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TV has been gakky for a long time. Reality shows really killed it for me.

Deathklaat wrote:

the SyFy/ sci-fi / the LAME channel really did itself in when they added wrestling to their line-up.

Heh, the only thing that made me chuckle with that, was some exec at SyFy whispered to the WWE to add some fantasy/Sci-fi related characters. So for six months to a year or so, we had, Pirates, Vampires, superheroes and various other things running around the ring, a Zombie at one point I think. Well till they got bored and it slipped away with the death of ECW for a second time.

It was like a flashback to the attitude era, I was waiting for Gangrel and the Brood to come back.

They never existed IMO,I haven't found a single SF series out there that I like. Yet I love SF.


Oh wait, Starship troopers animation was fun!

LordofHats wrote:The problem is that even if its cheaper, its still expensive.

The thing is, in the 90s we had Babylon 5, Crusade, Star Trek TNG, ST Deep Space 9, ST Voyager, Earth Above and Beyond, Farscape, Red Dwarf, Stargate SG-1, that odd one with lots of implied sex on the SciFi channel, and probably a couple more. In the early 2000s, we saw BattleStar Galactica, ST-Enterprise, second half of SG-1, SG Atlantis, one season of Firefly. For the late 2000s and 2010s, so far we have Dr. Who and SG-Atlantis.

It seems to me that in the 90s there was a wide variety of science fiction on space ships, even though it was more expensive to do ship shots then, and the shows hung around for long stretches. There was some momentum going into the early 2000s, but only BSG was really good, (I don't rank SG Universe and ST Enterprise very well) and the genre seems to have really dried out except for Doctor Who, which is really kind of it's own thing.

What strikes me as odd is that with the costs of doing ship effects getting so much lower and easier to do, that there are fewer shows that can benefit from that reduced cost. I'd expect there to be a few shows on the air, even if not real high budget. Then again, this could be the calm before the storm, and that because there are so few shows a bunch of people will get new ones started to capture the market.

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

LordofHats wrote:The problem is that even if its cheaper, its still expensive.

The thing is, in the 90s we had Babylon 5, Crusade, Star Trek TNG, ST Deep Space 9, ST Voyager, Earth Above and Beyond, Farscape, Red Dwarf, Stargate SG-1, that odd one with lots of implied sex on the SciFi channel, and probably a couple more. In the early 2000s, we saw BattleStar Galactica, ST-Enterprise, second half of SG-1, SG Atlantis, one season of Firefly. For the late 2000s and 2010s, so far we have Dr. Who and SG-Atlantis.

It seems to me that in the 90s there was a wide variety of science fiction on space ships, even though it was more expensive to do ship shots then, and the shows hung around for long stretches. There was some momentum going into the early 2000s, but only BSG was really good, (I don't rank SG Universe and ST Enterprise very well) and the genre seems to have really dried out except for Doctor Who, which is really kind of it's own thing.

What strikes me as odd is that with the costs of doing ship effects getting so much lower and easier to do, that there are fewer shows that can benefit from that reduced cost. I'd expect there to be a few shows on the air, even if not real high budget. Then again, this could be the calm before the storm, and that because there are so few shows a bunch of people will get new ones started to capture the market.

Its actually surprising one of the pay per month movie channels hasn't latched on. They could have Boobs in Space.

Well Starz has Torchwood now. Is that sci fi, or X-Files for british folks?

Space : Above and Beyond
Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Tripods.

All cut off in their prime. I mourn them.

I think I'll sacrifice a Big Brother 'contestant' in their memory. (what? You really think Cancer got Jade Goody? Good. That's exactly what I need you to think)

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:

Deathklaat wrote:

the SyFy/ sci-fi / the LAME channel really did itself in when they added wrestling to their line-up.

Heh, the only thing that made me chuckle with that, was some exec at SyFy whispered to the WWE to add some fantasy/Sci-fi related characters. So for six months to a year or so, we had, Pirates, Vampires, superheroes and various other things running around the ring, a Zombie at one point I think. Well till they got bored and it slipped away with the death of ECW for a second time.

It was like a flashback to the attitude era, I was waiting for Gangrel and the Brood to come back.

An exec at WWE actually was the one who came up with it.

