It's hard for me to not agree when the most recent incarnations of my personal favourite sci-fi series (star trek and stargate) were monuments to failure that killed off both franchises on the TV. (and in everything else in the case of stargate)
The last good sci-fi show on tv is Dr Who. And I'm waiting for the inevitable American remake to destroy that.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
It's hard for me to not agree when the most recent incarnations of my personal favourite sci-fi series (star trek and stargate) were monuments to failure that killed off both franchises on the TV. (and in everything else in the case of stargate)
The last good sci-fi show on tv is Dr Who. And I'm waiting for the inevitable American remake to destroy that.
Does Torchwood count?
See bogarts post. Torchwood was already crap. If it wasnt Steven Moffat would have cut any American network execs that went near it.
First, I'm calling BS on Star Trek ever delving into the implications of anything. Someone giving a profound sounding speech at the end of an episode does not count.
Even the most intelligent scifi show ever, Babylon 5, did not go into any great depth on the scifi level. TV is a different medium and is suited to a different focus than written science fiction. When you try to do the former the way you would the later, you get boring shit like 2001 or Solaris.
Secondly, I'm sorry, but Dr Who is currently not very good. And it sure as hell was never hard science fiction.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Stargate Universe was a pretty good premise that they strangled in the cot with the first half of the season because they didn't know what to do. The show beyond that was evolving back towards early SG1 in it's formula and structure and improving dramatically for it. It's a shame because they showed a lot of promise in the end, but it was too late.
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AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Stargate Universe was a pretty good premise that they strangled in the cot with the first half of the season because they didn't know what to do. The show beyond that was evolving back towards early SG1 in it's formula and structure and improving dramatically for it. It's a shame because they showed a lot of promise in the end, but it was too late.
Agreed. I feel like SciFi from five years ago would've given it and Atlantis another shot (though Atlantis was way pas diminishing returns by its cancel point), but SyFy, home of wrastlin' and other shit wanted to sink money into its cheap, schlocky shit like Warehouse 13 and Eureka (which, while both are fun, are also kind of really meh)
On the other hand, this winter brought us an anime called "Bodacious Space Pirates," which was exactly what you'd expect from the description "anime called "Bodacious Space Pirates," except actually good.
To the OP: how much science fiction do you actually read? Do you seek it out? Is this an opinion you've formed after being disatisfied with contemporary sci-fi for x number of years?
I thought I made this pretty clear but I guess I still have to spell it out. Sci-fi novels are just fine, they've always been pushing boundaries and continue to do so.
Sci-fi in popular film and television however has not. It's actually taken a nosedive with a few exceptions and decided to play it safe by recycling action genres in a "futuristic" setting. The Battlestar Galactica re-imagining for example, good as it was, was a space opera that didn't really delve too deeply into themes of artificial intelligence, self-awareness, etc. and instead opted for religious symbolism.
Which is fine, since that's what it set out to do.
My point is that it's one of the more recent examples of a GOOD sci-fi series that nevertheless was almost completely devoid of a genuine sense of wonder, discovery or new ideas.
It was drama, story arcs and action done well but that was about it.
Sorry you had to spell it out, because now I absolutely agree. Televised sci-fi is stagnant.
Fantasy is far more popular at the moment. I'm sure in a decade or so we'll see the pendulum swing back in the other direction and scifi will receive more talented attention.
I actually hate all sci-fi TV shows other than TOS ST and Firefly. They're all bad and cheesy and unsatisfactory to me.
And I like original BSG because of nostalgia.
I actually hate all sci-fi TV shows other than TOS ST and Firefly. They're all bad and cheesy and unsatisfactory to me.
And I like original BSG because of nostalgia.
TOS ST isn't cheesy to you?
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Stargate Universe was a pretty good premise that they strangled in the cot with the first half of the season because they didn't know what to do. The show beyond that was evolving back towards early SG1 in it's formula and structure and improving dramatically for it. It's a shame because they showed a lot of promise in the end, but it was too late.
Agreed. I feel like SciFi from five years ago would've given it and Atlantis another shot (though Atlantis was way pas diminishing returns by its cancel point), but SyFy, home of wrastlin' and other shit wanted to sink money into its cheap, schlocky shit like Warehouse 13 and Eureka (which, while both are fun, are also kind of really meh)
Eureka I like. It has an amazingly effective formula - it's not what I'd term sci-fi, in the sense that the science has less consistency then the magic in Hogwarts - but whatever it is, it does it well. Conversely Warehouse 13 I've never warmed up to because it feels like the same ground retread.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
V was on last year, as was Falling Skies. Falling Skies will be on again this year, so still no year without space ships.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
V was on last year, as was Falling Skies. Falling Skies will be on again this year, so still no year without space ships.
Falling Skies is about an alien invasion of Earth. Isn't the spaceships things about humans in space, doing things with spaceships?
