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10 Sci-Fi Shows That Don't Get Enough Love
Given that the author seems unaware that there were science fiction shows prior to the Clinton Administration, I'd guess that he was born sometime around 1988.Many of the shows on that list don't get love for the very simple reason that they aren't very good. Earth: Final Conflict had one good season before executive meddling turned it into an unwatchable mess, and Earth 2 was infamous back in the day for the producers proclaiming that they knew nothing about science fiction and so were going to bring a fresh perspective to the genre -- and then proceeded to reinvent every lame cliche in the history of SF drama.
As for Firefly, doesn't it already get too much love?
Daniel wrote: "I think this is an okay list there are a few more I would add like "Firefly" and maybe "Torchwood" "You're joking, right? You must be.
Only one of these I saw was Dark Angel and it was... not good.I thought Dollhouse was a lot better than people gave it credit for, so I'd go with that.
EDIT: I forgot I had seen Sarah Connor Chronicles as well, which I would describe as forgettable, since I forgot about it.
My only problem with adding Firefly and Torchwood is that I think they already get plenty of love.
Dara wrote: "Daniel wrote: "I think this is an okay list there are a few more I would add like "Firefly" and maybe "Torchwood" "You're joking, right? You must be."
Of course it is to spark a comment from people who only read my dialog and not what I post. I really would have added "V" which was a remake of a early 80's show.
In the case of most of these, I feel there is a reason they are not greatly loved. I enjoyed Dark Angel and some of the others as being flawed but entertaining.Also, what on earth is Life on Mars doing on that list? That show got a massive amount of love, at least in the UK it did, and since there was an American remake (why, I do not know) it surely must have had some success outside the country too. If that show lost any love, it was only because the sequel, Ashes to Ashes, explained a little too much.
Ah, Journeyman. I really liked that show :(
Michele wrote: "Ah, Journeyman. I really liked that show :("Yeah, so did I.
Brendan wrote: "Only one of these I saw was Dark Angel and it was... not good.
I thought Dollhouse was a lot better than people gave it credit for, so I'd go with that.
EDIT: I forgot I had seen Sarah Connor Chr..."
Dollhouse was pretty good except for the main protagonist! Her arc felt like poorly written self-insert fan fiction.
Topher. <3
I thought Dollhouse was a lot better than people gave it credit for, so I'd go with that.
EDIT: I forgot I had seen Sarah Connor Chr..."
Dollhouse was pretty good except for the main protagonist! Her arc felt like poorly written self-insert fan fiction.
Topher. <3
Where's Stargate: Universe? I enjoyed it and was disappointed by its sudden cancellation...Or maybe I was the only one. ;)
Brendan wrote: "I forgot I had seen Sarah Connor Chronicles as well, which I would describe as forgettable, since I forgot about it. "This made me giggle unseemly little giggles. In the workplace no less!
Daniel wrote: "Of course it is to spark a comment from people who only read my dialog and not what I post."What does that mean?
You posted that Firefly should get more love. There is not currently a sci-fi show that gets more love than Firefly, which is why your comment is being questioned.
Michele wrote: "Ah, Journeyman. I really liked that show :("That show was superb. I can't really fault NBC for canceling it, though, since they gave it THE primo lead-in show with Heroes, which hadn't yet started to suck, and it ran uninterrupted in a single time slot for half a season. They gave it as good a chance under the old rules as they could, yet it did lose half its audience over the course of its run.
I'm disappointed the audience didn't care for it, but the blame isn't on NBC for this one.
I feel the same way about New Amsterdam, which starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, better known as Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones. Although if NA had succeeded he wouldn't have been available for GoT, so it turned out to be good luck for him.
I dunno about you guys, but I'm still mourning over Almost Human. T_T
Keidy wrote: "I dunno about you guys, but I'm still mourning over Almost Human. T_T"Not me. I thought that was horrible. Bad writing and worse science fiction. (A million-dollar robot doesn't have the basic functionality of an iPhone? Come on.) I also don't get the love for Karl Urban. He's the male Laura Dern. In Dredd he was out-acted by a motorcycle.
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Dark Angel had a great Season 1 with a lot of potential that was wasted in season 2. Some of the S2 episodes were just ridiculous. A shame as It had some great ideas.
