Is it just me...?

[John Crichton]

I agree that moves are looking pretty good.

My displeasure with Star Wars is more work related, and something I actually can't really get into. Lets just say that while I think that the prequels have been technically superior to the classic trilogy, it seems to be lacking in the overall spirit and energy of the classic trilogy. I want to believe episode 3 will be good, but I'm having a hard time being optimistic about it. Maybe time, and not working with it on a daily basis will change my opinion of it. I do think the Star Wars RPG is good and getting better.

I think I know where you are coming from with Star Wars and its probably best to leave it as opinion. The newer movies aren't as good as the originals but they are still enjoyable. Fair enough?

On the dead shows list, I think Millenium was brilliant. Too brilliant for most audiences, unfortunately. The intrigue was there, and it was soooo dark. I loved it for its darkness. I would love to see them do a movie about Frank Black, even if the Millenium story arc was resolved in the X-files. I would watch Jeremiah if I had Showtime. I'll give anything Straczynski is involved with a chance.

I too wish I had Showtime.

I hated Earth:Final Conflict, and was relieved when they finally canceled it. It wasn't horrible when it was just the Thalons (or however you spell them), but the replacement storyline and the new aliens were just lame IMO.

The first season was very cool, IMO. When the main character was killed off the series declined from there. I believed I stopped watching sometime near the end of season 2.

Enterprise is cool, but I think the Trek franchise is in serious trouble. First of all, how was it a good idea to do a show set so far in the past that it's practically irrelevant. OK, so we have the temporal cold war to make it relevant, and with the new story arc, the whole timeline we are familliar with seems to be compromised. The series finale of Voyager gave the Federation technology that is just getting way out of hand, so the only way to even make it interesting is to go back in time. Offing the Next Gen cast was another huge mistake. That last movie was cool in parts, but the overall story left so much to be desired. And all the cool parts were borrowed from other Trek movies. The death of a crew member who leaves his brain elsewhere for later retrieval, the near destruction of the ship, reform in the relations between the Federation and one if its enemies, and a ship that can fire while cloaked. It might have been a better movie had the cool elements not been ripped from the other even numbered movies. Another thing, they talked about that radiation weapon Shinzon was using as though it were the only planetkiller they had at their disposal. Wasn't Kirk going to blow a planet way back in the original series? I would think that they would have the technology to destroy Earth without resorting to such outlandish means. Why not just bring along an extra warp core and beam it down to Earth? Wouldn't that pretty much do the trick? Rick Berman said that he couldn't figure out why the movie didn't do well. Two reasons: it needed a plot that wasn't warmed over leftovers (not to mention a horrible ending for a crew we were all quite fond of), and the timing of the release. What would have possessed Rick Berman to put it agianst Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, especially when he could have waited a couple months when it would get more attention?

Anyway, I think Enterprise would be a better show if they would have just given Scott Bakula a ship and put him in the Trek "modern" era, and then jettisoned the whole of Voyager series as non-canon. I think I can feel the vibrations of Gene Roddenberry thrashing in his grave from here.

Hmm, Trek. The movies have been terrible but I dig Enterprise. I strongly disliked Voyager. This next season is critical for Trek...

I'm also not a huge superhero fan. I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't do a Hulk movie as long as Bill Bixby remains in the grave. That pretty much does it for Smallville as well.

How about X-men and Spidey? Spiderman wasn't great but it's a decent start. If they make the leaps that X-men did with the sequel I will be more than happy.

OK, maybe I am coming off a little crumudgeony. I just want some good thought provoking science fiction.

The last good thinking man's science fiction movie was Dark City. The Matrix doesn't count. We agree here. M. Night should make a sci-fi flick - He rocked the thriller and the superhero genres.

 

[Ranger REG]

Let me preface this with 'I love science fiction moveis and TV.'

But it seems that lately there's been nothing worth watching coming out of the genre. I used to love Babylon 5, Star Trek TNG, the X-Files, Hercules, and even Farscape. All gone now, and what has come along of the same caliber to replace them? I've tried Stargate SG1 and it just hasn't worked for me. Too low budget, uncompelling characters... blah!

Well, not everyone share your taste, particularly the large mainstream audience, even though the TV network "suits" use the antiquated Nielsen rating to gauged the number of audience are watching: 1 Nielsen viewing household = 100,000 American viewing household.

I never really watched Buffy or Angel, but I will give them credit for being good shows. Buffy's already gone. Then there's the shows that should have been good, like Firefly and Crusade, which were killed off before they were ever given a chance to succeed. What's worse is that with all the reality TV that's all the rage right now, even the Scifi channel is getting in on that rather than offering good original programming.

Again, it's rating. While the story and premise may sound appealing to just you and/or me, it may not be with the mainstream. Of course, other factors may include timeslot. Simply put, when it comes to weekends starting Friday, not many people are staying home to watch.

I admit that it is entirely possible that I'm just being overly critical or even missing the boat entirely. Please don't take this as me just flaming your favorite shows. So is the problem that I'm just not exposing myself to the right shows, or is there a real problem with Scifi/fantasy now? I'm interested in other opinions.

I think for most of us sophisticated audience, our taste in the genre matured as we grow up or mature into an OLDER adult. So we prefer to watch high-quality show as not to waste our time in front of the TV set or paying over $5 in matinee price (evening movie ticket is bad enough already, at the minimum $8, and not counting concession snacks).

We're not young anymore, I guess.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Re: Re: Is it just me...?

Well, not everyone share your taste, particularly the large mainstream audience, even though the TV network "suits" use the antiquated Nielsen rating to gauged the number of audience are watching: 1 Nielsen viewing household = 100,000 American viewing household.

We're not young anymore, I guess.

