Joshua

Sadly I've never been able to get into stargate, I loved the movie but the show isn't that good..

about the only good new sci-fi show I've saw in the last couple years, was firefly, I really did like that show, but it was on fox and fox is well fox..they stuck it on friday night where it had almsot no chance..

I really need a good new sci-fi show, about all I got right now is enterprise, which is going down hill fast..

does anyone know of any that are coming out this season? or are already out?

Nikki K

Never got the Stargate vibe either.

I really enjoyed Firefly and - trashy as it was (but hej that has been part of the fun) Lexx.

And I agree, I caught some old Star Trek reruns the other night and thought of the time when I watched that and Babylon 5 and the X-Files regularly. It really made me question why there aren't shows like that produced anymore. Is it really that times has changed for Sci-Fi? Was it just a "hype" that has died down now?

Raonaild

I loved Lexx for a while. I'd been over-Trekked at the time, and needed a bit more chaos in my Sci-Fi

Here's my sense of the Sci-Fi TV situation: in the past, Sci-Fi TV series (all genre series really) were very rare and usually very far out of the main stream. Sci-Fi fans would cling to whatever they could find, and when someone made an SF series, they were catering to those few SF fans out there, and not so worried about the main stream who would never accept the show anyway. When major TV stations made SF series, they didn't tend to last very long.

In the 80s-90s, we had something of a SF-TV renaissance, which I think happened around the time Trekkers managed to resurrect ST for TNG. Unlike ST of the past, it was made without the support of one of the "Big Three" TV stations, so it wasn't judged against all the other main stream Prime Time shows. Around that time, cable started to be a big thing, so SF series could find other homes where a small but loyal SF audience was sufficient to sustain them. Lots of series followed TNG ... B5, the X-Files, the Outer Limits, EFC, Lexx, Andromeda, Farscape, SG-1, the other Trek series ... plus other genre shows like Buffy or Highlander that did very well.

These series still had to struggle (Lexx barely got through S3, B5 was always living on the edge), but it seemed like the mainstream was slightly more accepting of SF than it had been. And then came the Sci-Fi channel, and it was like an SF saviour ... a place where SF series could go and thrive and not constantly be worried about the fact they couldn't pull in as big an audience as a "Big Three" (plus Fox now) series could.

Lately that meagre little renaissance seems to have fallen apart ... it turns out Sci-Fi doesn't really care about SF particularly unless it makes them huge piles of money. They're trying to mainstream-ify SF shows, and end up making neither SF purists nor your average mainstream viewer happy. The popularity of cheap reality TV shows makes it harder for traditionally expensive SF shows to justify the funding they require for their smaller fanbase. The shows that got their start during the good times have gradually been ending, and few have been created to take their place.

My hope for the future of SF TV series is that somebody figures out how to make the straight to DVD option work (or pay-per-view ... some sort of direct way to get shows to fans without relying on advertising to pay the bills). SF fans are the sort that will spend lots of money on a series they love, given the chance.

Chynna Princess

I watched a few eps of Stargate in the beginning but every show got worse and worse. It got faker and the the storylines were just blah. They were grasping. They've stolen the Stargatte, oh no! Blah! Now they've got Atlantis which I really wanted to watch but didn't because I was afraid I'd be disappointed. I guess Stargate: The Movie was the pinnacle for me. They should have quit while they were ahead. It had such a viable plt and was resolved so nicely. The cartoon Atlantis: The Lost World was such the animated kids version of Stargate.

I do like Sliders. I never got to see it when it was first airing but I've been catching reruns on scifi when I can. That show is just so interesting and entertaining. The last eppy was so disappointing. I hate cliffhangers as series finales.

Oh and I adore the Dead Zone. One question: why the hell is Rebecca next to Johnny on the opening page? If that sko starts to steal Sarah's steam I am turning the channel, I swear.

I wish The 4400 premiere was here. I loved Shaun.

