Syfy wants a new space opera series to replace BSG and Farscape

Got any ideas?

Personally, a new Lost In Space series isn't a bad idea.

Trekmovie.com is obviously pushing for a new Star Trek series, but that's something I don't see happening anytime soon. It seems like Trek is destined for the big screen, for the foreseeable future.

 

I'd watch a BSG spinoff on the first Cylon War with William 'Husker' Adama of Saul Tigh as the main characters. Very similar to the flashbacks done in Razor. In fact, I'd probably like seeing that more than Caprica.

If the Firefly cast hadn't all moved onto new projects I'd definitly advocate a new series of Firefly. I do realize it will never happen but I'd love to see it.

Honestly, I think the premise of Stargate Universe is going to give Syfy (I hate that name) a new space opera. Seems very Voyagerish to me with the whole 'we have to get home' story arc.

 

I find it ironic that they're looking for something like Firefly. There's a Whedon quote floating around somewhere stating he tried to get them to pick up Firefly after Fox canceled it and they turned him down saying it was too "science fictiony" for them.

 

Perhaps I should send them my Endtime concept

 

Space: Above and Beyond - The Next Generation?

 

A new version of Blake's 7 could be cool. OK, they'd probablly show everyone sleeping with everyone else, but the way BBCs going, they'd do that anyway.

How about a Moonbase Alpha reboot? Only less goof-ball 70s junk stories of Space1999, and more SciFi-ish. OK, the original show was mostly just to show off models & effects, but as a more serious series, it could work. And leave out the shape-shifter chick.

 

Last I heard Sky1 were working on the Blake's 7 remake. That was a while ago though, could've fallen through since then.

 

Sorry to be the little annoying nerd over here but am I the only one who noticed that so far only 2ndQuest's suggestion is a space opera?

As for space opera I wouldn't mind seeing something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

 

How about a Star Wars Live action series?

 

That's coming, eventually. You can't replace a sshow like Battlestar. You can only fill its timeslot.

 

IMO the harder they try to replace BSG, the worse their results are going to be. They just need to make good shows without trying to replicate their success, and eventually they will come up with something great. It won't replace BSG, but it will be great in its own right.


And I'd say go for something original, rather than a remake. BSG being a major exception, remakes have a pretty bad track record in general.

 

The last thing we need is a remake of anything. I agree that they need to do something new. Firefly would have been perfect for cable, and actually had far less need for special effects than BSG as they could turn the show into a western backdrop whenever they wanted. How hard was it to put them on a western set and throw in some Chinese and laser pistols?

But that isn't going to happen and they need to get their creative juices flowing. I consider myself a pretty big sci-fi nerd, but Stargate hasn't done anything for me in a long time. Atlanis sucked IMO, and after the 10th space battle above Earth I just couldn't handle the ignoring of the obvious fact anyone with half a brain should have figured out what was going on.

I think it is sad that now that BSG is gone, Doctor Who and Lost are the only science fiction shows I enjoy, and depending on the episode one or both aren't really sci-fi. I've caught W-13 and Caprica, but neither seems fit to be really all that good.

Personally I think a Blade Runnerish future combined with a tinge of time travel is where they should go. You don't need massive space sequences to have a space opera, and I am sure it is a lot cheaper to have a story set on some type of Earth like planet than it is to do all the space travel stuff.

Of course if they are going to remake something, choose one that hasn't been done well but has potential. The Dune universe has lots of possibilities and also has the advantage that the spaceships won't change much and all the action happens on the ground. But again it comes back to the fact they don't have the budget to film in a real desert.

 

I agree that they're not going to be replacing BSG anytime soon. The closest they can some is to do whatever RDM says he wants to do.


As for shows I'd like to see, well, one above post mentioned the ridiculousness of Stargate maintaining the masquerade for so long. I fully agree- so, why not have a sci-fi series where one of the main focuses is one a world that knows exactly what's going on? Imagine how interesting SG-1 would have become had the writer's had enough balls to break the status quo and reveal everything. Perhaps it would still be on the air now.


My pipe dream, though- the absolute pipe dream- would be an Animorphs tv series helmed by RDM with all the special effects and darkness of plot to bring the books to life. There is so much potential for awesome in that.

 

Animorphs could certainly be very good either as a movie or as a TV show if done right. The show on Nick by and large sucked, but even they had something really good going with the constant paranoia, which is not unlike BSG in some ways. So I think someone could pick that theme up and run with it really well. And honestly, I'd be surprised if we don't see some sort of attempt at Animorphs sometime in the next decade.


As for a show where things aren't all secret, I believe that SyFy is already working on a remake of Alien Nation, which could cover that ground.

 

Oooh, I hadn't heard about that. Cool.


As for the Nick Animorphs series, what killed it was the lack of a budget and the fact they tried to market it purely as a kid's show. I'm rereading the entire series as the moment, and it is dark. Hell, one could make a case for BSG being softer and lighter. In fact, there is no argument, it is lighter.

 

I agree 100% with that. And it's a shame. I actually rather liked the casting of the kids.