Also, there's a second season?
Admittedly, I was getting a bit less enthusiastic when a $2 radio was apparently enough to jam and disrupt the aliens with the super-advanced robots. EMP whatever, it was definitely stretching my disbelief that this could actually be a problem for them.
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AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
V was on last year, as was Falling Skies. Falling Skies will be on again this year, so still no year without space ships.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
V was on last year, as was Falling Skies. Falling Skies will be on again this year, so still no year without space ships.
Falling Skies is about an alien invasion of Earth. Isn't the spaceships things about humans in space, doing things with spaceships?
Also, there's a second season?
Admittedly, I was getting a bit less enthusiastic when a $2 radio was apparently enough to jam and disrupt the aliens with the super-advanced robots. EMP whatever, it was definitely stretching my disbelief that this could actually be a problem for them.
I'm not sure what the constraints on the spaceship thing are, beyond possibly whatever the person saying it wants them to be to make their point. Does DS9 count, since it's a space station? Or Babylon 5? Does it have to be a ship that the humans in the show are in control of? If so then presumably SGU didn't count. Chrichton was the only human on Farscape for most of the series, so does that count?
There haven't really been that many successful TV shows about humans on human-constructed and operated spacecraft ever. ST:TOS, TNG, and Enterprise. The two incarnations of BSG. A smattering of other shows that only lasted for a season or two.
There's still sci-fi on TV; it's just not Star Trek.
Regarding Falling Skies (season 2 starts June 17):
The radio thing doesn't bother me. I was under the impression that it only worked because the aliens weren't expecting it. They communicate via radio waves, so the humans' jamming efforts were roughly on par with enemy combatants suddenly developing the strategy of running into battle screaming through bullhorns. Ultimately it's not going to be terribly useful to them as you only need some ear plugs to defeat it, but the first couple of times they do it it'll probably give them a surprise advantage.
Torchwood was already rubbish. The American produced show just continued that fine tradition. OK, there was one good Torchwood season, but that felt like a fluke amongst all the awfulness.
A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Stargate Universe was a pretty good premise that they strangled in the cot with the first half of the season because they didn't know what to do. The show beyond that was evolving back towards early SG1 in it's formula and structure and improving dramatically for it. It's a shame because they showed a lot of promise in the end, but it was too late.
Agreed. I feel like SciFi from five years ago would've given it and Atlantis another shot (though Atlantis was way pas diminishing returns by its cancel point), but SyFy, home of wrastlin' and other shit wanted to sink money into its cheap, schlocky shit like Warehouse 13 and Eureka (which, while both are fun, are also kind of really meh)
Eureka I like. It has an amazingly effective formula - it's not what I'd term sci-fi, in the sense that the science has less consistency then the magic in Hogwarts - but whatever it is, it does it well. Conversely Warehouse 13 I've never warmed up to because it feels like the same ground retread.
I enjoy Warehouse 13 more for the aesthetic than the actual show. It's particularly disappointing in that it was (as I understand from internet rumor, anyway) originally conceived as a long-running-series spinoff of the miniseries The Room. Warehouse 13 could have, I think, benefited from all of the things that it didn't take from The Room. The miniseries was dramatic instead of goofy, had some mystery surrounding the origin of the mystical objects, had a limited number of objects to alleviate the sense that securing them from the badguys isn't an essentially infinite task, and had bad guys. Warehouse 13 feels so similar to Eureka because it has the same sort of goofy humor with the same character archetypes and the same mystical approach to science, and floundered around for its first season and a half or so without any actual antagonist or over-arching plot beyond Gotta Catch 'Em All.
The final season of Eureka (which starts today!) has a spaceship in it. I'm not sure how LONG the spaceship will be featured, but I imagine we'll get at least a couple episodes.
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Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
I actually hate all sci-fi TV shows other than TOS ST and Firefly. They're all bad and cheesy and unsatisfactory to me.
And I like original BSG because of nostalgia.
TOS ST isn't cheesy to you?
It is, but there's more to it, IMO. And it has the excuse of being made in the Dark Ages. I felt that the Sci-Fi was just a backdrop to talk about Cold War, civil rights, women's rights and other issues. New BSG kinda did that too, but their approach and issues didn't grab me, and it was too much of a soap opera (without much space). TNG turned ST into "reverse the polarity" gimmicks and also got too involved... With ST TOS I can just watch whatever episode I want and not worry about continuity. But, then again, I'm developing a very strong allergy to continuity as a driving force/major factor in fiction.
Star Gate is just adventures, and I can't stomach the art direction. I never even liked the movie.
I guess Babylon should be cool, but it also demands too much commitment.
I'm not trying to convince anyone, just stating my personal feeling.
For it's normal tone, Eureka slips in some amazingly fucked up things happening to people.
