Where do you see sci fi going in the future?
- Thread starter safarial
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Anything but more frakken cop shows thinly disguised as sci fi. And the fact that I don't want more just guarantees that we will get more frakken cop shows thinly disguised as sci fi.
I'd love to see some good old fashioned space opera and/or shows set in the past or the future. No more present day stuff, that's all played out (except if the Lost folks have any more ideas on expanding the universe they've created, I'd make an exception there).
We definitely need a series that addresses something that's going to happen sooner than later: genetic and cybernetic enhancements of humans becoming commonplace.
But not superhero skewed like Heroes or lame like the Bionic Woman remake.
I'd love to see some good old fashioned space opera and/or shows set in the past or the future. No more present day stuff, that's all played out (except if the Lost folks have any more ideas on expanding the universe they've created, I'd make an exception there).
We definitely need a series that addresses something that's going to happen sooner than later: genetic and cybernetic enhancements of humans becoming commonplace.
But not superhero skewed like Heroes or lame like the Bionic Woman remake.
I want to see a good ole fashioned space ship based epic with wars and big fleets and whatnot, preferably with super-powered characters. Unfortunately the only place to catch that lately is Clone Wars; I don't really count BSG since it's basically a soap opera with an action scene every 5 or so episodes.
I don't particularly care about the setting, so long as it's good.
A serious, near future story looking at the effect on society of cloning, genetic engineering, etc. like Temis suggested would be good. None of this stupid over blown stuff, but a serious look at how people handle it, and how it effects the world would be good.
I still want to see Outcasts, a story about outcasts of society being sent to Mars on a mission to terraform it. Too bad the BBC don't seem to have picked it up.
A serious, near future story looking at the effect on society of cloning, genetic engineering, etc. like Temis suggested would be good. None of this stupid over blown stuff, but a serious look at how people handle it, and how it effects the world would be good.
I still want to see Outcasts, a story about outcasts of society being sent to Mars on a mission to terraform it. Too bad the BBC don't seem to have picked it up.
There are a few things that have become pre-requisites in terms of what I expect from modern sci-fi shows. One of them is serialization. My favorite shows (nuBSG, DS9, B5) are all serialized, and I can't really imagine going back to an episodic format.
This is especially true for shows that deal with complex subject matters. They simply require time to be fully explored. And it's also far more rewarding as far as characters are concerned which IMHO are the heart and core of any tv show, sci-fi or other.
One thing I'd love to continue to see in sci-fi shows (and it's just one example) is nuBSG's more artistic approach to visual appearance and music. It's a sense of beauty that pervades the show and that is - for me - one of the things that makes it special and stand out.
I wish and hope that more sci-fi shows will place a greater emphasis on these things. And I think sci-fi shows in particular really stand to benefit from such an approach. A more artistic approach gives you more possibilities in terms of abstracting and / or creating a world quite different from our own.
In terms of topics, well, I'm interested in all sorts of topics, technological as well as philosophical or sociological. So it's hard to single out specific topic, really.
What I personally don't want to see is 'aliens with bumpy foreheads'. That just doesn't really do the trick for me anymore. I find it too obvious that these 'creatures' are simply humans. Not just because you can see that someone's wearing a mask but because their patterns of behaviour are usually far too human. So why even bother?
If you're going to show and deal with aliens, really make them alien and strange. In every other case, I personally prefer going with humans, evolved humans, machines, or hybrids.
This is especially true for shows that deal with complex subject matters. They simply require time to be fully explored. And it's also far more rewarding as far as characters are concerned which IMHO are the heart and core of any tv show, sci-fi or other.
One thing I'd love to continue to see in sci-fi shows (and it's just one example) is nuBSG's more artistic approach to visual appearance and music. It's a sense of beauty that pervades the show and that is - for me - one of the things that makes it special and stand out.
I wish and hope that more sci-fi shows will place a greater emphasis on these things. And I think sci-fi shows in particular really stand to benefit from such an approach. A more artistic approach gives you more possibilities in terms of abstracting and / or creating a world quite different from our own.
In terms of topics, well, I'm interested in all sorts of topics, technological as well as philosophical or sociological. So it's hard to single out specific topic, really.
What I personally don't want to see is 'aliens with bumpy foreheads'. That just doesn't really do the trick for me anymore. I find it too obvious that these 'creatures' are simply humans. Not just because you can see that someone's wearing a mask but because their patterns of behaviour are usually far too human. So why even bother?
If you're going to show and deal with aliens, really make them alien and strange. In every other case, I personally prefer going with humans, evolved humans, machines, or hybrids.
I took your issue to Darren Aronofsky and he completely agrees with you. So now we're going to retool the RoboCop remake, and instead of RoboCop, we're going to call it Robo Guidance Counselor.
On TV ? As TV networks remain focussed on their old advertising-based business models, we will see less Sci-Fi on TV because the networks will aim their products at people who still watch advertising rather than people who pick and choose, DVR, download or stream what they watch etc.
In the cinema ? We'll still see every major movie studio continue their policy of making Oscar-grabbing movies paid for with the profits from the summer's Sci-Fi blockbusters. People will still flock to see these movies in record numbers despite their claims that they're "not in to Sci-Fi".
In the cinema ? We'll still see every major movie studio continue their policy of making Oscar-grabbing movies paid for with the profits from the summer's Sci-Fi blockbusters. People will still flock to see these movies in record numbers despite their claims that they're "not in to Sci-Fi".
Personally, I could do without more 'space opera'. I think that's been played out about as far as it's going to get after seventy some odd years and countless incarnations.
