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Is Sci-Fi, specifically the kind of classic sci-fi where people travel to other worlds or reside on a star ship dead? Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems there are no TV shows on currently set in space. Seems like sad times for geeks like myself who were raised on shows like star trek and their ilk.

Stargate?

Get yourself some books. I personally recommend Issac Asimov, but some people prefer Arthur C. Clarke. If you want a taste of their writing styles, check out some books of short stories by both. These guys wrote "real" science fiction-stuff that relies on predictions of future tech and the application of science. Their most famous works are the "Foundation" trilogy (I'm on book 2) for Asimov, and the "2001: A Space Odyssey" for Arthur C. Clarke. If you saw the movies and weren't that big of a fan, know that a lot more is explained in the books.

Manstein wrote:Stargate?

All done.

Doctor Who.

Yes. This website is a figment of your imagination.

Sci Fi on TV?

Outcasts finished a couple of months ago in the UK but it wasn't much good.

There's top class modern SF being published in books.

It seems like there were loads in the late 90's and theve all slowly died away. I miss farsape, so unique.

Mannahnin wrote:Yes. This website is a figment of your imagination.

I loled.

Also, as long as I can watch Battlestar Galactica on my Netflix Sci-Fi is alive and well. Seriously, if you haven't seen that show, you must.

Isamov? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Dull, plodding and pedantic. Same for Arthur C Clarke. Alfred Bester is all you need.

Kilkrazy wrote:"There's top class modern SF being published in books."

Could you give some me examples please. I'm always on the lookout for something half decent. Cheers.

Monster Rain wrote:

Mannahnin wrote:Yes. This website is a figment of your imagination.

I loled.

Also, as long as I can watch Battlestar Galactica on my Netflix Sci-Fi is alive and well. Seriously, if you haven't seen that show, you must.

Damn do I miss BSG.

PS: Jim Norton is hilarious.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Manstein wrote:Stargate?

All done.

If by all done, you mean it JUST ended on the 9th, yes.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:Isamov? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Dull, plodding and pedantic. Same for Arthur C Clarke. Alfred Bester is all you need.

Kilkrazy wrote:"There's top class modern SF being published in books."

Could you give some me examples please. I'm always on the lookout for something half decent. Cheers.

The Night's Dawn series by Peter F. Hamilton. Classic space opera. Would make an excellent series of movies, but there would have to be six of them. And they would be rated NC-17. Lots of sex.

Movac wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

Mannahnin wrote:Yes. This website is a figment of your imagination.

I loled.

Also, as long as I can watch Battlestar Galactica on my Netflix Sci-Fi is alive and well. Seriously, if you haven't seen that show, you must.

Damn do I miss BSG.

PS: Jim Norton is hilarious.

Based on your opinion of these two things I have no doubt that you are a man of class and impeccable taste.

Platuan4th wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Manstein wrote:Stargate?

All done.

If by all done, you mean it JUST ended on the 9th, yes.

But it was their 'final' episode. Syfy didn't purchase any more episodes, killing it in effect.

I think the point was that since the one sci-fi show that was popular on the network only went off the air last week declaring the genre dead is a bit premature.

Monster Rain wrote:I think the point was that since the one sci-fi show that was popular on the network only went off the air last week declaring the genre dead is a bit premature.

Bingo.

They'll probably do what SyFy always does when it ends a show: Take the summer off and be back with something new in the Fall(ie. exactly what they did with SGU after ending BSG).

Monster Rain wrote:I think the point was that since the one sci-fi show that was popular on the network only went off the air last week declaring the genre dead is a bit premature.

okay, I'm better now.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:Isamov? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Dull, plodding and pedantic. Same for Arthur C Clarke. Alfred Bester is all you need.

Kilkrazy wrote:"There's top class modern SF being published in books."

Could you give some me examples please. I'm always on the lookout for something half decent. Cheers.

Here are some authors I would recommend. They are all writing and publishing today, as well as their back catalogue.

Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies (a series in that order).

Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward, Matter, Surface Detail (novels of The Culture), also Feersum Endjinn, The Algebraist, Against a Dark Background.

China Mieville: Kraken, Perdido Street Station, The City & The City, etc.

Paolo Macigalupi: The Windup Girl.

Alastair Reynolds: The Prefect, Chasm City, Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, Pushing Ice, Century Rain, etc.

Charles Stross: The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum, Accelerando, Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, Glasshouse, Halting State, etc. he also writes fantasy.

I'll second Revelation Space, really good book.

Platuan4th wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:I think the point was that since the one sci-fi show that was popular on the network only went off the air last week declaring the genre dead is a bit premature.

Bingo.

They'll probably do what SyFy always does when it ends a show: Take the summer off and be back with something new in the Fall(ie. exactly what they did with SGU after ending BSG).

SGU was in the works for a looong while before BSG ended.

BSG was basically failing miserably at holding an audience(which I can't say is really surprising how 'preachy' they got, and the decisions to make Cylons out of major characters likely didn't help any either) and SGU had the same issue.


Not sure how well this will play out with the crowd here but:
People just seemingly aren't that interested in scifi anymore. They're more interested in the supernatural or mythical or the fantastic. Stargate: Universe had a built-in fanbase of the SG-1/Atlantis crowd, started out in SyFy's top notch slot...and basically bombed for the first season. It was a combination of the departure from the standard 'One episode, one world' formula of the previous SG shows and the attempt to make what fans dubbed 'Battlestar Gate' that did the show in.
Things got off to a rocky start in the second, but the damage was pretty much done. Any other show would have been canned in its first season.

Fantasy has definitely been on the rise lately, especially contemporary fantasy.

To clarify my original post: Science Fiction on TV in space. I don't really think Space Opera is the right term because I'm not sure Star Trek, Stargate, Firefly, Battlestar, etc. fall into that category but you know what I mean.

These things go in cycles.

Larry Niven has some great sci-fi.

I'd have to say the opposite is true. I'm seeing more and more sci-fi in mainstream media,not less. You remember that blockbuster movie called Avatar? You know, the one that came out last year?

It'll come around. It always does..Right?

Goddard wrote:I'd have to say the opposite is true. I'm seeing more and more sci-fi in mainstream media,not less. You remember that blockbuster movie called Avatar? You know, the one that came out last year?

He's referring to TV not the Big screen.

Oh...well...I was referring to the title, silly

Kilkrazy wrote:These things go in cycles.

Maybe, maybe not. What we expect from special effects and sets is a lot greater than it was then when Star Trek kicked off in the 60s. Sci Fi has always been a niche but now is getting more and more expensive to produce. Star ships ain't as cheap as they used to be!