status of scifi TV shows and cancelations?

[Mistral]

BBCA has shown Primeval as well though I don't get the sense that there was much buzz about it. I wanted to like it but couldn't keep interest the couple of times I tried to watch it.

It definitely improved over time, but it's very much fluff.

It might be fluff but it was a lot of fun and they weren't afraid to tackle some of the "big questions" of time travel a la Sound of Thunder. Interesting characters and cool effects most of the time. A fun ride. Looking forward to more. Here in America.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

BBCA has shown Primeval as well though I don't get the sense that there was much buzz about it. I wanted to like it but couldn't keep interest the couple of times I tried to watch it.

It definitely improved over time, but it's very much fluff.

It might be fluff but it was a lot of fun and they weren't afraid to tackle some of the "big questions" of time travel a la Sound of Thunder. Interesting characters and cool effects most of the time. A fun ride. Looking forward to more. Here in America.

I agree, I really enjoy it. Series 3 should be starting here soon. I believe its a little longer this time, 9 episodes I think I heard.

 

[wamdue]

Gotta wonder whether Demons will be picked up for another series here. Seems to be rather disappointing all round. But my nieces enjoy it, so I've continued to watch.

im very disappointed in the show, I wish ITV had made "Last of the Van Helsings" as I had pictured it.

more to the point Demons finale ratings were awful 3.42m (Digital Spy) it just does not deserve a 2nd series.

Yeah, I was kinda expecting something more focused actually on the Van Helsing story/family history, perhaps a little more serious. I guess it was a vain hope though.

that is what I was thinking, guess we should have known better this being ITV & all.

and I think Primeval is 10 episodes this year, looking forward to it, its my favourite ITV show.

 

[Count Zero]

Hopefully, Dollhouse, Caprica, and Virtuality will all work out.


I'm also looking forward to...

The Prisoner

Red Mars

Boldly Going Nowhere

Defying Gravity

Oh yeah. I'm looking forward to all of them with the exception of The Prisoner (no fan of remakes) and Caprica (no interest since I've never watched BSG).

Does anyone know what happened to Flash Forward? Are there still plans for it?

 

[nx1701g]

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles: The second season has had problems and they're saying the only reason it wasn't canceled is because it would be embarrassing to cancel the series right before Terminator 4 the movie. ***of course, what happened was the same old story from Farscape season 4, Battlestar season 3, and Heroes season 2ish -- apparently, the network forced the writers to drop their running plotlines and make a season of mostly stand-alone episodes. From reports, the network DID eventually realize this wasn't working and has relented, and the writers are going to start up their storylines again; but will it be too late?

Well, at the least, they'll be finishing out their season; the creative direction is at least officially in the right path again even if there might not be enough time, and moreover ****maybe pairing it with Dollhouse will be the one-two punch needed to revive it, making a "Scifi Friday" night on Fox as it were. Status: on the fence, but pairing it with Dollhouse gives a glimmer of hope.

From what I've been reading Terminator is likely to survive this season because, as you pointed out, Warner Brothers (they produce it - Fox simply airs it) doesn't want the negative press of the series being cancelled when the movie comes out. They've taken precautions of buying up ad space and are taking on a lot of the costs from what I've heard. They also considered moving it to another network.

But there will be more arc storylines starting with the second half of season two.

The CW:

Smallville: apparently, despite the creators leaving the last season was actually really good; but this show has been on forever...they just keep dragging on year after year. Long story short, if you were already a fan, you're happy its doing modestly well enough to justify its own existence. but if we're asking "what's making the cover of Entertainment Weekly again?" or even..."what's making the cover of Scifi Magazine?".....it's just not the hot thing anymore. Either way, I didn't even watch since the first season. And how many more seasons can they do? Even if they crank out one, or even two more seasons, it's not "the future" here...

Apparently one more. Welling has been asked if he would like to return for another season. Rumors are out that they're planning a spinoff.

 

[V]

WB might shop it around other networks? that's good

I really liked Terminator season 1 and see it as the spiritual successor to BSG: my favorite writer from the first two BSG seasons, Toni Graphi, is on it, as is Bear McCreary's music. I walked in to the pilot episode expecting a laughably bad attempt at cashing in on the franchise, but was left with my jaw on the floor openly shocked that it was actually a really good gritty series.

But I don't like that frakking around with the storylines that Fox did in season 2. Good that they admitted that wasn't working.

And I hope we don't fall into Voyager Time Travel Games, but its fun that they're starting to acknowledge "what if our actions in the present are creating new divergent alternate future timelines, who ALSO have access to time travel technology, and can send stuff back to the present?"....

