I have tried to determine whether there is anything insidious in Syfy turning “Ascension,” originally described as a six-part miniseries, into a “three-night event” and setting it afloat in the relatively dead waters of mid-December.

But I have no idea, really. Perhaps this is the absolute best time to air something you’re not sure anyone will watch, the competition being relatively light.

The series, a Canadian co-production — I suspected as much when one character told some others to “take off” — is set aboard a citylike spacecraft, bigger than the Empire State Building and launched on a century-long secret mission to colonize another world. The twist is that the trip is half over, having begun in the early 1960s, and that the astronauts are living in a kind of time capsule, or parallel history, in which the old mores still pertain.

This is, of course, impossible. But it does allow for a pleasing use of old tech and fashions, and the creation of a world, to quote one Earthbound character, “that never knew the Summer of Love, Betty Friedan, ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X,’ the Clash.” And that pretty well covers the second half of the 20th century.

Creator Philip Levens (“Smallville”) reportedly took inspiration from Project Orion, which in the late 1950s and early 1960s sought to create a reusable spacecraft propelled by atomic blasts.

Brian Van Holt is the ship’s captain; Tricia Helfer plays his wife, wielding power behind the scenes. Brandon Bell is the black first officer, tasked with investigating the murder.

In packing this crew off to a brand-new world, no one apparently thought to make it a better one. For one thing, miscegenation, is illegal.

It’s a big ship but a small town. There are misunderstood teenagers, angry workers, disaffected spouses and illicit lovers.

I like what I’ve seen, though there are more than a couple of moments where the only possible reaction is “Naaah.” Still, whatever has been made or becomes of it, it has something a little different to show you.