The first episode, "Ikarus part 1," is actually a prequel to the main series. The series is somewhat confusingly made up of three actual episodes, and a handful of "interspace" episodes, which are either prequels or stuff that takes place outside the main action. Like the exclusive clip we featured from this series a while back, the first episode features low production values and occasionally dodgy acting. But it's also edgy and freaktastic, especially the way the male characters constantly sexually harrass Aeriana, the deaf pilot who's also a hacker. And I'm looking forward to learning more about this hard-edged dystopian post-Earth solar system, especially after the intriguing glimpses in the opening credits. [Venus Rises]

In Venus Rises, humanity has completely abandoned the Earth. All of the big corporations and wealthy people have set up shop on Mars, while the working stiffs are stuck in much worse conditions on Venus. The series begins as conflicts between the planets begin to heat up. Our hero, Sam, is an officer with the Mars Defense Directorate, and his friend Kylara is a scientist from Mars. Before this clip starts, Sam and Kylara are stranded in space, and they happen upon the Ikarus, a mining ship. The clip is still somewhat "raw," without music.

Venus Rises will be free online at VenusRises.com, and also available on science fiction-on-demand cable channel IllusionTV. We talked to Birdsall about his series, and here's what he had to say.

We love the look of the Ikarus in this clip. How many sets did you build for the show in total?

There are seven sets total. I originally planned eight, but I had to drop one cause of budget. I looked through a lot of NASA books to try and match the feel of a real operational spacecraft.

In the clip, it looks really cramped

Space is a commodity.

So what are the chances of a second season of VR right now?

I only plan to do a season two if I can get funding. But I do plan on continuing 'interspace' episodes after the series is over.

Those are shorter, fill-in episodes, right? Are they all flashbacks?

Flashbacks and flash forwards. I'm lookin to keep them about 10 minutes long. Short story like.

Would your funding for season 2 come from illusionTV? or somewhere else?

It hasn't been finalized yet. It really depends on our fan base. There have been other inquires... but nothing formal yet.

So how explicitly is VR about class struggle? Is it sort of a haves vs. have nots situation?

It's not really about have or have nots... The Venus colonies are not looking to take over Mars. They want the means to make a comfortable living. Sort like war on the middle class. But they're being denied the basic stuff.

Yeah, I didn't think it was a war of conquest. But isn't that the definition of class war?

Yeah, there is definitely a class war context... but people have their own motives when taken out of their element.

So does the first season end with a cliffhanger? Are people going to be frustrated if there's never a second season?

It does end on a cliffhanger... but there are enough clues for the audience to piece it together.

So Earth is forbidden territory after humans abandon it. Why is that?

Thats an important story element... a little spoiler-ish. Earth plays more of a role later, in season two.

So all the big corporations are set up on Mars, and they use venus for cheap labor? Sort of like ousourcing to the third world.

Exactly. But the Venusians arent dumb, they know they are being exploited. Mars has key people in leadership positions on Venus.

Who designed your spaceships? What was the aesthetic behind the spaceship design? Gritty and spaceworn, or sleek and awesome?

We have a few 3d artists working on the project. Arnand kularajah is responsible for most of the spaceships in the series. He's an engineering physicist from Stevens Institute of Technology. He designed the ships science factually, which was a very important factor to me. Stephen Gilbert (cresshead is his handle) is a CG instructor in the UK. He's done work for NASA's moon landing anniversary so he was also a perfect match for this project. Craig Encer, and Mike Valentine work with Stephen. They're a strong team.

The show was always about grittiness. I designed the sets first, and it became a challenge for the artists to match that look. I never saw space being clean. It's a workplace. To quote Kirk from Star Trek IV, "I just work in outer space". I have to say i watched a lot of Babylon 5 and Firefly. I really like the character development in both series.

So when does the first season go up?

That's the 10 million dollar question. It's a pilot series, worked on by all volunteers.

So you're the production manager and an actor. How did that happen?

They were having trouble finding actresses that could pull it off. I'm not an actress, I run an on-line game (the "Rubies of Eventide" mmorpg.) I was saying, "How hard can it be to find a female who can act?" They said, "It's the deaf pilot hacker." They couldn't find a female actress in the area who could credibly act like a hacker. But also whoever was cast for this had to learn sign language. I have a coach. It's one of those bizarre things. He sends me [videos of sign language] on YouTube, and I have to do it back.