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I got so much to watch on TV and DVD that I still haven't seen this weeks Chuck, Heroes or Lost. I'm not feeling so deprived, personally.

This week, BSG was a priority, tho. I'm in a bad mood and BSG is great for making me feel better - at least I'm not those poor suckers! Oh I'll miss it when it's gone!

Does anyone know what happened to Flash Forward? Are there still plans for it?

Yup. Here's the list of hopeful pilots. The easiest way to search is to go to the right column and click on the links by network. We find out in May which of em go to series.

SF/F in the running:

Flash Forward
Boldly Going Nowhere (retooled for next fall)
Virtuality (supposedly; it's probably a long shot)
The Vampire Diaries - jumpin' on the Twilight/True Blood bandwagon!
V - another BSG style reimagining, we hope?
Eastwick - show about witches, no Jack Nicholson
Untitled pilot on Fox about reincarnation cops
Day One - argh, just renew Jericho instead!!!!
Drop Dead Diva - supermodel's mind in a frumpy lawyer's body - a sci fi version of Ugly Betty?
Caprica - already a sure thing, DVDs drop in April

Maybe SF/F-ish?

Happy Town - getting a Twin Peaks vibe
Masterwork - Da Vinci Code-inspired

Not SF/F but on my list to see:

The Station - Ben Stiller comedy about the CIA in a banana republic, how could this not be great?
Suburban Shootout - Desperate Housewives with automatic weaponry

 

[CommodoreKong]

Warehouse 13: the trailer and clips make it look like a laughably bad 'nother instance of "Flash Gordan" or "the Locked Room" or whatever. Nother tanking Skiffy series.

The Lost Room was an amazing miniseries and it's a damn shame Sci-Fi didn't pick it as a full series.
Warehouse 13 gives me some Lost Room vibes, I will be checking it out, hopefully it will be as good.

 

[Dream]

I got so much to watch on TV and DVD that I still haven't seen this weeks Chuck, Heroes or Lost. I'm not feeling so deprived, personally.

Get on it Temis!

I want to hear your thoughts on this week's Heroes already.

 

[nx1701g]

WB might shop it around other networks? that's good

I really liked Terminator season 1 and see it as the spiritual successor to BSG: my favorite writer from the first two BSG seasons, Toni Graphi, is on it, as is Bear McCreary's music. I walked in to the pilot episode expecting a laughably bad attempt at cashing in on the franchise, but was left with my jaw on the floor openly shocked that it was actually a really good gritty series.

But I don't like that frakking around with the storylines that Fox did in season 2. Good that they admitted that wasn't working.

And I hope we don't fall into Voyager Time Travel Games, but its fun that they're starting to acknowledge "what if our actions in the present are creating new divergent alternate future timelines, who ALSO have access to time travel technology, and can send stuff back to the present?"....

Josh Friedman said Time Travel won't be a major theme in 2.5.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

My thoughts on some of these:

Caprica. What's the frakking point?! It doesn't even look sci-fi enough to be recognizably BSG. And frankly, I've come to hate Battlestar Galactica anyway. The only reason why I still watch is that I feel I've invested enough into this that I have to see how it ends. But it has pretty much zero rewatchability for me.

Dollhouse. The recent ads make me curious. Certainly Joss Whedon shows are always entertaining. Television has been sorely lacking in well written dialogue ever since Angel went off the air. I'm dubious that Dollhouse will last long. Frankly, I'm not even sure its fanbase will give it a chance because they all still feel so burned by Firefly. Also, my enthusiasm about Joss Whedon is tempered by the fact that I don't see how the premise can yield an interesting TV series. It sounds more like a movie idea to me. Still, there's nothing else worth getting this excited about.

Stargate Universe. I'm very cautiously optimistic. I reckon this franchise is probably tapped out. Really, the fact that it's lasted as long as it has is a miracle. SG-1 seemed to survive solely on the 1-in-a-million chemistry of its core cast. It was lightning in a bottle that Atlantis was unable to replicate.The only things that kept Atlantis interesting were Dr. McKay and the immense charisma of Joe Flannigan. We'll see if there's any characters worth watching on Universe.

Doctor Who. I don't know why we're not just doing a full season. Why are we bothering to accommodate David Tennant's schedule with the RSC if he's not even going to be coming back next year anyway? And why are they further punnishing me with so little Torchwood?

Heroes. I've never understood the appeal. Maybe if they did a spin-off that was just Hiro & Ando, I'd be able to get behind that. But as is, there are just too many characters that I don't care about that drain screentime away from the few characters(Hiro, Ando, Peter, Noah) that I do like.