Like, the end of Season 1 where Jack Carter from 10 years in the future gets sent back in time, with all that knowledge, to stop time-travelling Henry from saving Kim. And then they both get to live with all that knowledge of like, an entire future life and family and everything.
For it's normal tone, Eureka slips in some amazingly fucked up things happening to people.
Like, the end of Season 1 where Jack Carter from 10 years in the future gets sent back in time, with all that knowledge, to stop time-travelling Henry from saving Kim. And then they both get to live with all that knowledge of like, an entire future life and family and everything.
I can't believe I missed this, but about your spoiler....
Jack didn't get to live with it. Henry used that memory eraser thing on him at the end.
Granted, it was mostly drama and the hook was the mystery element, but it took place on a space ship in the future, so that sort of counts.
Thinking back, though, I have completely forgotten what the story was about, except that I was mildly entertained each episode. Something about a space baby? And fractals.
Granted, it was mostly drama and the hook was the mystery element, but it took place on a space ship in the future, so that sort of counts.
Thinking back, though, I have completely forgotten what the story was about, except that I was mildly entertained each episode. Something about a space baby? And fractals.
They found an alien artifact on Mars that induced religious experiences and genetic changes in people who were nearby it for any length of time. Said artifact -- which may or may not have been God, but the show really seemed to want you to think it was -- wanted to be reunited with its fellow artifacts on other planets, so hypnotized or something enough political and science people to make a manned magical mystery tour of the solar system happen.
It was essentially the same show as the Virtuality pilot that aired on Fox but didn't get picked up: drama in space with mysterious goings-on and done as a faux-reality show, except Virtuality had less nonsensical fake science and didn't have a religious slant.
Robert Charles Wilson. His novel Blind Lake is pretty neat, too. I really liked the idea behind his book The Chronoliths but didn't enjoy the execution at all.
Will the upcoming Prometheus movie be good? Ridley Scott knows his stuff.
I don't see how it can be. I've been hearing so much hype coming off of it, but being a blockbuster and judging from the trailers I can't really see how it's going to bring anything new to the sci-fi or action genre's.
Will the upcoming Prometheus movie be good? Ridley Scott knows his stuff.
I don't see how it can be. I've been hearing so much hype coming off of it, but being a blockbuster and judging from the trailers I can't really see how it's going to bring anything new to the sci-fi or action genre's.
I'm hoping it'll be good. It won't live up to the hype machine that the internet has forged for it (I don't know that anything could), but at the very least it should be entertaining to watch.
It's unfortunate that it's box office take will inevitably be compared to Avengers and be found wanting. Even if the movie is a huge success, it will still look pretty weak in comparison.
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mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
ironically, star trek was actually all about humans trying to transcend their baser urges; Roddenberry just made the assumption that given utopian circumstances we'd occasionally succeed. It doesn't take place in a dystopia per se, but even in the original series the crew regularly visited them.
Interesting stories need conflict. How many opportunities for conflict are there in a utopia?
Well it's not like things are perfect there. There's still conflict, although it's more like "As he attempts to explore his sexuality, Data makes everyone else uncomfortable" rather than a huge galactic war.
If only he didn't have that Tar eating grin on his face.
There's a new Canadian Sci-fi show called Continuum. SyFy will probably import it eventually like they did with Lost Girl.
Plot:
A cop working for the ruling class of corporations accidentally follows a group of convicted terrorists back in time to our present where she enlists the help of her boss, the corporate head, as a young man.
It's essentially TimeCop right now, but we'll see what they do with the time travel tropes.
There's a new Canadian Sci-fi show called Continuum. SyFy will probably import it eventually like they did with Lost Girl.
Plot:
A cop working for the ruling class of corporations accidentally follows a group of convicted terrorists back in time to our present where she enlists the help of her boss, the corporate head, as a young man.
It's essentially TimeCop right now, but we'll see what they do with the time travel tropes.
Sounds like it has potential, although time travel stories are usually problematic at best.
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A nerd who would know told me that this year is the first for a very long time (he knew the exact year since the last time) in which a TV show featuring a spaceship was NOT in production in the US.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
See bogarts post. Torchwood was already crap. If it wasnt Steven Moffat would have cut any American network execs that went near it.
Even the most intelligent scifi show ever, Babylon 5, did not go into any great depth on the scifi level. TV is a different medium and is suited to a different focus than written science fiction. When you try to do the former the way you would the later, you get boring shit like 2001 or Solaris.
Secondly, I'm sorry, but Dr Who is currently not very good. And it sure as hell was never hard science fiction.
Was there one last year?
I feel like Stargate and Defying Gravity both died at the same time and that as a couple years back. I don't think there's been a spaceship show since.
