Gareth McLean has a decent-sized article in the Guardian, looking at the growth not only in science fiction and fantasy on TV but in the growing acceptance of them by a more mainstream audience outwith the SF community. Looking at the award-winning Battlestar Galactica for the most part but taking in shows like Lost and Doctor Who and then pondering the slew of new SF&F or SF-tinged shows coming up (see this previous post for some details on those shows) and asks “what went right” for SF? As Gareth points out fans have endured years of dog’s abuse from the mainstream for loving SF (while that same mainstream media would obsessively write about soap opera characters almost as if they were real, yet deride Trek fans for dressing up at a convention) and it was difficult to try and get any new SF show off the ground – now networks are only too happy to jump on the bandwagon.
(trailer poster for the third season of BSG on SciFi)
It’s a decent article and for once an article not relying on the old (and incorrect) notion that older SF couldn’t provide drama and commentary on the time it was set in through the mirror of speculative fiction – in fact he actually notes much SF&F has done just that over the years, establishing a line of evolution in the genre to modern, gritty shows like Battlestar Galactica and also commenting that the fact new technology has made effects so much cheaper has also allowed show to be produced more cost-effectively and to look more realistic. He even repeats an argument for TV and movie SF that many of us have made when people accuse SF literature of being a small, niche ghetto of books – how can it be a small niche market for a few geeks when they take up so much space in the bestseller charts/box office/TV ratings? Gareth finishes off his article by recommending five SF&F series, all of which are shows which can and have appealed to many viewers who would never consider themselves to be SF fans (including two by Joss Whedon) – Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-Files and Doctor Who. Isn’t it nice to see the genre being taken seriously for a change outside of fan circles (where we’ve always known how good it was).
Thu, Jun 28, 2007
Film, TV and radio