Category: developers journal

Is science fiction on TV dead?

Author: seven April 15, 2009

I am a big SCI-FI fan, and I like to watch a series or two every now and then when I get home form hard day at work. The problem is, I don’t have a thing to watch at the moment – all my favorite SCI-FI series got canceled! Oh course you Nielsen Ratings and American Lost loving audience! And course you SciFi channel for rebranding into SyFy. Why???

History of cancellation of my favorite shows goes something like this:

  1. Farscape series got canceled in 2002
  2. Star Trek Enterprise series got canceled in 2005
  3. Stargate SG1 got canceled in 2007
  4. Stargate Atlantis got canceled in 2009
  5. Battlestar Galactica got canceled in 2009

To compensate, I had to switch to mainstream, so at the moment I watch 24 (Jack Bauer, I love you!), Heroes (laugh, but I really like the show!), Medium, Law and Order UK (I love English detective shows), and Doctor Who. But it’s only a matter of time when those shows will get canceled too.

Something I can’t wait to see is newly announced Stargate series called Stargate Universe:

Am I missing something maybe, do you have a SCI-FI show to recommend?

Author
seven
CEO/CTO at Nivas®
Neven Jacmenović has been passionately involved with computers since late 80s, the age of Atari and Commodore Amiga. As one of internet industry pioneers in Croatia, since 90s, he has been involved in making of many award winning, innovative and successful online projects. He is an experienced full stack web developer, analyst and system engineer. In his spare time, Neven is transforming retro-futuristic passion into various golang, Adobe Flash and JavaScript/WebGL projects.

    12 thoughts on “Is science fiction on TV dead?”

  • Dollhouse, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (but their future is also questionable), Fringe, Lost — there are the ones I can think of at this moment.

  • I forgot to mention Eureka, which had potential, but they screwed the plot in the middle of season 1. I think Eureka is canceled too.

    Hmm.. I haven’t seen Dollhouse or Fringe.

    Sarah Connor Chronicles is in line with Smallville and Dr. Who. Teen stuf. :)

    Lost and Prison Break have the same never ending concept – they could film 100 seasons, and nothing would happen. Plus they are not sci-fi. John Doe was more interesting than Lost, but John Doe got canceled too.

  • I recommend Fringe… it’s gooood, not so much science but it is entertaining :)

  • Dollhouse has potential if you manage to live thru the first 6-7 episodes without giving up, cause that’s when the plot finally gets interesting.

    Eureka was a nice brain-relaxant, but is probably gone for good :/

    Fringe is good, as someone mentioned already, but it’s not so much SF as I’d like it to be :)

    As far as SF goes, a new pilot aired a few days ago: Caprica http://tinyurl.com/yj5e5k – it has potential, if they dont screw it up…

    Some other shows, in no particular order, that I currently watch (or have watched until they went on hiatus): House, Bones, How I Met Your Mother, Breaking Bad, The Big Bang Theory, Flashpoint, The Unit, Scrubs, Rescue Me, In Treatment, 30 Rock, Trust Me, Law And Order UK, The Mentalist, Lie To Me, Kings, The Beast, Cold Case, The Line, Flight Of The Conchords, United States Of Tara

  • Zyt, I know that you are on a vacation and that you have all the time in world to watch ALL series out there. Stop rubbing it in. :)

    I’ll give Dollhouse and Fringe a shoot tonight! Thanks bros!

  • new episode of south park 13×06 is also SF :D
    a goofy one :)

  • by the way… you can look at scifi.dead-donkey.com which indexes only sci-fi series / movies for some more examples if you need ideas what to watch.

  • Also, new Plan B magazine issue has an article about all stuff SF…

  • Have you watched Firefly (and after it – Serenity)?
    Great SF show, Jewel Staite is pretty cute in it :)

    There were 14 or 15 episodes in S01 and then they shut it :(

  • Hahaah Firefly was nice show. Cowboys, but in space! :) It didn’t had chance between Startrek, Stargate and Farscape showing at that time.

    Btw, I gave Dollhouse a try… and it’s NO GO! NOOOO GOOOO!!! Funny storyline tough.

    Next in line is Fringe.

  • Stargate is probably the best science fiction series after Firefly. Nice visual effects too.:**

  • stargate SG1 was my favorite sci-fi tv series on our cable TV””,

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