Is it all doom and gloom for Science Fiction? No: Fittingly, the answer is out there...
It seems that almost every show on TV these days is either reality TV, medical or CSI-wherever. Sometimes a combination of two or all three. Whatever happened to good old fashioned Sci-Fi? I miss spaceships and aliens, lasers and spandex-clad babes. I miss the cheesy dialog, wonky effects and ridiculous fighting and "acting" style of William Shatner in Star Trek Classic right up to the intelligent, articulate and provocative shows like Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot.
It seems that unless a show has somebody "famous" eating something they shouldn't, or has some improbably attractive specialist up to their latex-clad elbows in a corpse then it gets canned faster than "H" can take off his shades and make a terrible pun. The latest version of the long running Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe has recently been canceled. Not even the fantastic Robert Carlyle, not even Begbie himself could save it. It seems that it didn't get the ratings that celebrity-insert-something-random-here did. Ironically because it was too slow, intelligent and thought-provoking. Ask any of these celebrity-TV fans would they watch BSG or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and you always get the same answer: "Ah no, I wouldn't watch that. Sci-Fi is for kids" It's no wonder it's dying out with that narrow view. So while mainstream TV is being dumbed down Sci-Fi is growing up and is being punished for it.
But there may be hope. Satellite TV. Freesat have 3 CBS stations (as the name suggests, totally free): Drama (For your soap fix), Reality and Reality +1 (For your Judge Judy fix) and Action for your Sci-Fi/action fix. Currently it's showing the remastered Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (My favourite Trek), Jake 2.0 and a few others. Sci-Fi is available on SKY which is currently producing the reboot of the classic 80s series V, seems to have a continual loop of Joss Whedon's criminally canceled Space-Western Firefly and soon will be running another spinoff of the reboot of Battlestar Galactica called Battlestar: Blood and Chrome. Also, in fairness to Sky themselves, they have always shown quite a lot of Sci-Fi. BBC on Freesat is due to start the next season on Dr. Who in crystal clear HD and its spinoff Torchwood soon after. Thank you very much satellite TV!
It seems that almost every show on TV these days is either reality TV, medical or CSI-wherever. Sometimes a combination of two or all three. Whatever happened to good old fashioned Sci-Fi? I miss spaceships and aliens, lasers and spandex-clad babes. I miss the cheesy dialog, wonky effects and ridiculous fighting and "acting" style of William Shatner in Star Trek Classic right up to the intelligent, articulate and provocative shows like Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot.
It seems that unless a show has somebody "famous" eating something they shouldn't, or has some improbably attractive specialist up to their latex-clad elbows in a corpse then it gets canned faster than "H" can take off his shades and make a terrible pun. The latest version of the long running Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe has recently been canceled. Not even the fantastic Robert Carlyle, not even Begbie himself could save it. It seems that it didn't get the ratings that celebrity-insert-something-random-here did. Ironically because it was too slow, intelligent and thought-provoking. Ask any of these celebrity-TV fans would they watch BSG or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and you always get the same answer: "Ah no, I wouldn't watch that. Sci-Fi is for kids" It's no wonder it's dying out with that narrow view. So while mainstream TV is being dumbed down Sci-Fi is growing up and is being punished for it.
But there may be hope. Satellite TV. Freesat have 3 CBS stations (as the name suggests, totally free): Drama (For your soap fix), Reality and Reality +1 (For your Judge Judy fix) and Action for your Sci-Fi/action fix. Currently it's showing the remastered Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (My favourite Trek), Jake 2.0 and a few others. Sci-Fi is available on SKY which is currently producing the reboot of the classic 80s series V, seems to have a continual loop of Joss Whedon's criminally canceled Space-Western Firefly and soon will be running another spinoff of the reboot of Battlestar Galactica called Battlestar: Blood and Chrome. Also, in fairness to Sky themselves, they have always shown quite a lot of Sci-Fi. BBC on Freesat is due to start the next season on Dr. Who in crystal clear HD and its spinoff Torchwood soon after. Thank you very much satellite TV!
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