Do we need more optimistic and fun takes on humanity's future?

[CmdrShep2183]

I love The Expanse and Babylon 5 but I imagine all the philosophical and political stuff in Babylon 5 would turn off a lot of mainstream TV viewers. The Expanse is gritty and serious all the time although I really love the action.

Why not have a future where people enjoy being in that future?

Why can't we have an epic sci fi series that is well written with lovable characters set in an memorable sci fi world that optimistic? A sci fi series that gives it's characters the chance to stop being serious and let loose? I really liked the Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC?

I have known reality show viewers who have a hard time getting into fantasy. Is it because fantasy has complicated worlds? Or is it because of the lack of romance in sci fi and/or fantasy? Is there too much technobabble?

 

[BillJ]

Why not have a future where people enjoy being in that future?

The Orville. All the episodes are on Hulu, also available on DVD.

 

[CmdrShep2183]

The Orville. All the episodes are on Hulu, also available on DVD.

That could be an example but I think it looks too cheap and tacky.

I would prefer visuals on the level of Mass Effect.

And powered armor.

 

[BillJ]

That could be an example but I think it looks too cheap and tacky.

I would prefer visuals on the level of Mass Effect.

And powered armor.

I think in the current environment, The Orville is your best bet. I like the look and effects of the show, especially when you consider they are doing it on about half the budget of other current sci-fi shows.

 

[fireproof78]

Simply because there is not a lot of optimism in the future as of now, despite humanity's current trends of reducing poverty and access to food and longevity of human life span.

There has to be a willingness on the part of the storyteller to fully embrace a highly optimistic point of view regarding technology, its capability and the capacity of humanity to wield it.

 

[The Wormhole]

Why not have a future where people enjoy being in that future?

Drama, brah. Cheerful optimistic futures make creating drama hard. Sure, The Orville succeeds at doing so, but I'm thinking that's the exception rather than the rule.

 

[Jayson1]

Not just out future but our present day as well. A lot of people seems to have forgotten that escapism is suppose to be escapism from the terrible realities that everyone faces in the real world. Also maybe not ever movie trope needs to be deconstructed. Who cares if the action hero is some toxic meathead. Sometimes assholes are lots of fun to watch kick but and we can all pretend that our problems can be solved by a bunch a guys with machines guns taking out some rich bad guy in a castle or whatever.


Jason

 

[RPOW0614]

It is my hope that we will see some great stories\movies\television where they finally get away from the over done story lines of the dystopian future and\or "dark and gritty" remakes.
Sometimes it works, Battlestar Galatica.
Sometimes it fails horribly, Total Recall.
But my guess is that stories of the "shiny, happy future" would probably be dull as dishwater.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well, when the news is so pessimistic, one may think that the world may end or be crap for quite awhile. When the people "in Charge" are all screaming the sky is falling.. Being optomistic is a bit hard for the normal person..
You would think a more positive depeiction of the future would give people something to strive for.. saying, it'll get better.. But since everybody is some type of "Victim" now.. its hard.

 

[Jayson1]

It is my hope that we will see some great stories\movies\television where they finally get away from the over done story lines of the dystopian future and\or "dark and gritty" remakes.
Sometimes it works, Battlestar Galatica.
Sometimes it fails horribly, Total Recall.
But my guess is that stories of the "shiny, happy future" would probably be dull as dishwater.

Well you always need conflict for drama and also comedy. People always forget that comedy works through conflict as well. Of course another way to look is are you exploring emotional conflict or intellectual conflict. Some conflict is about different personalities not mixing well together but another are conflicting idea's about bigger than life idea's and social issue's. TOS was about both. TNG was actually more character oriented than TOS it's just it doesn't feel that way because they always had to get most of their conflict from guest stars but the show didn't really explore society nearly as much as TOS did. But they did explore weird and high concepts. DS9 was the most complete package. It explored character, and human nature and comedy.

What I feel is TOS was the only one that truly was exploring it's contemporary setting. TNG and DS9 were exploring human nature and thus if they explored racism it wouldn't be through the lense of a modern example. No Rodney King moments on the shows. Not so much as one O.J moment. I know the pilot episode of DS9 is suppose to be sort of connected to the LA riots but I don't really see it. The homeless two-parter was maybe the one time were I watched Berman Trek, not counting the Just say no to drugs moment, where I could see they were really talking about what was going on in the world at the time.

I don't think stories in a positive future have to be dull as a dishwater if they just don't try and go all naïve like Roddenberry kind of did with his vision but frankly his vision was put into better hands with the likes of Pillar and Behr and yes even Berman. So it is possible for Trek IMO to be both relevant and positive. I mean we already see this on Orville. It's going to be kind of sad that Picard I don't think will be that but the weird thing is I still am exited and I still think it's going to be a great show. It's just I don't think it would be the show that made me a fan like TNG did when I was in high school and depressed and I sort of responded to the feel good nature of the show. I hope Trek someday starts mixing it up so we can get both the dark and gritty stuff but also the positive stuff as well. I mean if your going to have multiple shows on the air then you would think you would want at least one that is about fun and happiness and all those things.


