My problems with sci-fi TV

[wiseheart]

I've meant to write someting about it for a long time - and essay, perhaps, for the Otherworlds board - but my thoughts never seemed to form a coherent whole for that. So I'll just write down my woes as they come to my mind.

Woe #1 - The Changing Profile of Doom (TM)

This is the phenomenon when a show starts out extemely well. You like the basic premise, you fall in love with the characters, you get emotionally engaged. Then the PTB come to the glorious idea to "shake things up a bit" and change your favourite show into something completely different. Characters are replaced or twisted out of their original shape. Stupid elements that doesn't match with solid sci-fi apperar. And after a while the show falls victim to incredible stupidity and boredom, and you cease to watch it entirely.

Shows that fell into this category for me are:

- Andromeda, after mid-season 2, when it turned into "Hercules in Space";

- Atlantis, after mid-season 2, when all the lovable supporting characters were killed off or just dropped like hot potatoes, and the main characters became morally ambigious to a degree where I couldn't indentify with them anymore (not that I could ever identify with Sheppard or Weir, but that's a matter of taste);

- Earth - Final Conflict, after season 1, when they killed off Boone, so that they could bring in the HOTT hybrid boy. Actually, I still kept watching it, until they turned hybrid boy into 100% human, where he wasn't interesting anymore, and replaced Ugly Brunette Female Marine (TM) with Blonde Bimbo of Doom (TM);

Enterprise - and I deliberately don't add the prefix "Star Trek". On its own, Enterprise could have been a good show, would Bermaga not pretend that it had anything to do with Star Trek. But they screwed even their own premise by bringing up new, epic story arcs (temporal cold war, Xinti, the third Evil Enemy Race (TM) whose name I forgot), just to drop them and come up with some incredibly stupid solution.

Voyager, from the very moment on - I think it was Episode #2 - when the Maquis miraculously became totally OK with the fact that they were now a Starfleet crew and Chakotay punched one of his fellow freedom fighters in the nose for not obeying Tuvok - the very Vulcan who used to be a spy on his ship. Adding insult to injure were the mystifying changes in Kes' outfit and mindset, and the enter of Seven of Nine - another Blonde Bimbo of Doom (TM). Andm of course, the Borg, who got out-smarted by Janeway every other week, after having nearly wiped out the entire Starfleet in TNG. Oh, please!


Woe #2 - Character Rape

This is the annoying result of crappy writing. The best example is Atlantis' Dr. Weir. Remember what a strong, confident, morally stable character she was in the Season 7 finale of Stargate? And what has become of her? Granted, the horrible acting did play a role - my Mum never watched Atlantis, she's not into sci-fi, but a few times she had to sit through the last few minutes, waiting for JAG reruns to start, and she was completely baffled by the wooden "presence" of that woman.

Then there is poor Tyr Anasazi from Andromeda. What an interesting, dubious, conflicted character he was - and what has become of him after Kevin Sorbo got the strings into his greedy hands? A whiny caricature, who had to kiss up to Sorbo's character and got killed off in the most undignified manner.

To stay with Andromeda, there were other totally f*cked-over charcters. Beka Valentine, who turned from a competent, protective, no-nonsense and sometimes a bit morally ambigious woman into a mindless space slut. Or Harper, their resident genius, whose characterization looked like sinus waves - sometimes he was wonderfully complex, sometimes a total caricature. Or Rev Bem, the "reformed" Magog, whose offspring came over time to mark poor Harper for breeding - I wonder what the Reverend might be doing after leaving the ship? Or Trance Gemini, who used to be a likeable character - albeit one with questionable motives - as long as she was purple, but turned into a bitter, scheming vengeance bitch with attack boobs as soon as she became golden.

Actually, I even feel sorry for Dylan Hunt. He wasn't such a bad bloke in Season 1. Yeah, he was annoying and stupid as hell, but generally a good guy - until Kevin Sorbo got to call the shots. We don't want to discuss the results, no, Preciousss, it would negatively influence our sleep.


Let's Bring in the Boobs

Meaning the strategically tragic moment when the PTB decide they aren't happy with the readings and thus need to "give" the male audience something to drool over. That's the moment when established characters get written out of the series and the busty blondes take over.

Prominent victims of this policy are:

- Captain Lily Marquette from Earth: Final Conflict - replaced by the super-annyoing Renée Palmer. Not that I liked Marquette - for the record: I hated her - ut this is a matter of principle.

- Rommie, the ship's android avatar from Andromeda - replaced by the ridiculously-named Doyle, played by a former porn starlet.

