Trial and Error ratings are in! yes or no, will SGU be cancelled?

[PsychoPere]

Look at these AWFUL monster and disaster movies. SY FY has some of the worse writers on TV.

Those aren't produced by Syfy, just purchased for cheap ratings fare.

 

[Saquist]

Look at these AWFUL monster and disaster movies. SY FY has some of the worse writers on TV.

Those aren't produced by Syfy, just purchased for cheap ratings fare.

Any source for that?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

From what I've read, some are produced/financed by Syfy and some are bought though I don't have a handy link.

EDIT: Here's some links:
http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/interviewsnews.php?id=14224
http://moviemavericks.com/2010/06/interview-david-michael-latt/
http://gigaom.com/video/felicia-days-red-a-ratings-hit-says-syfy-exec/


The important thing here though is that a lot of those movies are being done at the request of Syfy. Syfy isn't just buying crappy movies and showing them they have an active hand in their creation.

 

[Harvey]

Many of those films are produced by The Asylum, a low-budget production company that produces shoe-string knock-offs of major blockbusters (generously called "mockbusters") like SNAKES ON A TRAIN, THE DAY THE EARTH STOPPED, and SUNDAY SCHOOL MUSICAL. They're not produced in-house at SyFy, which only pays to show them.

Actually, that's probably simplifying things a bit, but those are the basics of the relationship between SyFy and The Asylum.

Here's another example of the kind of films that result: http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2010/07/27/syfy-releases-mega-python-vs-gateroid-clip/

 

[Saquist]

Thank you very much. I now know who to blame directly for the Shark vs Octopus.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

"Mega Python vs. Gateroid"?

 

[Motoki]

It's very hard to do a dramatic sci-fi show and have it be successful. You usually need a sizable budget, good production values--and here's the most important part--stellar writing. You cannot succeed with mediocre or lousy writers, no matter how pretty your show is. It's rarely the production values or acting that people criticized in BSG and Caprica, it's always the storytelling. It's strange how SyFy is willing to spend millions of dollars an episode on these shows yet they don't seem to invest it in building a powerhouse writing staff. And studio interference always seems to be a net detriment, as if the higher-ups haven't a clue how to make the writing any better, either.

I definitely agree with this. In fact, I would take it one further and say that not only do you need good writers, you need writers who are willing plan things out if you are doing a serialized show. I think BSG did have some good writers, but what the didn't have at all is planning.

Having good writers come in and alternate episodes focusing entirely on their own episode is fine for an episodic show like Trek (DS9 aside) but if you are doing a serialized show with arcs and a big mythology sooner or later it will become painfully obvious to the audience that there was no plan (even if you put a tagline in the beginning of the show that states that there is). They will see the show for the facade it is.

I think if writers are going to build these mythologies and throw mysteries out there they need to know the answers to them and have some semblance of the what it all means in the big picture and the ultimate outcome. I don't mean that they should have every tiny detail plotted in advance and cannot change it, but they also shouldn't be making these major changes or additions to the overall story if they don't know why they are doing it. And no, to be shocking, edgy, controversial, because it sounds cool etc is not a good reason why. I mean how does it benefit the overall story and what does it mean long term.

Another thing is the pacing. A lot of these dramatic science fiction shows are paced either too slow or uneven where nothing much happens and then the last episode or two before the break everything hits the fan.

Many times I have felt watching a series that it had 20 episodes because that's how many they could get approved or it's the standard amount rather than because they actually had 20 episodes worth of story to tell. If your story isn't enough for 20 or so episodes don't pad it or slow down the pace, make more story, start a new arc or just do less episodes.

In the case of SGU for example, it took 27 episodes to even figure out what the ship's mission is and what the hell the title means.

 

[Mr Awe]

Agree that pacing is a big issue with recent serialized SF, like BSG and SGU. They both seem to suffer a similar thing. For one, they don't have enough grand ideas to generate enough episodes to cover the season. So, you get the uneven pacing where the majority of the plot advancements come at the begining and finale of each 10 part season. The middle episodes are mainly wheel-spinning. BSG at least had compelling characters which they could use to fill up screen time with character drama, although it got too soapy at points.

Take Lost, in most seasons, they had more than enough ideas to fill up each episode with good plots and they had compelling characters. They mastered this in the last couple of seasons where nearly every episode had interesting plot developments and character interactions. This helped smooth out the pacing. You didn't get left with those middle season humdrum spots because they had enough to distribute throughout the season.

Mr Awe