Do people even know what Science Fiction is?

[Angela V]

By that definition, nearly every tv show that is classified as drama, would be a soap opera then. SGU is dramatic Sci-Fi, there is nothing soap opera about it it. I don't get why people think by making a darker, more dramatic feel to a show, that focused on characters makes it a soap opera.

Soap Opera = The Young and the Restless. Not SGU and if you actually watched SGU, you would realize, the "dramatic" you mentioned, are nothing alike.

Well decades ago Days of Our Lives had John deLancie as Eugene Bradford and I remember some weird time traveling storyline. This was before he went on to play Q on ST:TNG. No one would consider DOOL as a sci-fi show because of it. Weird, maybe.

I just watched the Brit sci-fi show Outcasts with my son. Lots of drama but still sci-fi.

[Tanith0709]

I just watched the Brit sci-fi show Outcasts with my son. Lots of drama but still sci-fi.

Ironically it reminded me a little of SGU in how the story was told. Also how it was cancelled sadly reminded me of SGU as well

[psl1]

Unfortunately Syfi will always outside of the main stream of TV since it is always a niche market. As long as TV is primarily a business driven enterprise, Syfi will always fail to gain large audiences. This means for any Syfi to survive in modern TV, it has to have consumer appeal. Reviewing modern N American programming, it’s fair to say that unless there is someone dying in the show or some threat of imminent death, most shows are either comedies or lean on sex as vehicle to gain TV ratings. With those pillars it’s hard to make original TV programming of any genre a success, let alone one that has science fiction base.

The only way you get Dr Who running for decades is because the BBC is supported by British government budgets. The only reason Red Dwarf lasted as long as it did was the BBC programming and to a lesser extent its exposure through PBS to N American audiences.

[Stargate Universe Online]

when i look it up i got

science fiction |?sa??ns ??f?k??n|(abbr.: SF or Sci Fi )
noun
fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.

[QuantumIguana]

Soap opera and science fiction are not mutually exclusive.

[KEK]

They really are. A soap opera is basically just a serialized drama, what sets it apart, like any genre - is the subject matter. The subject matter on a soap being a real-life domestic setting, the everyday, the normal, something that is completely at odds with science fiction shows, especially ones set in space.

[QuantumIguana]

The mundane is not a defining characteristic of soap operas, quite often the events that take place in soap operas are things that don't really happen at all, or if they do happen, are very rare. The evil twin taking your place is quite impossible, but quite unrealistic. One of the defining trait of soap operas is melodrama.

[KEK]

I never said mundane.

[QuantumIguana]

You said normal and everyday, these are synonyms for mundane.

[fatty.mcninja]

It's amazing what people can imagine. There has never been a 'who is sleeping with who' storyline in the show...

This.

I never got the feeling that the characters' relationships were anything more than the most bare scaffolding to build tension, etc. Reading over Gate World's short synopsis of the episodes and only three episodes even mention sexual relationships/shenanigans.

One is when Young finds out about Telford's indiscretion with his wife. This was used to give the audience a distrustful/disliking demeanor toward Telford in anticipation of later events in the season.

The other two have to do with Wray and Sharon. Considering no other main characters on the ship are in lasting non-rocky relationships with someone on earth, almost all the story lines regarding the separation aspect of Destiny are played through those two characters.

As for backstabbing, finding out who was fit to lead, and who hated who.... there sure was none of that in SG-1. Guess we can throw out all the episodes with Maybourne, the NID, the Trust, Bauer, Kinsey, etc. etc. etc. Heck, Samuels starts hating and questioning people's ability to lead in the FIRST EPISODE!

Edit: Don't forget Kavanagh in SGA....

[KEK]

You said normal and everyday, these are synonyms for mundane.

They're not, actually. Mundane means dull or unexciting, it makes no distinctions about subject matter. Soaps cover everyday events, real life things that actually happen, but that doesn't mean there's no drama or jeopardy. Real life can be chaotic, the difference is such a genre doesn't allow for space ships and aliens, and the various other tropes that are used in a genre like science fiction. As I said, the key here is the subject matter. Things like interpersonal relationships and perceived melodrama are not exclusive to any genre, they're just one aspect of drama, or in fact fiction in it's entirely.

[QuantumIguana]

If there was excess melodrama in SGU, that doesn't preclude it from being science fiction. Anyone who says that SGU wasn't science fiction is just wrong. But there were a number of people who saw too much melodrama for their taste. I thought the story needed to move a lot faster, but I watched every episode. For other people, TPTB didn't give them a product that kept them watching.

[Snowman37]

If there was excess melodrama in SGU, that doesn't preclude it from being science fiction.

Bingo. SGU is basically a science-fiction drama where as SG-1 and Atlantis were science-fiction adventure.