With the recent cancelation of the Quantum Leap reboot and a post I read about the future of the Trek franchise (which isn’t dead, but is scaled back from what I had hoped due to events in the streaming world) I’ve been considering the state of science fiction. While it’s not dead, I wonder if, at least in some places, it’s pulling back. Here’s what comes to mind: QL reboot cancellation - I understand it wasn’t a ratings block buster but I felt like it had a following. But obviously not. Star Trek franchise - Discovery is in its final season. Strange New Worlds is renewed. Starfleet Academy is greenlit. I like Mary Wiseman’s Tilly so I’m open and trying to not be judgmental but still curious how this will play out. Was holding my breath for Star Trek Legacy (Captain Seven of Nine and the Enterprise-G) but have given up. I’ve heard a Section 31 streaming movie is supposed to be in the works with Michele Yeoh. I’ve been waiting for this. I thought it was supposed to be another series but was changed to be a one-shot movie. Battlestar Galactica - Have been waiting to see if the Battlestar Galactica series that is supposed to be set in the Nu-BSG universe ever materializes. It seems to come up every few years and then goes silent. So are we in a period of retreat for Science Fiction in the TV/Movie media? Right now I’m stoked about Russell T Davies’ new adventures of the 15th Doctor, though I now have to watch it on Disney+ streaming instead of BBC America. I admit I could be overly pessimistic but at the same time I feel a decent amount of disappointment over the news of canceled and delayed projects. If there’s other stuff out there that folks are excited about I’m open to new franchises. I’ve been re-watching some nostalgic SciFi like Sliders. I just started season 3. When I need a dose of really good SciFi I go to my reliable standby, DS9. So much fantastic content to choose from there.
There is so many options that I do not have time to watch them all. I have to be picky with what I choose to watch. So from my point of view we haver to many viewing choices. I can't even find time to rewatch my favorite shows (Lost in Space and DS9) because something new is starting.
I think you're looking at way too small of a sample of franchises to be able to say the whole genre is in retreat. And extending that suspicion to movies when Dune is one of the hottest properties at the box office and Predator, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Mad Max and Avatar are all returning after absences is kind of weird. If you're really desperate for more ongoing sci-fi shows, maybe give Apple+ a try. They've got several popular ones and I know at least Foundation and (the fantastic) For All Mankind are still ongoing. FAM is even getting a spinoff developed. Amazon Prime also has a pretty solid backlog of lesser known scifi (no longer ongoing). I highly recommend Tales from the Loop and Dispatches from Elsewhere if you haven't seen them. And of course Man in the High Castle, but that's more well known.
Yeah, there's a pretty steady flow of new Sci-Fi content coming out on the streaming services for the TV side, and a steady flow of sci-fi movies coming out both in theaters and on streaming services. Over the rest the year there's quite a few scf-fi movies coming to theaters. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (5/10) Furiosa (5/24) A Quiet Place: Day One (6/28) Deadpool & Wolverine (7/26) Borderlands (8/9) Alien: Romulus (8/16) Transformers One (9/20) The Wild Robot (9/27) Venom: The Last Dance (10/25) Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (12/20) Those are just the ones that I recognized as sci-fi while I skimmed Wikipedia's release calendar for this year.
On the TV side Star Wars. The Bad Batch just finished. We had the Acolyte and Skeleton Crew in the wings. Doctor Who's latest season starts next week. Sandman's spin off Dead Boy Detectives dropped recently. Avatar the Last Airbender's live action adaptation was a success, with a second season in the works. Fallout from all indications was a big success. 3 Body Problem For All Mankind is coming back for a new season Marvel has Agatha: Darkhold Diaries later this year There is a Dune series called Prophecy later this year.
I'm not sure if Avatar: The Last Airbender, Deadboy Detectives and Agatha: Darkhold Diaries would qualify since they're fantasy, and this conversation appears to be only about sci-fi.
X-Men '97 is also rockin' its way across Disney+. Strange New Worlds will have two more seasons at least. Science fiction seems alive and well.
There are so many science fiction TV series that I don't even have time to watch them all!!! I lived when the best science fiction on TV was this We are now living in a golden age!
We're definitely on the downswing of Sci Fi TV, assuming we don't randomly lump superhero stuff into the genre. Star Trek seems to be getting ready to go into another dark age, especially with Paramount's future in flux I wouldn't count on even SNW getting another renewal past the one it just got. Star Wars is barely a thing right now, we're lucky to get a few hours of TV/streaming content from it a year and its of varying quality. Doctor Who is the only mainstream sci fi franchise that seems to be on an upward slope, between the return of an at least competent showrunner and an influx of Disney money DW is in probably the best place its been since the height of the 11th Doctor's era. Besides that there are some random sci fi shows around but not a lot thats notable. I don't think many people watch or care about Apple TV's shows (and they don't get very good reviews regardless, especially that Foundation adaptation), and like has already been mentioned Quantum Leap's reboot was recently cancelled. Just speaking for myself I don't think we've ever hit the heights of the 90s golden age of Sci Fi again, and since we're now suffering from streaming services cancelling a lot of stuff, sometimes regardless of popularity, even the recent sci fi resurgence is mostly past us. That said, Sci-Fi is still doing better then Fantasy, which (on TV/streaming at least) is basically on life support, held up by Amazon's stubbornness, HBO desperately trying to produce another GOT style hit and netflix producing the occasional 1-2 season wonders.
The reverse. We're still in the best time ever for scifi on TV. We get psychological, high concept shows the last 5 years like Devs, Constellation, The Peripheral, Dark Matter, Severance, 3Body Problem and also big corporate shows from SW, ST, and Dr Who. Pop culture shows like Stranger Things and Squid Game are very popular. We've also has several anthology shows which have always been my favorite type of show...Short stories in visual form. Black Mirror is the only show that has ever challenged Twilight Zone for supremacy and it's still current.
Just the ones I am looking forward to are new seasons of Andor, Fallout and to a lesser extent Snowpiercer. And hopefully new Foundation and Silo (2 shows I found by accident that really blew me away) In the gap between BSG and The Expanse there was feck all good sci-fi so I would say now is a bit of a mini golden period when you factor in stuff like Lower Decks and Dune which far surpassed expectations.
Netflix's 3 Body Problem is an excellent example of good ol hard sci-fi, but at the same time it's the only sci-fi I really connected with recently. I think one thing that could be contributing to a decline might be the streaming services themselves. There are just too many of them. For example, I liked Snowpiercer and watched all 3 seasons while it was available on Netflix, but I won't be watching season 4, because I'm sorry, I'm not signing up for another streaming service just to view that. It's no wonder so many of these series get cancelled.