Either way, as much as I loathe wrestling...the ratings and advertising revenue(along with simply the licensing support that them agreeing to be where NBC Universal dumps it) funds Eureka, Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, and the new show Alphas.

By itself. That is kind of a big deal.

Deathklaat wrote:

LordofHats wrote:There will always be scifi shows on the air. Sadly most of them tend to be crappy (Like most TV shows).

Right now I can say I'm pretty pleased with Falling Skies so far.

i will second Falling Skies.

the SyFy/ sci-fi / the LAME channel really did itself in when they added wrestling to their line-up.

And showing constant hours of ghost hunters and generally crappy sci-fi shows. They've gone the way of G4 who now only shows Cops and Star Trek, and the History Channel, who only shows history related programming maybe two or three hours out of the day and on VE, VJ, and D day (And on D-Day all they show is Band of Brothers, not that I don't like BoB but I'd like some actual history programming).

What strikes me as odd is that with the costs of doing ship effects getting so much lower and easier to do, that there are fewer shows that can benefit from that reduced cost. I'd expect there to be a few shows on the air, even if not real high budget. Then again, this could be the calm before the storm, and that because there are so few shows a bunch of people will get new ones started to capture the market.

It's an issue of audience. By and large, in space sci-fi is a niche market. And many potential viewers get themselves entrenched in various things that just make no sense. Bring a Star Wars die hard and a Star Trek die hard together, to propose a stereotype. Making a successful scifi in space series is not easy, and those that get on the air I think often end up burning themselves out (another poster brought this up). Andromada started out half-decent, but a season or so in just... stopped... making... sense... BSG did the same think imo. Seasons three and four were very hard to follow and poorly written and executed. Especially the ending, which I only watched for the cool explosions. Firefly while of good quality, was a little atypical and I question how long it could have lasted as a show to be honest. It was a one season wonder that unfortunately never got to the first season imo.

To end: Scifi has a subculture attached to it that makes it complicated to deal with, a problem compounded by expense and difficulty in effective plot development. More contemporary set shows which currently dominate the market are more affordable and appeal to a wider audience. They just win out because of mathematics.

Either way, as much as I loathe wrestling...the ratings and advertising revenue(along with simply the licensing support that them agreeing to be where NBC Universal dumps it) funds Eureka, Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, and the new show Alphas.

I'd appreciate some scifi shows actually worth watching. Eureka is boring, and Warehouse and Sanctuary are more fantasy than Sci-Fi... Warehouse is straight fantasy to be honest. Alphas just looks like a ripe of Wanted mixed with Leverage to me and again, more akin to contemporary fantasy than scifi (as is Haven).

You missed War of the Worlds, Alien Nation, Space 1999, Earth II and of course the greatest sci show of all time...Quark.

Currently there is Eureka, Haven, Warehouse 13 (GC likes these three but I have never seen them), and Fallen Skies. Blood and Chrome is in production (Cylon War - bring me on some tin can killin!). Its light currently, but always ebbs and flows.

As noted the "ships in space" type sci fi is generally more expensive in sets et al. Special effects have become less expensive, true, but actual revenues generated have also fallen dramatically in light of the plethora of channels.

Interestingly, we're not seeing a lot of ships in space sci fi in the movies either currently as comic book movies are dominating the fantasy space. Like beaver, sci fi will shine again though (looks over the shoulder at Cowboys vs. Aliens, Rise of the Apes, and Promethus on the horizon). Indeed, shine again.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yes...Quark...
the uniforms...
the high tech effects...
the twins!

Mr Mystery wrote:I think I'll sacrifice a Big Brother 'contestant' in their memory.

I'd sacrifice a Big Brother contestant for a can of coke.

The only show on sci fi (I refuse to type it the new way) I was ever really totally into was BSG. But I did like having 2 stargates to watch before it on friday night, in fact that was the only reason I watched them. Even though I was usually painting models while they were on and not totally watching. I think Stargate was a good idea at first and I love the original movie.. but I think it got stupid once they realized there weren't any more gods to kill.

I thought Being Human was ok, but Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary all bore me to tears. Just not into em. I do like Ghost Hunters, but I don't need to watch 18 episodes a night. 1 is more than enough. Destination Truth and those other finding bigfoot kind of shows would be a lot better if they actually found stuff, but they don't .. ever. It's "OMG there's something on the thermal camera!!!212! Oh, sorry, just a bear. move along, nothing to see here..." .. every episode... Now they have a new show with some Indiana Jones wannabe who will also be finding nothing every week. If those folks ever did find something it would be totally by accident, and covered on every news channel in the world long before it airs on the show.

