Search and Destroy the previous generation of sci-fi tv shows (Farscape, Lexx, Andromeda, StarGate SG1, Babylon 5, Space Precinct, various Star Trek shows and more)

Yeah, Take Me Out to the Holosuite is the rare case where that scourge of American TV series, the dreaded Baseball Episode, actually works, even for someone like me who knows practically nothing about the sport. And I like how the episode, which takes place in the middle of a heavy war arc, doesn't just provide a bit of relief to the viewers but clearly does that to the protagonists too.

As unmpressed as I've generally been by JMS's writing, I have huge respect for how he ran Babylon 5 based on stuff I've read. All TV showrunners should familiarize themselves with his methodology.

I watched a bit of Lexx in what was probably my last burst of idle late ;ate TV viewing many years ago. All descriptions upthread otm - stoner low budget panto etc. Pleasantly imaginative, a kind of 'fuck it why not' attitude that I enjoyed. Also have a soft spot for that international co-production vibe - it didn't look American or English, just sort of… wrong.

I'd miss lots of episodes or have them on in the background while reading, so I mostly remember often being very very confused about what was going on, but there was enough camp strangeness (+ ok, eva habermann) to keep me coming back.

It recently crossed my mind to find it and watch it, but time, time, time.

Yeah, I should also point out for reference that his comics writing is Terrible - even the stuff which shares tone with B5, he hits it on the latter and misses wildly on the former.

His Amazing Spider-Man run had some good stuff in it, but was often derailed by editorial decisions

Straczynski's Thor was pretty good, or at least it established an interesting new setting and did some changes to the characters that opened them up for fresh new stories. Though for all his reputation as a super long-term plotter, Straczynski left Thor with most of his plot threads remaining unresolved, and it was left to Kieron Gillen to tie them up. And AFAIK some of them were never really resolved, like wtf was Loki's masterplan that led to The Siege supposed to be?

ha, exactly!

bland design??? i would kill to work in an office with that soothing color scheme, that perfect soft lighting, those autumnal-colored touchscreen interfaces.

otm - I find it really calming to watch. There's some thread w/ a huge transcript of an IM conversation about TNG that calls its Enterprise a space volvo or similar, often comes back to me while watching.

I think I must be missing something, because I find the writing and acting in the BSG reboot so bad that I can't find the energy to sit through it. Any Star Trek is preferable I find. I like the plot and the ideas in the BSG well enough, they're just executed so poorly. The doctor character with a Cylon in his brain, who's supposed to be creepy and ambiguous, just comes across like Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen. The admiral who's supposed to be making tough, gritty decisions in the thick of it comes across like an irritated electronics shop manager.

& it is sort of odd how this stuff has died out - space taken by things that are more film or comic-related maybe, or more urban or near-future earth stuff? Like Dark Angel or something turned out to have stronger pop-DNA.

xp

What these 'previous generation' of sci fi shows had going for them is they weren't trying to be The Wire or The Sopranos, they were just happily ticking along within their accepted conventions and making a decent enough job of it. In most Star Treks, the Serious Issues under discussion take place in a comfortingly static world where everything sooner or later resolves itself - tacitly, they only ever claim to be like, 'interesting' and 'thought-provoking', rarely if ever claim to be 'essential'

xp to woof I have a vague theory that stuff like Star Trek DS9 and TNG occupy a kind of middle ground, and since their day, TV has gone off either in the direction of HBO super serious high quality drama fare, or in the direction of bargain basement cheap reality tat like that show about the Duck people in the swamp

Against your theory I place "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (from a few years ago) and "Continuum" (currently airing) -- neither of which is a space-ensemble show, but both of which definitely occupy that middle space where they are laboring (and succeeding!) to be something other than total shit, but which also don't aspire to be seen as "quality TV"

And as such, they're both better than e.g. the rebooted BSG; all three are about equally hokey, but BSG (at least the first six episodes, which are all I watched) was so painful in its insistence on its non-hokiness...

there's still a lot of random Scifi stuff like Helix or Continuum on TV, it's just more expired by the big pop hits of the past decade like Lost, Heroes, Walking Dead, etc. so you're not going to see any Andromedas right now

what do you mean by "expired?"

xp heh Continuum is on my backlog...

