And I’m wondering if that’s a good or bad thing…
Although I liked it better when it started and showed all the old series and movies Although they’ve ditched the original movie every week for slightly interesting series these days
whats your likes dislikes about the channel?
It’s been better than many will give it credit for. We’ve had:
Farscape
Battlestar Galactica
First Wave - I liked this one(Opal did, too! Hi, Opal!)
Stargate and its spinoffs(did not originate on Scifi, but still)
Warehouse 13
The Expanse
Eureka
12 Monkeys
MST3K for awhile
They’ve definitely wandered. Bonnie Hammer was bad for them, but I think they have been worth it.
Also The Magicians
and I like the Canadian-original shows, like Dark Matter and Killjoys.
I mostly quit watching years ago, when they quit having sci-fi on all the time. I mean, I still watched some, but not like I did back when they had sci-fi reruns all day. Haven’t even checked it out since I quit watching Haven after a very poor season 3.
I did watch Farscape, First Wave, Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Haven, but actually didn’t stick with any of those series until the end. Did later watch First Wave until the end of the series.
I liked the movie Stargate. I know the show is much more popular, but I could just never get interested in SG-1 (I tried twice to watch the series), and never tried the spinoffs.
I think what led to the channels change the "infomercial"for the original blair witch movie which led to everyone thinking the actors were really missing
and led the shift from the ufo and space themed shows to supernatural type of stuff like the medium shows and ghosts hunters …
They did a great job, I thought, with their adaptation of Dune and Children of Dune. I wasn’t impressed by either attempt to do Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld – they changed it, both times, and not for the better. Some of their series and adaptations were good, (The Cold Equations was alright), but most have been awful (the Hidden sequels). Their foray into deliberately cheesy monster flicks is sometimes interesting, but I can live without it.
I really liked their revival of MST3K. And, in the old days, they would rerun old and largely forgotten science fiction series in the wee hours. I’d like to see that again, along with broadcasts of similarly forgotten science fiction movies, of which there are many.
Development I definitely do NOT like – Wrestling.
Who the hell ever told them there was significant overlap between their core SF audience and Wrestling Fans? They deserve to be Drawn and Quartered.
The channel is imperfect and gets beat up a lot but there is more good than bad on it.
They had some great stuff but part of me never forgives them for Crossing Over.
They lost the plot when they deliberately set out to make “so bad, it’s good” schlock.
Ooooh, so true. I forgot about that. It has been a very mixed bag, from the very worst to the very best. Still, I would take Crossing Over if it gets us Farscape and Battlestar.
I don’t know about more good than bad, but certainly a lot more good than people give credit for.
Yeah, I remember when their movies were supposed to be good. Do they do that anymore? They made Dune and Children of Dune, both of which I like. They made a few real attempts at quality TV movies back in the day as well.
Is it all intentionally crappy movies now?
also I’m forgetting that for the first few years Roger corman’s production team had a lot to do with their tv shows and movies … and the wrestling thing was due to usa not having a time slot for smackdown so was just a place holder
But yes you you can watch wwe as science fiction if you view it a certain way …
I remember when it launched and Star Wars was the first thing they showed. It sure has come a long way from what they first aired.
But many of the early channels have changed quite a lot from their origin. I remember when Lifetime was Lifetime Medical, they showed surgeries.
Remember FTL Newsfeed? 
I loved that. There are clips on YouTube now.
Is Sharknado a plus or a minus?
The channel is highly imperfect, and gets beat up a lot for a reason, and there is very little good, and a lot bad on it.
I know I’m in the minority on this, but much of the “science fiction” that is on television (and in the movies) is utter dreck. Unfortunately, people who are into science fiction really, really love the stuff, so much so that they will take almost anything that is remotely science-fictiony and gobble it up (the epitome of this being the first Battlestar Galactica in 1978 :smack:). I should note that the same is true of sci-fi writing, which is why the largest specialized section of fiction in a bookstore is always the sci-fi/fantasy section, which is filled with 90% junk. Of course, one could go browse the romance novels, 100% of which are junk. 
Stargate on television is marginally ok. The rebooted Battlestar Galactica was excellent to begin with, then tended to get less interesting as the series moved forward (which is interesting because that’s counter to the usual science fiction series trend). Farscape is decent enough. Most of the rest is not that good, really, and a lot of the rest is quite bad, in my opinion.
What the Sci-Fi Channel originally offered was the chance to go to one specific place and see science fiction programming. I suppose that was a good thing at the time. But the simple fact is that there isn’t enough of that to keep a channel full 24/7/365, even without considering issues like ratings. That’s why the channel no longer does that.