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The Quality of Sci-Fi Series This Last Year...


razorlock
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'Intelligent aliens are humanoid. This is often due to budgetary or imagination constraints, though in some cases the actual limitation might be the audience will and/or ability to accept a radically different creature as an intelligent being.'

 

My biggest annoyance...

 

'Spaceships ignore the three-dimensional nature of space, choosing only to fly left/right and forward/backward. This is especially true of avoiding (or failing to avoid) diversions or dangerous regions of space.'

 

And that allways bugged me....

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The real problem is that networks are risk adverse.

 

So if you have an idea that is radically different from the usual tried and tested "people on a spaceship" or "people visiting alien worlds" etc. you're not going to get a huge budget and you're not going to have long to prove yourself.

 

Conversely, if you have the words "Star" and "Trek" in your show title, you can pretty much put anything you like on the in your first two seasons and fans will forgive you because that's just the way Trek is.

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The real problem is that networks are risk adverse.

 

So if you have an idea that is radically different from the usual tried and tested "people on a spaceship" or "people visiting alien worlds" etc. you're not going to get a huge budget and you're not going to have long to prove yourself.

 

You got it in one. The corporations will keep spoon-feeding the crap they put out too unless people realise what is being put out..is well..crap, and that is kind of unlikely. Sad world it is. The only way to get past this IMO is that amateurs start to do their own stuff and create an underground network of sci-fi. You wont get anything interesting/original like Sapphire & Steel anymore unfortuantly.

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The real problem is that networks are risk adverse.

 

So if you have an idea that is radically different from the usual tried and tested "people on a spaceship" or "people visiting alien worlds" etc. you're not going to get a huge budget and you're not going to have long to prove yourself.

 

You got it in one. The corporations will keep spoon-feeding the crap they put out too unless people realise what is being put out..is well..crap, and that is kind of unlikely. Sad world it is. The only way to get past this IMO is that amateurs start to do their own stuff and create an underground network of sci-fi. You wont get anything interesting/original like Sapphire & Steel anymore unfortuantly.

 

Ofc you know you could i dunno try writing something original yourself - it aint easy at all after 100+ years of sci-fi/fantasy writing - hell you could go out on a limb and say nothing has been completely orginal since hg wells and tolkien/lewis :P

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I don't think either Cypha or I were insinuating a lack of original content - just that it's not getting to our screens.

 

Exactly. I thought that was more obvious than a naked judge standing on a small semi-detached house reading a newspaper in front of 600 people, but oh well. There are LOTS of great writers, but none of them do boring/contrived and unoriginal crap so they are either not heard of or there works remain in book form.

 

Ofc you know you could i dunno try writing something original yourself - it aint easy at all after 100+ years of sci-fi/fantasy writing - hell you could go out on a limb and say nothing has been completely orginal since hg wells and tolkien/lewis :P

 

Glad you can take opposing opinions. The audience is clapping for you, oh no wait they are yawning. :p

 

Buy my DVD sci-fi series I will be releasing later this year, and have spent the past several years developing and writing. :)

 

----------------------

 

Also, perhaps the opposers should take one thing in mind. Without critisism there would be no evolution or change because everything would be blindly-accepted. And NOTHING is beyond question or critisism. Everyone can better themselves, a writer, musician or any artist can improve. Without critisism I would not of managed to get signed to a label and release CD's because I would of been making crap for years. Critisism is ESSENTIAL, and I thank those that spoke out and helped me to improve.

 

Also, my opinions are nothing else other than opinions. My personal thoughts and I am glad with the few of you that I have found here that I found have similar thoughts, it makes me feel less alone :)

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All of that is true - but then there is Lost. It's a strange duck of a series - and doesn't get very technical - but it's basic premise, people stuck on an island with several generations of shipwrecked around and an all controlling, powerfull, very advanced technology ruling all - well, that's Sci-Fi, alright.

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I think the WORST Sci-Fi recently was produced by the large networks. NBC, CBS, etc, all had very little if any Sci-Fi, and it was cancelled after only a few episodes (half season or so).

 

BSG is pretty good, though I'm starting to feel like the main story arc isn't going anywhere.

 

I loved Dr. Who last year, but that was British.

 

I tried Threshold, but it was repetitive and cancelled...

 

There isn't a lot out there for Sci-Fi fans, especially in the MOVIE scene.

