[Reprobator]

well i agree with you.
Something disturb me about the sci-fi's channel speach about caprica :

Claiming that Caprica is good cause this have no spaceship to scare potential viewer is quite weird for a Sci-fi named channel. 

Sci-fi series do not necessary need spaceships but that kind of speech from a specialised tv channel is quite strange 

Maybe they would change their name to drama channel 

My 2 cents is that they should stop after galactica serie.

And begin to look for a whole new universe to create or to adapt  (as i said already somewhere a warhammer 40k based series, if done artisticly well could be something quite interesting to see )

I'll give a chance to caprica but i remain quite sceptic!

[Narvi]

well i agree with you.
Something disturb me about the sci-fi's channel speach about caprica :

Claiming that Caprica is good cause this have no spaceship to scare potential viewer is quite weird for a Sci-fi named channel. 

Sci-fi series do not necessary need spaceships but that kind of speech from a specialised tv channel is quite strange 

Maybe they would change their name to drama channel 

My 2 cents is that they should stop after galactica serie.

And begin to look for a whole new universe to create or to adapt  (as i said already somewhere a warhammer 40k based series, if done artisticly well could be something quite interesting to see )

I'll give a chance to caprica but i remain quite sceptic!

Sci-Fi has watered down quite considerably in recent years.

They air wrestling. What do you expect?

And a Warhammer series wouldn't work at all. Too GRIMDARK and expensive.

But with none of that pussy 'One last day with mommy' stuff in it.

Personally, I want spaceships, and big explosions, and toasters having their warranties invalidated with a 50 calibre machine gun, but maybe that's just me Maybe I'm just too old school

The show apparently has

Spoiler:

humanoid Cylons

in it, so don't bank on it.

[Flipside]

Thing is, I grew up with Buck Rogers, BSG TOS etc, there seems to be a vast deficit of shows where humans just go out and blow up Aliens in big whoop-de-doo of Pro-Human propaganda. and special effects.

Yes, it's clichéd, and doesn't appeal to the modern 'Dark' style of program creation that seems to be all the vogue these days, but, by God, it was fun

Just sometimes, I want to watch a program and not feel like putting a gun to my own head.

Edit: I suppose it's the 'Alpha 1' effect, there are times when it's good to say 'screw the retrospective philosophy and fire up the lasers.'

[On_Your_Six]

In all fairness, I think this show could be exceptionally brilliant if they come at it as a sort of tribute to Bladerunner, like basically a Bladerunner: The Series, except they don't have to live up to quite those standards.

I can see how the naysayers here may fear for the first season or so, but once the show really starts picking up, it could be incredible.

There are still sci-fi shows that do cater to the fun (Flash Gordon), but unfortunately as recent history has shown, the fun blow stuff up sci-fi shows just haven't been able to maintain (for whatever reason, and outside of Stargate:SG1, actually as much as I hate to say it, could be a result of SG1's long run).  Farscape, cancelled, Firefly, cancelled, etc.

We just have to wait it out a bit I think before people start appreciating those types of shows again, and it will happen.

[Flipside]

Problem is, a lot of producers can't resist kicking humanity in the teeth while they are at it, look at the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the original it had an absolutely brilliant premise:

(Spoilered because some people may not have seen the remake)

Spoiler:

That mankind was free to blow itself up if it wanted, but if it took violence outside to other planets then Robots would kick their arses

However in the new movie:

Spoiler:

Humanity has all it's technology removed, which makes no sense, because all it means is that all the humanitarian progress we made since the Industrial revolution would be lost, and the years of superstition and fear would have to be lived all over again, and they'd just have to come back 200 years later and do it all over again

So even something which was supposed to be a philosophical statement got bastardised to make it 'darker'.

Edit: Oddly enough, if psychology holds true, then the current recession will most likely breed a more 'feelgood' type of movie.

[On_Your_Six]

Well, at some point you have to seperate the viewer from the audience, and give their intelligence and taste some credit.

Doesn't matter that TDTESS was a "darker" movie, which for some reason producers and execs have associated with "better" it absolutely and completely sucked.  Which is where the necessity for (from the producers and exec's point of view really needs to come in) seperating the viewer from the audience comes through.

You can't just set a certain tone and expect that to carry a bad screenplay.  But if you take a good screenplay and add whatever tone you like to it (and really, a lot of films/ television programs could be spun either way), it can still be successful.

Eg.  Two of my favourite episodes of the new BSG are seemingly lighthearted and even downright funny.  Six Degrees of Seperation and Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.  While the tone is still as dark as the rest of the series, they were still completely enjoyable episodes as humourous and lighthearted.

In the end, it's up to the producers to give the viewer some credit and the viewer to give the program a chance.

[Flipside]

Well, I'm not writing off the series as a failure before I even watch it, that wouldn't be fair, but I do feel it would be nice to have a few more shows where you get the same kind of sensation you got from things like Babylon 5, even when most of the humans were the bad guys, you still got the feeling that 'good' was being done, not simply a different kind of evil

[On_Your_Six]

Well, see that's where I would go back and (grudgingly) have to kind of blame SG1 for ushering out those kind of quality sci-fi series.  10 years is a long run for that kind of show, and it dominated the market for the type of sci-fi programs you're looking for (hence the failure of other notables like Firefly and Farscape which ran along side it, and then also the Star Trek series' on top of that), it just ended up being an over-saturated market and a different take on the programming had to be introduced.

