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from the we-want-netflix-to-reboot-firefly dept.
TBNZee writes:
"Mainstream television has, for a long time, under-served the science fiction loving segment. But with declining production costs, there seem to be two potential sources of alternative production/distribution: digital content (e.g. Netflix, Hulu) and crowd-funded projects. There's still not a lot of science fiction shows that are being produced by the major streaming services, but we'll probably see more with the success of Hulu's exclusive U.S. distribution of Misfits or Netflix's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who. On the other hand, you have many enthusiastic upstarts on Kickstarter that look novel and engaging while having a surprisingly professional look to them.
Which do you think will ultimately be more successful? Do you have any recommendations for other good material out there, or is there something you would like to see?"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by SpallsHurgenson on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:01PM
There is such a glut of good sci-fi available to fans that it's hard to keep up already. Heck, I never even finished watching the entirety of the the X-Files series, and that's more than a decade back. And I've never even seen an episode of Lost! If I'm looking for something I haven't seen before, I can just dig into the archives of TV and movies from years past and I'll find more than enough entertainment to keep me occupied.
And it's not as if "new" sci-fi is going to significantly different from what has been presented in the past; the vast majority will be character-driven adventure tales where the "science" part of sci-fi is glossed over so it's practically magic in usage (sadly, the number of "hard" sci-fi that has made it to film or screen can probably be counted on one hand that is missing several fingers). Other than improved visual effects, the overall experience of a sci-fi movie from 1980 and 2010 will be pretty much the same.
So yeah, I'm not worried about the future of sci-fi when there is such a backlog of excellent stuff to keep me watching until the day I die.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:49PM
Lucky you: x-files is being remastered in 1080p! Broadcasting on the German television right now.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Sunday February 23 2014, @07:19PM
Oh please. While I agree that a Netflix subscription and reruns of Star Trek and X-Files will provide many hours of entertainment, I do want more. One thing that's really fun and interesting about watching older sci-fi shows and movies is to see what people in the past thought the future would look like, and see where they got things right and where they totally screwed up. It gets a little depressing after a while living in the past, only watching stuff from decades in the past, and I want to see what people today think the future will look like, for a fresh view.
Also, I want more spaceships, dammit. I want to see more movies like Alien and Aliens and movies from that era, with big spaceships and cool corridors. We haven't had much of that in the last couple of decades; it's like we as a race have given up on human space travel altogether, and have resigned ourselves to living on an increasingly polluted world where the institutions of government become more and more corrupt, and we really have no future as a race. Just look at the recent "Terra Nova" TV show for an example of this: rich people live in domes, everyone else lives outside where it's so polluted they need breathing equipment to avoid getting sick, and they try to escape this not by building space habitats or offworld colonies, but instead fleeing to the prehistoric past and starting over. I want to see more sci-fi that emphasizes offworld exploration, and I want it to NOT star fucking Xenu-worshipping Tom Cruise.
(Score: 1) by Geotti on Monday February 24 2014, @12:00AM
If you're into time-travelling movies, I can recommend 95ers [imdb.com] that I've found by accident yesterday.
Even if the camera and actors are a bit weird at times, the story makes up for it.