# Where has all the competent sci-fi gone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495 "2003-04-27T15:48:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/41 "2003-04-28T22:29:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by refusal \* > People have mentioned budgets already, but it seems there’s also a greater expectation of quality in viewers: no more beaming down to a few polystyrene rocks on a tiny sound stage, no more plastic spacecraft on strings or people in rubber suits. Is sci-fi much more expensive to make now than it used to be? \*\* I think with the CGI stuff, you can get a lot more bang for your buck. But compare the cost of typical one hour episode of Stargate SG1 or Andromeda to a 30 min episode of Friends or Will & Grace. A sitcom has maybe three standard sets (Joey’s apt, Monica’s apt, Cetral Perk) a couple of other locations or sets (which can be filled with props from Bed Bath & Beyond instead of ILM), no CGI, no model spaceships, no costumes that couldn’t be purchased at J.Crew. And sitcoms are low risk. Problem too is that not all sci fi good. I generally like sci-fi but I have to say there were a lot of episodes of Farscape that made me say WTF:confused:. And for every decent show, there are a lot of shows that are simply bad (anyone remember Fox’s "Space Above & Beyond with it’s cast of extras from all the other Fox shows?). A lot of sci-fi also tends to be nerdocentric. As soon as a story is put in a sci-fi setting, it becomes about the technology, not the characters or story. Every episode of Star Trek seemed like an engineering puzzle to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/42 "2003-04-29T00:44:14Z")
Hate to be repetitive, but have you looked into anime? There were a lot of good SF series, especially in the late 70s through the mid 80s, and a good number of them are available on DVD now, at least in Region 1. It’s conceived, written, and drawn by geeks, so a predisposition to SF is only natural. If you can deal with occasional shrieky girls and laws-of-physics-defying-robots, there’s a surprising number of good ones around. I’ve been on a bit of an old school kick recently, and super-80s-ish _Robotech_ just got released last year. The first part of the series, _Macross,_ is surprisingly good, re-watched as an adult, and the last part (it was a shame to loose the kickass original title, _Genesis Climber Mospida_) is pretty good too. The middle show was so hacked it’s hard to tell, one way or the other. Someone’s currently putting out _Macross_, more expensive, but that might be worth it to avoid hearing Reba West try to sing . . . If you can’t, there are still a few, though finding them might be a little tougher. My current obsession is with another 80’s mechfest, _Armored Trooper VOTOMS_, a easy to respect but hard to love series that’s almost 100% plot. Should be required viewing for all the Babyon 5 fans who bitched about ‘filler’ every time there was a character episode . . . Most of them only last a season or two, which means they’re a bit more resistant to the ‘sitcom reset’ that a lot of TV shows get stuck in. A lot are formulaic, but not as much so as ‘real’ SF shows. I’d take _Vandread_ over _Enterprise_ any day. 🙂 ## Oh, and fans will try to push _Neo Genisis Evangilon_ on you. Resist, for now. Eva is meant to CAP OFF its genre, you’ll get more out of it with a few series under your belt. ‘Oh, our OLD future.’ ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/43 "2003-04-29T12:39:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Scupper_ > \*_Yeah, too bad Heinlein quit writing it LONG before he quit writing._ No argument from me. ---
**Author:** ![sghoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sghoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sghoul)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/44 "2003-04-29T15:08:27Z")
I think the problem is the neilson ratings. How many sci-fi lovers do you know that have a Nielson box? I know several hundred sci-fi geeks, and I am not in that large of a city. Not one of them is a Neilson home (this was done by sending emails to the ones I knew well, and asking them to ask people and so on). How can the TV networks get a real picture of what people watch, if so few people have a neilson box? ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/45 "2003-04-29T16:39:15Z")
_Firefly_? Thought we were talking about **competent** SF. Badly done space opera – that’s another thread. > [@](#): > > _originally hijacked by Aesiron_ > > I also have the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the ST:TNG Companion, a couple trivia books, Mr Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise, the TNG Technical Manual, a box full of toys, and about 95% of the Pocket Book novelizations (300 or more), so you don’t have to worry about me thinking of you as a geek. Got blueprints? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/46 "2003-04-29T17:03:28Z")
Where has all the competent sci-fi gone? It certainly isn’t on TV… where is the new Red Dwarf, Lexx, Farscape, Futurama, Doctor Who? Plenty of written Sci-fi coming out these days to fight against the abomination of science fantasy - apart from Alistair Reynolds, there is Iain Banks, Greg Egan, Ken Macleod, David Brin… or you could help us write it yourself… * * * Sci-fi worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/47 "2003-04-29T23:14:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **The problem with syndication is that you’re not likely to see all of the shows, or see them in order. When a show is on once a week, a fan is likely to see every episode. But when it’s on daily, there’s likely to be a couple of days when you never get to see the show.** This is a good point, referring to shows that try to tell long multi-episode stories instead of stand-alones. A few years ago, my wife and I discovered _Homicide: Life on the Street_ right at the end of its run, and we made an effort to go back and catch up with everything, in order, using the later 5-nights-a-week Court TV reruns. That was a _lot_ of work, making sure to set the VCR when we were out, scheduling extra time to watch taped shows prior to live eps, and so on. We missed more than a few. I’d hate to think of how hard it would be to catch up on something as arc-oriented as _Buffy_ or _Babylon 5_ by counting on seeing every episode every night. Re _Buffy_, my wife and I didn’t even bother to try; we just got tapes of previous seasons and blew through them. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495/48 "2003-04-30T02:40:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CaptMurdock \* > \*\*Got blueprints? 😃 \*\* First editions of the Enterprise blueprints _and_ the Technical Manual. _And_ the James Blish adaptations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-has-all-the-competent-sci-fi-gone/171495.md?page=2)