Discussion on Classic and Cancelled Sci-Fi Television

Greetings and attention on deck my fellow Starfleet

officers. This is your captain speaking Mike

the Birdman Dodd here from future imperfect and

I'm joined by my excellent executive officer

Steve Megatron Phillips and yes guys we are back

here on future imperfect recording for the month

of September. Um Yeah, this is our second future

improvement this month. I'm pretty sure actually

I think we did one at the beginning of the month.

Yeah, it was a pull over from GCR and Wars. Ah,

yes, that... I'm the Picard bitch and many other

memes that came out of that show. Mean and otherwise.

Yeah, both good, funny, and just some downright

mean. So yes, so last time we talked about Trek

versus... Yeah, I think it was Trek versus Wars,

right? Wasn't it? It was the original series

versus the next generation. That's right. And

in this show, we're actually gonna talk... Not

Star Trek. I know blast me, right? We're gonna

talk about science fiction television shows that

we really enjoy and maybe Where are they now

and just sort of kind of talk about the the genre

of science fiction in general because right now

the only science fiction shows I can think of

that are on TV off the top of my head are Defiance

Falling Skies Doctor Who That's it All I can

think of on major television, and I think two

of those are on stars, and Doctor Who's on the

BBC. I don't think there's anything majorly network

-y right now. I mean, they're all superhero.

They're all Gotham or Constantine or Arrow or

whatever. So I think now's kind of a good time

to talk about some of those shows that we used

to get. We used to have... Battlestar Galactica

on sci -fi. We used to have Firefly on Fox. Star

Trek was a CBS property and still is. And that

was syndicated across so many different networks.

I remember when it was a big deal. So I guess

that's kind of where we'll start today's conversation.

And we want you guys to get involved in this.

I'd like you guys to tell us what's your favorite

old sci -fi tv show that doesn't get nearly enough

love so you can reach us at feedback at thisweekengeek

.net subject line old sci -fi and like and if

you want to call into the show we we do listen

to call ins that number is 817 -717 -7202 steve

where do we start uh i guess what what shows

did you watch uh when i was a kid Um, I grew

up I was born in 1981. So I was in the I was

in the golden era of Star Trek for for TNG which

means I Saw best of both worlds happen live when

I was a kid, which was so badass. Oh, yeah I

used to watch that but a show I really used to

love I would love to know why this show doesn't

get talked about nearly enough Show us from Gary

Goddard and the show was called Captain Power

and the Soldiers of the Future. And what this

show was, you've probably heard of the toys.

It was about Captain Jonathan Power and his ragtag

group of rebels fighting against this guy called

Lord Dredd. And he led this biomechanical army

that wanted to digitize or put people inside

computers after the Metal Wars. And it was really,

really far ahead of its time. Because the toys

could interact with the TV show basically the

TV show could shoot at you and Your toy would

take a hit so you could die quote -unquote in

an episode But just the storytelling at that

time was really serious and they would deal with

some pretty pretty heavy hands I mean people

on that show could die Like you see people outright

murdered off -screen but you know that they're

dead. In the final episode of the first season,

as one of the main characters die, Chase, Chase

Pilot, or Jessica Chase Pilot, I think that was

her name, and she was Captain Power's love interest

during the first season. She kills herself to

try and protect the rest of the team, and that's

one of the big sci -fi shows I remember watching

as a kid. I'm trying to think if there was anything

else. I remember watching random Battlestar Galactica

episodes, but there was Battlestar Galactica

1981, which was stupid. We're not going to talk

about it. I remember Space 1999. Not very well.

I remember more of the model kits than I do anything.

And there was a show on Fox. Big surprise here.

And it's not Firefly. And it was a show called

Space Above and Beyond. And what this show was,

I only ever saw trailers of maybe 20 minutes

of an episode, but it took more of this exploration

idea. It seemed very, it reminded me a lot of

Battlestar Galactica, the reboot back in 2004.

