SF Signal: SciFi TV

SciFi TV

The sad state of SF on TV continues. It looks like Enterprise will be renewed, but only for 12 episodes. Looks like B&B have succeeded in driving Star Trek into the ground.

And now, Century City has been pulled after only 4 episodes. Although not overtly SF in its presentation, the cased being argued were SF. Of course, going up against American Idol was probably a bad thing. It did, in a fourth place finish, gain 7.7 million viewers. I bet SciFi would kill to get half that number to watch one of their shows.

Which brings me to this. If you've been paying attention to John and myself's SF Shelf on the right there, you would see that I have been watching Futurama Vol. 3. Oh my goodness. Why in hell did Fox screw this show up? Disc 4 on Vol. 3 was worth the price by itself. Hilarious! The show itself alternates between being humorous to laugh out loud funny. Disc 4 is almost all laugh out loud. Fry discover what life would be like if it were like a video game. An 80's video game no less, with Mario and Donkey Kong no less. Part of the "Tales of Interest" show, very funny. "Roswell that End Well" is a time travel tale where Fry ends up being his on Grandfather. Another LOL show. "Godfellas" was just ok, more philosophical than the others. Back to the hilarity with "Future Stock", where an 80's guy is unfrozen and takes over Planet Express only to sell-out to Mom. The 80's riffs abound and just killed me when I watched it. Then, "30% Iron Chef". Being a fan of Iron Chef, I was interested to see this one. Bender challenges Elzar, a take off of Emeril Lagase, to a cooking duel. Another LOL episode. This volume is well worth the $$, two opposable thumbs waaaay up!

The reason why SF doesn't work on TV: product placement. You can't have the starship captain drinking Pepsi, or the space alien eat Doritos. Exit the Sponsors...

Perhaps sci-fi TV series could seek sponsorship elsewhere? "Thank God for Westinghouse, who made such a fine nuclear reactor for our Boeing spaceship."

-A.R.Yngve
http://yngve.bravehost.com

Posted by A.R. Yngve on Saturday April 03, 2004 at 8:38 AM

Heh, I'm not sure product placement is that big an issue. I think its more a case of unrealistic expectations from the networks/cable channels and a mis-perception about SF by the general public. If I remember correctly, I think Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy actually had ships being produced by a recognizable, modern-day aerospace manufacturer. In fact, if I had to bet, I would say that Coke and Pepsi will still be around in another hundred years. Not to mention all those twinkies...

Posted by jp on Saturday April 03, 2004 at 8:46 PM

That's funny! "Damn those Altarians! If only we had a Mitsubishi FTL drive, we'd be able to catch them!"

If I were to examine why I don?t watch much TV SF, I would come up with these reasons:

Format ? It?s hard to have recurring, encapsulated stories with the same characters week after week. That?s why one of my favorite shows is the (newer) Outer Limits. As an anthology series, they don?t have to worry about year-long contracts with the stars, using the same sets to save money, etc. Now, story-wise, that?s an argument for long story arcs in shows (as in Earth: Final Conflict, for example). The problem with that, though, is that you require viewers to make the commitment to tune in each week. For me, I prefer SF in book form. Each book is a complete story - although nowadays, a book is part I of a trilogy or more.
Story quality ? Few SF TV shows have the quality of writing that appeals to me. It?s got to be more than just premise-set-in-space. For all the times I hear of the original Trek being described as ?Wagon Train to the stars?, they still had quality writing (Harlan Ellison, D.C. Fontana), much like the original Twilight Zone series did.
Budget constraints ? To evoke a sense of wonder in a book requires some imagination and a few drops of ink. To do the same visually requires the same imagination and a whole lot of money. If you want to evoke a sense of wonder (an integral ingredient to SF), pony up the dough. That?s one thing (at least) that Lucas manages to get right with Star Wars. The special effects are spectacular. TV shows rarely, if ever, get that kind of budget. The trick, of course, is to temper the use of special effects and not letting the effects try to carry the story. You still need creative writing!

Posted by John on Saturday April 03, 2004 at 8:55 PM

OK. I may have to add one more TV show I like. I just got this email from SFSite:

Congratulations, you are a winner of a copy of Highlander: The Series Season
Three DVD box set.

Apparently, that easy-to-win contest I entered a few weeks back paid off.

Posted by John on Saturday April 03, 2004 at 9:09 PM