As we're getting deeper and deeper into the future the grandmasters of SF dreamed about and more and more of their imaginings are coming true, I think it's time for science fiction to stop being a genre, per se, and become more of an element of more conventional areas (drama, comedy, etc). Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe just expecting more from my fiction, but I'm kind of tired of stories that center around some made up technology using trumped up issues that wouldn't come up in any sort of 'real' context. It just all seems so... silly anymore. I think this is one of the things that's made the new BSG so popular... it's not really science fiction. It has elements, but it's really just a drama/soap opera with SF elements and setting. Putting it in the same genre as Star Trek or Star Wars somehow... demeans it.
To me, I think that's where Science Fiction should go in the future... which is not to say that I want more shows like BSG. I just think the idea of taking a conventional show and using SF pieces to enhance it is a much better and more realistic idea than taking a bunch of SF ideas and trying to shoehorn various genres into it like a Swiss army knife. It just seems to come off as... forced the more and more I watch older series where this was done. While it served a purpose long ago, when we didn't understand as much about science as we do now or had a generation of kids internet savvy enough to call BS on anything that's not based on cold-hard research, Science Fiction just can't support the suspension of disbelief it once could... I just think it's time it retreated to the background a bit, is all, where it can better serve as a setpiece or prop instead of a whole storytelling medium as it once did...
I'm not sure this makes any kind of sense.... I just feel that 'classic' SF is played out and done, but I have a hard time articulating why...
As we're getting deeper and deeper into the future the grandmasters of SF dreamed about and more and more of their imaginings are coming true, I think it's time for science fiction to stop being a genre, per se, and become more of an element of more conventional areas (drama, comedy, etc). Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe just expecting more from my fiction, but I'm kind of tired of stories that center around some made up technology using trumped up issues that wouldn't come up in any sort of 'real' context. It just all seems so... silly anymore. I think this is one of the things that's made the new BSG so popular... it's not really science fiction. It has elements, but it's really just a drama/soap opera with SF elements and setting. Putting it in the same genre as Star Trek or Star Wars somehow... demeans it.
To me, I think that's where Science Fiction should go in the future... which is not to say that I want more shows like BSG. I just think the idea of taking a conventional show and using SF pieces to enhance it is a much better and more realistic idea than taking a bunch of SF ideas and trying to shoehorn various genres into it like a Swiss army knife. It just seems to come off as... forced the more and more I watch older series where this was done. While it served a purpose long ago, when we didn't understand as much about science as we do now or had a generation of kids internet savvy enough to call BS on anything that's not based on cold-hard research, Science Fiction just can't support the suspension of disbelief it once could... I just think it's time it retreated to the background a bit, is all, where it can better serve as a setpiece or prop instead of a whole storytelling medium as it once did...
I'm not sure this makes any kind of sense.... I just feel that 'classic' SF is played out and done, but I have a hard time articulating why...
I think a corollary of this would be (and I know this is probably going to cause a bit of a flame war) that we really need to put an end to live-action Science Fiction if you want to do anything 'realistically' set in space, as Farscape is probably about as far as you can possibly get from the Rubber Forehead concept while still keeping a reasonable budget and it, too had its failures in that department...
We're going to need to embrace CGI in a big way. Personally, I don't know why we haven't already, as it suits our purposes perfectly. Aliens can look like whatever you want them to, FX can be blended seamlessly with action, and have a much more realistic and three dimensional look than conventional animation (not that there's anything wrong with traditional animation, per se, but it does have a certain connotation in the States for being a child's medium unfit for 'serious' shows). It also allows for a much broader range of environments otherwise impossible to convincingly portray via live-action.
The biggest problem, though, with Science Fiction going forward is the increased alienness of humanity itself. As we grow closer to the things projected for the future, especially bionic/genetic enhancement, humans will become less... relatable, almost alien to contemporary viewers, with little to relate to for the people paying to keep this on the air... Regular, unenhanced humans doing things much as we do them now make less and less sense the farther we get into the actual future, but also makes for pretty poor drama... at least, the sort of drama we're used to getting from Hollywood these days...
^
I agree that CGI is the way to go if you really want to deal with aliens that truly come across as alien.
Another problem, however, is something you mentioned in regards to humans becoming more alien: Relating to a being or race that seems very alien and is very, very different from us.
Sure, you can also pit the aliens as the bad guys. And the less you understand them, the easier it is to support the humans who are offing them
. But that's the easy path. It would be far more interesting to see if and how you could depict a race that's very alien but that you can still relate to somehow.
Or do viewers only want mirrors anyway?
I agree that CGI is the way to go if you really want to deal with aliens that truly come across as alien.
Another problem, however, is something you mentioned in regards to humans becoming more alien: Relating to a being or race that seems very alien and is very, very different from us.
Sure, you can also pit the aliens as the bad guys. And the less you understand them, the easier it is to support the humans who are offing them
. But that's the easy path. It would be far more interesting to see if and how you could depict a race that's very alien but that you can still relate to somehow.Or do viewers only want mirrors anyway?
Dr_Daystrom
Commander
More off-world sci-fi. Either humans in far flung regions of space or aliens in their worlds. Examples for the sake of argument - A Blade Runner spin-off following the lives of humans and replicants that went off-world. More Dune. Ben Bovas Grand Tour series. Any other suggestions?
this isnt Sc-Fi but Id like to see another superheroes or people with powers tv series but done by people who actually understand the genre & know what the hell theyre doing.
Plus effing one.
It'd be a lot better than Heroes - oh no, we've got a character who can travel through time and space and we've already explained why he can't just go back in time and solve every problem he encounters, what can we do with him ? I know we'll just take his powers away! We're geniuses! Lunch ?
Then they come back from lunch and talk about Peter Petrelli as well.
Dr_Daystrom
Commander
How about Stargate: Lost in Space? Oh wait, they are doing that. Stargate Universe.
Aren't FX doing a super-powered people series next year?
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