And I just, I never saw much of it. I don't think

it lasted more than 10 or 15 episodes, if that.

So those would be the sci -fi shows I can think

of now I can think of campy ones like Cleopatra

2525 and nobody talks about that show or Lex

I never did watch Andromeda Despite, you know,

Hercules Kevin Sorbo kicking ass around the galaxy.

See I didn't watch that one somewhat. I Never

did watch Farscape, but I know it was a big deal

because it had Jim Henson Muppets in it or something

Aren't they making that into a new movie or is

that a different thing? I might be thinking of

I think they are or they were supposed to do

another one. I think that concluded the series

or something. There used to be a guy. It's actually

still going to be made into a movie. So I wasn't

completely off. Okay. Well, that's kind of cool.

I mean, that's the thing. I mean, when you look

at the early 90s to probably about the early

2000, let's say 2004 being the cutoff point.

There was a lot of sci -fi, or like, it was very

hard to not have sci -fi on TV. I think Voyager

was still on the air until 2003, 2004. The Doctor

Who reboot hadn't happened yet. Battlestar was

just starting to get off the ground. And I don't

know, it felt like it was a very friendly time

for sci -fi. I mean, there were multiple treks

on the air. There was DS9 and there was Voyager

was coming to an end Enterprise was still still

going and Nemesis would be the last one we'd

have in theaters before the reboot in 2009 with

with JJ Abrams, which by the way, that's the

show we'll be talking about in two weeks The

Abrams verse. Yes But do you think of other shows

like other sci -fi shows that were on then? Okay,

so what? As a child, what did you watch as a

teenager? What did you watch? I pretty much watched

Well as a kid, I remember watching reruns of

like Lost in Space and Like Six Million Dollar

Man You know kind of campy type stuff like that

like that fit into the the classic Star Trek

realm I remember watching some albeit weird Captain

Archer in Quantum Leap. I forgot about including

shows like that. Did you ever watch a show called

Sliders? Yeah, there was a show called Sliders.

I don't think I'd actually watched it. Oh! Let's

talk about Sliders. Oh my god. Okay. So, Steve,

you've got Netflix, right? Not currently no god

damn it someone give him a free month of Netflix.

Um SCP 21 on Twitter just just just give it to

him Okay, so sliders what it is. There's this

kid named Quinn Mallory He's played by Jerry

O 'Connell who you may remember from stand by

me as the fat kid He invents this thing in his

baby. He's trying to develop anti -grav, but

he develops this portal that can jump between

dimensions or alternate realities. It's not time

travel, though that does come into it later in

the show and not so much. And what happens is

he can slide through this portal. He can jump

through it and appear in another world that's

basically same place, same time, but everything

else is different. So he could go to a world

where JFK didn't die. where the russians took

over america or maybe um america lost the civil

war and it was always these really cool alternate

histories and it was uh it was quinn mallory

his girlfriend friend wade this black lounge

singer named um i know his nickname was the crying

man but i can't remember what his actual character

name was and his professor at the college Professor

Arturo, who was played by John Rhys Davies, who

is the dwarf from Lord of the Rings. And it was

an incredibly cool series, because they would

just do really out there things like, what if

dinosaurs are still around? And the thing is,

this invention, they had this thing called the

remote. The remote would trigger the portal,

right? The thing is, it needed to recharge. the

timer would change until basically a portal back

to wherever or the next sliding portal could

open but it would take say 36 hours so they might

slide to a world be only there for five minutes

but that world can be filled with toxic gas so

you could die um and they and they would use

this as like a plot device there'd be another

Alien race that would show up called the crow

mags and they don't like sliding technology.