Same with "Sarah Connor" a solid if not great S1 with a disjointed S2. Late in Season 2 it felt like they had no idea where to go. The last episode flip on who was bad and who was good felt forced to try and get another season. In the space of 5 minutes the villain of the season becomes the heroine who's going to save the future. Then it's finished.
So Farscape gets some love from this article but Babylon 5 doesn't? And no Lexx? Seven Days got three seasons? The 90s really were a boom of cheap syndicated SF&F series, weren't they?
Some other older SF series I used to watch that weren't great, but had some interesting ideas:
War of the Worlds - a direct sequel to the 1953 film adaptation of Wells' novel.
Time Trax - Cop from the future has to travel to our time to find criminals who've escaped to the past.
Century City - Near-future law firm has to deal with the legal issues we're sure to see surrounding technology currently in its infancy: cloning, nanotechnology, virtual reality. This one crashed and burned early on, but I respected it for trying to be smart SF television while also breaking away from the usual action-adventure/procedural formats. Real Humans is one of the few others I've seen do this, and it's great.
Babylon 5 is pretty well loved up. Plus it got 5 full seasons and spin-offs, so it doesn't fit the criteria any more than failed-yet-beloved Firefly does.
Charlie Jade deserved way more love than it got. South African-based parallel worlds noir detective series. Aired maybe once on SciFi and was on Netflix briefly, but otherwise you're stuck with Australian Region 2 DVDs.Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire was a very silly show.
This thread reads like a list of every bad UPN and Sci-Fi Channel series. How about some good shows:The original Outer Limits
The Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants
Alien Nation
Misfits of Science
Blake's 7
Wonderfalls
Max Headroom
I'd say Outer Limits and Blake's 7 have had their fair share of love, no? I do adore Blake's 7 though. :)I completely agree with Wonderfalls. I really loved that one, yet it never seemed to get much attention, and hardly anyone I know has heard of it.
Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "I'd say Outer Limits and Blake's 7 have had their fair share of love, no? I do adore Blake's 7 though. :)I completely agree with Wonderfalls. I really loved that one, yet it never seemed to get m..."
Pancakes!
Star Trek - Enterprise dosen't seem to get much love.As a successor to the previous Star Trek series it was a bit of a disappointment, but as a sci-fi serie it was pretty okay.
Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "I completely agree with Wonderfalls. I really loved that one, yet it never seemed to get much attention, and hardly anyone I know has heard of it."It came out at the height of Fox's period of killing everything that didn't instantly dominate its time slot. And they started it on Friday night, which was a death sentence for all Fox shows at the time. So much potential wasted. At least Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies managed to run a little longer.
Wonderfalls was amazing!!! I remember seeing a preview for it at SDCC many, many, many moons ago and just absolutely loving it, but had that sinking feeling even then that it wasn't going to make much headway, because, as Aaron said, it came out right at the height when FOX was killing any and every good show. So, glad they did release the whole series on DVD though. I show it to everyone who will let me!
I never understood that at Fox. The only reason X-files lasted as long as it did was you just put it in that Friday slot and let the audience for it develop, then move it to a good night on Sunday. Then after that they would barley give shows half a season on a notoriously bad time slot to try and work. It was as if they thought X-files was an instant success instead of being one of the lowest ranked it's 1st season, and only finding a good size audience after about 3 years.
And now audiences are a fraction of what they were. The Big Bang Theory is consistently the highest-rated show but it averaged only 9.8 million viewers its first year on CBS, the number-one network with the most affiliates. When Firefly was taken off the air, it averaged 4.7 million viewers, and we all know how hard Fox tried to keep people from seeing it. Nevermind they 1/3 the number of stations of CBS.
I love Wonderfalls and own it on DVD.
Trike wrote: "Daniel wrote: "Of course it is to spark a comment from people who only read my dialog and not what I post."What does that mean?
You posted that Firefly should get more love. There is not current..."
There is love for Firefly in the fandom universe, but do you see reruns of it or more episodes being made no. The ones on this list were kind of sad and could have gone on to have more seasons but really good shows don't.
Sean wrote: "This thread reads like a list of every bad UPN and Sci-Fi Channel series. How about some good shows:The original Outer Limits
The Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants
Alien Nation
Misfits of Science
Bl..."
