In the not-too-distant future, the moon has become the new frontier for an Earth thirsty for resources. In this case, vast lunar reserves of helium, which the earth depends on for fuel. This has created a collection of lunar colonies, all from different countries with different interests, and all competing to get that sweet sweet moon juice to power their gadgets and gizmos. Every country has a different mindset when it comes to exploiting their lunar resources. Russia sends its military, the Japanese send robots, and the United States sends its convicts. Two of these convicts, Marty (Jake Sandvig) and Leon (Toby Hargrave), investigating a broken piece of equipment, uncover a shocking surprise: a flower growing out of the surface of the moon. Cue the massive explosion, and cue the political intrigue. You can’t fault High Moon for reaching for every possible element. From a father and daughter (who just happens to be the only baby ever born on the moon) to the estranged brother pairing of Ian and Marty to the romantic subplot between Stan and Trofim (Kirby Morrow), High Moon really does try to cram several individual episodes of TV into a single movie block, and it’s mostly successful. However, at times it’s downright impossible to remember who is who, or how various characters relate to one another, but then a guy’s hands pop off and help him escape prison or a giant dinosaur shows up, and it doesn’t really matter that the cast is crowded. The ideas seem to pop, and I’d rather the show overreach than not reach far enough (especially since is the only shot they’re getting unless the movie ratings are really, really good). At times, the script, from Jim Danger Gray, gets a little lost in itself, but there are some really weird, inventive things going on. There’s also a pretty sizable streak of wit running through certain characters, like Stan, and General Gale, who serves as both foil to Ian and the comic relief character. There seem to be too many charming rogues to go around, but I have no doubt that if the show had gotten more time, they would have had no problem balancing out the cast and making it all come together nicely. There are elements here that could really work. There aren’t many finished pilots that don’t get put into production by cable networks, and I can’t figure out why High Moon didn’t make the cut. Yes, it’s cluttered and it shoehorns entirely too much world-building in the first 15 minutes, but what sci-fi show doesn’t get exposition heavy in the beginning, particularly when trying to cram two (or three) episodes of material into a trimmed-down TV movie? Perhaps SyFy felt it would be too expensive on a limited return; perhaps they just didn’t want to have another sci-fi show on at the same time as Defiance. Maybe High Moon would be too expensive; it certainly looks expensive if nothing else. Either way, at least they released the pilot for the public, if only to recoup some of the expense put into it. High Moon isn’t perfect, and it probably never would’ve been perfect, but it was close to finding the right balance of campiness to seriousness to cater to SyFy’s devoted, if dwindling, audience of folks who want to see decent sci-fi tales on television without being too dry for the Sharknado audience. Any show that gives us a robot dinosaur is probably worth a single season to find its metal-clawed feet. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.