Stargate Universe was a pretty good premise that they strangled in the cot with the first half of the season because they didn't know what to do. The show beyond that was evolving back towards early SG1 in it's formula and structure and improving dramatically for it. It's a shame because they showed a lot of promise in the end, but it was too late.
Agreed. I feel like SciFi from five years ago would've given it and Atlantis another shot (though Atlantis was way pas diminishing returns by its cancel point), but SyFy, home of wrastlin' and other shit wanted to sink money into its cheap, schlocky shit like Warehouse 13 and Eureka (which, while both are fun, are also kind of really meh)
Sorry you had to spell it out, because now I absolutely agree. Televised sci-fi is stagnant.
And I like original BSG because of nostalgia.
TOS ST isn't cheesy to you?
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Eureka I like. It has an amazingly effective formula - it's not what I'd term sci-fi, in the sense that the science has less consistency then the magic in Hogwarts - but whatever it is, it does it well. Conversely Warehouse 13 I've never warmed up to because it feels like the same ground retread.
V was on last year, as was Falling Skies. Falling Skies will be on again this year, so still no year without space ships.
Falling Skies is about an alien invasion of Earth. Isn't the spaceships things about humans in space, doing things with spaceships?
Also, there's a second season?
Spaceship. Show.
I'm not sure what the constraints on the spaceship thing are, beyond possibly whatever the person saying it wants them to be to make their point. Does DS9 count, since it's a space station? Or Babylon 5? Does it have to be a ship that the humans in the show are in control of? If so then presumably SGU didn't count. Chrichton was the only human on Farscape for most of the series, so does that count?
There haven't really been that many successful TV shows about humans on human-constructed and operated spacecraft ever. ST:TOS, TNG, and Enterprise. The two incarnations of BSG. A smattering of other shows that only lasted for a season or two.
There's still sci-fi on TV; it's just not Star Trek.
Regarding Falling Skies (season 2 starts June 17):
I enjoy Warehouse 13 more for the aesthetic than the actual show. It's particularly disappointing in that it was (as I understand from internet rumor, anyway) originally conceived as a long-running-series spinoff of the miniseries The Room. Warehouse 13 could have, I think, benefited from all of the things that it didn't take from The Room. The miniseries was dramatic instead of goofy, had some mystery surrounding the origin of the mystical objects, had a limited number of objects to alleviate the sense that securing them from the badguys isn't an essentially infinite task, and had bad guys. Warehouse 13 feels so similar to Eureka because it has the same sort of goofy humor with the same character archetypes and the same mystical approach to science, and floundered around for its first season and a half or so without any actual antagonist or over-arching plot beyond Gotta Catch 'Em All.
Star Gate is just adventures, and I can't stomach the art direction. I never even liked the movie.
I guess Babylon should be cool, but it also demands too much commitment.
I'm not trying to convince anyone, just stating my personal feeling.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27775
http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation
For it's normal tone, Eureka slips in some amazingly fucked up things happening to people.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/05/sf-big-ideas-ideology-what-is-.html
I can't believe I missed this, but about your spoiler....
Granted, it was mostly drama and the hook was the mystery element, but it took place on a space ship in the future, so that sort of counts.
Thinking back, though, I have completely forgotten what the story was about, except that I was mildly entertained each episode. Something about a space baby? And fractals.
They found an alien artifact on Mars that induced religious experiences and genetic changes in people who were nearby it for any length of time. Said artifact -- which may or may not have been God, but the show really seemed to want you to think it was -- wanted to be reunited with its fellow artifacts on other planets, so hypnotized or something enough political and science people to make a manned magical mystery tour of the solar system happen.
It was essentially the same show as the Virtuality pilot that aired on Fox but didn't get picked up: drama in space with mysterious goings-on and done as a faux-reality show, except Virtuality had less nonsensical fake science and didn't have a religious slant.
Vinge and stuff.
Card, if that counts as modern.
Who wrote Spin? It was kinda cool.
Robert Charles Wilson. His novel Blind Lake is pretty neat, too. I really liked the idea behind his book The Chronoliths but didn't enjoy the execution at all.
Axis wasn't so bad, but i'm having to force myself to finish Vortex.
I don't see how it can be. I've been hearing so much hype coming off of it, but being a blockbuster and judging from the trailers I can't really see how it's going to bring anything new to the sci-fi or action genre's.
It's unfortunate that it's box office take will inevitably be compared to Avengers and be found wanting. Even if the movie is a huge success, it will still look pretty weak in comparison.
If only he didn't have that Tar eating grin on his face.
Plot:
It's essentially TimeCop right now, but we'll see what they do with the time travel tropes.
Sounds like it has potential, although time travel stories are usually problematic at best.
I came in here after noticing the title to mention Spin specifically, because it's honest to god speculative science fiction!
My PhD candidate sister sent me a copy (way to one up me more, sis!) and I ended up liking it quite a bit.