Alien Nation was one of my favorites.
Christina wrote: "Wonderfalls was amazing!!!... So, glad they did release the whole series on DVD though. I show it to everyone who will let me! "I do the same thing. I'm constantly recommending it and loaning out my copy.
Daniel wrote: "There is love for Firefly in the fandom universe, but do you see reruns of it or more episodes being made no."A show needs three or four seasons worth of material to make reruns feasible. Firefly doesn't even have one. The SyFy channel might break out an occasional marathon, but if they put it in regular rotation, it wouldn't even last a month before they start repeating and people tune out.
Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "I'd say Outer Limits and Blake's 7 have had their fair share of love, no?"
I think for most people the original Outer Limits is a footnote -- that show that was like the Twilight Zone that James Cameron ripped off for Terminator. If not for the '90s revival, I don't think most people would even know it exists.
As for Blake's 7, I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but in the US it hardly ever plays on TV (last time I saw it was in the '90s) and has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray.
Daniel wrote: "There is love for Firefly in the fandom universe, but do you see reruns of it or more episodes being made no. The ones on this list were kind of sad and could have gone on to have more seasons but really good shows don't. "It got a feature film, two documentaries, a half-dozen comic books and who knows how many books. Not to mention a board game and an online game.
For a show that didn't even air its 14 original episodes, that's pretty good.
Sean wrote: "I think for most people the original Outer Limits is a footnote -- that show that was like the Twilight Zone that James Cameron ripped off for Terminator. If not for the '90s revival, I don't think most people would even know it exists.As for Blake's 7, I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but in the US it hardly ever plays on TV (last time I saw it was in the '90s) and has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. "
You have a point. Though with The Outer Limits, I'd argue that influence and revivals suggest plenty of love along the way.
Blake's 7 is definitely available on dvd in the UK (I'm pretty sure I bought it for my dad), and I have seen it often enough in shops to assume popularity. Hadn't realised it wasn't available on region 1, so I guess it was a lot more popular here than there (would make sense).
My perspective for both is skewed because I grew up with a dad who loved them, so I guess I just assume the masses of love is out there. I can't even remember if it was reruns I watched as a child, or videos (I mean, I definitely watched videos, but there may have been reruns also)
Dark Skies. The 60s, UFOs, MJ12 was saaahhhhhhh good!!!
There are so many great shows, so many cheesy shows, so many terrible shows, and so many cheesily terrible great shows already listed. My feeling as to which is which probably depends more on how old I was when I first saw them than how good they actually are.To add to the list, two cheesy great shows that I loved but will not re-watch because I don't want a visit from the suck fairy:
http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Warrior... - I remember it as a really funny fantasy spoof
http://www.amazon.com/Friday-13th-The... - a cute "creature of the week" show with the main characters trying to retrieve cursed items sold by their deceased uncle before they caused more harm.
Ehh Outer Limits I feel counts as under loved most people from my generation have never heard about it or seen it, even if they are huge Twilight Zone fans.The main thing I see is the disconnect in the US live action scenes and Japan's anime scene which does lots of great Sci-fi like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and they are more series plot focused instead of episodic and tend to actually finish the story, and not just run until it sucks then get canceled.
The main SF show I can think of lately I was really sad got canned so early was Day Break (the time looping one). It's still really good at least even stand alone.
Aaron wrote: "It came out at the height of Fox's period of killing everything that didn't instantly dominate its time slot. And they started it on Friday night, which was a death sentence for all Fox shows at the time. So much potential wasted."Between the mid-80s (when they started) and the mid-00s (around the time Lost and Heroes got big and established a place for genre on network TV), Fox was really the only one of the Big Four American TV networks willing to even give hour-long genre dramas a chance (See list below*). Networks have higher standards of cost, audience numbers, and revenue dollars compared to first-run syndication fare (TNG, Herc/Xena), cable channel series (Buffy/Angel, Stargate), or foreign-funded or imported series (Farscape, Lexx), so it mean while Fox had a lot of SF/F/H genre shows, most of them failed. But a lot of network shows from more popular formats (police procedural, hospital drama) fail all the time, because the stakes are higher.