Sarah Connor Chronicles was so relentlessly miserable, I kind of had to love it, especially in the second season when things got even more timey-wimey and split-timeline-consequencey

There's also a ton of 1 or 2 season aborted attempts like Firefly, Dollhouse, Alphas, etc... but I guess we're sort of getting off-topic here

oops, i meant inspired

Against your theory I place "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (from a few years ago) and "Continuum" (currently airing) -- neither of which is a space-ensemble show, but both of which definitely occupy that middle space where they are laboring (and succeeding!) to be something other than total shit, but which also don't aspire to be seen as "quality TV"

Orphan Black might fit in here as well.

There's just a glut of mid-to-low level SF/Fantasy tv these days. most of it ignored by me (and probably by you) like The 100, Warehouse 13, The Tomorrow People, Forever.

I have enjoyed the 100. Basically takes bits from Lost and BSG (including some actors) and smashes them together is a way that is only occasionally annoying.

(ctrl-f'ing 'Fringe')

Also: Fringe!

Fringe was next-level tho

imo the dividing line between old school sf tv and new was the success of the X-Files

Is Continuum worth watching? I've had it on my Netflix list for a while now, but haven't yet tried it.

As much as I dug the mythology stuff initially, X-Files really should've been more of a TNG-style sci-fi procedural. Would've no doubt helped its long-term cultural cachet.

Oh, and The 100 also has elements of Earth 2.

His Amazing Spider-Man run had some good stuff in it, but was often derailed by editorial decisions

― Nhex, Monday, 15 December 2014

I think just as many, if not more of the infamous choices were his own too.

Fringe was next-level tho

― ancient texts, things that can't be pre-dated (President Keyes), Monday, 15 December 2014

Next level of what? I never watched it but the promo images gave me a bad vibe.

Heroes was astonishingly dull from the episodes I saw.

Is Continuum worth watching?

Complicated question! In some fundamental sense it's pretty badly made, and yet I find myself authentically looking forward to when a new season goes up. I'd try it.

xpost Fringe is probably the best new school sf show. Don't want to start a Fringe discussion here. There's a huge thread for that

The Monster of the Week episodes of the X-Files went a bit kooky and not so serious once the long-term conspiracy plot kicked off, which was a shame, because the one about the man who can fit into small spaces and lives in a nest of bile, and the one about the tapeworm man, were absolutely terrifying and kept me awake for two nights when I watched them recently

Against your theory I place "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (from a few years ago) and "Continuum" (currently airing) -- neither of which is a space-ensemble show, but both of which definitely occupy that middle space where they are laboring (and succeeding!) to be something other than total shit, but which also don't aspire to be seen as "quality TV"

Yeah, I buy this. My picture of what's going on in American tv sci-fi isn't so clear as I'm watching from the UK

xp you're probably right RAG
Heroes had a great first season, then immediately fell down the shitter
I tried the first half season of Fringe when it was on the air, couldn't stick with it, but from most accounts it picked up in quality huge within a couple of years
Never probably would've watched X-Files without the conspiracy angle, that's what hooked me in, but I was a strictly casual on-off viewer anyway

I felt the same way about X-Files back in the day. Hindsight and nine seasons of Chris Carter's unfocused ambling helped me appreciate the monster of the week episodes as the real meat of the show.

Re: acting in Next Generation. In the most recent episodes I saw, I remember a particularly absurd scene of Ryker fighting a superpowered old man. It looked as dumb as Hasselhoff wrestling an alligator in Baywatch.

Also some episodes really bad scripting with Data trying to understand behaviour of other people, that belonged in really bad 50s b-movies and post-code 50s comic book bland SF. But Data was generally the thing I liked best about the show.

I never mind a bit of off-topic digressions. Throw in lesser known new stuff and similar geek fantasy like Buffy/Angel, Xena/Hercules, Mortal Kombat, that old Neil Gaiman show and anything else. As long as we aren't overwhelmed with superhero talk and bitching about celebrities.

Think one difference maybe that newer shows are ever more aware of something called a 'fan'

So bummed about the Sorbs being a xtian right winger, he seemed like such a cool dude

TNG had a ton of cheesiness and hammy acting, but I'd argue it was in the spirit of TOS and more forgivable because of it; also there were many truly great standalone episodes ("The Inner Light") and probably my favorite series finale ever

xp please, like there weren't diehard Trekkies through the 70s and 80s. some of them even wrote for TNG/DS9!

i think TNG may have had an inkling of the existence of fans

Yeah I mean 'newer' in a long term sense

But like, put the first Star Trek, TNG, Buffy and Fringe in a line and with each new show chronologically the Fan gets ever more essential to 'a fantasy or sci fi show', doesn't it?

