After a long and winding space-road full of apocalypse, revelation, and stuff blowing up real good, Friday night saw the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. Regardless of what you thought of BSG‘s last episode — you can peep my take here, as well as scores of reader comments — one thing I think we all can agree on is that with Galactica‘s passing we’ve crossed a threshold. Televised science fiction will never be the same. As they said when the soldiers were returning from Europe after the end of WWII, How you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they’ve seen Paree?
How are we supposed to take shows like Knight Rider and Heroes seriously now that we’ve lived through the idiosyncratic brilliance that was Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica? Where do we go from here?
The Sci Fi Channel (and, no, I’m not calling it Syfy…Prince will always be Prince, Sci Fi will always be Sci Fi) would have us fill the void with two Battlestar-y offerings: a two-hour BSG TV movie called The Plan (which’ll tell of the Cylon holocaust from the Cylon point of view) and Caprica (a prequel, starring Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz, about the creation of the first Cylons). And they’re hatching some new series, including Warehouse 13 — sort of Eureka meets X-Files at a party held in the cavernous storage facility at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark — the new Stargate Universe, and a just-announced show loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.
But where’s the next Battlestar Galactica going to come from? In a television landscape where Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse are withering on the vine, where the most watched shows feature celebrities dancing, or would-be celebrities singing, or gruff-looking men and women poking at dead bodies, who is going to step up and give us science fiction with the power to move us with its characters, provoke us with its writing, awe us with its spectacle? Will it be Caprica? ABC’s new take on V? Something that AMC hasn’t announced yet, but will sit alongside Mad Men and Breaking Bad in the annals of quality TV?
As the sun sets on Galactica, that old maxim rings true: It is darkest before the dawn. I just wanna know who’s gonna turn on the light.
Sociologically speaking, now seems like a great time for a V reboot. Let’s hope they don’t abandon, but rather expand on what made the 1st miniseries great – oppression, collusion, xenophobia.
Shame about T:SCC and Dollhouse. Lost in the weekend that was all about the BSG finale (and March Madness) were two fine episodes.
It’s a shame that when people talk about “quality sci-fi on TV” they hardly ever mention LOST. It’s always been a sci-fi show (though it’s more hardcore elements didn’t really come in till season 4ish) with some of the best written characters on TV.
And speaking of the new Stargate, do I need to know anything about the other two series if I want to watch the new one? I’ve never watched either SG1 of Atlantis, but I’m diggin’ the cast of the new show.
While the Sarah Connor Chronicles has had some of the best scripted TV in years and Dollhouse has been catching up, to be honest, there isn’t much else of their calibre on, well, besides Supernatural, which is almost there. Yes, there are other great shows, Chuck, Reaper (which is getting surprisingly better written and seems to be trying to move beyond kitsch), Heroes and Lost (which is still great, just requiring a bit more thought than the usual fair), but, when looking for the ‘holy crap’ factor’, there really are just SCC and D which stay accessible but still maintain that SciFi feel.
Why are you asking us? Shouldn’t we be asking you? I would suggest you do some reporting or something and let us know! LOL
It is amazing that you ask-seeing as the neilsons say only 1.7 faithful viewers of BSG wasn’t worth anybody’s time. NO emmy, just re-caps etc….
How about moving some shows from network to Sci-Fi, someone said LOST, Sarah Conner.
I am looking forward to SG.U and Caprica
You know, if Dollhouse had been on cable, there would be no danger of it getting cancelled at all this season, but Whedon was never right for Fox. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite shows. It might not be perfect, but this week’s episode definitely hinted at its potential. I would be devastated if it got cancelled before its time – even if that’s looking increasingly likely.
You do know that “withering on the vine” on FOX still means consistently out-performing BSG on Skiffy by millions of viewers, right? The issue isn’t quality – TSCC can stack up agaisnt BSG any day, and actually surpasses BSG in terms of how the female characters and questions of religion are handled – but the fact that the audience for hard Science Fiction on TV is small and shrinking.
Online, on DVR, on pay-per-download, however, the audience is huge. A massive 41 per cent of TSCC’s audience comes from DVR – nearly half of all TSCC viewers watch the program time-shifted (and that’s only the ones Nielsen can track – ie the 30 per cent of US household with DVRS. Imagine the numbers if people tracked VCR use!). The networks should take a cue from our Spider-Man lovin’ President – the sf audience isn’t who you think it is. We’re busy professionals who don’t have time to sit down at a specific time each week to watch TV. Find a way to monetize DVR use and sf will reign supreme.
I agree with you
I think it’s time Sci-fi moved away from monster-of-the week procedural stuff, sure they are cheaper to produce but there comes a point where writers end up recycling the same ideas over and over again – SG1/Atlantis/eureka *cough* – good drama + scifi can go together, if anything BSG showed us that. Less episodes, better thought out plots and 3D characters…just a suggestion.
Please people get behind T:SCC, all aspects of this show are getting better with every episode. Dollhouse too was much better this week.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Caprica…prequals have a good track record, dont they?
Is anyone else still on a downer about BSG…its monday lol what’s wrong with me?
I would sit and chat but my syfy is acting up.
aww, that’s not entirely fair. LOST still has your interest, doesn’t it? And frankly, good sci-fi is hard to pull off (i.e. all the shows you mentioned)
Dollhouse is getting good, so is Fringe…both are on Fox, which hates them, but they’re great!
Something that AMC hasn’t announced yet, but will sit alongside Mad Men and Breaking Bad in the annals of quality TV?
AMC’s developing a series called “Red Mars.” Who knows if it’ll be as great as “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad,” but it sounds promising.
Please do a bit of research before you write a blog post.
Also, “Dollhouse” just saw a creative uptick and is hardly “withering” in its ideas.
I guess only big ratings = successful science fiction. Yet, BSG hardly attracted more than 2 million viewers. You can’t compare the quality of a show to the quantity of ratings.
Dumb.
I think that the next step in Sci Fi is really going to be the reimagined V, which if done right could be used to say some really provocative things about today’s society. It will hopefully be a good replacement for BSG and Lost (when it ends next year).
Totally true about the ‘Monster of the Week’ format dying, Ed. People don’t casually watch tv anymore. They have the internet to kill time with; TV has to actively reign audiences in and keep them there consistently week on week to ensure that viewers actively seek the programme out. It’s bizarre that Fox hasn’t figured that out yet and got Whedon trapped into five standalone Dollhouse episodes before it started getting interesting. Why do they think Reality TV does so well? It’s not because it’s mindless, it’s because there is a weekly progression of storyline with a definitive conclusion at the end of the season. Even a show like Supernatural, which has been going for years, is becoming consciously more arc-focused every season, and the standalone episodes are making more of an effort to be distinct from one another so people still feel like they will get a worthwhile experience from tuning in each week. Unsurprisingly, ratings have benefitted this season from the change of focus.
Isn’t George Lucas producing a “Star Wars” show? Just sayin’.
Sarah Connor Chronicles is one of the worst shows on TV, sci-fi or otherwise. I am so not surprised that Entertainment Weekly, where Twilight rules the world, is the only place someone would call it better than BSG.