Red Dwarf is finally coming back! WOOT!!!!

Drop Dead Diva - supermodel's mind in a frumpy lawyer's body - a sci fi version of Ugly Betty?

Reminds me of my theory about how real life TV personality Jillian Barbarie (Ex-treme Dating, NFL on FOX weather reports) is actually the mind of a horny, middle aged man transplanted into a supermodel's body.

What about Bitches? It's described as Sex & the City with werewolves.

 

[Misfit Toy]

What about Eureka?

 

[nx1701g]

^ I don't think that there is anything specific on its return yet.

 

[intrinsical]

Um, what about Eureka and Chuck? They're scifi-lite, but I still consider both series as 'scifi'.

 

[CommodoreKong]

^ I don't think that there is anything specific on its return yet.

My guess is that they're going to use the second half of season 3 as "season 4".

 

[Frontier]

What's really sad, to me, is that when nBSG is gone... I'll literally have nothing space-based left on air.

Nothing in that starry void, for the first time since I got addicted to this stuff back in 1996.

It's making the nBSG finale even more of a moment for me. First time I've ever been space-deprived.

We'll always have things that classify as "sci-fi" but... for me... space is an important component that seems to be being pushed out of sci-fi more and more now days.

Wow, I think it may also mean that for the first time since TNG, we'll have no space-ship based shows on TV. That's 22 years we've had some ship, some franchise, going around in the stars.

We'll still have sci-fi. Just...

...No "space ships" for a while, I guess. Unless that one FOX show gets picked up... and even if it does, that'll likely just prolong the end of the 22-year-era for a dozen episodes before it gets canceled. I mean, it's on FOX...

 

[nx1701g]

^ Maybe we'll get lucky and nuTrek will do well and someone will get approval for a new series.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

What's really sad, to me, is that when nBSG is gone... I'll literally have nothing space-based left on air.

Nothing in that starry void, for the first time since I got addicted to this stuff back in 1996.

It's making the nBSG finale even more of a moment for me. First time I've ever been space-deprived.

We'll always have things that classify as "sci-fi" but... for me... space is an important component that seems to be being pushed out of sci-fi more and more now days.

Wow, I think it may also mean that for the first time since TNG, we'll have no space-ship based shows on TV. That's 22 years we've had some ship, some franchise, going around in the stars.

We'll still have sci-fi. Just...

...No "space ships" for a while, I guess. Unless that one FOX show gets picked up... and even if it does, that'll likely just prolong the end of the 22-year-era for a dozen episodes before it gets canceled. I mean, it's on FOX...

well if Virtuality is the one you're talking about there's always Defying Gravity whenever it airs. (If this is the one you're talking about) I doubt that'll air on Fox, and even if it does there's like 4 international partners absorbing costs as well, so it'll likely survive on lower ratings than usual.

Doctor Who. I don't know why we're not just doing a full season. Why are we bothering to accommodate David Tennant's schedule with the RSC if he's not even going to be coming back next year anyway? And why are they further punnishing me with so little Torchwood?

They were never accommodating David Tennant, there was talk of this ages ago. RTD said he had a plan to keep the show fresh by having gaps in production, to give them time to rest, and come back strong and hopefully keep the show on the air for another 20 years. The Beeb weren't comfortable with one of their biggest shows just disappearing for a year and wanted more than 1 or 2 specials and so it became 4 specials, 5 if you count The Next Doctor.

 

[Aaron McGuire]

I'm also looking forward to...


Red Mars

Sweet Zombie Jesus!!! I hadn't heard of this yet. Between this and Flash Forward, my favorite sci-fi novels could become my favorite sci-fi series.

Or they could be ruined for me. One of the two.

Aaron McGuire

 

[DWF]

What's really sad, to me, is that when nBSG is gone... I'll literally have nothing space-based left on air.

Nothing in that starry void, for the first time since I got addicted to this stuff back in 1996.

It's making the nBSG finale even more of a moment for me. First time I've ever been space-deprived.

We'll always have things that classify as "sci-fi" but... for me... space is an important component that seems to be being pushed out of sci-fi more and more now days.

Wow, I think it may also mean that for the first time since TNG, we'll have no space-ship based shows on TV. That's 22 years we've had some ship, some franchise, going around in the stars.

We'll still have sci-fi. Just...

...No "space ships" for a while, I guess. Unless that one FOX show gets picked up... and even if it does, that'll likely just prolong the end of the 22-year-era for a dozen episodes before it gets canceled. I mean, it's on FOX...

Stargate Universe will be a the next space based, ship based sci-fi series.