As you may have noticed from the increased traffic in the newsgroup,
there are a whole lot of new SF television shows coming out in the
near future.  Babylon 5, Space Rangers, Time Trax, and Deep Space
Nine, which premiers tonight in all civilized parts of the country.
(Meaning not until Sunday on channel 50.)

There was a good article on this phenomenon in last Sunday's (1/3/93)
Ann Arbor News.  The writer said that Star Trek: The Next Generation's
popularity was the reason for the renewed public interest in SF, along
with the reduced costs of special effects, thanks to the Video Toaster
and other neat bits of gadgetry.

Personally, I'm surprised he didn't mention the popularity of the Sci-Fi
Channel as a contributing factor.  So many markets in this country want
to get it, but their cable vendors refuse, so doesn't it make sense that
the over-the-air TV stations would want some of that interest?

Comments?

36 responses total.

Enjoyed DS9.  (of COURSE I get channel 36...)
did not enjoy Space Rangers.  At least, not the 15 minutes that I saw.
Read articles in the detroit thing, a2 news, TV guide.  They all actually
had slightly different things to say, about DS9, anyway.

I'd like to see some more TV SciFi that leans closer to Star Trek(s) than,
say, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers.  I think Space 1999 may have been
an attempt at this sort of thing, but it was just so bad it was (and is, for
those of you with the SciFi channel) hilariously funny!

        I wish TV Guide would tell us what's on The SF Channel.  I just got
cable TV this week; I have to keep buying the AA News (yecch!) to get
listings.  Next week will be better; I can just get the Sunday News and
skip the rest of the week.

I wish there was a listing for the Cartoon Network!

The Ann Arbor News has listings for the Sci-Fi Channel, Comedy Central,
and (I think) the Cartoon Network.

I liked DS9 a lot more than I thought I would, I only hope that the
writing stays like what I saw and doesn't turn into the "ooh, let's
all be nice and pacifistic and get in touch with our inner feelings"
that permeates the Next Generation.

I'm still looking forward to Babylon 5.

What has anyone heard about Babylon 5 ?  I've heard next to nothing.

There's a very good article/interview in the latest issue of
"Science Fiction Age" magazine.  The creator has put a lot of
work into it, and it sounds like he wants more of the spirit of
the old Star Trek than the Next Generation has had.

     I was prepared to be disappointed by DS9, but it is marvelous so far.
 They've even managed to keep the conflicts away from the one side good
one side evil that even TNG fell into with the Borg and the Cardassians. 
Also the show-one-character-per-episode approach works well to begin the
series and establish them.  Old Spenser For Hire fans can still se some of
Hawk in Ben Sisco.  But since Hawk was always my favorite character on
that show, this is not a problem.

As I remember, the Borg situation was left with the Enterprise crowd
agreeing that the Borg had hopes of being more human.  Picard wanted to
waste them as totally evil beings, but he turned around as well.

No such turn around yet for the Cardassians.

Babylon 5 has potential.  I just hope they will make something good of it.

When is B5 on?  We saw it tonight, but it was a rerun of last week's
episode, so we figured it must not be the "regular" night for B5.

Last I heard, there were no more episodes forthcoming until the fall,
assuming that the Prime Time Entertainment Network picks it up.  I'd
suggest writing to Channel 20 and letting them know you liked it.

Egad, if they wait until Fall, we'll have all but forgotten about it.
What's with the networks these days, anyway?  (Reruns in the Winter,
new shows in the Summer...no stability at all).

   Thats because their world has been turned upsidedown by cable.

When does TEK WAR air?  I couldn't find it in TV GUIDE.

Last night...

I missed it?  sheesh!  I guess I wasn't paying that much attention...

I actually like Battlestar Galactica, but not Buck Rogers.
Space 1999 isn't so bad.  I like Mia but that's about it.
I also like Nickeloedeon's series THE TOMMOROW PEOPLE.
Okay, so it's low budget in the psionics department, but
if those kids had too much power the show would suck worse
than the first one.  If some kid is threatend with the deaths
of friens or their family members, THEY ARE GOINF TO HAVE THE
GUTS TO PULL THE TRIGGER.  The real reason I didn't like it is
because the once person who died was brought back to life by
one of the kids.  Talk about stupid.

Hey, is the Tomorrow People back on nick?  I used to watch that one
a lot quite a few years ago...

Yes, every Saturday.

vidar Space 1999 was AWFUL!!!  And not everyone has the guts to stand there
and pull the trigger face to face.  I can remember debating the killing
of a woodchuck that was trapped under some fallen timber, it was chewing
the hell out of my dog, but it took me four or five tries to pull the trigger
once I had the bead on it.

Death is easy at a distance, but up close and personal, it can be very hard.

Look, if somebody had been threatening to kill one of your friends' mothers,
would you be too much of a wuss to pull the triger?  I think not.
Okay, so maybe you would.  But I know I wouldn't.

how?

With my finger!

Re: #21,22,23
I think the "how" in the last response should be translated into:
"How do you know you could pull the trigger?"

Have you actually done it?

You may believe that if someone you care about is being threatened, that you
will have the courage, will, nerve, balls, whatever, to put a gun to 
someone else's head, look them in the eye, and pull the trigger.

But I believe that *NO ONE* really *knows* whether they can really do this
until they are faced with the actual situation and have to make that choice,
we might like to *believe* we are capable of it, but until you have actually
had to make the decision, you can't *know* it.

Once when I was at remote rifle range and the command was still "Fire at Will,"
I readjusted my aim and fired.  Luckely it was a blank, and I was just being
an asshole.

I like this laconic routine; get someone else to say it for me.  I should
practice it more often.  Thanks, Greg- exactly.
Vidar, that does't count- at some level you knew it was a blank.

Have I missed B5, too?  When's it on this week?

Oops, you did miss it.  It was on at 8 PM yesterday.  Try again
next Wednesday.  (Channel 20.)

Okay, but if I'm willing to stab someone at close range, what's the difference,
I'm still making them bleed?

adrenalin level? 

I can control my adrenalin in any situation, the amount of PSPs I spend doing
it differs on the elevation of the stress.  Is it against a friend, cousin,
etc.

excuse me, what is meant by "PSPs"?

It's one way of measuring Psionic power.  It means Psionic Strenght Points.
It is just one of the many ways of measuring stored psionic potential.

I found an interesting file on Usenet.  You might want to type

!more /u/kaplan/TV/xfile 

Anyone 'round here care about The X-Files?  I've saved a copy of the 
usenet frequently asked questions list about X-files in 
  /u/kaplan/TV/x-files.faq

I don't go for that type of stuff.  If I did, I would have downloaded it by 
now.

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss