Where has my science fiction gone?

[psikeyhackr]

James T. Kirk was never trapped in a garbage compactor. He just had tribbles fall on his head.

Star Wars was aimed at kids, Trek was not. It was very 60s which was the Lone Ranger in outer space with Uncle Tom Tom alien but most of the time it was not at the level of Star Wars.

And as for the Doomsday Machines. The US had more than 25,000 nukes when Star Trek was on the air. I didn't know that at the time. Who did?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race

They are still out there. Now we have another one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPPbmXSI1ZM

The 7 billionth child is supposed to be born on the planet at the end of this month. Though some people say not until march. Statistics are so imprecise.

I just remembered. TOS did do an episode on overpopulation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsbuJfMpr0

TOS is 65 hours of material. Star Wars is only 14.

Of course all of Star Trek is around 700 hours.

psik

[Hitmouse]

This is a curious inversion of that cliche of the old geezers going, "Pop music isn't what it used to be." etc.

Just think, in the wholesome era of the 1960s we had Alfred Bester, Philip K Dick, and the whole New Wave scene with all the sex, drugs, and moral ambiguity one could wish for. Even the more mainstream Marvel comics went down the antihero route of troubled character development to a significant degree. Some of the classic SF films of the 60s and 70s (and in fact many of the non-SF films) are hardly manichean in their premise: I give you 2001, Barbarella, The Man Who Fell to Earth

I would argue that shows such as V, and the original Battlestar Galactica represent a step backwards in terms of sophistication and interest, and I find that I am much more interested in series like Firefly or Heroes. There is no lack of peurile GvE fiction or TV out there if that is what you want. Personally I am glad that there is an alternative.

[martielillycrop]

Yeah, I thought Terra Nova was generally fine but have my doubts about where its going with 6ers and the junk on the rocks. Rating wise, shockingly mediocre start given the crazy cost of the show and heavy promotion (only 9 million viewers).

The UK finally got to see the first two eps of Terra Nova last night. Have to say I was a little underwhelmed, so I agree on the above. I'll carry on watching in the hope it gets better, though. If not, as far as I'm concerned, it can go the way of the dinosaurs. (Oops. Sorry!)

[devilsadvoc8]

The UK finally got to see the first two eps of Terra Nova last night. Have to say I was a little underwhelmed, so I agree on the above. I'll carry on watching in the hope it gets better, though. If not, as far as I'm concerned, it can go the way of the dinosaurs. (Oops. Sorry!)

I agree. I will probably give this show perhaps 2 more episodes and if it doesn't improve greatly, I will turn my attention elsewhere.

[EllenS]

I thought Terra Nova was terrible, but I gave up after the first hour of the premiere.

On the other hand, I feel almost as bad about the early demise of Dollhouse as I did re the original Star Trek. Dollhouse was doing a really interesting job of exploring and developing its premise, and at least they were allowed to wrap up the story, even it it was an accelerated pace.

I'd also count Misfits as a quite brilliant SF (as in speculative fiction) series. Not for children or people with prudish sensibilities though.

[ebusinesstutor]

I think part of the problem is the special effect budget. Costly to make space scenes and much easier to make vampires or earthbound shows about esp. So if they don't hit it big, they can cancelled.

I loved the first few seasons of Galactaca but they they got way off track and I gave up in disgust.

It seems there are many new SciFi shows I love, but they get cancelled after one or two seasons. Firefly, Flash Forward, Defying Gravity and Sarah Conner Chronicles are a few. Cut down in their prime. I would think if the studios would take a longer approach to these, they should finish them off with a 3 part mini-series if they want to cancel them which would make them more saleable ad DVDs or licensing to Netflix or Hulu.

On Netflix, my wife and I recently watched an old SciFi, Earth 2. Another show I loved that got cancelled too quickly.

[Steven L Jordan]

James T. Kirk was never trapped in a garbage compactor. He just had tribbles fall on his head.

Star Wars was aimed at kids, Trek was not. It was very 60s which was the Lone Ranger in outer space with Uncle Tom Tom alien but most of the time it was not at the level of Star Wars.

Kirk had tribbles dropped on his head... and that wasn't played for kids? Kids daydream about getting caught in garbage compactors?

Trek and Star Wars were both the equivalent of kids playing in the grass, making "Bang! Zap!" noises and falling over with their hands clutched to their chests. Yes, of the two, Star Trek was the more intellectual, certainly the older of the two siblings; Trek included more adult subjects like self-sacrifice, for instance. But it also got into slug-fests with Klingons and blew up planet-controlling computers with regularity.

And characters would perform "selfless acts" which would be fixed by the judicious use of technology ("Thank God Scotty got the transporter fixed, so we could pull you out of there!") before it was too late... doesn't that sound like kids' play ("You're hit by a land mine!" "No, it was deflected by my bulletproof vest! I'm fine!")? And at the end of the day, everyone got together for a good laugh and prepared for more play tomorrow.

At least in Galactica, when Tigh lost his eye... it stayed lost.