They're taking over the multiverse Sort of thing

it got really friggin weird It was just it was

one of those incredibly inventive sci -fi shows

that came out of the 90s And it was on Fox later

picked up by sci -fi. I think that picked up

a third and fourth season Jerry O 'Connell left

the show there plays them with his brother Charlie,

I think Which they tried to explain that in the

show, and it just never worked. The best part

- So he went back and killed himself. It was

so weird. They're like, I've combined with my

brother. Now we're a new Quinn. I'm like, what?

One of the best episodes was one that was very...

Ambinguit? That word I can't pronounce. Yeah!

What my wife said in the other room. Ambiguous?

Yeah, that's it. They slide to a world. It's

the end of the world. They have three days before

our star goes supernova and the planet's wiped

out. Now, when they go to alternate worlds, they

can run into each other. The professor on this

world is an asshole. He's an evil guy. So just

before they're able to evacuate some people off

this planet, the professors get switched. The

world's about to blow up and it cuts to the shot

of the professor going, oh my God. So you think

the good professors trapped on the doomed world

and the evil ones with them. And as far as I

can remember, it's never made clear on the show

which one survived, the good or the bad one.

And I thought that was such a clever storytelling

device because I've never seen that happen outside

of like a cartoon. like, or the Star Trek mirror

universe with, like, the twirly mustache. Um,

so yeah, I always thought that was so cool. And

this was like, I said, this was an early Fox

show and they would take risks with, with, with

stuff. I remember it used to air Wednesdays at

nine, if I'm not mistaken. And that was a major

network show. And I can't think of many other

networks that took a lot of big risks of sci

-fi, although you would see them. on Saturday

afternoon, at least up here in Canada. You'd

see these adventure type shows. There was even

another show, I think it was called Land of the

Lost or? Yeah, I vaguely remember that. Yeah,

with the dinosaur guys and there was a guy called

Professor Challenger or something. Yeah. Yeah,

that show was friggin' cool. They also had a

show based upon this really obscure 1980s movie.

called the Beastmaster. And I only mention that

in a sci -fi show because in the second movie,

it involves a time portal and he comes to the

future. It's weird. Plus it's the fucking Beastmaster.

I also remember there was another show involving...

I think it was called Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,

but that's more fantasy, I suppose, than anything

else. But yeah, I remember that Land of the Lost

was really, really, really cool. That was on

Sunday mornings here in Canada. And what else

was on during that time? No, that's more fantasy.

I was going to bring up the Adventures of Sinbad,

but that's more fantasy, I suppose. But I guess

you could kind of bring that in. in this conversation

because there were more live -action fantasy

-type shows because during the 90s and early

2000s we had Hercules, we had Xena, Young Hercules

was a thing, Sinbad, Cleopatra 2525 as I've mentioned,

there was Lex, Farscape, Andromeda. I remember

another show I think it was called Mutant X.

Yeah, it was on Fox, I think. Yeah, and that

was like discount X -Men. Yeah, it was too. And

I did find it kind of interesting. I just, I

don't think it ever really went anywhere. Yeah,

like I remember seeing the advertisements because

up here, we have this wonderful channel called

Global. And Global Television used to make the

world most ridiculous. television ads that have

this over -the -top announcer guys this over

-the -top announcer guy He'd be like on Saturday

night watch mutant X and it was just so like

1970s trailer ridiculous stupid That you'd watch

it just because this guy told you to There was

another sci -fi show. I don't know whether you

saw this one in America. I think this was a Canadian

production and it was It had Dan Aykroyd at the

beginning of every episode. Are you serious?

Yeah, it was called Psi Factor. Yeah, and these

were real quote -unquote files that came out

of the Office of Paranormal Investigations in

the Canadian government. They randomly involved

black holes, time portals, ghosts, and psyche.