Sci Fi shows on TV is just tough because all us nerds have our expectations set way too high, and hollywood thinks we're all dumb, so the shows just don't work long enough to matter.

I have high hopes for this:

Frazzled wrote:Its actually surprising one of the pay per month movie channels hasn't latched on. They could have Boobs in Space.

The pilot of SG-1 has boobs past a gate, since it started out on showtime. I was surprised since I always through of it as a sci-fi channel show, and sci-fi is very PG-13.

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Its actually surprising one of the pay per month movie channels hasn't latched on. They could have Boobs in Space.

The pilot of SG-1 has boobs past a gate, since it started out on showtime. I was surprised since I always through of it as a sci-fi channel show, and sci-fi is very PG-13.

No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

Frazzled wrote:

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Its actually surprising one of the pay per month movie channels hasn't latched on. They could have Boobs in Space.

The pilot of SG-1 has boobs past a gate, since it started out on showtime. I was surprised since I always through of it as a sci-fi channel show, and sci-fi is very PG-13.

No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

Just go ahead and say it, we all know you mean Caligula in Space.

Frazzled wrote:No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

I think something here broke my brain, now I'm envisioning giant boobs tumbling through space like the monolith in 2001.

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

Frazzled wrote:No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

I think something here broke my brain, now I'm envisioning giant boobs tumbling through space like the monolith in 2001.

Nope, you're brain is most definitely working correctly.

Mmmm.....space jubblies...

Necros wrote:Well Starz has Torchwood now. Is that sci fi, or X-Files for british folks?

Torchwood is a spin-off of Dr.Who based around a fictional institute that was founded by Queen Victoria in the second (rebooted) series episode "Tooth and Claw" the main institute was..


but the smaller units within it still survived, and Torchwood follows the cardiff unit's exploits, defeating alien menaces in and around the UK (and soon to be the US)

BearersOfSalvation wrote:For the late 2000s and 2010s, so far we have Dr. Who and SG-Atlantis.

And Battlestar Galactica, and V, and Eureka, and Warehouse 13, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Torchwood, and Heroes, and Lost, and Primeval, and Being Human...

Do you want me to carry on?

Just because you can't be bothered to think of a list of Sci-Fi shows from recent years doesn't mean that there weren't any, it just means that you can't think of any.

Goliath wrote:Just because you can't be bothered to think of a list of Sci-Fi shows from recent years doesn't mean that there weren't any, it just means that you can't think of any.

I think he was specifically listing sci-fi in space shows (as in, sci-fi with a setting that involves travel to other planets, space ships, and advanced technologies + aliens etc). Which none of those you really listed other than BSG and V are. And some of the shows you listed are more fantasy than sci-fi (except Lost, I never really got what that show was about). Get your genre's straight

Nobody thought of neon genesis evangelion, best sci-fi anime ever

Ledabot wrote:Nobody thought of neon genesis evangelion, best sci-fi anime ever

Sadly I disagree, and I think we've mostly been talking live action TV series'

somehow...

i knew.

Ones with lots of running! like Dr who?

LordofHats wrote:

Goliath wrote:Just because you can't be bothered to think of a list of Sci-Fi shows from recent years doesn't mean that there weren't any, it just means that you can't think of any.

I think he was specifically listing sci-fi in space shows (as in, sci-fi with a setting that involves travel to other planets, space ships, and advanced technologies + aliens etc). Which none of those you really listed other than BSG and V are. And some of the shows you listed are more fantasy than sci-fi (except Lost, I never really got what that show was about). Get your genre's straight

The only one that I listed that could be fantasy rather than Sci-fi is Being Human, but that was shown on syfy, which is why I put it on the list

There is still some good SF stuff out there, I am suprised noone has mentioned Fringe yet.

JJ Abrams is a hack, but Anna Torv's preformance makes with some interesting characterisation and is easy on the eyes; however it's John Noble who totally saves, and steals, the show.