Cryostar

I agree with your take Rachel...it seems the re-emergence has been killed, although LOST is doing rather well. Now that Angel is gone, Tru Calling is probably not coming back, and the stuff on sci fi is poorly written...so what do we watch?

Farscape was certainly worth watching this weekend.

Raonaild

*covers her eyes to block out anything related to the Farscape miniseries, seeing as she has no idea when she'll be able to watch it*

By the way, hope nobody minds, but I corrected a typo or two in the thread title

Chynna Princess

Glad it don't say ficition anymore. Didn't know they had a subcatergory.

AlexEvans

There's certainly a lack of good SF TV this season, compared to the last few years. My hope is that this is a cyclical thing, that reality shows are a wave that will recede soon (leaving behind a few of the better ones) and SF will surge again. I'm fairly optimistic that this is the case, actually.

The problem with direct payment is... how will SF fans fall in love with a series to become willing to pay for it?

It would also shut out younger SF fans.

Raonaild

I'm not so sure ... even if people get tired of Reality TV, the television market is becoming so fragmented the major networks that produce TV series don't have as many viewers as they once did. Less viewers means they can't charge advertisers as much, plus advertisers are looking for more effective ways than TV advertising to get their message across. Less advertising money = less money to make TV series = more pressure on TV series to consistently get large audiences. So, even if networks wanted to produce less Reality TV, they don't have a lot of options, and that makes things look pretty bleak for niche markets like Sci-Fi.

In terms of TV anyway. Sci-Fi movies are doing pretty well.
That's a good question, and hopefully we'll see some people experimenting with ideas that address this. Like, what if you somehow get together enough funding to make a made-for-TV movie or mini-series that isn't specifically funded by any network, but you manage to sell rights to air it to Sci-Fi US/UK and Space in Canada (for instance), keeping all the DVD sales rights for yourself? Then, if it does well, you use the money from that to make more mini-series or full seasons, and fund it primarily on further DVD sales, supplemented by sales to whichever network is willing to buy it?

Lexx came very close to doing something like this, but they were trying to do it before DVDs were very common, in particular before the recent explosion of TV series on DVD.

Whatever it takes to get the networks and the advertisors as far out of the equation as possible, and connect the production of series directly to what people who watch them are willing to pay. Then maybe one day we don't have tragedies like Firefly where the network cancelled it very early on, but a surprisingly large number of people have since gone out and bought the DVDs, many of whom didn't watch it on TV the first time around.

Another interesting tidbit: recently they managed to get a season of 24 out on DVD over the summer before the next season aired, and it seemed to actually improve the show's ratings. So short of straight-to-DVD Sci-Fi series, if they could at least incorporate DVD sales as a consideration for what series get made and not tie series production strictly to weekly viewer ratings and advertising revenue, that might help.
I'm afraid the alternative is all SF fans get shut out, and nobody has the money to produce these series anymore.

sum1

Hmmmm....

Lexx: Incredibly bad taste but quite inspired in its own way. A strange sort of artistic masterpiece. The first season (mini) was much better than the later stuff.
Firefly: Seriously overrated. Entirely failed to make me care.
Dead Zone: Very well done show. Impressive and works very smoothly.

Cryostar

I thought Lexx was 100% unique...it's a shame that it veered off on such a tangent.

As for dead zone, it was ok, and firefly was nice, I just wish we had been given the chance to see it develop some.

Bronson

Yes, she did play Dana the psycho Slayer. It was very good.

Bronson

I liked it at first but it seemed to lose its focus just like Sliders did. That writers on Sliders got lazy and over did that Cromag arc.

Suga*Babe

I loved the first few seasons of last Sliders, but it did go way down hill. It's never good when practically all the cast members are replaced.

I loved early Stargate anything after season five though, not so much. Not to mention you can only take so much of Sam 'Mary Sue' Carter before you want to kill someone. I think Atlantis is replacing my SG-1 obsession this season.

I love the Dead Zone, it's so boring it puts me to sleep sometimes but when it's good it's one of the best sf shows on tv at the minute.

Cryostar

They still had Maggie though!

Gotta love Maggie!