It was really friggin' weird. It had like Matt

Fruer in it, who's like the world's greatest

character actor. And it was just, it was really

weird, but yeah, Dan Ackroyd would bookend every

episode. And it was just, he'd come in, he'd

sit on the desk, put his hands on his knees and

be like, and that's the cases of the psyops or

whatever. It was so stupid. But it had this certain

kind of kitschy charm to it. There was another

show that I think was Canadian funded, but I'm

pretty sure you've seen it. It was kind of like

the Twilight Zone. Though it would air, I think

it aired in the same time as The Twilight Zone,

like I think these two shows competed. And it

was called The Outer Limits. Yes. And that was

a great piece of sci -fi television. And I remember,

I think it was like a three or four -parter type

of episode. And it was about these little spider

creatures called Sand Kings. And I think you

and I have talked about this before. For some

reason, I'm getting a random memory of this.

It may have been the Twilight Zone. Yeah, there

were these little creatures and they would build

these really complex castles out of sand and

they'd come from Mars and they could like talk

to people or something. It was really, really

out there. Oh, scatterbrain thought. I did think

of a more modern sci -fi show, but it didn't

survive past second season. Once again, what

network do you think had it? Fox. Yep. Terminator,

the Sarah Connor Chronicles. See, they should've

stayed with television. Their films just plain

sucked after two. Oh, God. See, three is barely

tolerable to me. Four is... ugh. I don't show

it up. Oh, my God. And it's really unfortunate,

because it seems like Fox is willing to take

the risk on a lot of projects. I mean, they took

the risk on Firefly, which was described as a

sci -fi western. They took the risk on hell,

even right now, even as we record this episode

tonight. Tonight was the first episode of Gotham,

which is the Batman -less Batman show. I have

yet to watch that. I haven't downloaded, but...

Honestly, it's not bad. It is not bad at all.

I watched Big Bang and then I played Diablo 3

before So but it seems to be like Fox and there's

there are people over there and I don't know

I really doubt it's Rupert Murdoch's a huge sci

-fi fan But it seems like that network's going

to take take chances now. You could probably

argue the CW formerly the UPN When they did smallville

Back in the early 2000s. You could kind of categorize

them as sci -fi cuz well, they've kind of done

a lot of that that sci -fi kind of Monsters and

all that kind of stuff I mean they've kind of

taken that on themselves and now they're switching

off the monsters and moving on to superheroes

so Which is a good thing. I mean I did appreciate

a show like Buffy the vampire slayer But I kind

of would like something that long running, but

for sci -fi, and I think the closest we've gotten

recently would have been Battlestar Galactica,

the reimagined version. And that series, helmed

by Star Trek alum, Ronald Moore, if I'm not mistaken,

I'm pretty sure I got that wrong. Someone's going

to correct me saying, you bastard. So feedback

in this week in geek .net. And it took... For

those of you that don't know, in short, humanity

lives in these 12 colonies, the 12 colonies of

Kobold, and we invented these creatures called

the Cylons to serve us. They're like, basically

robot people. So eventually we kick their ass

at great cost, and every year for like 200 years,

we agree to a ceasefire. They're off doing their

own thing. We know they're out there. Every year

we send a guy to this space station in the middle

of nowhere to talk peace, to talk terms. And

for under 200 years, no one's shown up. And so

one day, the Cylons show up. They basically wipe

out humanity. So there's only like 50 ,000 people

left because they nuke every colony in the 12

colonies. And it's basically the race to survival

for the Galactica, which is this big battleship,

which is going to be decommissioned on the day

when the Cylons attack to find a new world, a

place to call home. And it's this incredibly

dense and incredibly layered piece of sci -fi

storytelling headed by Edward James Olmos, who

plays Commander Adama, also Michael Hogan plays

his his XO whose name escapes me at the moment

and it's it's a lot of politics and sci -fi and

politics often dance with each other as We've

talked about on this show. I mean for example

Star Trek's measure of a man with data. Does

he have a soul? Is he a person or Other episodes

like that like basically talking about life or

talking about security within the Federation.

I know DS9 talks about it a lot when they deal

with anything involving Section 31. Stuff like

that. In Voyager, you could argue whenever they

discover a new species and more or less violate

the Prime Directive because, hey, why not? That's

kind of an issue as well in politics and getting

yourself involved where you shouldn't be involved.