Don't remind me about not being young anymore. I just turned 30. Sometimes it feels like 50 (not that I would know firsthand what 50 feels like).

Anyway, I'm well aware that the success or failure of a show depends on ratings. It makes a certain kind of sense. You have to have the ratings to pay for the advertisers, and that advertising is sold at a different price depending on the number of viewers of a particular timeslot. The number of advertising dollars you bring in decides whether a show is profitable or losing money. From a business point of view, it makes sense. As a fan of scifi, its just frustrating.

Of course there's no shortage of TNG and X-Files reruns on TV, so if I can't get my fix from the new stuff, I can always go back to the old stuff.

 

[Ranger REG]

That's what DVD collections are for. Many production companies are releasing them for those who want relive the viewing experience over and over, from B5 to Dark Angel to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

The ST:TNG and X-Files collections are just too expensive at $100+. For most of them I'd be willing to spend up to $75, but this is a rant for a different thread probably.

 

[Darrin Drader]

That's what DVD collections are for. Many production companies are releasing them for those who want relive the viewing experience over and over, from B5 to Dark Angel to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Agreed. TNG, I have an extensive library of taped episodes. I have considered the DVD collections, but its not high on my list of priorities right now. So far I have both seasons of B5 released to DVD and have watched quite a bit of them. Speaking of which, when in the world are they going to get around to releasing Twin Peaks Season 2 to DVD? My wife watched season 1 for the first time on DVD and can't wait to see what happens (when she says that I cackle evilly, but she doesn't need to know why... yet).

 

[jdavis]

I think that Sci Fi movies are really comming into their own right now. There were a lot of movies that just couldn't be made before due to a lack of technology. Now TV well that's a different story, welcome to the wonderful world of reality TV. These shows have changed TV a lot, including changing the importance of ratings, a reality show can survive on much lower ratings than other shows can because they cost so very little to make by comparison. I'm sure the John Edwards show cost next to nothing to make, it's just him on a stock stage talking to a crowd week after week. Sci Fi may be much cheaper to make now but it's hard to get any cheaper than that. Sci Fi TV will come back around when people get tired of Who Wants to Marry a Goofball and people go back to wanting to get away from reality rather than watching it.

Some of the things mentioned in the thread.
Star Wars: expectations were just too high a good movie isn't good enough. The first movies were so cutting edge and original, these are suffering because the originals have been copied so many times now, we've been there and seen that already. It also was a hard thing for me when I realized that the movies never grew up but I did, my kids love the new movies and now I'm to old to be the target audience for much of the story.

Star Trek: Has serious problems with getting stale. Every time I watch a episode it seems to be a retelling of a older episode (voyager was really bad about that). They change the aliens, change the script but it all seems to be the same type of stories rehashed over and over. Nemisis wasn't bad, it just wasn't special in any way, it never reached out and grabbed me or made me say wow. Don't care for Enterprise all that much either.

Sci Fi channel: Man the change in focus there is huge, it's turning intot he paranormal channel. I will give them that Stargate is getting better, I'm not a fan in any way but I have seen some episodes that were decent lately. I think nothing speaks more for what's going on there than they replaced Farscape with Tremors the series.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Stargate has Daniel again. That should help.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Sadly, I think it all comes down to age...most of us have all grown up, but the genre has(mostly) stayed the same. Its very obvious that Star Wars is suffering this the most. Most of the older fans just hate what's been done, while nearly all of the younger fans see them as great movies.
Star Trek...I think Star Trek just needed to age with its audience, and it really hasn't. Its almost like they tried to do what Star Wars did, but Star Trek just doesn't seem to appeal to younger audiences the same way, and it getting hurt by it. While I do like Enterprise, I think there's just so much more that can be done with it.

 

[Umbran]

Put our money where our mouths are...

I, too, think that the next season will be critical for Enterprise. But, with it still scheduled to air opposite Smallville, it's probably doomed. Someone at UPN is either a bonehead, arrogant, or actively seeking to kill Enterprise...

What the genres need is a studio, preferably a TV studio, who is willing to take a chance and stick with it. Sci-Fi did and gave us Farscape but they changed management and the show was killed off.

Hm. From what I heard, that's not quite what happened. Production costs on Farscape went up. The network no loger felt it would be earning enough profit, and the ratings information seems to bear that out.

Now, for my segue...

But, you're right. Someone needs to take a risk. But we keep thinking it's some network that should do it for us. Why not do it ourselves?

Firefly cost something like $2 million per episode to produce. If Neilsen detractors are correct, and the ratings undercount genre fans, then perhaps something like 2 million people watched each episode. If each of those viewers put in $1, you'd have another episode. If each of those viewers pu in $22, you'd have a season. If each of those viewers put in $100, there'd be enough money for four such series, plus a summer half-season show like Witchblade!

So, let me introduce you to a concept - Two Million Fans Productions. TMFP is a non-profit organization of fan subscribers. It goes out, and finds shows like Firefly and Farscape - good programs that don't quite make enough money to survive in the mass market - and offers to pay the production costs. It then turns around, and sells each epsidoe to a network for one single shiny penny. Donate the show, allow the network to keep every dollar of advertising revenue. If the network doesn't have to pay for the show itself, it becomes vastly more profitable to air it. The network gets what it wants (a profitable show), and the fans get what they want (a show to watch). Everybody is happy.

Now, let's remember that TMFP has contact information for it's subscribers. It can ask which shows we'd like produced, and which shows have ceased to be good enough to have our money. A sort of fan-specific Neilsen system.

So, what the genre needs is one wealthy, business-savvy fan willing to cover the original costs to organize, advertise and gather fan subscriptions.

Think of it, for less than the price of one season of Star Trek on DVD, you might be able to have four series for one season on TV!