sci-fi shows with continuous ongoing arcs?

[Gepard]

Haven't seen BSG, what's the ratio of stand-alones to arc episodes?

It varies. There have been more heavy-duty "don't-stand-on-their-own" arc episodes in season 4, and fewer in the latter halves of seasons 2 and 3, but even when there are "standalones" elements from each of them tend to play a part in events down the road.

 

[DarkProphet]

Haven't seen BSG, what's the ratio of stand-alones to arc episodes?

It varies. There have been more heavy-duty "don't-stand-on-their-own" arc episodes in season 4, and fewer in the latter halves of seasons 2 and 3, but even when there are "standalones" elements from each of them tend to play a part in events down the road.

That sounds similar to Ds9 and stargate. ds9 had the dominion arc and the stand-alones helped build up more of the characters. Stargate had the goauld, anubis and ori arcs and the stand-alone elements also tend to play part in events later down the road.

I looked at the bsg dvds and they have all these 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and then i heard there are also side stories? What's the lowdown on what you need to get to watch the entire series in order?

 

[Kelthaz]

Code Geass is heavily serialized. I don't think there was a single filler episode in the entire 50 episode series.

 

[Candlelight]

There are almost no scifi shows that have continuous arcs the way 24 does. Most of the shows listed above, great shows, like farscape, firefly, b5, LOST, BSG, etc, all have stand-alones in it, with the arc weaving in and out.

24 is a full serialized show, there are no standalones. Each episode is the same story, picking up right after the last.

The only show that comes to mind is Heroes.

Show me a stand alone Babylon 5 episode and I'll show you a plot point you missed.

 

[arch101]

Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato) is told in fairly detailed season long arcs of 24-26 1/2 hour episodes. The first season is truly epic. A worthwhile rental or purchase. If you can tolerate subtitles, watch the Japanese version. It's less 'sanitized' than the American version and plays much better to the adult audience it was written for. You'll notice how many plot points have been stolen by other sci-fi productions since Yamato was produced 30 years ago.

 

[DarkProphet]

Show me a stand alone Babylon 5 episode and I'll show you a plot point you missed.

Well even events in Stargate "standalone episodes" get referenced later on in the series. I think by fully serialized we're talking about one main story coursing throughout the entire series without any side adventures. The only sci-fi show that fits this criteria (i.e. 24-like) that I know of is Surface (and maybe Lost). You can kinda tell if its fully serialised when they have a "previously on..." at the beginning of every single episode.

So in the context of Babylon 5, you have a two-parter War Without End. Now imagine there is an entire series that is a 100-parter! Now that would be a fully serialized show.

 

[Gepard]

That sounds similar to Ds9 and stargate. ds9 had the dominion arc and the stand-alones helped build up more of the characters. Stargate had the goauld, anubis and ori arcs and the stand-alone elements also tend to play part in events later down the road.

I looked at the bsg dvds and they have all these 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and then i heard there are also side stories? What's the lowdown on what you need to get to watch the entire series in order?

I'd say its more arc-based than either of those. The first half of season 4, for example, has plenty of episodes that barely make sense unless you've watched all the ones that came before them.

To watch it in order, just...watch it in order. The only point of contention right now is where the DVD movie Razor fits in; in-universe, it fits in near the end of season two, but was written and filmed after season three. The 2.0, 2.5 business was just a marketing workaround to allow them to get DVD sets out even when the show takes six-month breaks in the middle of seasons.

The other side-stories are the webisodes, but don't worry about those; they aren't needed to understand the whole story (and the first set, IMHO, weren't very good anyway.)

 

[DarkProphet]

Great, thanks for the info. I'm looking for some arc heavy shows
What about the mini series, is that essential? Also, how many seasons is BSG? Is it still ongoing?

 

[DeafPoet]

Great, thanks for the info. I'm looking for some arc heavy shows
What about the mini series, is that essential? Also, how many seasons is BSG? Is it still ongoing?

The mini-series is crazy essential. It's basically the pilot for the show. Watch it first.

And it's 4 seasons. The latter half of the final season starts up in a couple weeks.

EDIT: Oh, and as to the on-goingness of the show, there's also Caprica, which is a prequel series. But nobody's gonna see that 'till 2010 probably. Just thought you might be curious to know if there's anything else down the pipe in the BSG universe.

