(hypothetical) dramedy set on arctic research station

[jefferiestubes8]

Hypothetical:
Okay think a scripted TV series mix of drama and comedy like "Weeds.

Let's talk about a hypothetical TV series for cable with scifi, drama, and comedy about a group of scientists or better yet co-ed grad students at a set on
arctic research station
or underwater research station
or even a Utah desert Mars simulation location.

I think the writing and characters would have to be really great but a co-ed mixed group of middle aged-to-older scientists and under 26 co-ed science grad students could work.

Basically this station protects them from the elements so much it becomes similar to a small spaceship. Not quite a submarine but a spaceship smaller than NX-01 in ENT.
But they would also venture outside to do some experiments and routine maintenance stuff and of course some emergencies happen during their EVAs.

I had an idea last year
idea for science docu-reality TV series
about filming a docu-soap over months to create a series at a real one but realized real scientists would be kind of boring on camera.

Doing it scripted though would allow for a 13-episode season of character story arcs of all sorts.
Maybe TNT? or SyFy?

The location research station design itself would have real production design money spent on the structure and 'set decorations' and good paint color schemes and lighting built into the station (similar to the sets in ENT). It would be unrealistically 4-5 times the size of current remote research stations in Antarctica.
It could be shot in Canada in studio and at a location.

What do you guys think?

 

[clint g]

I'd watch it.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

check out these antarctic research bases that Wired magazine did an article on last month.
6 photos of real bases.
Some are quite massive and almost look like hotels.

the South African National Antarctic Expedition, Sanae IV is so massive it can support 100 people during the Summer.
Here are some photos from inside it.
http://www.doctorross.co.za/sanae-medical-facility
Think about how this could work as a dramatic series when looking at these photos that could be recreated as sets inside a soundstage.
​

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd watch it, but frankly I'd be expecting some sf/f elements to crop up sooner or later. Given the forum you're posting this in, I guess you expect that too?

Basically this station protects them from the elements so much it becomes similar to a small spaceship. Not quite a submarine but a spaceship smaller than NX-01 in ENT.

That's not a sf/f element - just to say something is "like" a spaceship.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Basically this station protects them from the elements so much it becomes similar to a small spaceship. Not quite a submarine but a spaceship smaller than NX-01 in ENT.

That's not a sf/f element - just to say something is "like" a spaceship.

Temis the Vorta the next sentence from the quote you pulled from my initial post tells how the scifi aspect would come in.

But they would also venture outside to do some experiments and routine maintenance stuff and of course some emergencies happen during their EVAs.

That is a science fiction setting and plot points.
To me that is very similar to a spaceship as well as a lunar-based research station. Think of the EVAs that were done in the Defying Gravity space-based series last year. Most of the current time the characters were inside the ship (not including the flashbacks). They did have a few EVAs.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Well well well, looks like this is being developed as a comedy (or dramedy).

Breaking Bad writer-producer Peter Gould has been tapped to write the series adaptation, a tragicomic eye view of the fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity of the people living and working the last untamed frontier on the planet — the research base at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

HBO has teamed with James Gandolfini for Big Dead Place, a drama based on Nicholas Johnson’s memoir about his stint working for the U.S. Antarctic Program

James Gandolfini To Produce & Possibly Star In HBO Antarctica Comedic Drama
Actually this sounds great. It's a sandbox location and character study/soap opera really. Surely helicoptor and away missions in the tractor for small groups too.
Most could be done in studio and the rest on green screen?

And of course we all remember McMurdo Station location in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If it has sf/f elements, I'm in like Flynn. But if it's a bunch of researchers getting cabin fever, forget it.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

If it has sf/f elements, I'm in like Flynn. But if it's a bunch of researchers getting cabin fever, forget it.

Temis the Vorta I'm with you but it looks like its dramedy all the way. I'm sure we'll get a little science at least from the location/labs but scifi?