BearersOfSalvation wrote:In the early 2000s, we saw BattleStar Galactica... It seems to me that in the 90s there was a wide variety of science fiction on space ships,

Goliath wrote:And Battlestar Galactica, and V, and Eureka, and Warehouse 13, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Torchwood, and Heroes, and Lost, and Primeval, and Being Human... Do you want me to carry on?

I listed BattleStar Galactica, I just thought it was slightly older than it was, for some reason I thought it wrapped up around 2006 not 2009. V has some space ships in it, but takes place pretty much entirely on earth, so I wouldn't count it as being "on space ships", and Eureka and Warehouse 13 are similar IIRC with alien tech but no one flying around. Terminator, Torchwood, Heroes, Lost, Primeval, and Being Human don't have space ships at all as far as I know, so I have no idea how you'd even start to argue that they take place on space ships.

I don't want you to carry on listing shows that don't take place on space ships and acting like it's some kind of counter to my claim that there isn't much sci-fi taking place on space ships, because I feel bad for you looking so absurd. While I'm not using some sort of super-precise term, I don't think there's an ambiguity about shows that don't even have space ships at all not being science fiction that takes place on space ships.

Goliath wrote:

LordofHats wrote:

Goliath wrote:Just because you can't be bothered to think of a list of Sci-Fi shows from recent years doesn't mean that there weren't any, it just means that you can't think of any.

I think he was specifically listing sci-fi in space shows (as in, sci-fi with a setting that involves travel to other planets, space ships, and advanced technologies + aliens etc). Which none of those you really listed other than BSG and V are. And some of the shows you listed are more fantasy than sci-fi (except Lost, I never really got what that show was about). Get your genre's straight

The only one that I listed that could be fantasy rather than Sci-fi is Being Human, but that was shown on syfy, which is why I put it on the list

Warehouse 13 is not sci-fi. When you have plot devices like a fancy water-god's Trident, ghosts and spirits, and ancient Egyptian curses, you're squarely in the fantasy area of things.

Gotto say I love sci fi, but sci fi shows for the most part...meh. I really wanted V to be good, crossing fingers with fallen skys. Really the writing just isn't there. I like sons of anarchy and rescue me, while they are not sci fi, they are so outlandish at times they might as well be. Stargate universe was picking up, but it's strange that so many sci fi shows lack good action, I mean that should be a given in a sci fi show.

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

Frazzled wrote:No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

I think something here broke my brain, now I'm envisioning giant boobs tumbling through space like the monolith in 2001.

You say it like its a bad thing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Platuan4th wrote:

Frazzled wrote:

BearersOfSalvation wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Its actually surprising one of the pay per month movie channels hasn't latched on. They could have Boobs in Space.

The pilot of SG-1 has boobs past a gate, since it started out on showtime. I was surprised since I always through of it as a sci-fi channel show, and sci-fi is very PG-13.

No I'm envisioning Imperial Rome in Space.

Just go ahead and say it, we all know you mean Caligula in Space.

well...yea..

Frazzled wrote:You say it like its a bad thing.

We open looking at the front window of a dingy gaming store, then the camera zooms to the interior. There are a large number of gaming tables with people playing games. At first they seem normal, but as we zoom in they look greasier and more scraggly. We can see that their outfits are ill-fitting and ill-chosen. At first we hear some distinct conversation about 'made four saves' and 'true line of sight', but as we watch they stop facing each other and their words devolve into monkey-like shrieking.

As the camera shifts to clearly show the wall that was obsucred by the earlier angle, we see that they're all looking and pointing at a huge rounded object that is clearly out of place and takes up most of a wall. They begin to calm down a bit and huddle cautiously around the object drawn to it's smooth, soft lines. The leader of the gamers is the first to reach out fearfully and hypnotically to the sexy object, and his boldness encourages the others to mutely gather near. A window opens up, and bright sunlight fills the room, causing the gamers to blink and squint from the light. Mysteriously, the object is gone.

The leader, his mind racing from the presence of the object, has a thought coming to his mind. There's this girl he's had a crush on, but was always to afraid to call. With the image of the object clearly in his mind, he takes a shower, puts on a clean shirt, and calls her up avoiding any gaming terms. The other gamers are so excited at this, they begin cheering, shrieking, and jumping around. One of them throws a CRASSUS ARMORED TRANSPORT up into the air, and the camera follows it in slow motion as it hurls upward, then jump cuts to a view of a space station.