sf/f TV development news - 2013

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Temis the Vorta, Oct 10, 2011.

  1. Borgminister

    Borgminister Admiral Moderator

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    Brent Spiner wasn't available? :p
     
  2. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    His aging chip is out of control. :(
     
  3. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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  4. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    'Intelligence' (and James Martinez)? What an odd name for a show!

    But seriously, I hope Martinez' character doesn't get nicknamed "Dirty".
     
  5. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    Bruce Boxleitner's new show update:

    http://lanterncitytv.com/

    The new Steampunk show Lantern City, from executive producer Bruce Boxleitner, is an exciting foray into fan-inspired and fan-created television. It combines first-rate storytelling, innovative production design, and a rich world that fans will fall in love with. Even though it will blend great science fiction with dynamic storylines, at its heart the show asks two questions: how far would you go to be with the person you love and what lengths would you go to in order to survive?

    Lantern City highlights the steampunk genre to create a one-of-a-kind television experience. Other properties have had Steampunk elements, but this is the first mainstream television show to proudly wear the label of Steampunk. Current fans of the subgenre will not be disappointed and it will attract a much wider audience to the long neglected world of Steampunk. The show is unique in that it allows viewers to be involved in the process – a first for any television show.
     
  6. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Well, that's the most intriguing one I've seen in a while.
     
  7. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Lily Taylor joins JJ Abrams robot cop series.

    Her role:

    Where/when are they planning to show Lantern City? I've seen a lot of stuff like that with websites but they never seem to materialize, or when they do, its disappointing.
     
  8. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I was actually just looking around at Lantern City's website, and Facebook page a couple weeks ago, and I don't think I saw anything about when/where it will air. There were references to a trailer being done or worked on, but not beyond that.
     
  9. mos6507

    mos6507 Commodore Commodore

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    I am still trying to figure out what the point of doing Renegades is. Renegades and Lantern City seem very similar in approach, although Lantern City is original enough that, in theory, it could become a "real" show whereas Renegades is in this nebulous area where it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, but it's not legally able to be a duck.
     
  10. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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  11. Borgminister

    Borgminister Admiral Moderator

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    This sounds a bit too much like Touch in a sense. Especially if those powers don't manifest for 7 years. Hm.
     
  12. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    How many viewers are going to have the patience to wait for something that's going to happen seven seasons from now, on the very slim chance that it doesn't get cancelled before then. Why even bother with a premise like this?

    So many of the pilots this year sound like insta-flops, very similar to shows that have been flopping this season. You'd think given the depressing ratings situation overall (NBC losing the #4 slot to Univision, The History Channel kicking networks' butt in the demo - just two recent canaries in the coal mine), the networks would be swinging for the fences more, but this year is even more boring and vanilla than last year.

    More and more, I hear about people simply not bothering to watch broadcast at all (I've stopped entirely) and planning to see shows that survive long enough to have a full season under their belt. Some network needs to break out of the pack by coming up with some dazzing, very-different premise for a series and then announcing, fuck the Nielsens, we'll show the whole season regardless of what happens.

    That alone would break through the clutter and grab some attention. Something similar is a big reason why Netflix got so much attention for House of Cards - simply that it was doing something different, and showing it respected the audience's wishes (to binge or not to binge, the audience had the power,not the network).

    Of course the other big fact was that House of Cards was genuinely quite good. So the network that tried this would actually have to deliver. But there's nothing about House of Cards that couldn't have worked just as well under FCC rules. Just tone down the language and sex (which were not vital to the story). Not saying that a political thriller is the way to go, but it needs to be good enough quality to impress people.
     
  13. DarthTom

    DarthTom Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The broadcast networks, and I think they'd agree are to some degree prevented by FCC regulations from producing edgy programming.

    Lets use Revolution as a great example. It's a good show IMO with a good premise but because the FCC restricts what NBC can broadcast in terms of content they simply don't have a chance to create a runaway hit as The Wakling Dead has with a very similar premise in terms of an apocalypse occuring.

    Edited to add: I'd wager the succes of the HS series The Bible had a lot to do with Christian folks being told it was on at church at to tune in
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2013
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Countless TV series over the decades have been about characters pursuing goals that wouldn't be achieved until the very end of the series if at all, because the quests were just excuses to motivate the characters' adventures. Usually it's an open-ended quest -- find the one-armed man, get off the island, get back to Earth/the present/the Alpha Quadrant, find a cure for the Hulk/the invisibility gland, eventually become Superman, etc. But sometimes there's a set time limit that's equivalent to the expected series run -- the Babylon 5 sequel Crusade, for example, had a 5-year deadline to save the Earth (although apparently it wasn't meant to take that long). War of the Worlds: The Series, in its first season, established that a larger alien invasion fleet would arrive in less than five years -- just in time for an epic series finale (though this was abandoned by the retooled second season). The X-Files's mythology arc involved an impending alien invasion in 2012, IIRC -- well beyond the life expectancy of the series.

    And then there was the 1965 Run for Your Life, about a man who learned he had no more than 18 months to live and spent the series fulfilling what we'd now call a bucket list. The show ran for three seasons and just ignored the question of how much time had passed. So you don't want to have your series deadline come too early. (See also M*A*S*H, an 11-year series about a 3-year war.)

    In this case, it sounds like the focus is not so much on the girl's powers, but on the mission to protect her from those who want to destroy her or use her for their own ends. The storyline might involve the gradual emergence of her powers, something like, perhaps, Olivia's journey on Fringe as she gradually became aware of what she was capable of. Maybe it could have a Smallville-ish vibe too, not in the sense of having active superpowers, but more in the sense of training for/struggling to accept a great destiny.
     
  15. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Michael Irby & Mackenzie Crook Join Fox’s Bad Robot Pilot

     
  16. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The CW has found its tragic alien boyfriend - Matt Lanter. And the CW's latest 30 year old high school student. Maybe aliens mature more quickly?

    He's the voice of Anakin Skywalker so of course he's an alien. Here's hoping that whole romance thing goes better this time around. :D
     
  17. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Well, that sounds sooo transparently a Twilight rip-off.
     
  18. mos6507

    mos6507 Commodore Commodore

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    I think Smallville is almost as bad as far as time-warping, if not worse because the characters are supposed to look like kids, not 30-somethings.
     
  19. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    That's a different issue. The events of the series were indeed claimed to span ten years. Regardless of the actors' ages, Clark was supposed to be in his mid-teens when the series started and his mid-twenties when it ended. So that's not time compression or inconsistency, just Dawson Casting.