Sci fi and love

[Wafflewaffle]

I love science fiction series. Ever since I was a little boy I remember binge watching Star Trek New Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine and the original. When I was a teenager Stargate SG1 and Atlantis were my jam. Later I got hook on Firefly (which is kinda sad if you know the about the shows story).

Recently I started watching Dark Matter and it hitted me. All this shows own their brillance to constrains of time and budget. The very fact that they are able to exist at all is a testemony of the showrunner's and writter's ability. There are no fancy camera shots, CG is kept to a minimal, most stories take place in the same sets and even then they manage to remain entretaining and charming in a way very few shows can. I believe this is what brings about "heart" i love so much in this shows.

Just wanted to share my appreciation for this stuff. Maybe you guys have some suggestion for shows i may have missed.

[FlowerChild]

I really liked Farscape, and Stargate: Universe was my favorite of that franchise. The Battlestar Galactica reboot was awesome, up until the ending. If you can somehow start it without letting yourself ever end it, I suspect that would be the ideal way to watch it ;)

I'm currently "meh" on Dark Matter. I'm watching it, but I'm not exactly super enthusiastic about it at present. Makes me wish someone like HBO or Showtime would do an "adult" scifi series in the style of Game of Throne or Black Sails, as I'm getting a little sick of the campiness that seems to have become a part of every single scifi series that comes out now.

BTW, just as a little tip: if you punch a series you really like into IMDB I find the "people who like this, also like" section often clues you into series you might have missed, and the user lists that include that series might also direct you somewhere interesting. I often do that myself when I'm looking for something to watch.

EDIT: And oh yeah, "The Expanse", which just started this last year is pretty good as well. It has me grinding my teeth at times given some of the liberties it takes with orbital mechanics, and given it seems to try to kinda pass itself off as hard sci-fi, but otherwise I've found it entertaining.

[Wafflewaffle]

Dark matter has an interesting premise but im sure it will get a tiring if they milk it too far. So far im enjoying the it.

Never got into Galatica, it never really grabbed me for some reason. I still need to catch Stargate: U and Star Trek is poised to comeback next year so im super hyped! Maybe SGU could be a good warm up.

You think HBO could pull off a compeling high budget sci fi? I believe Netflix could do it, they like niche stuff (where were you when Firefly got canned Netflix? Where were you when we needed you the most?).

[FlowerChild]

You think HBO could pull off a compeling high budget sci fi? I believe Netflix could do it, they like niche stuff (where were you when Firefly got canned Netflix? Where were you when we needed you the most?).

Stargate Universe was pretty "adult" and serious. No nudity or anything like that, but was much less campy and much darker than the rest of the franchise, which is what I really liked about it. Was very disappointed when it was cancelled. I was never a huge fan of Firefly as that's about as campy as it gets :)

Not sure why I loved Farscape so much, as that was pretty campy as well. Guess there was something so over the top about it that it appealed to my sense of humor.

I'd actually be more confident in HBO's ability to do good scifi than Netfilx, given Game of Thrones. IMO, Netflix blew it with Daredevil (bloody suit at the end of the 1st season), which is the closet I've seen them come to tackling fantasy or scifi. I like some of their series a lot (like Orange Is The New Black), but am not confident in them doing anything heavily reliant on special effects.

[Taleric]

There is always Star Trek Discovery... Not getting my hopes up lol.

I have not had much TV time since STNG and DS9. The BSG reboot that I saw was amazing, hearing FC I'm glad I don't remember the end parts.

Sci Fi is just tough to hit a broad enough market to survive. Stuff like STNG was so well done and at the right time history wise to have large appeal. I can see why few content providers take a chance.

[Gilberreke]

I'm not sure what my favorite scifi series is. The BSG reboot probably? The whole of human civilization stuck on a few rickety boats is a great setting for doing mostly soap opera elements. That's what made that show I feel, excellent pacing. Doctor Who had a few really good seasons if that counts as scifi? Stargate was a bit too campy for me, though I haven't seen Atlantis or Universe yet.

Hey, maybe you guys can help me out. I've been looking for quite some years now for a series. All I remember is that I watched an episode once where they found an alien ship. The ship's controls where some sort of honey comb like structure that you had to put your hands in. That's about all I remember?

