Television

The record of successful science fiction television shows in recent years hasn't been very good. More shows have been cancelled than have survived, which is probably true of any genre of TV show, but it seems that networks are much quicker to euthenize shows that actually have potential. Does that mean that the genre is dying out on television?

Perhaps, but here are 18 sci-fi shows in the works that could help revive the genre to its televised glory days, whenever those were.

One of the shows mentioned, and one that I am looking forward to, is the Star Wars live action series. No one's really sure of the title or when it will actually begin airing, but it sounds like it might not be as bad as Phantom Menace.

If sci-fi does die off on television some day, it will continue to find a home on the internet on various web series.

Yesterday, I wrote about how television studios are content to reboot old TV shows or adapt them from existing media properties instead of coming up with original ideas. Normally, that's a bad thing, but here's a report of one reboot that I think is a good idea. There's talk of reviving the failed Gene Rodenberry project known as Questor Tapes.

Questor Tapes was originally a pilot for a new science fiction TV series, but squabbling between the network and Rodenberry doomed the show and the pilot was later aired as a TV movie in 1974. The pilot was quite good and many fans remember it fondly. It was even nominated for a Hugo Award.

The story is about an android with his memory partially erased who is seeking his creator and the purpose behind his creation. Some have noted the similarities between this character and Data from Rodenberry's well-known Star Trek: The Next Generation series.

If you're going to mine old shows for ideas, I think it's better to go back and take failed project and make them better instead of taking good shows and making them worse. How about a live-action reboot of Rocket Robin Hood? Now *that's* got potential!

Add this to the reasons that Hollywood shies away from producing original scripts -- they're afraid of being sued for stealing someone else's ideas. Unless a script comes from an agent or a lawyer, it seems that studios are staying away from unsolicited scripts.

Looking at some of the ideas floating around for new science fiction TV shows, it's clear that the fear extends to the television production companies as well, which are often just extensions of the same movie studio anyway.

For example, there's talk that the dreadful movie Push will be adapted as a TV show. Meanwhile, over at Fox, they want to bring Torchwood to an American TV audience. The only thing is they don't want to screen the original, they want to make an Americanized version of the show. Would they dare make an American version of Doctor Who as a follow-up?

Speaking of sequels and prequels, SyFy begins airing Caprica this Friday. It looks promising, but I have my doubts that it will capture viewers' imaginations the way its precursor, Battlestar Galactica, did.

Finally, there's news that J.J. Abrams wants to set an end date for Fringe rather than have the show drag on past its best-before date. I've always thought that good shows should end at the top of their popularity rather than milk them forever. They must be taking a lesson from the X-Files, the show upon which Fringe is modelled. It was great during its early years, but by the end, the series had run out of gas.

I just caught up with TV Guide's list of the top 25 sexiest sci-fi babes of TV. You can watch part 1 below and the other five parts here, here, here, here and here.

I'm glad to see that the X-Files Gillian Anderson makes the list, but was surprised at their choice for number one. I won't tell you who it was, but it's a choice that isn't hard to agree with.

Not to be outdone, Maxim has it's own list of "geekdom's baddest babes." Sorry, it's just a gallery of photos so it's not quite as easy on the eyes as the TV guide clips.

One of the babes on TV Guide's list is Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff, who's certainly my number one choice of that show's troika of hotties. Not long ago, she spoke to SciFi Wire about her role on the show 24 and what she thinks was the ultimate fate of Starbuck on BSG.

Definitely not on the list was Marina Sirtis, the actress who played Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. While most people loathed the show's Wesley character, Troi wasn't far behind.

Also not on the list was Felicia Day, who appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. Too bad, because she's quite the science fiction geek. She's been talking on her blog recently about her love of SF books and has been soliciting suggestions from her fans about what to read next. They've given her some pretty good choices.

While all this eye candy is great, could the day of the sci-fi babe on TV be coming to an end? One observer thinks that the recent rebranding of Sci Fi to SyFy is part of a war on male science fiction and part of the feminization of the brand.

The last decade has seen some great genre television shows and as the odometer rolls over to 2010, plenty of people have been offering their lists of the best to hit the small screen in the past 10 years, but will the next decade be as kind?

Some argue that audiences have become too impatient for shows to develop long enough to get to the point where they can offer us those classic episodes that tend to only arrive years into their run. Blame it on the internet and our shortened attention spans.

To play it safe, more networks are placing their bets on remakes of existing television shows. Recent examples include Battlestar Galactica, V, The Prisoner, Bionic Women and plenty more. It's easier to market something with name recognition. If it works for the movie studios then it will certainly work for the television networks.

