http://io9.com/5053760/sci-fi-goes-beyond-in-search-of-new-brand
I'll keep this short and to the point:
*over the past several years many of us fans have been complaining of the increasing "slide" on Sci Fi Channel into just plain garbage, i.e. the obvious example of running wrestling on their network, or the ENDLESS parade of saturday night B-movies.
Granted, we weren't expecting THAT much original programming, they do have a shoestring budget, but they could have been rerunning classic shows more often (Trek, X-Files, whatever)
I really liked Sci Fi during the old days of Farscape (and even Lexx...) when you'd see anime or all sorts of hard to find interesting stuff on it. And for a time, it was good: with the first batch of original shows like "Farscape" it really felt like a "Sci Fi Channel" was becomming a reality.
But then, Farscape got cancelled. And they shifted all of their focus to Stargate. Again, for a time, it was good. But then they bled Stargate SG-1 to death and Stargate: Atlantis, hyped as the "Darker Older Brother", turned into a light and fluffy analog of Star Trek Voyager to TNG.
And then of course "Flash Gordon", etc. etc.
And the handlign of Battlestar Galactica; that show really fell into their lap, they had nothing to do with its success. But then they messed with it: season 3 had so many problems because they did to it what they did for Farscape season 4: force them to make a season of standalone episodes and drop their running plotlines for a season; there was a LOT of behind the scenes fighting and now that the series is ending, at convention reports you hear the cast openly criticizing the channel.
But there really isn't much "scifi" on it anymore; they jumped on the near-term success of "Eureka", but after the "its a shiny NEW show!" effect wears off after 2 seasons, the ratings are dropping and critics are turning on it.
And what do we have to look forward to? ****Ron Moore will not be involved in the "Caprica" prequel series; he's only making the backdoor pilot TV movie; then he's moving on to his new show on another channel; and the trailers make it look awful; indeed, I'm not sure anymore if Skiffy will even pick it up.
And of course we've got "Stargate Universe" aka "Stargate 90210" aka "we literally made a Young and Hip Stargate like we ourselves parodied in the 200th episode"
(sigh)
********who here has ever gotten one of those internet surveys where they ask you about what channels you watch?
and they ask "do you like science fiction?" yes. "therefore, do you subscribe to the Sci Fi Channel?" ...
....I found myself saying "not really"
I only watch for BSG and to be honest I could get the DVDs or iTunes and in fact most people do.
Remember their pathetic attempts to advertise their cruddy programming like "Lost Room" during BSG episodes, to the point that it was covering up a fourth of the screen?
Anyway, I realized that good "Science Fiction" is scattered about the networks or on late night anime TV or whatever.
The Scifi Channel doesn't even really seem to like "Scifi"; they just run things about ghosts and bigfoot or whatever.
No, I realize that its not going to be utterly dedicated to the hardcore Trekkie fan, but still, I keep going "who asked for any of this crud?"
and notice that even when they run (horribly edited) Doctor Who episodes stateside, they say at the beginning "a Scifi Channel original series, Doctor Who"....dude its obviously made in Britain.
*******but I digress.
The point is that I am far from alone in the complaint, increasingly the last 2-3 years, that...."the so-called "Sci Fi Channel" isn't really a channel to see much "science fiction" on anymore"
the weird thing is, the execs in charge that keep cancelling shows or running them at bad times or simply poor management decisions that hamstring their own efforts....well, I think its because they themselves simply don't like "Science Fiction". They aren't proud of it or take off and run with it.
The Scifi Channel is run by a bunch of disgruntled execs who wanted to work on USA Network and are embarrassed to work on something so lowly as a "Science Fiction Channel"
dear Lord, "Spike TV" with Blade the Series and Afro Samurai has been doing at least an equal job to the Scifi Channel! (Granted, they cancelled Blade, but the ratings really were too low to cover costs; and they did promote it alot so they did all they could)
It's so paradoxical: the people in charge have always seemed so....embarrassed, about running their own channel....and so....."out of touch". More than anything, I'd say "out of touch" with scifi fans. Never updating or maintaining their website, etc. Never, NEVER accurately gauging what viewers and fans want: lets not forget when infamously, Bonnie Hammer simply didn't understand that people didn't care about Tremors: the Series, but wanted more Farscape.