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Wow, first off some of you people need to accept that for the most part science fiction is a B genre (Same as horror and fantasy): the Sci-Fi channel makes lame creature feature TV movies month after month and Hollywood releases PG-13 movies with scantily clad (but never fully exposed) women and an explosion every 10 minutes because the audience for this kind of stuff are teenagers and tasteless adults. There is scifi content that is on a equal footing with the works from the premiere genres, but they are few and far between. Now if anyone thinks this is new, you're wrong. This year alone there has actually been a huge leap forward in bringing quality science/speculative fiction into the mainstream. LOST is the biggest tv cult phenomenon since the X-Files, Battlestar Galactica (the more identifiable scifi show) is making it "okay" to rank a scifi (on cable no less) up there with Desperate Housewives, CSI, and 24. (We are talking about 2005 right?) Filmwise we had Serenity and a few other good movies I can't recall off the top of my head. But you need to understand that all these things are for the most part cyclical. At present, the genre is a peak. In a few years it will probably be a low.

 

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Yes, but of the few good, decent Sci-Fi shows and movies (BSG, Dr Who, Serenity), 2005 had some really stupid movies, most of them on the Sci-Fi Channel. The one really stupid movie in the theaters was Stealth, even though it was mostly promoted as an action movie (and that one went to DVD in what, two months?). Most of the Sci-Fi Channel fare were rips of movies released in theaters earlier in the year or previous years. I believe they ripped "The Cave", then ripped "Volcano" and "Dantes Peak" a couple of times, not to mention the numerous rips of "The Core" (even though that was a really bad movie to begin with) staring Luke Perry.

 

I believe the stupidest rip of all 2005 came when Hallmark Channel took an episode of the '90s Outer Limits, expanded it to two hours, through Peter O'Toole in for the age factor and tried to sell it as a sci-fi disaster epic. They even called it "Supernova" and threw in Luke Perry (again!) to try and make it go. Needless to say, it didn't.

 

And lets not forget the two ridiculous weather movies CBS put out starring Dennis Quaid's brother Randy.

 

And don't get me started on "The Triangle".

 

Personally, I'd like to see an adaption of Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar" series (and the "Colonization" series if the first does good) into a mini-series. You've got your sci-fi in that aliens invade Earth during World War II and the good guys don't always win (several US cities end up getting nuked and the aliens end up ruling half the planet in the end). It could be an epic and people would watch. But of course no US network would do it since the US basically gets its butt handed to it throughout 3/4 of the series (and, of course, we Americans can't wrap our minds around that!)

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'You've got your sci-fi in that aliens invade Earth during World War II and the good guys don't always win'

 

World war II..awesome.

 

Good guys not allways winning...awesome.

 

Sounds cool! :)

 

'But of course no US network would do it since the US basically gets its butt handed to it throughout 3/4 of the series (and, of course, we Americans can't wrap our minds around that!)'

 

Yup, The whole "hero aesthetic" again *cringe*. Allthough its not just American centered. My shows would never get shown on TV for the same reason because the 'heros' are the bad guys and they win ;).

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If you want great scifi...pick up a book.

 

EDIT: Off topic --> Xevallah, wish you'd change that avatar. It's rather offensive to many members of this forum.

 

c4 B)

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'You've got your sci-fi in that aliens invade Earth during World War II and the good guys don't always win'

 

World war II..awesome.

 

Good guys not allways winning...awesome.

 

Sounds cool! :)

 

'But of course no US network would do it since the US basically gets its butt handed to it throughout 3/4 of the series (and, of course, we Americans can't wrap our minds around that!)'

 

 

 

Yup, The whole "hero aesthetic" again *cringe*. Allthough its not just American centered. My shows would never get shown on TV for the same reason because the 'heros' are the bad guys and they win ;).

 

Your shows would not get shown on TV because no one cares about The Conquest of Matter-Reality, Dimension Lords, Time Roots, Infinity Circuits, Crystalons, and the rest of these clichéd constructs you made up in the shower. Your whole shtick about corporatism and how it sucks the bad guys never win is so tired and stereotypical of an angst ridden youth who needs to grow up.

 

C4- How is a picture of Sadam Hussein offensive? Do you cower under your bed when his trial comes on C-Span? Do you close your eyes when his picture is brought up in the news? Is having him as my avatar somehow construed as my endorsement of gassing kurds?

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C4- How is a picture of Sadam Hussein offensive? Do you cower under your bed when his trial comes on C-Span? Do you close your eyes when his picture is brought up in the news? Is having him as my avatar somehow construed as my endorsement of gassing kurds?

 

No need to be crude and try to ridicule me Xevallah. I believe I was quite civil in stating my offense to your avatar. Now then...if anyone has to explain to you the offensive nature of your avatar...well, I seriously doubt you'd understand. It's quite apparent really.

 

BTW...I spelled your name correctly...please remember...it's a small c. Ty.

 

MOD NOTE: Everyone should be civil. We've had a bit of hostility on this forum of late. Please be warned - it will no longer be tolerated.

 

c4 :thinking:

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