Kevin's Watch

Was discussing eslewhere on the web the relative lack of good science fiction shows on tv right now. FARSCAPE is gone. FIREFLY and CRUSADE never really took off, while BABYLON 5 has ended its five-year story. None of us were very enthused about ANDROMEDA, and then of course we heard ENTERPRISE was cancelled.

So suppose you were given the creative control to make a new Science Fiction t.v. show? Network, cable, syndicated, whatever. What would you like to see? I have an idea of my own, but I'd like to read other folks' ideas first...

Any notions?

I think it'd be cool to see something done with Patricia Kenneally's Keltiad. The first three books were enjoyable, though perhaps not brilliant, but I think they give a lot of scope for various storylines.

The basic premise of the series is that the Celtic Diaspora actually started at the time of St. Brendan. The actual legend holds that St. Brendan sailed from Ireland & supposedly discovered North America. In The Keltiad, he was actually a spacefarer, and took the ancient Celts and Atlantans to a new home elsewhere in the Galaxy. At the time of the series, Earth has only just discovered their long-lost cousins (after 3500 years!) and is set on making contact.

It's definitely soft sci-fi, with a lot of fantasy elements, but it's told in a high-fantasy epic style that's quite appealing. A screenwriter could do a lot with the diplomatic and interpersonal tensions brought on by making contact with long-lost--and very isolationist--relatives, as well as playing up the Keltic/Atlantean-struggle-for-supremacy-on-the-verge-of-interstellar-war angle.

I think this is one set of books that might actually make a better tv series.

Well, there's the B5 movie coming out next year.....

I'd love to see HBO do Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld in serial form. The whole cycle could probably be told over 3-4 years. Anything would be better than Sci-Fi's butchering of the story.

I'd also like to see a more faithful translation of Brinn's The Postman. And I'm still waiting for a good movie to be made from any of Philip K. Dick's stories.

Foundation

Well, Battlestar Galactica is proudly flying the flag for TV sci fi at the moment. I really wish the remake of Blake's 7 hadn't gone down the pan though, that would have been awesome.

There was a B7 remake-of-sorts made last year, but it was a one-off parody with Johnny Vegas, Mark Heap and Martin Freeman playing Blake, Avon and Vila whilst Mackenzie Crook plays Servelan(!). The original Orac is featured though, and is voiced by Peter Tuddenham himself.



The short was filmed for the Edinburgh Film Festival and sees the crew relegated to a Volvo with caravan following the destruction of the Liberator. They stop off at Newport Pagnell Service Station (at junction 7 of the M1), unaware that Servelan is lying in wait for them...

Hopefully they'll get round to putting it on TV in the near future, it looks really funny.

Martin's Wildcards series.

I think Anne McCaffrey's DragonRiders of Pern would make great tv--especially now since computer generated images look so realistic.

I'd love to see the Huge Dragons....

Otherwise, I'd like to see my own little story--Piratical Book Geeks of the High Internet on TV--first, cause I love it, and second, because I'd get money.

Heh heh

I think Whedon's Firefly had the potential to surpass almost any sf ever seen on television, so I'm hoping the big-budget movie is a success and the series could return.

Barring that million to one shot, though, I like Myste's Keltiad idea. That series had everything from romance to space battles to culture shock. If done well, it could be a fun tv series.

I think David Feintuch's 'Hope' series, if done well, could surpass anything ever seen. It's the only series, to my thinking, that ranks with TCOTC, and as it's sf it would probably be easier to make and also have a broader appeal.

Barring that, Cho's 'Piratical Book Geeks' would be good, because as a 'featured character', I would naturally expect wealth and/or notoriety.

Hi,

this is all academic anyway, because there isn't a single channel or TV network in existence that understands or has the vaguest idea of what constitues a good sci fi series.

