Sci-fi on TV

[Darkstabber]

wish they didn't cancel SG:U though

[Graftmage]

Sure they did - I don't wanna get into it here because I don't wanna spoil anyone, but catch me on IRC tomorrow or something and I can explain it a bit better. =D

Ah, now that I though about it a bit I understood \m/

[Myreyliib]

Never get attached to a sci-fi show on Fox. Two seasons is what you are going to get, if you are lucky.
However since we have a couple of diehard T:tSCC here, could someone tell me how the severed head of the terminator managed to hitch a ride with our trio in the pilot? Didn't Reese tell us back in '84 that only metal covered by living tissue could travel through time?


While not truly sci-fi, I like Misfits (sorta a british version of Heroes with juvenile delinquents). The budget may not be the biggest, but the cast is fresh, the music cool, the writng and dialogue is sharp and extremely witty.
It's been a long time since I laughed as hard as I did during the Christmas Special.

[Graftmage]

Apparently, head had some flesh leftovers on it, but they could not show burning flesh on television.



Misfits are great, but it's not sci-fi for sure :P

[crattey]

Terminator is utterly nonsensical and retarded on a deeper level. Just ignore that, and enjoy Ahnold and the new series.

[Windguaerd]

Babylon 5, BEST MOFO SCI FI SHOW EVER!

Since we're limiting the discussion to TV (and not movies unfortunately).

Here we go, my top 10 (ok maybe more than that).

#2 - SG-1 started at a slow pace, yeah McGuyver as a military officer was hard to swallow at first but his acting combined with character development made him believable over time. The supporting actors were good and the team became likable and a few years later people loved the characters who were able to pull off even some sketchy storylines.

#3 - Outer Limits (classic and remake) had a lot of good deep and interesting stories and certainly plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

#4 - Twilight Zone (classic and remake) series where good, the original I think was one of the first sci fi shows on tv in the world and it was very good.

#5 - Battlestar Galactica (classic) was a fun show to watch, which unfortunately feel into the curse of Star War's Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks style of "for kids" audience targeting and somewhat of a spiritual spin. Also the spinoff movies, sucked.

#6 - STNG was awesome, but it was still a very sterilized sort of stories, rarely there would be a darker or more realistic plot. However Picard kicked ass as Captain and was far better than Kirk by about 1000x.

#7 - DS9 had more realistic/dramatic characters than STNG and it had better plot conflicts (better than Federation vs Borg).

#8 - Battlestar Galactica (remake) was good and became better over time, unfortunately the end is a bit disappointing. Good character development, and tons of good space fights and hand to hand action to satisfy most viewers. Sightly similar to B5 that you may not get something in one season, until later on.

#9 - Farscape was fun to watch, and quite well written. The acting was specially enjoyable and it was a refreshing change from most sci fi shows, you will understand once you see how the characters interact with each other (friends and foes).

#10 Ok this is gonna be a huge tie. Andromeda / ST Voyager / SG Atlantis / Dr Who (remake or continuation of series now sure how to classify this one) / ST Enterprise / Red Dwarf / Quantum Leap / Firefly / Dark Angel / SGU. Ok most of these shows were canceled for one reason or another, while others lasted for years. Each one of these series brought somewhat of a new spin to either their original franchise or brought something new to the table.

Andromeda was more of a fun sci fi show with a good balance of drama and action which many put aside too easily.

STV was sort of a "Lost in Space" remake with interesting characters and new aliens and cultures (and who didn't love 7 of 9?).

Dr. Who was a series I wasn't familiar with but slowly fell in love with, the Daleks "Exterminate!" is just as memorable as STNG's Borg "Resistance is Futile!".

SGA also started slow but the character development was good and by the middle of the series one can't stop watching, waiting for McKay to make a smart-ass remark right before saving the team (yes, the geek saves the day) with Sheppard over his shoulder asking if he is done yet.

STE was quite a different show, it was meant to be a prequel to the original ST show and that in itself was a challenge. But the cast was able to pull it off (most of the time) and even tho Scott Bakula at the start seemed to be a poor choice he once again proved that he was a good actor. What I didn't like was the time traveling crap sometimes but overall, worth to watch.

Red Dwarf... god how to explain a barrel of laughs in space? I can't... just watch it and you'll see.

Quantum Leap, well... Scott Bakula in his younger days in a show which actually was good for it's day and retains it's rerun value now.

Firefly was too short lived, a true shame that it was canceled and the movie barely did it justice. Great characters, good action and plenty of good humor in between fights.

Dark Angel launched Jessica Alba's career for a reason, the show was good, she was solid and the cyber punk theme was great. Unfortunately it was also short lived, 2 seasons.

SGU took a while to get into, by the end of season one I thought "ok, I think now it starting to get decent" which in TV is bad... if a show doesn't get that grasp on a viewer by the 3rd episode usually means it may not make it to season 2 or 3. Fortunately it will have a season 2 which hopefully will be well written (I'm not gonna watch any until the whole season is finished).

And there you have it.

[Berinda]

Everybody: Watch this show.

I couldn't get into it because I couldn't buy into a waifish young girl as the terminator.

[crattey]

I couldn't get into it because I couldn't buy into a waifish young girl as the terminator.

Well made up for by the rest, though. But yeah, she was annoying. Like an entire series made around Data not getting a joke.

[If6was9]

I couldn't get into it because I couldn't buy into a waifish young girl as the terminator.

I could absolutely get into that, especially when she tells the freshly adolescent John Connor something like "I am at your command," and everyone had to struggle to keep a straight face.