We've seen plenty of television shows be adapted as movies so don't be surprised when you see the reverse happen with movies becoming TV series. Sure it's happened before, think Planet of the Apes, but if the networks are looking for ideas, here are some recent films that would make good TV series.

We've all heard the rumblings about the struggles of this season's crop of science fiction shows  to attract consistent ratings which leads one to ask what does it take for a genre show to survive beyond its first year?

Many think that the growing number of people who time-shift, watch online or watch on DVD are beginning to erode the official audience numbers of new shows. You could probably argue that science-fiction shows are more susceptible to these behaviours because they attract the sort of people who are early adopters of technology.

If you look at the fate of many shows in the past decade, there have been many quality science fiction programs that were killed prematurely. Maybe it's for some of the reasons listed above, but chances are you could go back the past 40 years and find similar examples. Maybe networks just aren't patient enough with new shows.

If you're one of those online video watchers, you might be interested in Clicker, a website which aims to be the TV Guide for web series and movies. Their science fiction and fantasy listings are quite extensive.

So Harlan Ellison has publicly offered his services to write the script for the next Star Trek movie. I'm sure the folks at Paramount, who he just sued, are going to be glad to hand over the keys to the franchise. That was sarcasm, in case you didn't notice. Maybe Ellison would be better off contacting Disney who want to film a remake of The Black Hole.

More interesting Star Trek news is the story that they recently discovered an early pilot of the series that was believed to be lost. A German collector offered the film to Paramount and they plan to release it in a future Blu-ray release.

An incarnation of Star Trek that I always thought was unjustly vilified was Enterprise. It took some time to find its legs, but I thought by the time the last season rolled around, it was pretty good stuff. I even didn't mind the non-bombastic theme song. Scott Bakula, who played the captain in that series, recently spoke about his role and his affinity for science fiction.

With the successful reboots of Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, V and, to a lesser extent, The Prisoner, you can safely assume that you will see an entire slate of familiar sci-fi shows being remade for a new generation. Cinemetical ponders seven shows that would be decent contenders for an overhaul, while Buzzfeed offers a sillier six for your consideration.

One show that was mentioned that I felt should have been more successful was Earth 2. I'm only disappointed that the show never had a resolution for the marooned characters.

Even Ray Bradbury is eyeing a return to television. Remember his Bradbury Theater series? He's pitching the networks on the idea of a miniseries that would showcase his most famous stories.

For shows that will never even see the light of day, let alone be remade, Sci-Fi Wire recently offered some reviews of some of this year's failed science fiction pilots. It doesn't sound like we missed much.

The thing is, even with the threat of more remakes, there is already a glut of science fiction shows on TV and don't forget about the nascent industry of serial shows on the web. Here is a selection of the best that Canada has to offer.

Which sci-fi show do you think should be rebooted? Vote in our poll.

Gattaca is one of my favourite science fiction movies, so I found the rumour that it might be the basis of a new television series an interesting one.

You'll recall the movie dealt with the subject of eugenics and how future advances in genetic techology could lead to a society where the genetically superior rule over the rest of the population.

There's lots of room for conflict there so I could see it working as a show and the topic remains as relevant as ever.

What I didn't know, until I read the Wikipedia entry about the film, is that the title stems from the bases that make up DNA: guanine, adenine, thymine and cytosine. Clever!

In other new TV series news, David Tennant, the current Doctor Who, is moving on to film a pilot for a U.S. detective show where he will play the role of a Chicago laywer. I guess if British actor Hugh Laurie can fool most Americans to think he's one of them, then Tennant could do the same.

One TV pilot that never made it to the filming stage is a creation of Robert J. Sawyer. While he's since been successful at getting FlashForward turned into a TV show, before that he penned something called Earthfall. Rather than let it gather dust in a drawer, the script is being adapted for the stage and will be performed in Toronto later this month.

These days, pilots of long-ago series that never made it are showing up as DVDs for collectors. The latest release is a lost Irwin Allen classic called City Beneath the Sea.

The V remake premieres tomorrow. Critics have been given an advance look at it in order for them to write reviews that will drum up interest in the show.

I've read some of them and opinion is mixed. Many say that it is an exciting remake of the show and an improvement on the campy original. They seem to be taking things a bit more seriously, sort of the way the new Battlestar Galactica was a more realistic show than the 70s show that shared the same name. While those reviews were postive, others weren't so enthusiastic.

I never really watched the original so I won't have any expectations coming into this one, but by the time I actually get around to watching the pilot, it will probably already be cancelled. I'll get to it as soon as I finish watching the last season of BSG and watching last year's Doctor Who episodes that I never had time to view.