At 22:00 17-2-01 -0800, Christopher Gwyn wrote:
>i can find lots of faults with a lot of what is on television, and
>in particular with a lot of what is marketed as 'science fiction'
Absolutely. I don't even bother to watch most of what is labeled "science
fiction" anymore. We get "SF" movies almost daily on Dutch commercial
television, but >99% are just action movies where the story (if any) is set
a few decades from now. Throw in some vehicles and gadgets that look
high-tech, and you got another "SF" movie...
Random example: "Rambo" would qualify as "Action". Now set the same story
not in current time but 20 years from now, put shiny metal plating on the
cars and weapons (the "high-tech" look), and the networks here will call it
"Science Fiction".
>(this is television after
>all, and aimed at a mass market. their primary target audience rarely
>reads a science fiction book. science fiction fans are a secondary
>audience for them.)
You still are ranked that high with the networks? Around here, SF fans are
the stepchildren of television audience. Networks don't have a problem with
cutting entire scenes from an episode to make room for commercials, and
it's not uncommon for them to air the first few seasons and then NOT air
the final season. And when they suddenly want to air sports programs, guess
which shows will be cancelled first? Exactly... :(
A few examples of how SF series are tossed around:
Babylon 5 (aired by RTL5): first season, then a year later a rerun of the
second half of first season, followed by season 2. A year later, rerun of
second half of 2nd season, followed by 3rd season. A year later, rerun of
second half of 3rd season, followed by 4th season. Another year later,
hey!, another rerun of second half of 3rd season, followed by 4th season.
That was over a year ago; still waiting for 5th season...
DS9: gets tossed around between RTL5 and Veronica (both stations are owned
by Luxemburg-based RTL). One year it may be aired by RTL5, an other year by
Veronica. RTL5 was airing relatively new episodes, but suddenly removed DS9
from their programming a few weeks ago. Veronica now airs DS9, but started
all over with 1st season.
Last year, one of the networks aired the first few seasons of "Earth: Final
Conflict", then suddenly stopped; no explanation of why, or if/when it will
be resumed.
Public television does exactly the same: air the first few seasons of a
series, then stop without explanation, or replace a scheduled episode with
something completely different (soccer, tennis and the likes).
That is not limited to SF series, BTW. I'm still trying to figure out how
to explain to my kid a year from now why soccer is so important that Sesame
Street had to be cancelled for it...
Jeroen
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