Way back in second-place was NBC, with the original V, Quantum Leap, SeaQuest DSV, Earth 2, and Dark Skies. ABC and CBS had almost no SF/F/H-based dramas during this time (ABC had Max Headroom and the extremely short-lived Automan, CBS had the new Twilight Zone--and that was about it). At best, there were a few SF&F-themed sitcoms like ALF, Small Wonder, and Out of This World.
Sorry, I get a bit of defensive about fandom's slamming Fox's track record with genre shows, because for most of twenty years, they were practically the only major network even taking chances on them. No one ever beats up on CBS for not even taking a chance on a single original SF series for almost thirty years.
*Genre shows in the hour-long drama format aired on Fox between 1986-2006:
(view spoiler)
Aaron wrote: "The main thing I see is the disconnect in the US live action scenes and Japan's anime scene which does lots of great Sci-fi like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and they are more series plot focused instead of episodic and tend to actually finish the story, and not just run until it sucks then get canceled."Huh? Granted, they are usually complete seasons, but anime series' frequently just stop dead, with no real wrap up and loose threads hanging about all over the place, waiting desperately for a second season that never comes. This happens all the time. Luckily, in many cases, they are based on manga and you can find out the rest of the story that way, but it still sucks. And anime definitely doesn't get much love in its native country, which is kinda sad.
Also, I'm not sure I've ever seen The Twilight Zone. I mean, I might have... I guess since I'm aware it's similar to The Outer Limits, I could easily mix the two, but I definitely watched The Outer Limits a lot - it was shown often, especially after the 90's revival Sean mentioned. Maybe this is a UK/US difference? Or maybe it's just me!
Joe Informatico wrote: "Between the mid-80s (when they started) and the mid-00s (around the time Lost and Heroes got big and established a place for genre on network TV), Fox was really the only one of the Big Four American TV networks willing to even give hour-long genre dramas a chance..."They also had fewer programming slots than the original three networks because they didn't have 10:00 o'clock or weekends. My bone to pick about Firefly wasn't its cancellation but Fox's reordering the show's air dates. Genre shows don't work when aired out-of-order. If I'd watched Firefly when it originally aired, I would have lemmed it after Fox's pilot.
Quite a few genre shows have had episodes reordered -- Farscape and the original Star Trek come immediately to mind -- and survived for multiple seasons. I don't think putting things in the correct order would've helped Firefly. The central conceit (a Western in space!) is one without mass appeal, and frankly the stories were slow moving and boring.
I think the problem with Firefly gaining an audience was that it was very character driven. I didn't love Firefly after watching one episode. I didn't hate it, and was certainly willing to give it time to grow, but I did not think it was as amazing as I do now. Once I'd watched a few more episodes, I adored it, not because the episodes were any better than the first one I watched (they are all fantastic), but because I had come to know and care for the characters, and that is when the show becomes great. And that takes time not everyone was willing to give.
Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "I think the problem with Firefly gaining an audience was that it was very character driven. I didn't love Firefly after watching one episode. I didn't hate it, and was certainly willing to give it ..."When it was originally airing, I kind of half-watched a couple of episodes, but it never really jelled for me. Then I bought the DVD set, sat down and watched the full season and was sad that there wasn't more.
Fox chose to air first a midseason show that emphasized that odd and somewhat off-putting conceit, rather than the pilot. (I wasn't bored by Firefly but no need to debate its merits on this thread.) I do think that disordering the episodes hurt that particular show and hurts lots of genre shows - there is often a lot of time devoted to introducing the audience to the world. Putting the shows in the wrong order leaves the audience at sea in the early going and suffering through repetitive exposition later.
I wasn't into the show until the original pilot aired (the one Joss Whedon had lots of time to develop). Suddenly I was hooked, and suddenly it was gone.The first episode aired was written in a weekend because Fox didn't want to go with the pilot and at the last minute said "Give us something else."
The original pilot was imo the best episode of the show, and better than the movie.
My only complaint about the movie is that there was so much build up in the show about the guys with the blue gloves, and then they are not even mentioned in the movie. At least not that I can recall.I also think it would be cool if Joss Whedon would take the time to make a sequel to the movie.
Ain't completely up to Joss, even if all he did was a comic book series followup he would need to get a license for it. I saw Straczynski talk about the difficulties in rounding out Crusade and he just gave up. I can imagine Joss has other things to do.
http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/sci-fi-sho...