When I was about maybe 8-12, some of the monsters in X-Files terrified me for years and I'd be surprised if they weren't the best part of the show. The Tapeworm monster, the stretchy guy, the vampires, the bat creature, the inbred hillbillies, the black guy who could bend into tiny spaces and stared wide eyed. The part when that guy vomited black goo.

Well, yeah. Mostly because of the Internet. I think the x-files named a season two character after a fan who posted on the listserv about the show

Xpost

xp Yeah, I see your point - like the technology itself, people moving from in-person conventions and hand-typed letters to BBSs/Usenet in the 90s and then to full-blown internet pop culture media opus sites like Television Without Pity, AVClub, etc. accelerated this stuff. I honestly don't think the writers in the room, even today, really are affected by all that much about the fanwanking as the show as being produced all that much, though. Nor do TV executives who greenlight these shows. But that's hard to prove/disprove either way, I suppose...

But like, put the first Star Trek, TNG, Buffy and Fringe in a line and with each new show chronologically the Fan gets ever more essential to 'a fantasy or sci fi show', doesn't it?

― cardamon, Monday, 15 December 2014

I wouldn't have thought so. Obviously getting viewer feedback is easier now. But a lot of the previous generation shows were aimed more directly at science fiction fans, probably needed the fan support more and probably alienated general audiences. So I thought the fan community element would be tighter.
Buffy, Heroes, Lost, Game Of Thrones are less embarrassing for civilians to admit to watching.

Hmm

You know what was a corny '90s Sci-Fi (erm, twist!) gem? The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

xp I guess when I say 'fan', I'm not so much thinking about the people who have blogs full of pictures of Captain Kirk if he was a leopard, or who go to conventions. Maybe fan isn't the term I'm looking for.

To paraphrase it: the first Star Trek series (1960s iirc) seems like it was aimed at, assumed, a broad audience, in terms of age and occupation and interest. You might watch it if you were a kid and wanted fantastic adventures, or maybe you're an adult who generally watches cop shows or detective stuff or westerns, you've got Kirk there who would have existed happily in any of those two. Anyone who wants a traditional, macho American hero basically. Also the space race was a big deal in American culture at that time.

By the time TNG comes around (90s again iirc), the demographics have hardened up, and aside from yr people who go to conventions, there now exists a general demographic called 'People who specifically want to watch sci fi tv shows'.

You can prob say the same about Dr Who, if you compare the 60s era to the late 80s era?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, tbh

I get what you mean. That's why I saw the blow up of the X files ratings in season four and five as the crucial moment when networks realized they could target sf to non-niche audiences if they cast sexy actors and made things dark and serious, which ended up leading to Lost

> I suppose I'm going to be the only stan for this show:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_Above_and_Beyond

i remember it fondly but i bought the dvds and it was slightly disappointing on a rewatch. i'll try again.

will certainly watch Firefly again (not sure that's last generation enough for this thread)

and space 1999 holds up well, the first season certainly. forcesTV showed it recently, along with UFO (is currently showing dukes of hazzard and V the series)

I really liked Space Above and Beyond at the time, no idea how it holds up. I remember watching it on a double-bill with the similarly short-lived Nowhere Man. There was some initial hype as the showrunners were two of the best X-Files writers, but that must have died down quickly. It's a shame Kristen Cloke only ever seems to act in things her husband is directly involved in....

LOL@ Space Precinct, dear god

There's an episode of TNG where an admiral takes over the ship and tells Deanna to fix her uniform to the standard.

https://i2.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/troiuniform.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1

(+ ok, eva habermann)
Wasn't there someone else? Oh, had to look it up, Xenia Seeberg.

lol milo

xp the episode where Dick Jones from Robocop take over the enterprise, classic!

Lexx was a really weird show.

https://images.justwatch.com/backdrop/8612800/s1440/lexx

Right. Who was that guy from Renaissance Italy?

Amazing that some of this goes back into the early 80s
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Whump
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Woobie

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whump

“The amount of whump in that movie was delicious!“

“I heard there was a lot of whump in this show.”

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Get_%27em
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Hurt/Comfort

This one is amazing
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Manpain

I didn't know that 'Poochinski', as referenced in the Wormhole X-Treme episode of Stargate SG-1, was apparently a real pilot for a show that inexplicably never got made.

https://youtu.be/LytgLZDzzAY

Not as funny as I would have hoped but I'm still glad it exists somehow.

Yeah sorry, it wasn't supposed to be a recommendation as such ;-)