From the amazon.com synopsis of the book [Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica [2005]
Nicholas Johnson (Author), Eirik Sønneland (Author) ]
it is based on:

When Johnson went to work for the U.S. Antarctic Program (devoted to scientific research and education in support of the national interest in the Antarctic), he figured he'd find adventure, beauty, penguins and lofty-minded scientists. Instead, he found boredom, alcohol and bureaucracy. As a dishwasher and garbage man at McMurdo Station, Johnson quickly shed his illusions about Antarctica. Since he and his co-workers seldom ventured beyond the station's grim, functional buildings, they spent most of their time finding ways to entertain themselves, drinking beer, bowling and making home movies. The dormlike atmosphere, complete with sexual hijinks and obscene costume parties, sometimes made life there feel like "a cheap knock-off of some original meaty experience." What dangers there were existed mostly in the psychological realm; most people who were there through the winter developed the "Antarctica stare," an unnerving tendency to forget what they were saying mid-sentence and gaze dumbly at the station walls. And if the cold and isolation didn't drive one crazy, the petty hatreds and mindless red tape might.

specifically

seldom ventured beyond the station's grim, functional buildings, they spent most of their time finding ways to entertain themselves

The dormlike atmosphere, complete with sexual hijinks

Sort of like Bio-Dome (1996) meets "Rescue Me" (2004) (TV series)?
I can see the appeal though and to scifi fans from a reviewer on amazon:

how life really goes on on a distant research base, once you get beyond romantic notions of exploration of the wild frontiers. (Like many geek kids, I spent my childhood dreaming of space exploration, and Antarctica is the nearest thing you can get to that right now.)

If you want to get a good idea of what the reality of life exploring the wild frontiers on behalf of the US government is like, this book is an eye-opener.

as well as an actual review of the book by a newspaper:

a grunt’s-eye view of fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity in a dysfunctional, dystopian closed community. It’s like M*A*S*H on ice, a bleak, black comedy.”—The Times of London

I guess more comedy for TV similar to Weeds.

I can see how this would work for multiple seasons. Each season gets a new group of some of the principle characters arriving on at the McMurdo Station and some characters leave.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Base it on Dan Brown's Deception point, but then I wouldn't see it as a comedy, but rather a sci-fi. Maybe it's due to the fact that we haven't seen it yet, but I have trouble seeing a comedy set in that kind of situation. It lends itself too much to seriousness.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I could see it being a black comedy. What I can't see is how they could maintain it as a series. Seeing the same grubby people in the same claustrophobic, grubby rooms is going to be a huge bore.

That's why they need a shapeshifting alien monster to liven things up. Or maybe they can discover a vast ancient civilization below the surface or a valley filled with dinosaurs?

Hey, how about throwing in a little Mountains of Madness Lovecraft?

 

[jefferiestubes8]

The Thing

That's why they need a shapeshifting alien monster to liven things up.

41 days to go:
The Thing (2011)
Release Date: 14 October 2011

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Too bad it's not a TV series.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I'd watch it...and I'd greenlight it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It would be cheap! You could film most of it in some claustrophobic research station and the limited space on the sets would be a benefit. Plus you can get Canadian tax credits by filming in Vancouver, where if you point the cameras the right place, you could find places that you can pass off as Antarctica.

 

[Admiral_Young]

So Jefferiestube08 your idea would be like "BioDome" except a drama and in a science fiction setting? I would be on board that. Or more like Doctor Who's "Waters of Mars"?

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: (hypothetical) dramedy set on underwater research station

Let's talk about a hypothetical TV series for cable with scifi, drama, and comedy about a group of scientists or better yet co-ed grad students at a set on

or underwater research station

Yesterday I caught a show on Science Channel about this:
Science of the Deep series
Aquarius - Living Beneath the Sea

Experience life under the sea in Aquarius, an 81-ton steel inner space station. The aquanauts mission onboard this underwater habitat and research lab focuses on coral reef dynamics and the effect of global warming.

It has possibilities for a docu-soap reality series. This was a 44 minute TV episode for Science Channel so it didn't delve into much more than survival for long periods.

NASA already trains underwater at

Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, part of NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) program
Located 18 meters (6 feet) under the surface
or a period of 12 days.
The lab itself is a coral-encrusted cylinder that looks a lot like a yellow submarine, located 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) off Florida's Key Largo and it's the only underwater laboratory in the world, as close as NASA could get to replicating space conditions.

You can see a youtube video tour of the tight quarters here:
Aquarius: The underwater science station
more info about the real-life NOAA Aquarius:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/diving/aquarius/aquarius.html


A larger station has more possibilities for a TV show. Real life location for reality-genre TV or a larger built set for a scripted dramedy.

 

[Vendikarr]

I can see the drinking game now. Every time a character mentions how "damn cold" it it, take a shot.