Edit: I gave it another go and I think I found the show, apparently it's called "Space: Above and Beyond". The name doesn't even ring a bell. I guess I have to watch it now? :)

[mc_isaac]

If you have Netflix, give Stranger Things a try.
I enjoyed it.

[Inatun]

If you have Netflix, give Stranger Things a try.
I enjoyed it.

Ditto. My mom and I started watching it the day it came out and I can't recommend it highly enough.

We actually limited ourselves to one episode a day which, personally, I enjoyed more than the idea of binge watching it. I can't wait for season two.

[Wafflewaffle]

Is it a sci fi? I somehow missed pretty much any information about Stranger Things so far. The only thing i knew about its 80s inspired.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, Stranger Things was pretty cool although I found some of it rather awkward. Like, they try extremely hard to recreate the style of an 80's film, but in the process do stuff like hypersexualize teenagers in a way that I found rather icky.

<snipped old man rant about scantily clad teenagers>

Nevemind, I looked it up and the actress in question was 18 at the time of the filming. Everybody just looks increasingly young as you get older ;)

[Wafflewaffle]

<snipped old man rant about scantily clad teenagers>

Damn kids and their hippop and their pokemen go! Go wear some real clothes!

[Dralnalak]

Edit: I gave it another go and I think I found the show, apparently it's called "Space: Above and Beyond". The name doesn't even ring a bell. I guess I have to watch it now? :)

It only had a single season and kind of left things hanging. I own it on DVD and generally enjoyed it, so I'd say it's worth watching if you can find it. The whole "rookies get stuck in planes and turn out to be the best in the fleet" scifi trope was perhaps a bit overdone.

I also have the same problem with it that I did with "Battlestar Galactica"; why are the fighter pilots also the ground-based personnel for missions? I know it's the same as sending the Enterprise bridge crew on all the away missions, it's about keeping the main characters involved, but when shows are more military styled it always strikes an odd chord with me when the Air Force and the Marines are the same people.


Campy in places or not, my favorite scifi show still has to be "Babylon 5". The storylines were fantastic.


If you have Netflix, I'll agree with posters above who recommend "Stranger Things". I just finished it today and really enjoyed it.

[DaveYanakov]

edit: I can't believe I forgot The Expanse! Rock hard science fiction with Blade Runner aesthetics set in a future on the brink of intra-system war, with the common rabble of the belters caught between the elites of old Earth and Mars.

If you've not looked at Killjoys yet, it may be the closest we'll ever get to another show in the Firefly 'verse. It's already deep into the second season and there's a lot to love, even with occasional Third Law handwaving.

...I also have the same problem with it that I did with "Battlestar Galactica"; why are the fighter pilots also the ground-based personnel for missions? I know it's the same as sending the Enterprise bridge crew on all the away missions, it's about keeping the main characters involved, but when shows are more military styled it always strikes an odd chord with me when the Air Force and the Marines are the same people.

In this case, the pilots were part of a Marine squadron. Yes there should have been infantry specialists doing most of the work, but they were part of the 'rifleman first' tradition.

Gonna have to second Babylon 5 though. It did the same sort of exploration of war themes as Deep Space 9 did around the same time, but the two shows did it in very different ways. DS9 was an excellent Star Trek, but I think B5 might be objectively better as a work of science fiction.

[FlowerChild]

Rock hard science fiction with Blade Runner aesthetics set in a future on the brink of intra-system war, with the common rabble of the belters caught between the elites of old Earth and Mars.

As mentioned above, I'd have to debate you on the "rock hard science fiction" point, as the liberties they take with orbital mechanics have me grinding my teeth at least a couple of times per episode ;)

[DaveYanakov]

Noted. I would like to amend my statement to 'science as hard as the realities of televised storytelling will allow'

[FlowerChild]

Noted. I would like to amend my statement to 'science as hard as the realities of televised storytelling will allow'

Yeah, I guess. I think the thing that bothers me is that distance seems to be used as a substitute for relative velocity whenever they're talking about time to destination, or limited fuel availability, or that kind of thing. I find in a lot of the dialogue they treat spacecraft as if they're cars traveling in a straight line from A to B.

I guess an argument could be made that it's to simplify things for the mass market, but it feels more like ignorance of the subject matter on the part of the writers to me. Anyways, I guess it just bothers me because it is very close to being hard scifi but just misses the mark slightly in the details.