Like I said, the days of those shows aren't over, I just think it turned out (consciously or not) that we needed a break from that kind of programming.

It will be a great thing when such shows return and it will be a refreshing change, those are just the cycles of television programming.  Ahh fickle audiences. hehe

[Flipside]

Agreed, there probably was a saturation of that kind of thing, Star Trek & SG both lasted several seasons beyond the point where they should have called it a day, there's only so much milk in any cash-cow.

Ironically enough, it was probably a good thing that Legend of the Rangers was so dire in places, otherwise we'd all be sick of Babylon 5 spin-offs by now as well. The only reason Dr Who gets away with it is the ability to seamlessly change the Doctor by regenerating him.

[Narvi]

Thing is, I grew up with Buck Rogers, BSG TOS etc, there seems to be a vast deficit of shows where humans just go out and blow up Aliens in big whoop-de-doo of Pro-Human propaganda. and special effects.

Yes, it's clichéd, and doesn't appeal to the modern 'Dark' style of program creation that seems to be all the vogue these days, but, by God, it was fun

Just sometimes, I want to watch a program and not feel like putting a gun to my own head.

Edit: I suppose it's the 'Alpha 1' effect, there are times when it's good to say 'screw the retrospective philosophy and fire up the lasers.'

You should check out the new Clone Wars show if you want fun blowing up of stuff.

[karajorma]

I haven't seen the movie yet and

I prefer to let George Lucas disappoint me in the order he intended

[Narvi]

I haven't seen the movie yet and

I prefer to let George Lucas disappoint me in the order he intended

The movie is standalone. You don't have to watch it to enjoy the show, though it does introduce a few characters.

As a movie, it's not very good either. As a hour-long pilot episode, it's okay, but it's still inferior to the series proper.

[IceFire]

If you want stuff blowing up thats what Transformers and Transformers 2 are all about.  I really liked both BTW...they aren't dark, complex, or anything of the sort.  You have good guys, bad guys, and a few shades of grey but those shades don't really matter too much.

I think I may enjoy Caprica if it pans out well...but its good to have the sophisticated, dark, and complex along with your popcorn action flick.

[On_Your_Six]

Well IceFire, thing is, there currently is no Sci-Fi -series- running that Flip was talking about.  It would be nice to have a series to flip over to that's a lot more lighthearted and more about fun than what we currently have.  Pretty much all we have right now is Flash Gordon and that series is still trying to find a niche (in my opinion).

Movies are great and all, but you don't find yourself looking forward to a new episode the very next week, takes years for the next installation, usually.

[Narvi]

But Clone Wars is a series. And it's lots of fun.

In one episode a pair of astromech droids beat each other up. It's adorable.

[On_Your_Six]

hehe, I wasn't referring to your post, but since you bring that up.  Thing about Clone Wars is it can't decide what it wants to be (or more importantly who it wants to appeal to).  That's a fatal flaw in my eyes, as one episode it's completely appealing to kids, but then, in other episodes you have characters dispatching other characters in some surprisingly violent ways.  It's just too stretched out.

I'd be happy with the show if it was just completely the space battles, that's really the only reason I watch it (haven't been impressed with anything to do with lightsabers).

The good thing (bad maybe?) about the show is it's down for several hundred episodes, so perhaps it will mature into it's own and become something consistent and enjoyable.  Until then....  M'eh.

[StarSlayer]

But Clone Wars is a series. And it's lots of fun.

In one episode a pair of astromech droids beat each other up. It's adorable.

This statement is a microcosm for the awful pillaging of the franchise that has occurred.  I don't want the franchise dumb downed for 4 year olds so they can sell toys.  Quite frankly you would think what a bad reaction the ewoks got in an otherwise great RotJ might have clued Lucasfilm in.  Unfortunately they went full on kiddie in order to make money on the merch, which completely ruined the series.  That's not to say they needed to make it as dark as a Edgar Alan Poe story but the original trilogy was great in that it appealed to all ages without whoring itself to a particular one.

And while Axem probably wouldn't mind annexing Diaspora into FotG we are journeying precariously into another mod's turf

[Snagger]

Well, I think it looks very interesting.  Bill Adama seems to have lost a sister when young, and that sister appears from the trailer to have been replaced by a mechanical copy - a humanoid Cylon.  The fact that Dr Graystone's (or was it Grayson?) first name is Daniel seems more than a little coincidental, and the last voice in the teaser sounded a lot like Lucy Lawless to me.  Recent revalations in BSG 4.5 seem to have a lot of mirrors here...

[Narvi]

But Clone Wars is a series. And it's lots of fun.

In one episode a pair of astromech droids beat each other up. It's adorable.

This statement is a microcosm for the awful pillaging of the franchise that has occurred.  I don't want the franchise dumb downed for 4 year olds so they can sell toys.  Quite frankly you would think what a bad reaction the ewoks got in an otherwise great RotJ might have clued Lucasfilm in.  Unfortunately they went full on kiddie in order to make money on the merch, which completely ruined the series.  That's not to say they needed to make it as dark as a Edgar Alan Poe story but the original trilogy was great in that it appealed to all ages without whoring itself to a particular one.

And while Axem probably wouldn't mind annexing Diaspora into FotG we are journeying precariously into another mod's turf

The droids were trying to murder each other, you know. Just because it was adorable doesn't mean it wasn't to the death.