- Dr. Carson Beckett from Atlantis - replaced by Dr. Keller, who is a meek little girl rather than a failed porn star, but still. Besdies, for the part of the blonde bimbo we had Dr. Heightmeyer, even though he turned brunette later.

- Kes from Voyager, replaced by Seven of Nine. I know most people didn't like Kes, but I did, even if I'm clearly in the minority here. Well, at least Jeri Ryan isn't a bad actress.


The "Everybody is American" effect

American people perhaps didn't realize it, but we Europeans can be a bit sensitive about this topic sometimes. So, let me point out that the last time a starship - any starship - had a truly multinational crew, it was during the original Star Trek series.

Okay, so the captain had to be an American, it was a US-show, after all. But they had a Japanese helmsman (Sulu), and African (not black American but really African) communications officer (Uhura), a Russian navigator (Chekov), a Scottish cheef engineer (Scotty), an Italian Chief of Security (Giotto), and several other officers, like DeSalle, Kurt Jaeger, Lt. Gaetano, M'Benga, Imamura, Zara Jamal, Keiko Tamura, Personnel Chief Wong, that Hindu bloke in Engineering called Singh, and so on, who were of other nations. Spock doesn't count, as he's an alien. But the only other senior officer who was American was Dr. McCoy.

Battlestar Galactica (the original - the only one worthy that name in my eyes) was a somewhat different case, as people supposedly came from a different galaxy, and their names, while sometimes really bizarre or silly, weren't meant to have to do anything with Earth nations (that is, among other things, that Ron Moore killed off from his own series). So, everyone could identify with the good guys, which was part of the reason why the old show was so hugely popular.

And that's basically it, people. Sure, B5 had Ivanova, but that was it. Garibaldi already had an English given name. And they wrote off Takashima after the pilot. Crusade's telepathic first officer was played by Daniel Dae Kim, so he should have some Chinese or Korean origins, but the character was named John Matheson.

Star Trek - TNG had Picard. Period. The other human characters all had English names. (Remember, aliens don't count. They are, well, aliens.) Oh, they had a hindu engineer named Singh (how original - where might I have heard that name?) who lived about half an episode.

DS9 had Dr. Bashir. Granted, the Irish would probably point out that O'Brian didn't count as American, either. OK, they had O'Brien, too. And his Japanese wife. That's a tad better.

Voyager had Chakotay and Harry Kim, but honestly, how different was Harry Kim from the rest of the gang? We weren't even told whether he was Chinese, Korean or whatnot. And his fave holodeck program was Beowulf? WTF??? And frankly, Chakotay's Indian mojo seemed way too forced sometimes. Just an excuse to show some "ethnic" thing. Or what they thought would go as "ethnic". Really pathetic.

Enterprise had Hoshi. Other than that, everyone was American (or, in Malcolm Reed's case, English - sorry, British folks, I didn't want to insult anyone).

The all-American cast didn't bother me in Stargate - SG1 at all. I mean, it was supposed to take place in the Cheyenne Mountain complex, and just how likely it was that anyone but American military would be allowed there? So I was fine with that. We still got to see some Russians, even though they were portrayed in the worst cold war way, as if they all would have been idiots.

But Atlantis disappointed me greatly. I mean, it was an international expedition, right? And it actually started off rather well. McKay was Canadian, Grodin was supposedly English, Dr. Beckett was a Scotsman, and we even got the first ever important middle-european character in sci-fi: Dr. Zelenka, the pride and joy of the Czech Republic. And there were one-time extras like Miko Kusanagi, Dr. Dumais, Dr. Wagner (whom I like to believe was German or Austrian) and so on.

Well, what happened to them? Grodin got killed off at the end of Season . Dumais and Wagner killed off in mid-Season 1. We never saw again Miko. And even Beckett got killed off around the end of Season 3. Only McKay and Zelenka are still there. Every new character they bring in (and drop again, it seems to be a new trend) is American, or has, at least, and English name.

Now, I understand that they have to look at the local audience first. And in some shows (SG1) it's even logical and inevitable. But it pisses me off royally that in shows that take place 300-400 or more years in the future, or in the ones where the international nature of the ensemble is emphasized, so few other nations are represented.


Okay, babbled enough. I just wanted to add that I won't be watching Atlantis in Season 4. I've read spoliers and transcripts about how Season 3 will end, and it's not the show I've grown fond of after a rather bumpy start anymore.