Your own fembot when you were 13?! You would not leave the house until your 18th birthday.

"Who's your Daddy?"

"I have no Daddy."

"Who's your Daddy..."

But the show sucked. It sucked badly. It sucked so bad you would reach down and say "please stop". I wanted to like that show but could only make it through part of one, or the first half of the pilot or something. You could see the actors acting and not even doing it well. The story didn't make much sense. It was just a total waste of a great franchise.

Geek aside: a waifish Terminator is actually closer to the original premise from the Philip K. Dick story that gave rise to the entire concept/franchise. Terminators were robots modified to infiltrate human settlements in a post-apocalyptic man vs. machine world. There were 2 prior types (or 3, I forget the details), a child dragging a teddy bear, a wounded soldier... and then.... it was the settlement (all the human enclaves were scattered, relying on word of mouth so the machines mass-produced 'types') dreading the arrival of the 3rd type that makes the story. No one knew what it would look like or if it had already arrived.

[crattey]

Well of course the story doesn't make sense. None of the Terminator films do, either. And yeah, the first two films were better than the series. That's about it, though.

Never over-analyze a sci-fi/action/fantasy flick. Hell, never analyze it -at all-. They're not supposed to make sense, and never do.

p.s. halfway through the pilot? Yeah, that gives you plenty of material to judge it on.

[CastarasOfPie]

I've been watching Primeval. Loads of fun.

[Gunfytr]

a child dragging a teddy bear, a wounded soldier... .

I think that was Screamers. Surprisingly, both 1 and 2 were pretty good.

[If6was9]

I think that was Screamers. Surprisingly, both 1 and 2 were pretty good.

Screamers is actually a closer derivation - faithful reconstruction - of the same story.

[Mastablasta]

I love sci-fi, or speculative fiction as it should probably be called, and I watch a ton of weird crap and like it. But Stargate? I mean, the movie was sort of alright, but those series? It's like, Xena the Warrior Princess in space! So boring! BORING! It just keeps getting more and more boring! Horrible! On so many levels. Sorry. I just don't see any appeal to it at all, and the mass love for it in every gaming community I hang in absolutely mystifies me.

[omegahealer]

i enjoyed the stargate series because they made enough fun of themself and didn't take themself serious all the time as most sci fi series.

that's why i was not a fan of SGU, it looked so much more drama.

[Rissa]

I love sci-fi, or speculative fiction as it should probably be called, and I watch a ton of weird crap and like it. But Stargate? I mean, the movie was sort of alright, but those series? It's like, Xena the Warrior Princess in space! So boring! BORING! It just keeps getting more and more boring! Horrible! On so many levels. Sorry. I just don't see any appeal to it at all, and the mass love for it in every gaming community I hang in absolutely mystifies me.

How can you even compare crap like SG to an awesome show like Xena: Warrior Princess?!

[Windguaerd]

Xena and Hercules was meant to be FUN shows to watch, obviously not the serious type with SLIGHT historical inaccuracies. They took PLENTY of creative freedom and made fun and entertaining episodes, most were a barrel of laughs or pure smiles.

They were not meant to be taken seriously. Also you can't really compare Sci-Fi with Fantasy Fiction (which is what Xena and Hercules were) shows which had completely different styles.

SG-1 did have a good number of humorous moments, and yes they didn't take themselves seriously and even made a few parodies of the franchise (I believe if they show was exactly like the movie it was based on, all serious, it would have failed) but that is what we liked about it. They were more realistic, flawed, and you got attached to the characters are they managed to save Earth (and other worlds) a few times over.

From a serious Fictional pov, Xena would be crap; from the pov of an SG Movie fan the SG-1 series may not be worth it's weight in donkey poop.... but the fact is that Xena and SG-1 had more seasons than most fiction shows (sci or fantasy) in the past 25 years.

Xena had 6 seasons, and SG-1 had 10 seasons.

These days, it's pure luck if any show goes past season 2.

[Mostadio]

WORMHOLE XTREME!!!

The thing that had me going with SG:U is that it wasn't just another corny sci-fi series. It was something that was on the dark and serious side that wasn't all about gun battles and boobs. (I really can't stand how every woman in V has to wear a low cut shirt and bend over a lot/have high angle shots). The characters seemed a lot more real and developed, granted the massive character development caused the show to move with glacial speed. The histrionics did get a little too dramatic at times and wtf with a montage at the end of every episode? It looked like it was getting better towards the end, though the whole "message from beyond the universe" was a little hokie.

PS: why did they have to kill off the fat kid's girl? That guy gets hosed every episode.

[Anarrina]

I just finished my DVD run through the entire Farscape series. Despite some notably terrible episodes, I have always loved this show.

I've seen all of Firefly (and yes, I watched them in the proper order the first time I saw it, as I missed it in its original run and watched them when they did the SciFi marathon).. and I honestly didn't get what all the fuss was about. The whole "western in space" theme was frankly ridiculous, the fact that all those Earth-like planets were in ONE solar system was absurd, and the character interaction was about 95% flat as a pancake. You could see where it COULD have grown into some potential, but on the whole I found it very meh.

Also, I spent every moment of having to watch Kaylee's painful crush on Simon thinking, "Sweetie, he's not interested in you because he's GAY! Get with the program..." At least, that's how that little "romance" always read to me. Dunno about anyone else.

[Scottik]

i enjoyed the stargate series because they made enough fun of themself and didn't take themself serious all the time as most sci fi series.

that's why i was not a fan of SGU, it looked so much more drama.

Ditto. Obviously Mastablasta want it to be second BSG