting a man of faith at the heart of a science fiction show could lead to an interesting examination of faith vs. science – and so I’m hoping this gets a pick-up. 8/10

Paul Simpson