As you already pointed out, all the bests series have finished...mostly prematurely.
Babylon 5 - possibly the best written series in terms of story arc, was cancelled after season 4, and later given its final series, which resulted in all the major storylines being rapped up at end of season 4, leaving the newly commissioned season 5 with no decent material to play with.
Farscape - possbily some of the best characters and acting in sci fi. Again cancelled after 4 seasons, right at the moment everything was heating up for a big finale. By popular demand the producers got a enough funding for a small mini series that finished the story off well.
Enterprise - possibly the best Star Trek series - with some real characters and storylines. And cancelled.
Firefly - cancelled i believe.
Battlestar Galactica - an amazing reworking with a nice style of its own...not known if this is going to be given a second series.

and yet Stargate, Atlantis, episodic and dull as dishwater, get a green light year to year.

Maybe the new Dr Who will be something to look forward to. I have heard very good things about it.

So, whats the point in coming up with a good series idea.

Edge wrote:I think David Feintuch's 'Hope' series, if done well, could surpass anything ever seen. It's the only series, to my thinking, that ranks with TCOTC, and as it's sf it would probably be easier to make and also have a broader appeal.

Barring that, Cho's 'Piratical Book Geeks' would be good, because as a 'featured character', I would naturally expect wealth and/or notoriety.

Quite naturally, I would insist upon your presence as a consultant. After all, who else understands your character as well as you do?

heh heh

Space: 2005

Okay, here's my idea.

HOMEWORLD

We meet the characters, who are various people--including some police detectives--in a huge domed habitat. For over a hundred years they've been living here, waiting for the radiation in the wake of a terrible war to die down so they can resettle the earth. Among other things, they are tending vast hydroponic gardens. Yeah, there are some strange doings among the wealthy in this habitat, including what looks to be an unholy alliance between certain criminal elements, some politicos, and some scientists.

Some of those helping the police quietly sneak away on their own, revealing the truth. This is not a habitat. It is a starship carrying colonists to a new world. A small group of crew members have been thawed out automatically, to their very great shock--because this isn't the ship they were supposed to crew. They've never seen this ship before, although the design looks familiar. And the habitat is only part of the ship. Huge sections remain unexplored. More, the ship's AI seems to have had big chunks of its memory erased or closed off. It can't tell them all of what's going on either!

But they can read enough instruments to know the huge starship is approaching its destination. Within a year, they should enter a new star system, one they don't recognize.

jalacourt wrote:Enterprise - possibly the best Star Trek series - with some real characters and storylines. And cancelled.

Welcome. I happily invite you the Star Wars and Star Trek forum in The Library, where you will find people only too glad to debate that one with you.

--Avatar

jalacourt wrote:Battlestar Galactica - an amazing reworking with a nice style of its own...not known if this is going to be given a second series.

Galactica has been confirmed for a second season. I'm hoping they stick to the half season format (which they almost certainly won't) as I think it keeps the writing focused and also I suspect people may struggle to watch a show as dark as BSG for 26 episodes.

Maybe something based on David Brin's Uplift series? Although the dolphins might be tricky to do right...

jalacourt wrote:So, whats the point in coming up with a good series idea.

Hope springs eternal?

But seriously, as a major media-purchasing demographic, sci-fi fans present excellent marketing opportunities for manufacturers at both the high- and low-ends of the consumer goods spectrum. Sci-fi fans and their brothers and sisters in geekdom spend more money on home electronics, high-tech wizardry, dvds, and small plastic toys and gimcracks than any other demographic except jocks. (Yes, I made that fact up, but it sounds plausible, doesn't it? )

In other words, scifi fans buy things. If you want to sell things to them, you have to advertise during periods of time when they are watching tv (always hoping, of course, that they haven't got TiVo yet). If you want them to watch tv, you have to give them something they want to watch. The best way to find out what they want to watch is to ask them.

I believe Zahir may be a SciFi Channel producer in disguise!!!

Zahir, I'd watch your Homeworld series.

Of course, like all sf on film, whether it was any good would be determined by acting, scripts, budget and the studio's commitment.

Then you have to pray you get a decent time slot.

Good luck.

Myste wrote: I believe Zahir may be a SciFi Channel producer in disguise!!!

I wish!

Zahir. Tell me the truth...have you ever read Christopher Priest?