Well, like, fast forwarding to kind of switch

angles a little bit. Yeah. What are some sci

-fi shows that you've watched over the last,

I don't know, even 10, 15 years that have got

cancelled with like one or two seasons that you

would have liked to have seen go on further?

Without a doubt, I can answer this without hesitation,

Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicle, because

that's a show I felt had a lot of potential.

They played with the idea of more future fighters

coming back. They also explain Skynet has screwed

up more than once. They sent a Terminator back

too far in time, so he appeared in the 1930s,

so he built himself into a wall and slept for

70 years. Another one, they have to build a time

machine in a bank vault, so resistance fighters

are dropping off parts and safety deposit boxes,

which only this captured T -900, which is the...

Cameron, which is Summer Glow's character, can

rebuild. And that's a show. At the end of the

second season, the show ends on a cliffhanger.

We discover the person we thought that was the

big bad guy is a guy, is a woman named Weaver.

She's a T -1000. But she went over to our side

saying, you know what, we have to stop this.

And Cameron sacrifices her memory chip or something

to this other Terminator. so it can learn feelings.

And they transport John Connor and this T -1000

to the future, and they don't know who he is.

Like, who the hell's John Connor? Why should

we care? And that pisses me off, because the

show's executive producer has openly said, I

will never tell you what would have happened.

Someone give this man some Kickstarter money.

Give me a TV movie. I want to know. Inquiring

minds. So that's a show that should have continued.

Another one. And Steve, did you ever watch Babylon

5? I watched it briefly there around the time

that I watched DS9. There was a companion show.

One of the only TV shows that get spinoffs, like

Star Trek and Battlestar, was a show. Babylon

5 had this series. called Crusader and it was

set upon another ship in the battle on five universe

and I remember watching it like three or four

times as a kid and I wish I could remember more

about it but I remember really really enjoying

it although everybody says it's really really

stupid which is unfortunate but that's a show

Sorry, what? I was gonna say, you know that they

are working on a new live -action film of Babylon

5, right? Oh, oh, I know. I wait with anticipation.

Um, but yeah, that's a show that I kind of wish

it kept going. And this one's gonna be weird.

This is a cartoon I wish that kept going. Star

Wars droids. Because that show didn't last very

long, like... Under it definitely didn't reach.

I'm pretty sure it didn't reach the syndication

limit of 62 episodes. I'm pretty sure of that

and I Felt like they could have done more in

that universe But I think it was the time that

it came out that it was all Lucasfilm wanted

to be all really kind of kiddie friendly and

I guess another one Maybe the Clone Wars series

though. It did get a proper send -off Netflix,

but I felt like they could have done more with

it because they teach Yoda how to become a force

ghost But he has to learn from the Sith and all

it's really weird Huh, I would have liked to

have seen one episode post order 66 But I guess

Star Wars rebels that comes out in just a few

weeks. I think um We'll answer that because it

takes place between episode 3 and a new hope

What about you know, that's that's good A couple

of shows I was going to mention. I don't know

if you've ever seen Flash Forward. I've heard

of it. What's that show about? It's actually

on... Well, it was last night. I knew it was

on Netflix. It was a show on ABC where a special

task force and the FBI investigates every person

on Earth, seeing simultaneous blackouts and awakens

with a short vision of their future. And so essentially

the FBI is having to piece together the future

from all these random people's Short visions

that they had after the blackout weird To prevent

and it's it's really freaking interesting and

then by the end of season one There's another

kind of cataclysmic event that happens and then

You find out that there's no more episodes It's

written by one of the Star Trek scribes Brandon

Braga So if anybody knows what they're doing

it would more or less be him Yeah, I guess I

mean they wrote Star Trek Voyager First Contact

and Generations so Yeah, so we can't land there.