I re-watched some episodes online a few months back, and it just made me sad. There was clear potential there that simply could never come to fruition.

 

Take another look at the original Blake's7. Everything about it, from the title music on, screams space opera (albeit a twisted one of anti-heroes).

Star Wars TV show could be good, if someone other than Lucas is involved. Listened to the commentary track for clone wars (painfully bad commentary track), and all of the worst gags or lamest notions in the movie were ones that GL wanted put in. That, combined with the overall mediocrity of the prequels, suggests that we'd be better off without the flannelled one's control over the project.

You know what? I'd settle for a good startrek TV show. haven't had one of them since... 1969? How about doing what George Takei has been lobbying for years, and have a show about Captain Sulu and the Excellsior?

How about a cartoon with legoes. CGI world where the lego people run arround doing whatever? Have the space ship crash into the castle, and the fire department and ambulance show up to clean up the pieces?


How about a good version of the Dresden Files. Done properly, instead of the stupid version that was butchered (ha ha, accidental pun) by SciFi

 

In my opinion, a good version of the Dresden Files probably needs more CG than SyFy is willing to shell out. I could be wrong, but having a T-Rex stomp around Chicago towards a giant vortex of necromantic energy is probably the sort of thing that needs either an animated series or a big screen budget. Not to mention fight scenes on moving trains, epic battles in Faerie, the fortress of the Winter Fey, demons of various types, human/wolf transformations, etc. It'd take a good budget to do well, probably more than SyFy wants to throw at it.


Personally, I'd like Star Trek or a Star Trek-like show, one that didn't take a typical "we've found another kooky alien civilization that's mostly primitive and keeps to itself, but has the power to destroy the ship, and maybe the Alpha Quadrant" every week approach. If it's Star Trek, the Defiant was a Constitution class ship, and DS9 had a ship called Defiant so it's not springing a new ship on an unsuspecting public. I'd probably make it a little harder edged than previous Trek - I'd probably have the captain HATE Kirk for getting to command the Enterprise before graduating, maybe having someone like Saavik in there as an ensign (and Romulan spy).

Even without Star Trek on the title, I'd still do something similar if I could. A Star Trek-like show presented as relatively hard military science fiction. There could be a war going on, but the primary cast of characters would be just one cog in the military machine, not the knights in shining armor that save the day at the end of every episode.

 

Yeah, but wouldn't it be neat? OK, each book would be it's own season of at least 6-12 episodes. While I don't mind expansion, keeping to the core of the stories would be good. The assault on Archangel, mentioned in passing and a plot point, could be turned into at least a full episode, if not 2, without destroying the plot at all. Heck, it would also be a good transition and show how the wizard/vampire war was going.
Yeah, it would be an expensive program. But not impossible, and not as prohibitive as all that. Looking at some of the other things that have been done (on Eureka, Dune miniseries, and other SciFi programs), Dresden Files is completely doable. Plus, they have a decent starting fan-base and a huge mythology to work from and expand. Heck, the Fists of God knights could even have their own spin-off series that would get the ueber-christian market.

 

I know its not space opera, but Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Series would be a really good idea for a TV show. The premise is that a West Virginia mining town becomes displaced in time after an encounter with a mysterious artifact from a hundred million years in the future called an Assiti Shard, and winds up in 17th Century Germany in the middle of the 30 Years War. It would be an intersting show because of the potential for on-going story lines spread all over Europe, the butterfly effect that results from the Americans' 300 years of foreknowledge and the mix of up-time technology,even after gearing down the Grantvillers are still able to build air planes and ironclads , with cool down-time enemies such as King Charles I and Cardinal Richilue.

 

Or the "Lost Regiment" series, where portals open up between planets. Once, an ancient race knew how to use them, but there was a war, and one planet was lost. The civilization decended into barbarism. Occasionally, a portal opened between that world and earth, and humans wandered through. The aliens discovered that humans were pretty tasty, so they set them up with their own forms of government, spead them across the planet, and went on the great hunt, stopping for a few months at a settlement, eating 10-15% of the local population, then riding to the next.

1855, a regement of Northern soldiers are on a ship that goes through a portal. They discover medival czarist russians, greeks, romans, ancient celtic germans, and Han chinese. As their yankee ways start to influence technology, and traitors in their ranks give secrets to other governments in exchange for priviledge, the Horde rides through and is willing to settle the Yankees, in exchange for their 10% tribute. Needless to say, this does not appeal to the Yankee's ideals. So the wars begin.

Would be a great series to have developed.

You know, given the great variety of SciFi properties that are available out there, if Syfy can't find one to do, then they don't deserve to be THE Science Fiction Channel.

 

FARSCAPE FOREVER

Let's face it, not like the actors are doing anything else.

 

Seeing some sort of space war from a grunt perspective, the trials and tribulations of the frontlines, the movements between different theatres of war, etc. would be interesting. Think of Band of Brothers in space. Take a leaf out of BSG's playbook and work on the interpersonal relations as a first aspect and how these people work within the situations they've been put into. Then add the mythology over the top of that. It could be done well, and for not a great big budget either.