Comments

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if you watch Lost, but that series does quite a good job of balancing an international cast, I think. (And Daniel Dae Kim does play a Korean character)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I've suffered through the first season of that show - twice, once in German and once in Hungarian! - but it's way too confusing for me. I never really understood what was going on, the constant flashbacks made me crazy, and there was hardly a character I'd actually like (well, aside from the fat bloke, perhaps), so I gave up on it.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

I've seen the first and second seasons so far, and I have to say that what's going on only gets more confusing :). Though for me, that's part of what makes the show interesting.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, you're a great deal younger than I am. At my advanced age, one prefers to know what's going on. I don't mind a good mystery, actually, but I'm just not up to the challenge to work through a Gordian knot every week, for characters I don't even like.

[gone2thedogs.livejournal.com]

Can you say "Sci-fi Channel", almost everyone of these shows suffered once in the hands of TPB at that network. Including many other good shows that are not in the sci-fi genre, Forever Knight comes to mind. Ditch the interesting, exotic Jeanette, ditch Knight's very interesting male partner for some blonde dimwit and there you go, another show ruined, and don't even start on what is so totally wrong with the 'new and improved Battlestar Galactica'. They must have a group of thirteen year old hormonal boys as the demographic. As to all the good secondary characters that get killed off, it's my theory that the actors see where the shows going and want out.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, you're definitely right on both occasions, "Forever Knight" and BSG. And don't even let me start about the so-called "Earthsea miniseries", in which practically all dark-skinned Southern characters turned out blond and lily white, the evil, middle-aged priestess of Karego-At became a blonde nymphomane and the king's bed warmer, and so on...

Rumour says, however, that Atlantis' latest victim, Paul McGillion didn't leave on his own device. It's whispered to have been a very ugly way how TPTB abserved him. A shame - Dr. Beckett was an excellent character: not obscenely young, flawed and with the funniest quirks I've seen for a long time. also, his accent is considered to be the sexiest on the show, although Zelenka come second. *g*

I never watched Ron Moore's BSG abomination (really, a female Starbuck? and Boomer not only a girl but a Cylon, too?). The spoilers were enough to make me throw up, so I didn't subject myself to the horrors of the real item.

Yes, I'm strange that way. I prefer my heroes the old-fashioned way. And I don't think that making everyone morally corrupted and sexually perverted does good TV entertainment make. My own fault, obviously. [/sarcasm]

[larian.livejournal.com]

I think Sci-Fi can be summed up in two words...well, three if you count the fact that one is hyphenated. All-Star Wrestling.

*that* is the audience they are catering to. To hell with Sci-Fi fans. The demographic of the wrestling crowd is what they want.

[gone2thedogs.livejournal.com]

Oh my word! You are sooooo right. I hadn't even thought of that angle.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Erm... care to elaborate? You're losing me here. *g*

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

World Wrestling Entertainment Imagine guys wearing cheap superhero-type costumes faking an all-out fight (which everyone watching fully knows is fake). You kind of have to see it to believe it. Suffice it to say it doesn't appeal to the intellectual set; quite the opposite.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... you mean like Hulk Hogan & Co.? Then I mean what you think. That's what Sci-Fi Channel shows lately?

I shouldn't criticize other countries' TV-customs, though, considering that one of the most popular TV-shows over her is a fake documentary in Big Brother style, featuring A barely literate, popular gypsy singer who has serious difficlties with coherent speach, and his equally intellectually challenged family.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, like Hulk Hogan. That's not quite what the Sci-Fi channel is showing, but that's the audience they're trying to appeal to: people who like watching Hulk Hogan (in other words, young, dumb males). That explains a lot about the 'quality' (or lack therof) of the channel's more recent offerings.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

But... but... everybody in the world IS American! They just don't know it yet! ;-)

(Gene Roddenberry had to really fight to get that multinational cast on the original Star Trek; the network didn't htink it was necessary. I guess his descendents are just lazier.)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You're sooo right, of course! How could I have forgotten it?

Well, perhaps not succumbing to the SlimFast philosphy and not having cosmetic surgery every other year has hindered me in embracing my inner American (or, more correctly, the caricature the TV and movie industry shows us) so far.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

I can help you with that problem! You don't need SlimFast and cosmetic surgery to be an American. You have another option: live entirely off of cheeseburgers and donuts, drive your car if you have to go any distance longer than a block, and wear size quadruple-extra-large sweat pants and a sloppy T-shirt (and white sneakers, of course). I should warn you, though, that if you choose that option, you'll have to give up your LJ, since everyone knows Americans are too insular to talk with people from other countries and NEVER read anything written by the foreign press. ;-)

"I am Ithilwen of America. You will be assimilated."

