Return of space adventure???
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
And note, please, that I wasn't the one who said this.To the major studios, at least, quality means nothing and money means everything. That's why we have nuTrek.
And such irony. A film I have no respect for makes loads of money while another I quite liked is scorned unfairly.It doesn't matter how well it does, because John Carter will cancel it out.
Star trek and Avatar are the pinnacle of modern "space" adventures, both were popular: made money AND rated high on audience scores, and critically acclaimed.
Prometheus simply looks fantastic...no ifs, ands or buts.
Part of the problem with space based dramas IMO is they're expensive to make and have been enormous failures when tried over the past decade. ABC was the last major TV network to take a chance on the genre with the series, Defying Gravity - which IIRC was a ratings disaster for the network and pulled even before airing the final already filmed episodes.
I actually liked Defying Gravity a lot.
Dramas on tv are a financial problem, but look at the money studios throw away on utter crap in movies...there's no way anyone can tell me they can't develop better scripts based on classic material.
I seem to recall some show called Warstar Atlantica or something like that... what was it's name....?
Sure, not a major TV network but I don't think it's considered an "enormous failure" by any means.
Agreed.
When mindless blood and thunder is what brings in the audience, they have no incentive.
Oh god, and just when I'd forgotten that show even existed.
I seem to recall some show called Warstar Atlantica or something like that... what was it's name....?
Sure, not a major TV network but I don't think it's considered an "enormous failure" by any means.
Quite. It's possible the driving point here is that sci-fi, or anyway space opera, if it has a future, that future could be on cable. Cable series can have lower audience numbers because that's a paying audience, and space opera fans - generally speaking - compensate for their number with their obsessiveness.
Battlestar Galactica is one example, but Farscape and the Stargate franchise are two more, even if the former was cancelled and the latter has finally been run into the ground.
Was there ever any reason the ratings for Galactica kept getting lower after the first season finale? I've seen the charts the ratings started off great and then when down exponentially after that point.
If only a new space show could get made and manage to hold on to it's viewers for a long time then we'd really have something.
If only a new space show could get made and manage to hold on to it's viewers for a long time then we'd really have something.
While not technically a "space adventure," the series "V" I'd imagine also falls for TV executives into the same overall catagory as sci-fi and it was cancelled as well because of poor ratings.
I just don't think for network TV there is enough of a wide audience for a space adventure based on the costs to produce it.
So long as Idol and its copycats as well as other reality based TV shows continue to get huge ratings and are relatively cheap to make - I'd imagine that most network executives will stick with what's safe and currently popular.
Part of the problem IMO for the sci-fi channel generally is they don't know what they want to be. using today's schedule as an example: WWF smackdown, horror, Stargate.
So what exactly is the syfy channel? Pro Wrestling/Horror/Hauntings or Syfy?
Yeah, I would seriously love it if we had more sweeping space adventure type titles like Babylon 5, or a Star Trek. I'm a bit weary of Promethius though. I really don't want another Event Horizon or Pandorum Sci-fi/horror hybrid title though.
The Japanese have have made several darn good strides in that area.
The Japanese have have made several darn good strides in that area.
Last edited:
You might want to check out Green Lantern: The Animated Series of you don't mind mixing superheroes with space adventure.
Animation is certainly cheaper, and The Clone Wars is in its best half-hours great fun, but as natural a fit as space adventure is for Saturday morning television (here's where one talks about Flash Gordon and the 1930s), I wouldn't want that to be its only avenue.
Alien type, though? Always game for that.
...so long as it's at least half as good as Alien is what I'm saying here.
Ah, but what were the DVD sales like? One of the things about a lot of the critically highly regarded cable hits is more than a few of them have performed far better in end-of-year DVD sales then when actually on their first run on TV. Box sets really help the cause of any serialized TV, and BSG was definitely that.
Event Horizon/Pandorum type, maybe not.
Alien type, though? Always game for that.
...so long as it's at least half as good as Alien is what I'm saying here.
Ah, but what were the DVD sales like? One of the things about a lot of the critically highly regarded cable hits is more than a few of them have performed far better in end-of-year DVD sales then when actually on their first run on TV. Box sets really help the cause of any serialized TV, and BSG was definitely that.
Never saw it (my knowledge of V basically begins and ends with the original miniseries), but yes, that is also a show. Given as you say it got cancelled - as opposed to Stargate's over-a-decade of continuous TV life - it kind of argues for cable, though.
The problem with relying on DVD sales is that the home video market in the US fell apart a few years ago and continues to incrementally decline each year. That wasn't as much of a problem for a series like Battlestar Galactica, which ended in 2009, but it certainly would be a problem for new programming.
Huh. Did not know that. I suppose all I got at this point are the other non-ratings related forms of revenue (purchasable online streaming, et cetera).
Anything that's somehow dependent on an obsessive fan base as opposed to a large, broad audience would be probably helpful here.
It's not a decline per se, it's a paradigm change in how we watch tv at home. I still think it's odd to see people line up at a vending box to buy dvds when you can just stream them at home with an $80 bluray player or a $200 PS3, and an $8-10 membership. I've totally switched to streaming video.
Original programming on Hulu is just getting off the ground, but I can see sci-fi finding a home there at some point.
RAMA
Similar threads