So you have to copy the Youtube videos?

Yes. And a lot of sci-fi terms, when you get into flux capacitor or something like that, he has to make up words for it. He's over in Maryland too, so it's very much a new media project.

So Venus Rises is only appearing on the new on-demand cable channel IllusionTV? Or is it online as well?

We're also releasing it on the Web. We were very particular about that. The cable channel is showing it, they're not funding it. It's still indy.

The sets and costumes look very gritty. Did Firefly influence the look of this show?

[Writer/director J.G. Birdsall] already had [the grittiness] before Firefly became the thing to do. As soon as we started getting noticed, people started comparing us to Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. It was sort of a co-evolution.

Why is there so much class antagonism between Venus and Mars?

Acccording to the storyline, when Earth was going through all the cataclysms, the mega corporations ... were more well funded than the governments. They got their people off first. They went and strip mined the moon to build up Mars. Mars is where the corporate headquarters are. [Ordinary workers live on Venus, and they] think they'll get to retire to Mars and live happily ever after. It's 50 years later, and they're starting to realize not many of them are being moved off Venus. They're working harder and the quotas are going up, and it's getting impossible for them to retire comfortably. People are dying or getting crippled before they get to that point.

Think of colonial America and Britain, where America had all the raw materials. On Venus, they have all the raw materials and they ship it over to Mars for refining into the final products.

So the main characters are on a refueling station orbiting Earth?

They're on the International Space Station, the actual space station, converted into a "gas station." It's like Midway Island, it's in the middle of Mars and Venus. So in order to make the trip either way, you have to stop and refuel there.

Sam, the main character, is a kid fresh out of the academy. He's looking for advancement but he's trapped on this refueling station. He's with his best friend and his mentor Nathan, so it's not bad.

So how do Sam and Nathan get caught up in the class war between the two planets?

You really follow the story through Sam's eyes. What happens is, Sam is on this space station, and ... they find an unidentified craft, that passes by going to Earth. Earth is supposed to be off limits, completely quarantined. No craft is supposed to go there. It's not even supposed to support life. They notice the space craft is going into Earth's atmosphere. And Sam is ordered to go investigate.

But there's a war between Mars and Venus?

Yes. It's an escalating civil conflict.

Is this meant to be a metaphor for class conflict?

I can't speak for Jason, but that was one of the main points he wanted to get across. He wanted to create kind of a homecoming to the 1950s scifi. He always wondered why after Star Trek and Star Wars, we never returned to Mars and Venus. But once you're within the solar system, you're talking near future. And once you're talking near future, it's going to be more introspective. So he decided to make it a civil war.

Could there be bigger role for Aeriana later on?

Maybe if i get more of a fan following. You will see more of my character later in the season. Also, the second interspace episode is about how my character acquired the Icarus, her ship.

What's an interspace episode?

There are the four main episodes in the series, and there are currently two shorter interspace episodes in post-production. One is the backstory on Sam, and one is the backstory on my character. They kind of go in between the episodes.

Are those four episodes, plus two prequels, all there is of the series?

There are plans for a second season, with network funding. There are other interspaces that are in script form, but they're not in production right now.

Does the whole story wrap up in those four episodes?

That would be more of a question for the writer.

Venus Rises takes place 50 years in the future, after a cataclysm has wiped out Earth. Humans have settled on Venus and Mars, using mostly crappy technology from abandoned government space projects. The Venusians become the working class, toiling endlessly for the "social elite" of Mars. When Venus Rises begins, a conflict is brewing between the two planets, and a group of friends on a refueling station orbiting Earth get caught in the middle.

Writer/director J.G. Birdsall mostly has experience working on Star Trek fan films, which could be a bad sign. But Smallville/The O.C. scribe C.S. Arnold is also involved, as a writer as well as actor. In any case, Birdsall is probably right when he says shows like Venus Rises are the future of televised science fiction. Reality shows are driving out scripted shows on broadcast TV, and science fiction that takes place in space, or the future, is too expensive and lacks a guaranteed audience. So direct-to-web productions like Venus Rises (or Lady Apocalypse) may pick up some of the slack. The only question is whether they can shed the stigma (and attitude) of "fan films."