Jason

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Well, when the news is so pessimistic, one may think that the world may end or be crap for quite awhile. When the people "in Charge" are all screaming the sky is falling.. Being optomistic is a bit hard for the normal person..
You would think a more positive depeiction of the future would give people something to strive for.. saying, it'll get better.. But since everybody is some type of "Victim" now.. its hard.

That's kind of the whole plot of Tomorrowland, which was imo a really strong piece of 'positive' sci-fi (that unfortunately didn't turn many heads).

 

[RandyS]

Yes we do need it.

Ron Moore's New Galactica was so over the top with the "dark and gritty bullshit that it put me off TV for a long time. It's only been in the last few years that I've gotten back into it. Lost in Space, The Orville, Timeless, and The Flash were all pleasant surprises for example.

We need more of that.

 

[The Wormhole]

I will agree that since Firefly and nuBSG a lot of American sci-fi has been trying to channel those shows to some degree, and it would be nice to step away from that. Not because I want to get away from dreary and miserable dystopias, but rather because it is getting somewhat repetitive.

That's kind of the whole plot of Tomorrowland, which was imo a really strong piece of 'positive' sci-fi (that unfortunately didn't turn many heads).

Tomorrowland failed because it comes off as a preachy sermon about the evils of humanity.

 

[Tallguy]

Well, when the news is so pessimistic, one may think that the world may end or be crap for quite awhile. When the people "in Charge" are all screaming the sky is falling.. Being optomistic is a bit hard for the normal person..
You would think a more positive depeiction of the future would give people something to strive for.. saying, it'll get better.. But since everybody is some type of "Victim" now.. its hard.

Answer to thread: Yes.

Star Trek was made in 1966.

I've heard for my entire life that the appeal of Star Trek was it's optimism and the notion that "we would get through this". (I have my doubts about this, but people who were there tell me it was so. Of course that also goes hand in hand with the legend that The Cage was "too cerebral".)

Well, being presented with a newer (and IMHO lesser) version of "we have to get through this" Captain Picard himself, Sir Patrick doesn't think an optimistic Star Trek is realistic "anymore". Was it really "realistic" the year that Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed and at the height of the Vietnam war and the Cold War?

The Next Generation debuted three years after The Day After. (Of course Star Trek's - both TOS and TNG - little secret: WWIII happens. We just "get better".) When Worf was put on the bridge of the Enterprise we had no idea that the Soviet Union was about to fold. It was the wildest optimism to imagine peace (of a sort) between the Federation and the Empire.

I would offer up Netflix's Lost in Space. The setting is not especially optimistic but the characters are. As much as I adore The Expanse I found LiS to be a terrific counterbalance.

Tomorrowland failed because it comes off as a preachy sermon about the evils of humanity.

Ha! Yes! "I would be totally optimistic if you knuckle-draggers weren't around."

 

[fireproof78]

We must be the optimist we want to see.

With all due respect and apologies to Gandhi.

 

[JD]

Sure some more positive optimistic future sci-fi would be nice, but I think at this point a lot of people probably find it hard to be optimistic about the future. Right now the dark, gritter stuff is drawing in the critical acclaim and bigger ratings, so as long as people keep watching it, that's what we're going to get. We did have The Orville, but it never drew in the big numbers or hugely positive reviews.

 

[Mudd]

I'm fine with The Orville and Lost In Space.

 

[JD]

We also have Star Trek: Lower Decks coming up, and since that's a comedy it'll probably be at least a bit more positive than Discovery and Picard.

 

[eschaton]

IIRC Amazon is working on converting Iain M Bank's Culture series of novels into a series. It's basically a more modern update of the utopian setting of the Federation, but it incorporates posthumanism (i.e., post-scarcity, people can live as long as they want, most people just laze about, do drugs and have sex, super-intelligent AI's run everything, the actual governing system of society is some sort of loose left-wing anarchism, etc).

Technically it's not our future, because the humanoid races in the series are not real humans. But humanity is eventually contacted and integrated into the Culture. Regardless, it's an explicitly utopian view of the future - mostly obscured since we instead mostly follow agents who interact with races outside of it (similar to Starflleet).

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think there needs to be a balance between light and dark. Too much of one or the other can produce something that can turn off an audience, IMO.

I remember reading the Justice League America comic back in 1990. Back then, the book was known for its sense of humor and a number of quirky team members. You could almost call it an action-comedy series back then. But when a particularly vicious and murderous villain showed up--Despero--it was a slap in the face. Suddenly got real, characters died, and there was no time for jokes. The sudden tonal shift during that story was a clever wake-up call by the writers that despite the book's frequently funny nature, there was still darkness out there and it could strike at any time.

I don't think we need sci-fi to be overly optimistic, but nor should it be all dystopian either. Ideally, there should be room for both fun and seriousness, even if they're not in equal measure.