In the 1990s and 2000s there were a lot of shows like: Star Trek The next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Babylon Five, Farscape, Andromeda, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Enterprise, Stargate and it’s spin offs, etc. Yet for some reason in the 2010s those shows are not on anymore. What gives? Sure there is the occasional movie out. But other than that space opera Sci Fi on television has been dead for a while. What gives?
Setting a course for Cafe Society.
Hal Briston – MPSIMS Moderator
Then there was that Marine Aviators In Space series.
I think it’s because tastes change. Nowadays the buying demographic prefers zombies and vampires.
It’s all Sherlock now… Different names/genders,but Sherlock all the same.
They’re for nerds
I thought something in space should be HBO’s next big series to create. However they always seem to be concerned about costs and f/x for a space opera can get costly I’m sure.
Ghosts, vampires (not the salt kind), & wizards. The pendulum will swing back at some point, I would wager.
Isn’t Dr Who a space opera? It’s not a bunch of people hangin’ around on a space ship but there is a “space ship” and there are a lot of aliens. They do visit Earth a lot these days but still, they have alien pals.
But it could swing back to cowboys for all we know.
Urban fantasy seems to appeal to the same demographic, while needing smaller production budgets. Plus, the success of ST:TNG seemed to have spurned a lot of imitators, to the point where the genre got kind of saturated for a while.
I think the main issue is that Battlestar Gallactica was (despite some flaws) a really professional, strong show that was truly sci-fi. So either you need to better that - which Star Trek can’t, and there’s no other big vehicles than that - or go the opposite direction and do something fun/silly. But the shows which have tried silly (Lexx, Farscape, etc.) haven’t done terribly well, while costing a lot.
Comedy sci-fi basically isn’t much different from comedy. There’s no real advantage to putting Friends on a space ship; it just raises the production costs.
So we either need to wait for someone to come up with something that can compete with BG or until everyone’s forgotten it.
Sci fi in general has been bombing lately. Anytime a sci fi show makes it to one of the major networks it gets canceled.
I’ve been watching The 100 on CW with mild interest. It’s surprisingly good when you consider its target demograph is for teens to young adults.
Cowboys and Aliens
(Yes, l saw the movie)
Columbo - Robot Detective
Law & Order: L5
Finances. CGI costs a lot.* In addition, networks are moving away from dramatic shows: reality TV costs far less. With lower expenses, you can manage with lower ratings.
It’s hard to establish any dramatic series these days, hence franchises (NCIS, CSI, Shondra Rhimes, and Dick Wolf), familiar characters (Hannibal, Elementary), sitcoms, and even series from other networks (ABC’s Motive was produced for the CBC in Canada; it’s the first time since the 60s I can recall a major network running a show not produced in the US).
In addition, other than Farscape, the space operas of the 90s were syndicated or cable shows. It’s harder to syndicate new material these days, and the cable networks have even less money than the broadcast ones. SyFy occasionally tries, but they have settled on Earth-based shows and reality TV.
*Dr. Who is a major international hit, so it get some slack, plus most episodes are not special effects heavy: it’s all done with sets and existing locations except for a few scenes.
Can’t clarify the reasons for the apparent dearth of current shows more than the already-voiced speculation, but just wanted to note there is an upcoming SyFy series, The Expanse, based on the James S.A. Corey books beginning with Leviathan Wakes. That’s a damn good old-fashioned space opera, so it will be interesting to see how well it’s adapted for the screen and how well it does when aired.
Speaking of SyFy, I quite enjoyed the first season of Defiance. It’s not set on a space ship, but it’s basically about a mix of alien races trying to co-exist in a colony on a rugged, hostile planet. That the planet used to be Earth seems a bit irrelevant, given that it’s been terraformed and most of humanity wiped out.
Firefly.