[Dralnalak]

I guess an argument could be made that it's to simplify things for the mass market, but it feels more like ignorance of the subject matter on the part of the writers to me. Anyways, I guess it just bothers me because it is very close to being hard scifi but just misses the mark slightly in the details.

I guess we need to convince the Kerbal people to make a movie so that the general American audiences can start to really understand science. ;)

Truth be told, the way they were treating ship movement in that show completely dragged me out of it when I tried watching. I could see that there were interesting story elements, but the science made my head hurt. I may have to give it another try, just with aspirin handy.

[FlowerChild]

I guess we need to convince the Kerbal people to make a movie so that the general American audiences can start to really understand science. ;)

Hehe...true enough. On the bright side, I suspect that within a decade or so film-makers won't be able to get away with this kind of thing anymore, as you'll have a whole generation of kids that grew up playing KSP that will scream bloody murder ;)

[DaveYanakov]

It's become obvious that I need to go back and watch it again but I remembered transfer orbits and retrograde burns being covered pretty well. The big battle was questionable by the very nature of how weapons would actually work in space but they helped my suspension of disbelief along by never actually showing any maneuvers.

[SterlingRed]

I can't believe anyone actually can say they liked farscape. I watched the whole thing just because I liked the idea of the plot but shit man, the writing was sooo bad I wanted to smash my face into a wall everytime a character spoke.

I'm one of those die hard firefly fans. Fortunately for me I discovered the show after it was cancelled so I knew what I was getting into. Love the way Whedon develops characters.

I enjoyed the Stargate franchise and thought SGU was its best effort. It was good, I think the almost religious aspect of trying to find the signal was a stretch for non SG fans to buy into. I wonder if there was a different goal for the ship if it would have made it longer.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dollhouse. Not a space sci-fi but it's definitely science fiction.

[FlowerChild]

I can't believe anyone actually can say they liked farscape. I watched the whole thing just because I liked the idea of the plot but shit man, the writing was sooo bad I wanted to smash my face into a wall everytime a character spoke.

I'm one of those die hard firefly fans. Fortunately for me I discovered the show after it was cancelled so I knew what I was getting into. Love the way Whedon develops characters.

Hehe...see, I'm the exact opposite. Loved Farscape, but going all the way back to Buffy, only ever watched anything by Joss Whedon because my girlfriends at the time loved his shows. I've always found his stuff to be vapid and eye-rolling as all hell. On the other hand, I found Farscape to be humorous campy in a "the farting muppet that eats anything has me in hysterics" way.

Different senses of humor I guess :)

EDIT: On the other hand, looking at his IMDB profile, I just realized Whedon wrote The Cabin In The Woods. Respect. I think that makes up for all the times I found myself reevaluating my sexuality while watching his shows :)

[Wafflewaffle]

Loved Farscape, but going all the way back to Buffy, only ever watched anything by Joss Whedon because my girlfriends at the time loved his shows

Maaaan you got to watch Buffy cuz of your gf? People my age had to watch the Vampire Diaries and True fking Blood. If you were lucky you could watch Supernatural and even then its no Buffy or Xena the warrior princess (goddamn love Xena the warrior princess!).

Btw i pretty much dropped Black Matter interely. I really wanted it to love it but the acting is so hit or miss. Ill star SGU soon, everyone seems to like it here.

[FlowerChild]

Maaaan you got to watch Buffy cuz of your gf? People my age had to watch the Vampire Diaries and True fking Blood. If you were lucky you could watch Supernatural and even then its no Buffy or Xena the warrior princess (goddamn love Xena the warrior princess!).

Lol...yeah, different strokes man. I watched/watch both True Blood and Supernatural on my own because I like them, and absolutely hated Xena :)

Ill star SGU soon, everyone seems to like it here.

Yeah, I think it's the one series we've discussed here that was just objectively good without much in the way of caveat.

[jorgebonafe]

I watched/watch both True Blood and Supernatural on my own because I like them, and absolutely hated Xena :)

FC, I started watching Supernatural on Netflix a few months ago. I watched like 8 or 9 episodes, and the whole "monster of the week" thing annoyed me so much I couldn't watch anymore. What do you think about that? Does the series change at all on the following seasons? Everyone seem to like it, but so far it's just not my thing....

[Stormweaver]

I'd love to know what it was that made SG:U get canned so early. I thought it was great, and I can barely stand to watch TV these days.