Thoughts on SciFi

[rurounihime]

It's kind of funny to watch the progression of a genre. I recently purchased the entire run of Space: Above and Beyond, a series I loved up until it was cancelled - rather unexpectedly in my opinion - and of course, afterwards as well. Looking back on it now, I can see so many inspirations in it for space-based shows that came after, and it's just neat to track the genre as it develops on television.

The most ground-breaking series in the genre, in my opinion, are:

~Star Trek, of course. No way that can be denied.
~Space: Above and Beyond. Definitely a new take, not on the distant future, but on the more immediate future, which is not often attempted in the genre.
~Firefly. I mean, who else could ever come up with a space-western? It's wonderful. (And the interesting thing is, watching S:A&B, I would be willing to bet money that Whedon watched it too.)

I don't watch Battlestar Galactica, but I have a feeling that it's also making a lot of headway, from what I've heard.

Some honourable mentions:
~Stargate SG-1: by virtue of its fascinating blend of faith and science;
~Farscape: took the idea of Star Trek and just flipped it on its head, beat the crud out of it, and popped off scintillating jokes all the while... with puppets;
~LEXX: talk about your weird. Definitely worth a watch just for the utter kink.

And then of course, there's Futurama. *grins*

So I am wondering, what is your take on this genre, f-list?

Comments

[ravenna-c-tan.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree!

Another one: I think Babylon 5 helped prove to the powers that be that a sci fi show didnt' have to follwo the Star Trek formula of always returning everything ot the status quo every episode. By building on a long arc of story, such that every episode didn't stand alone, they broke a lot of the "rules" of genre television. Nowadays, of course, plenty of shows do that, but at the time it was revolutionary.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh my god! How could I forget to mention B5?? I didn't watch it, but I know you are right and that it paved new inroads for the genre. And it's neat to find out that it may have been the pioneer of the continuing plot arc storyline. That shows up a lot in series now: Firefly and S:A&B, to name only two...

Excellent comment, love. Thanks for reminding me.

[ravenna-c-tan.livejournal.com]

No problem! If you ever get a chance to borrow the DVDs of it, it's worth a look, though I felt the story suffered from the way the vagaries of television jerked them around (would there be a next season?> yes, no, yes! okay, but since we thought there wouldn't be a new season, this actress already left for another job, so we have to either kill off her character or something... um.... that kind of stuff). It's interesting because in the first season there are a few episodes that are Star Trek style, stand alone episodes, but they clearly did that to appease the powers that be and by the second season that pretty much gets left behind.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know they had such trouble with keeping their contract. That's so sad. I wish the heads of television stations didn't get so much say over what goes where and when. Many a good show has been scrapped because of it.

[ravenna-c-tan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much every season it was this huge protracted battle as to whether they would be cancelled or stay on the air.