How do you prefer your Sci-Fi?

[SBN]

I may be a little jaded at the moment, so I think it really skews my opinion. At the moment I prefer cinema over TV series. Primarily because genre shows have such a bloody difficult time lasting. I think the state of network TV is at it's lowest, and will only be getting worse and worse. Already NBC will essentially be canceling 5 shows, or at least 5 hours of scripted to air Leno. Add in the craptastically bad reality TV, NBC has almost nothing to air. Assuming Stargate Universe will be good, after next year that will be the ONLY show I watch on TV. Huh? How did that happen lol.

Right now Lost and Supernatural are the only shows I really care about. I strongly believe that very soon any scripted shows will primarily be airing just on cable; FX, SciFi, USA, TnT, etc. Networks are just too damn in love with the low production cost of reality, and we have developed a culture that enjoys the most base of stupidity. My god, we do not even have a true Science Fiction channel in the U.S. Sorry folks, but the moment the *$&@ SciFi channel starting airing reality crap, then that fake wrestling they jumped the shark. Even you went through their full 24/7, 365 day schedule, I am sure you would find that Science Fiction is actually a minor percentage of what they air.

Point here is that I just do not accept or handle well shows that get prematurely canceled early. I find it completely unacceptable form of entertainment. As I often argue, would anyone accept a play without Act IV, a novel without the last chapter, or a movie missing the final 10 minutes? Well when a TV series is canceled early, that is what we get. I would much prefer TV shows to be aired in a different format that would avoid this bull*#&@.

So for now, I much prefer cinema. Part of my love for Scifi has always been the visuals. While I can look at the original Star Wars as kind of hokey with bad dialog, I still to this day enjoy the visual aspect of the movie. I love seeing strange worlds and other sites. On a side note, that was one aspect I began to hate about BSG...they essentially only stopped at like 4-5 planets their entire journey. While I did not want a Star Trek let's visit a different planet each week, I still wanted to SEE more than the same old Galactica ship sets.

[Gregorius]

I like a series of 5 seasons (Most series go to the crapper after their 5th season) with each season being a miniseries of about 13 1h episodes. This way you'd get a huge seasonal arc and a bigger arc that's spread over multiple seasons, and don't get a lot of filler/clip episodes.

This format would also allow for the closure of an arc when the series get canned so viewers aren't left hanging.

[nx01a]

I'm of the opinion that 13 episode seasons would force writers to cut the crappy filler episodes, which usually account for 7 or so episodes a season. 13 episodes and a movie. Yeah. That's it.

[SBN]

I'm of the opinion that 13 episode seasons would force writers to cut the crappy filler episodes, which usually account for 7 or so episodes a season. 13 episodes and a movie. Yeah. That's it.

If I have to chose TV, then I do much prefer the 13 episode shows a lot simply because they are forced to focus on the story. You are absolutely correct in that so many of these shows just have too many lame fillers that do nothing but simply drag out the overall story. Exception of course Lost, but take SGA. I found in the last 2 seasons getting very bored with the show, and just finding the dreaded filler episodes to be mind numbingly boring. Dirty secret is that 90% of the writers simply do not have what it takes to writer 20+ episodes year after year. Although to this day I still am in amazement how almost EVERY episode of Supernatural has been A+, meaning no "let's just shoot an hour of TV and be done with it"

[TheGreatLordGeorge]

Long (20) miniseries would be great uf they were done right

[AvatarIII]

a long miniseries is just... well... a series a mini series is normally 4-6 episodes or 2-3 feature length movies

[Spimman]

I prefer SyFy -

[Pitry]

Series. One offs usually try to impress the viewer visually and let the characters and the stories down.

[Replicator Todd]

Yikes! I'm the only who seemed to have picked option 3....I love sci-fi movies the most, bigger budget for better effects and might not last as long as a series but can a bigger impact. Although a series based on a movie can help...most sci-fi movies are just more memorable. Serenity, the Star Wars saga, and many others leave bigger staples in my head than a sci-fi series or miniseries.

[rlr149]

Yikes! I'm the only who seemed to have picked option 3....I love sci-fi movies the most, bigger budget for better effects and might not last as long as a series but can a bigger impact. Although a series based on a movie can help...most sci-fi movies are just more memorable. Serenity, the Star Wars saga, and many others leave bigger staples in my head than a sci-fi series or miniseries.

watch killer klowns from outer space.

even bad sci-fi movies are sci-fi, can't just count the popular ones

[Rosehawk]

For me, I depends on the type of story they are trying to tell.

Most Sci-fi movies don't work because they don't write very good stories, however movies are great for the special effects and action sequences they put together.

A mini series can be is great when you have a story to tell that is longer than a movie but shorter than a TV series such as the mini-series Taken. Taken would not have worked well in a TV series IMO.

I like TV shows because they allow for more time for character development and they can take their time letting the storyline unfold, giving you time to get more invested in the characters.

For me, while I like the TV series 'cause I get to watch my favorite characters each week, I like the variety that you can get with either a movie, TV series or mini-series so it really does depend on the story they are trying to tell and how well they tell it.