Live Long and Prosper

So today I am not going to write about any games.

I have been trying to cut down playing games a bit for the past week or so because I think Mass Effect 3 had a a MASSIVE EFFECT on my sleep which led me to sleepwalking (I think I was running away from the husks). I am not going to go too much into it but lets just say Vivid imagination + gaming until 2am + side of the bed + head = a lot of blood, dozen stitches and a week off from work.

Instead today I am going to rant a bit about SCI-FI series… and the lack of.

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Star Trek (Mainly Voyager and Deep Space Nine for me personally), V, Farscape, Babylon 5 and Stargate SG-1 were the best TV series I was lucky to grow up with, they really created the Sci-fi geek out of me that I am today.

In fact I would even throw X-files to the group… I think Fox Mulder probably was my first TV crush.

Then in the beginning of this millennium something happened and all the sci-fi series either turned into total garbage or got canceled before they even reached any kind of “cult” status.

I was forced to watch stuff like Roswell and Dark Angel. Not saying that either of the series were particularly bad but I can’t put them even in the same sentence as the ones mentioned above. These were bubblegum sci-fi which mothers and fathers sit down to watch with their kids… not the awesome geeky sci-fi that makes grown up men dress up in tight space suits and go meet fellow enthusiasts.

I never fell as low as Angel and Smallville though, I watched them a few episodes and decided they were not worth the time of the day (for me at least).

  

I was so happy when I found out that there was going to be a new Star Trek series (Enterprise). I followed it regardless it being a bit tedious at times and was really gutted when it was cancelled after the 4^th season.

I was also over the moon when I found out that they were making a new series for V. It was a big surprise that ABC decided to cancel it as it was doing pretty well. It was left in such a cliffhanger as well that I was almost tempted to join the protests people had against ABC for canceling it. There are still several websites and petitions by the fans to revive this TV series so I am hoping one day we will see what actually happened to humankind (https://www.facebook.com/ProjectAliceV and http://geek-news.mtv.com/?p=22544).

Does Lost make it to the Sci-fi category?

I have been thinking about this as to me Sci-fi always have to be about space and great adventures to the galaxies far far away, but some people claim that LOST definitely is sci-fi… and I guess with all the gizmos, time travelling and the such, it kind of goes to that genre. I quite enjoyed Lost, so much that I have watched the series twice. The 1^st time around I found the ending extremely boring and felt the series was a bit of a flop but when I recently watched it again with my boyfriend, James (who had never seen it before!!) I actually paid attention to different things (as I already knew what was happening sort of) and found it quite brilliant.

I do hope they bring something as mind bending to the TV again sometime soon as Lost was.

Now, few days ago we started to watch Stargate: Universe (Which in our household first was Stargate: University - don’t ask me how I got that - and then in my sleepy state one morning I asked James if he wanted to watch the Star Trek: University....[srsly wtf, I MUST have hit my head]).  I quite liked the pilot and I was sold from the word go as it had one of my favorite actors in it (Robert Carlyle). Regardless the fact he plays a bit of a psycho scientist in it, I really liked his character which caused some heated debates in our household.

Now 10 episodes later I unfortunately feel the series has nothing new to offer to the sci-fi world.

The main storyline is like Star Trek Voyager (stuck on the other side of the galaxy trying to get home) and the character profiling is like Battlestar Galactica (grazy science dude, strong leader, rebelling civilians who come across like morons, a love triangle and a few political issues to deal with).

The episodes are individuals (i.e. there is no real storyline to follow, except that they are trying to get back to earth) and usually follow the same pattern: There is a problem, someone gets hurt while trying to fix it, everything is fine in the end.

I am really desperately hoping they would come across some enemy that would follow them throughout the whole series (like Borg in Star Trek, Cylons in Galagtica and Goa’uld in SG-1) but so far the biggest thread they have had was some disease they got from the water they brought to the ship from some alien planet… LIKE SERIOUSLY!?

Well, I went to Wikipedia today and found out that this series as well only lived as far as the end of 2^nd season… So I might as well stop watching now because I bet nothing that interesting is going to happen.

It is a sad world we live in…

Now my question is, am I missing something big that I should be aware of?

I feel that all the Sci-fi series I start to watch let me down in one way or another.

The only slightly positive sci-fi experience I have had in the past year was Battlestar Galactica, which was great for the 1^st and 2^nd season (So good I actually watched them in one week), but even that got worse and worse the further it went and when I finally reaced the final episode I couldn't wait it to be over.

I feel that there is nothing worth watching in TV anymore (unless it’s comedy, as I quite like stuff like Big Bang Theory and surprisingly the New Girl – don’t judge me until you watch a few episodes, I would go as far as compare It to Friends!).

Like… I can’t believe there are boring soaps, crap like Jeremy Kyle shows, “scripted” reality shows like Made in Chelsea, a dozen different vampire series, another dozen different crime investigation shows that gets recycled in the screens year after year but not a single good sci-fi show that is worth to actually watch.

If you go to TV.com and check out the Most popular Science Fiction shows on TV the number 1 is WALKING DEAD!!!! Which is about Zombies… 2^nd is Doctor Who, which quite frankly deserves its place even if it is just for the long history it has (I never got into it, maybe because I only heard of Doctor Who when I moved to UK), 3^rd is some series called Grimm which is a supernatural crime drama (really now?!) and 4^th is FRIGGIN DRAGONBALL Z!

Like what the hell world?!

I wish I could write to the mighty TV God a complaint letter for neglecting this massive group of tights wearing sci-fi fans as it really is time we got something good to our TV screens!!