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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 1302408" data-attributes="member: 7394">An excellent question, and one that certainly invites a lot fo armchair quarterbacking.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> First of all, I think that in today's climate, the overriding psocietal philosohy is no longer promoting the notion of peace at all costs. I think this is a diametrically opposed to the fundamental philosophy behind ST:TNG. As much as I loved that show at the time, it was made in a pre-terrorism world. Without going all bonzai on the restricted political discussion, I think that what this means to scifi is that a successful scifi needs to allow for some pretty dark stuff, but it also has to be about fighting the good fight and it has to be about hope. I think in many ways that is what our society is looking for, not just in entertainment.I think people are also tired of the problems being dealt with being based on science. Granted, its science fiction, but as has already been pointed out, we don't need a five minute dissertation every episode on what makes their ships travel faster than light. Instead, there needs to be human drama, compelling characters, and there needs to be action. Babylon 5 had all of these things, but if I get going on that topic, I'll be writing until morning.So, the ideal sereis, from my point of view would be darker than a lot of the fare we got in the '90s. It would have strong characters. It would have human drama. It would have combat, It would have good special effects. It would focus on hope. In short, it would look very close, or exactly the same as the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. That was the most compelling science fiction I've seen on TV since Babylon 5. Ever since I started writing professionally I haven't made a lot of time for watching any TV. In fact, the only show I watch religiously is 24. The BSG miniseries had enough of what I was looking for that I not only watched it once when they first showed it, but then I watched it again when they showed both parts together. I want to buy that DVD, regardless of whether this goes to series. I know a lot of people were disappointed that it had a lot of points of departure from the original, but for me, it delivered a story that was able to compress a lot of soul into 4 hours.So what would I do to keep it on the air? If I was the exec that gave it the greenlight, I would set a relatively low benchmark for ratings and if it was able to average those ratings on a weekly basis, I would commit to 2 years up front. Beyond that point, much would depend on whether it was able to find an audience. If it does, then I would increase the budget, keep the advertising the same, and try to find the ideal timeslot for it. If it met the expectations but didn't exceed them, I would take some money from the show's budget and put it into advertising. Yes, this means that in some areas the show's quality might suffer, but this is something it could overcome with good enough writing. If the increased writing was enough to draw in more viewers, then I would increase the show's budget again. If the show failed to make the numbers during the first 2 seasons, then I would probably pull the pug. After all, if it can't succeed after 2 seasons, then its time to make way for something better.Of course that's just my business sense. Maybe I'm clueless.</blockquote>

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