So apparently an online survey has been going around that they want to change their name to "Beyond"
Which frankly I see as an UTTER VICTORY FOR US FANS:
***it's the final admission that "we're not really a "Science Fiction" Channel and NEVER lived up to the mantle!
I'll keep this short and to the point:
*over the past several years many of us fans have been complaining of the increasing "slide" on Sci Fi Channel into just plain garbage, i.e. the obvious example of running wrestling on their network, or the ENDLESS parade of saturday night B-movies.
Granted, we weren't expecting THAT much original programming, they do have a shoestring budget, but they could have been rerunning classic shows more often (Trek, X-Files, whatever)
I really liked Sci Fi during the old days of Farscape (and even Lexx...) when you'd see anime or all sorts of hard to find interesting stuff on it. And for a time, it was good: with the first batch of original shows like "Farscape" it really felt like a "Sci Fi Channel" was becomming a reality.
But then, Farscape got cancelled. And they shifted all of their focus to Stargate. Again, for a time, it was good. But then they bled Stargate SG-1 to death and Stargate: Atlantis, hyped as the "Darker Older Brother", turned into a light and fluffy analog of Star Trek Voyager to TNG.
And then of course "Flash Gordon", etc. etc.
And the handlign of Battlestar Galactica; that show really fell into their lap, they had nothing to do with its success. But then they messed with it: season 3 had so many problems because they did to it what they did for Farscape season 4: force them to make a season of standalone episodes and drop their running plotlines for a season; there was a LOT of behind the scenes fighting and now that the series is ending, at convention reports you hear the cast openly criticizing the channel.
But there really isn't much "scifi" on it anymore; they jumped on the near-term success of "Eureka", but after the "its a shiny NEW show!" effect wears off after 2 seasons, the ratings are dropping and critics are turning on it.
And what do we have to look forward to? ****Ron Moore will not be involved in the "Caprica" prequel series; he's only making the backdoor pilot TV movie; then he's moving on to his new show on another channel; and the trailers make it look awful; indeed, I'm not sure anymore if Skiffy will even pick it up.
And of course we've got "Stargate Universe" aka "Stargate 90210" aka "we literally made a Young and Hip Stargate like we ourselves parodied in the 200th episode"
(sigh)
********who here has ever gotten one of those internet surveys where they ask you about what channels you watch?
and they ask "do you like science fiction?" yes. "therefore, do you subscribe to the Sci Fi Channel?" ...
....I found myself saying "not really"
I only watch for BSG and to be honest I could get the DVDs or iTunes and in fact most people do.
Remember their pathetic attempts to advertise their cruddy programming like "Lost Room" during BSG episodes, to the point that it was covering up a fourth of the screen?
Anyway, I realized that good "Science Fiction" is scattered about the networks or on late night anime TV or whatever.
The Scifi Channel doesn't even really seem to like "Scifi"; they just run things about ghosts and bigfoot or whatever.
No, I realize that its not going to be utterly dedicated to the hardcore Trekkie fan, but still, I keep going "who asked for any of this crud?"
and notice that even when they run (horribly edited) Doctor Who episodes stateside, they say at the beginning "a Scifi Channel original series, Doctor Who"....dude its obviously made in Britain.
*******but I digress.
The point is that I am far from alone in the complaint, increasingly the last 2-3 years, that...."the so-called "Sci Fi Channel" isn't really a channel to see much "science fiction" on anymore"
the weird thing is, the execs in charge that keep cancelling shows or running them at bad times or simply poor management decisions that hamstring their own efforts....well, I think its because they themselves simply don't like "Science Fiction". They aren't proud of it or take off and run with it.
The Scifi Channel is run by a bunch of disgruntled execs who wanted to work on USA Network and are embarrassed to work on something so lowly as a "Science Fiction Channel"
dear Lord, "Spike TV" with Blade the Series and Afro Samurai has been doing at least an equal job to the Scifi Channel! (Granted, they cancelled Blade, but the ratings really were too low to cover costs; and they did promote it alot so they did all they could)
It's so paradoxical: the people in charge have always seemed so....embarrassed, about running their own channel....and so....."out of touch". More than anything, I'd say "out of touch" with scifi fans. Never updating or maintaining their website, etc. Never, NEVER accurately gauging what viewers and fans want: lets not forget when infamously, Bonnie Hammer simply didn't understand that people didn't care about Tremors: the Series, but wanted more Farscape.
So apparently an online survey has been going around that they want to change their name to "Beyond"
Which frankly I see as an UTTER VICTORY FOR US FANS:
***it's the final admission that "we're not really a "Science Fiction" Channel and NEVER lived up to the mantle!