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

There's another problem with that solutions - I can't drive. But the XXXL sweat pants and the sloppy T-shirt do have their attraction. *g*

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Who says you have to know how to drive in order to operate a car? That's not how it's done here in America! Why do you think our movies are always showing incredible car crashes? :D

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but my not-driving is on a level where I can't even start a car! Which solves the car crash problem nicely, of course, but I fear it makes me decidedly non-American, huh?

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

To start a car, you simply insert the key into the starter switch (located on the steering column) and turn it. So you're not off the hook yet!

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you about all these points. There are too many sci-fi shows that I like at first and then they just go downhill and I lose interest. I watched the first two seasons of Earth: Final Conflict but without Boone it just wasn't as interesting. I watched the first two seasons of Andromeda and part of the third before losing interest again. I watched the first two seasons of Enterprise and then only watched it sporadically after that. I haven't given up on Atlantis yet but my interest in it isn't as strong as it was those first two seasons(that seems to be the common factor-two seasons.)

Even though I'm American, I do wish there were more diversity in shows. I'm interested in things like history, geography, and other cultures so I'd like to see more of that reflected in shows and movies. Unfortunately, many Americans are ignorant and uncaring when it comes to other countries or even the history of our own. I never understood that. There is one Eastern European actor on a popular show that I can think of and that's the Croatian actor on ER who plays Dr. Luka Kovich. (I can't spell the actors name properly without looking it up so I'm not even going to try.) Other than him, there's usually only British actors to represent Europe.

Atlantis had the opportunity to have a more diverse cast but they haven't done enough with it. Characters like Miko are actually pretty popular with fans even though she's only been on one episode. They should really try to do more with actors from different countries. It's actually amazing to think how diverse the cast of the original Star Trek was. It certainly was unlike any other show on TV at that time. Sadly, it still is unlike most TV now in terms of diversity. I know someone mentioned Lost and you said you didn't like it but I happen to be a fan and they at least have a diverse cast including an Iraqi character which is unusual right now.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

There is a reason why the original Trek was so hugely popular and still has a steadfast following. Of course, back then sci-fi was about ideas, not about CGI and (supposedly) HOTTT actors.

I liked the Iraqi character in Lost. And the fat guy. It's the others I couldn't warm up to. And the fact that I just couldn't understand what was going on half the time. perhaps I'm getting stupid at old age.

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

You're not stupid. Lost is confusing but I like it that way. I like shows that allow me to try and think about different possibilities and solutions instead of the same old predictable storylines. But I understand that it can be frustrating. There are times when even I feel irritated and wish that they would just get to the point, especially when it's one of those situations where one character could clear everything up by just talking about something they know or have seen. I also like that they have a large cast even though, as one fan said, it seems like just about everyone who survived the crash was a model as there are a lot of pretty, young people in the cast.

I liked the X-Files too and that had the same problem. It was a great show but they dragged things out a bit longer than they should have. But I still watched all nine seasons of it. Did you watch Lost in English or was it a dubbed version? That may have added to the confusion.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, I like a little bit of mystery in my TV shows like any other dirty old lady, but Lost beat me - twice. I watched it in German and in Hungarian and was never able to figure out what was going on. As you say, it was too frustrating, so I gave up.

I liked the X-Files, too. But I must admit I preferred the earlier seasons with their independent, "monster-of-the-week" episodes. The whole government conspiracy thing became quickly too old for me, so much that in the end I wasn't even interested in the outcome anymore.

Have you ever watched Psi Factor or The Outer Limits? I like that kind of episodic television, although I liked the interconnecting story arcs of Babylon 5 just as much. And myself, I tend to write hugely complicated, interconnected stories in all my fandoms.

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't watch either of those shows. I may have seen a few episodes of Outer Limits but that's it. I love interconnecting story arcs and I think Babylon 5 did it better than just about anyone. There are moments in the first season that make no sense until they reason for them is revealed in later seasons and it makes for great viewing because I can watch episodes over again and catch new meaning. That's the best kind of show, in my opinion but there aren't too many like that.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, interconnecting story arcs are a thing of beauty. It's like doing detective work, trying to find clues backwards when the epic had reached a certain point, eh?

My only problem with B5 was Sheridan. I disliked the guy just as much as I dislike Dylan Hunt, Captain Kirk... or Sheppard, to look for someone more recent. That arrogant flyboy type makes me physically itch with irritation. Which is interesting, because on the other hand I'm a devoted fan of Jack O'Neill and he had his moments, too. *g*