 

[sidious618]

The closest I can think of that fits your criteria would be Carnivale.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

TwinPeaks was big on the continuous arc, Xfiles to a lesser extent since it drifted a lot. You also got Farscape, the Dune series, Firefly, CharlieJade, Lexx S3, Odyssey5 and huge story driven series was J M Straczynski's Babylon-5. There are many examples before the 90s such as the Hulk series and the old Untouchables show (yeah not scifi). These old ones might have been the pioneers but the Untouchables and Hulk didn't really depend on continuing the story each episodes where as Babylon-5, you learnt something new each episode with B5 and the show almost depended exclusively on the story arc

Heroes do season arcs.

The first season of Heroes was great but I'm not sure I would recommend the whole show. I tried watching S2 and was like "WTF is wrong with this show" I think it burned out too quick IMO.

nuBSG and Lost spring to mind.

Trouble is both of those shows are fucking shit are care little for their continuity while Babylon-5 was a much better story driven series. B5 is great but maybe it's Trekkie cousin DS9 is the one to pick. DS9 might not have such a tight story arc but I think DS9 has better acting, fx and is a must for scifi fans. BSG and Lost are like girlband pop stars, people talk about their crap today because its fashionable and trendy. But once these shows leave the air these so called wonders will be destined for the dustbin of history. TwinPeaks, Trek and its kind will continue their cult follow for decades more because they are simply better shows.
Stay away from Battlestar and Lost
I tell you this because with a fancy smokescreen and strong pilot I was drawn in to these shows. unfortunately I thought they might be something great but I've wasted many hours on these bullshit shows.

Jericho

Good call, its a great series but I'm not sure its scifi.

and why do people keep mentioning Lost, I think its a tv drama ashamed to be part of the sci-fi genre

 

[Anwar]

Jericho is sci-fi, but it's more "social science fiction" than anything else.

Also, it's closer to "hard scifi" in that they got stuff like how the resulting EMP and radioactivity would affect communications and the soil and the necessity of basic things like salt.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Jericho is sci-fi, but it's more "social science fiction" than anything else.

Also, it's closer to "hard scifi" in that they got stuff like how the resulting EMP and radioactivity would affect communications and the soil and the necessity of basic things like salt.

"Speculative fiction" would be another fitting term for Jericho.


(Also, in a strict sense it could either be described as "alternate history fiction" or "near future science fiction", depending on whether it actually takes place in present day.)

 

[Gepard]

nuBSG and Lost spring to mind.

Trouble is both of those shows are fucking shit are care little for their continuity while Babylon-5 was a much better story driven series.

It's fortunate for DarkProphet that you're completely wrong.

 

[Starbreaker]

and why do people keep mentioning Lost, I think its a tv drama ashamed to be part of the sci-fi genre

Maybe because we like it?

 

[Brikar99]

and why do people keep mentioning Lost, I think its a tv drama ashamed to be part of the sci-fi genre

Maybe because we like it?

And because it's totally embracing its sci-fi nature now, too.

 

[Lindley]

and why do people keep mentioning Lost, I think its a tv drama ashamed to be part of the sci-fi genre

Yeah, having characters become "unstuck in time" or making the island vanish in an apparent teleportation field is really showing how ashamed they are.

 

[Mistral]

and why do people keep mentioning Lost, I think its a tv drama ashamed to be part of the sci-fi genre

Yeah, having characters become "unstuck in time" or making the island vanish in an apparent teleportation field is really showing how ashamed they are.

Lindley's right-how could anyone think a show with time disruptions, time travellers, teleporting islands, mysterious EMP bursts etc had anything to do with sci fi? As for nuBSG-yeah, they don't run story arcs. That's why you can fast forward through the "previously on" at the beginning of each episode-you don't need to know what happened before to enjoy the latest episode. I mean, who needs to know the essential inter-twining of the various characters, the convoluted path that leads from the pilot to the (current) finale, etc.? You can just ignore all of that non-essential stuff since its not really an "arc" show. I love just trying to guess what the hell is going on-while it means I miss almost EVERYTHING important it does keep my creative juices flowing...

 

[Neroon]

To be fair, the way the show started out it would have indeed been difficult, if not next to impossible, to clearly classify it as sci-fi. Anymore there ought not to be any doubt at all that it's sci-fi, but if someone checked up on the show at first, gave up and then never went back....

 

[archeryguy1701]

For good arc-driven shows that have already been mentioned, I'm going to bring back up nuBSG, Jericho, DS9, and Lost. For a show that no one hasn't mentioned yet, Invasion was a great one. This is another show that I was pissed to see go down after one season. it even ended on a cliffhanger.