Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who are about all the Sci Fi I can handle right now.
Here’s a handy worksheet for planning your new series:
Time Period (check one)
Near future
Far future
Non Earth timeline
Universe Inhabitants (check all that apply)
Interstellar humans
Aliens
AI/cyborgs
clones
Main Characters (check up to six)
Space outlaw, male
Earthling ( From past, From future, from pre-interstellar Earth)
Friendly Robot
Sexy alien, female
Assassin
Brash military officer
Goofball tech guy
Alien warrior
By the book engineer
Hard nosed ace pilot, female
Spiritual alien
Self centered opportunist
Antagonists
Alien invader
Evil megacorporation
AI run amok
Corrupt authorities
Interstellar criminals
The action primarily takes place on
A large capital warship
A small customized freighter
A space station
[QUOTE=Monty]
I would love to see a movie made based on Christoper Priest’s The Inverted World; however, a SF TV series would also get my attention.
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Sounds fascinating, but I don’t know when I’d ever have time to find a copy and read it. Would you give me a synopsis in spoilers please?
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
I’d like to see a prime-time soap opera series based on Roger Zelazny’s Amber series. Call it “House of Amber.” The same basic setup as in the series, but more focus on the personalities and faction of the member of the House of Amber as they struggle for power and whatnot. It would be much like a story about a medieval power struggle, except of course that the Amber families’ ability to shape reality makes them basically godlings, and we could throw in conflict with member of the Courts of Chaos, who ain’t all that human, for good measure.
As in most soap operas, much of the expensive action – whole alien armies struggling with one another on behalf of this or that Amber faction – would be offscreen, but we could still have shots of this or that Amberite encamped on an alternate Earth where the majordomos are blue-skinned aliens.
And since the Amberites can and do sleep with humans and bear children, there could be plenty of half-godlings thrown into the mix with their various schemes and ambitions.
It could go on forever, and unlike your average soap opera, has enough room for maneuver built into the basic premise that it COULD go on forever in a very entertaining fashion.
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Wonderful if done well, but if it’s done at all I don’t want to begin to imagine your disappointment.
[QUOTE=nemminie]
Wonderful if done well, but if it’s done at all I don’t want to begin to imagine your disappointment.
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This is, imho, a major point that needs to be hammared home. Compared to written fiction, TV Sci-Fi is just not going to be “done well.”
Not that there haven’t been entertaining sci-fi TV shows, mind you. Look at the legions of Whovians, Trekkers and Trekkies, B5 and BSG fans, and the disproportionally vocal Whedon fans (including me).
But, TV just HAS to be differently done than written fiction. It’s a different market. It has to appeal to a wide range of tastes and intelligences to get on air at all, much less to stay there.
So, what am I saying? Not a single one of these ideas (and I like them, btw) have a chance of ever even being considered, definitely not made. A whelk has a better chance in a supernova.
But, it’s still a fun thread. Lot’s of ideas that I personally find interesting. Alas, us 20 people don’t make a very good TV market, I’m afraid.
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy]
This is, imho, a major point that needs to be hammared home. Compared to written fiction, TV Sci-Fi is just not going to be “done well.”
Not that there haven’t been entertaining sci-fi TV shows, mind you. Look at the legions of Whovians, Trekkers and Trekkies, B5 and BSG fans, and the disproportionally vocal Whedon fans (including me).
But, TV just HAS to be differently done than written fiction. It’s a different market. It has to appeal to a wide range of tastes and intelligences to get on air at all, much less to stay there.
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But, can’t a genuinely intelligent show appeal to persons of average (or lower) intelligence, if it’s well-written enough?
Not a premise, but I’d like to see a self-contained season (similar to 24 or telenovellas) that tell a single story based around a set of characters and a situation. Think of it as a Visual Novel.
You could either base it on some pre-existing material like the first three foundation books, or develop an entirely new concept.
I think television should pretty much move in this direction anyway (self-contained seasons) since the DVD market is supplanting the re-run market as the place to recoup your money.
Where can you go. Right now sci fi has a movie on. A guy smuggles a chupacabra aboard a cruise ship and things go wrong. What a surprise that would be.Followed by rotweiller,sasquatch,and bats.The barrel has been scraped.
[QUOTE=nemminie]
Wonderful if done well, but if it’s done at all I don’t want to begin to imagine your disappointment.
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Well, one reason I thought in terms of a space opea was that I didn’t want to ask the TV guys for more than they knew how to handle. Soap opera is a familiar genre for them. Besides, it could hardly be worse than the movie that was adapted from Zelazny’s “Damnation Alley.”
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
But, can’t a genuinely intelligent show appeal to persons of average (or lower) intelligence, if it’s well-written enough?
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Sure. Until the suits get hold of it and dumb it down, rework the ideals, or screw it out of profitable time slots. Or until the unwashed masses get tired of the phenom and move on to the next reality show.
I’m a huge Sci-Fi fan. I love it on TV (even on FOX), at the movies, in short story collections, magzines, novel series, and stand alone novels. But I recognise that there’s very little overlap in well written sci-fi and long lasting (read: profitable) TV.
It’ll never happen but I’d love to see the Honor Harrington series on TV. Start with On Basilisk Station as maybe a mini-series. The rest of the books can be done as seasons.
[QUOTE=Stuffy]
It’ll never happen but I’d love to see the Honor Harrington series on TV. Start with On Basilisk Station as maybe a mini-series. The rest of the books can be done as seasons.
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[QUOTE=gonzomax]
Where can you go. Right now sci fi has a movie on. A guy smuggles a chupacabra aboard a cruise ship and things go wrong. What a surprise that would be.Followed by rotweiller,sasquatch,and bats.The barrel has been scraped.
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A chupacabra on a boat? I suppose next you’ll be telling me they made a movie where someone brings snakes on a plane or some such nonsense.
I’d love to see a series in the B5/DS9 vein, with big space battles, collaboration/conflict between multiple species and well-written dialogue above all else.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
Some existinf SF books already lend themselves to the idea of a series:
1.) Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld books. Ignore the stupid SF channel TV-movie (which wasn’t very faithful, what with horses and all, and suffering from the same US-centeredness that ruins a lot of other ideas). They’ve already had two collections of Riverworld short stories by writers other than Farmer to prove the concept works. It gives you a great excuse to bring together famous figures from different periods in history and different cultures, and have them cope with limited technology to accomplish – any of a number of goals.
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It would have to be done on pay cable. No way it works without the nudity and the sex.
:eek: :smack: :mad: