If science-fiction goes way of the western...

[Snowman37]

Westerns are still prevalent in books and movies, they're just not on television except for reruns and Hallmark TV movies. If this were to happen to science-fiction, would that be so bad? Who says you have to have a current television show to watch week to week? Neither of my parents watch TV except for the news, sports (dad), Hallmark (mom) and DVD's (together as a family). As for me, I love to watch my DVD's and the Hallmark channel for reruns of old shows. As for current television, there's Sanctuary which is more fantasy than science-fiction. There's also Terra Nova, but from what I've seen so far, it's more night-time soap-opera drama with the occasional dinosaur than science-fiction. I'm not sure if I'll keep up with this, mostly because it bores me greatly. The cast just... they don't draw me in.

[Wyrminarrd]

I want more original stuff! It would be an incredible shame if tv stations completely stopped making real sci-fi shows for good.

Sadly sci-fi fans are a very self destructive demographic which is why there has been such a sharp decline in real sci-fi shows

[the fifth man]

Personally, I don't think science fiction will disappear completely from TV. In fact, hopefully it will make a comeback sometime soon.

[Snowman37]

Between the economic recession, reality TV, and the popularity of law and doctor shows; I think science-fiction is on it's way out. It seemed to be at it's strongest in the 1990's, but it's been on a steady decline over the past decade. Will it vanish from television all together? No, but I think the days of space-based science-fiction are over. No one cares about space anymore except for science-fiction fans. That's not enough to support a television series which is aiming to profit from the overall television audience.

[Quizziard]

One of the problems of, especially space-based sci-fi, is that it's expensive to make. Without looking "cheap". In the current economic climate...

[magictrick]

There are more sci-fi and fantasy movies being made than ever before. Technology is constantly improving allowing filmmakers to create things we would never have been able to see a decade or two ago.

Just look at what is being released - comic book movies, vampires, zombies, futuristic worlds, etc.

The TV world is separate from movies, but there are some definite similarities. As technology allows for special effects to be made at an increasingly cheaper rate, sci-fi and fantasy shows will continue to pop up, just like their big screen counterparts.

[Quizziard]

Sorry - should have been clearer: "expensive to make compared to contemporary Earth-based stories"

[LizzieAnne]

I don't think sci-fi will disappear, it'll evolve. In fact it already has.

Maybe we won't have space travel so much but the flavour of the moment seems to be alternate universes and time travel.

Hard sci-fi has a bit of a limited audience though, however good it is.
So shows like Terra Nova with it's 'softer' feel appeal to a much wider audience and as ratings matter (unfortunately) that's what it going to take to keep some sci-fi on the screen. I'm all for it.

[CMWriter]

I like some new scifis that are out there ("Fringe" is very, very good) but I would love to get back into space. We've got plenty of aliens showing up (Falling Skies, even V and The Event even though they both got canceled) but we're not going into the future or into the stars anymore.

One thing I read was that a lot of sitcoms were getting better and getting more viewers because in light of the recession, etc. we need an escape. What better escape from reality is there than a space-based sci-fi? Frankly, I think that if they went for it and really made it good, it could succeed on broadcast. Or, heck, it could do even better on cable.
And yet any attempts get canceled after just a season or two, if not less. Quite sad. :C

[nx01a]

There are fantasy shows popping up with alarming frequency [Once Upon a Time; Grimm; Game of Thrones, Merlin], but no sci-fi.

[carmencatalina]

This thread is reminding me that I really quite love Westerns.

[FennerMachine]

A recent film mashed Western & Sci-Fi together.
Nice!

[Giantevilhead]

There are a lot of sci-fi series *cough*Fallout*cough* out there that would be good for television. The problem is that the networks want original programming since they don't want to share the profit and it's difficult to develop an original sci-fi show since it takes a lot of time and resources to develop the lore. Considering how only a small fraction of shows are successful, that's just too much investment for too little pay off.