Oh, there's another show that I forgot to even

mention and this is kind of a weird one My wife

watches this show and really enjoys it lasted

three or four seasons, I think. And it was called

Roswell. And it was about aliens living in New

Mexico. They were all grays, but they had human

form. And it was like a high school drug. It

was really weird. I watched a couple episodes

with Blair. Actually, I think Robert Patrick,

the T -1000 star is in it. Oh my God. I just

thought of a show that I just remembered. I can't

believe I missed. What was one of the biggest

sci -fi phenomenons? X -Files? Yes, exactly!

That show... I was wondering if you were gonna

bring that up or not. Oh! My god! Once again,

half the show is just me waxing poetic. Um, yeah,

the X -Files started in 1993, if I'm not mistaken,

followed two FBI agents, Dana... Dana Skelly

and Fox Molder, part of the X -Files division

of the FBI. Basically, where they put all the

weird shit. uh, the weird shit -o -files. And

Fox believes that aliens are real, the paranormal

is real, all this, all the weird stuff, he's

a sferbler, whereas Skepti-, whereas Scully was

sent there to be his partner, to debunk his stuff,

to be the skeptic. And over the course of the

series, they encounter multiple alien races,

one of them played very awesomely by Brian Thompson,

who's this great character actor, he plays a

guy called the Alien Bounty Hunter. You might

know him, Steve, as Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat

2 Annihilation. Possibly. You would know him

to see him. He's got a very distinctive face.

And one of the best villains I thought in sci

-fi is this thing called the Black Oil, which

is this alien that it takes over your body. The

only way you can notice it is by noticing the

black oil. film passing over someone's eyes when

they're talking to you, and they can generate

blasts of radiation, but if the oil's in you

too long, an alien gray gestates and bursts out

of you, kind of like alien. Oh, nice. Yeah, it

was, ugh. But then there were these, then there

was this weird storyline where there were these

alien rebels that wanted to fight against colonization

of the Earth, because this, the black oil aliens

are this destructive parasite. on the universe

and no one likes them. And it got really weird,

but X -Files would play with a lot of really

cool episode. There's another one called Kill

Switch. I think it's in the fifth season written

by sci -fi legend, William Gibson, the guy that

wrote Cyberpunk or turned Cyberpunk and wrote

Neuromancer would write an episode and it was

involving artificial intelligence. And it was

this thing trying to kill Molder by blowing up

like Transformers or having his computer track

him there, so bad things would happen. But it

would also deal with, like, paranormal episodes.

There was an episode in the fifth season, once

again, written by Stephen King called Chinga,

which is, you can think of, like, it was, like,

the whole cursed doll phenomenon. But they'd

also deal with government conspiracies. Some

of that, there'd be multiple special... insiders

that would help molders like Jerry Harding in

the first season as deep throat you'd have Stephen

Williams as Mr. X for a few seasons and it was

always They'd always play with sci -fi or paranormal

themes you very rarely had crimes that were mundane

they'd always appear really really really weird

and the chemistry between David Duchovny and

Gillian Anderson was amazing because people would

ship that relationship so hard and when they

almost kissed in the x -files movie fight the

future back in the 90s 98 i think i was one of

the few people in the theater that was like no

don't kiss you're gonna ruin it um fox molar

belongs to no woman i took that show way too

seriously like retardedly hard serious um but

yeah that's a show that It had a really limp

ending when that show ended, and the movie that

came out, um, back in 2008, I think it was, or

no, maybe 2009, probably 2008, was called I Want

to Believe, and it went more with the Monster

of the Week angle. It was so stupid. It answered

nothing. Now, there is talk Chris Carter bringing

the series back for a third movie to conclude

the Alien storyline, but... That's the thing

with certain sci -fi shows and I find this more

so with sci -fi Than any other genre show and

feel free to disagree with me here if the show

runs too long it gets stupid a Really good example

of this and I feel bad for saying this is Voyager

Voyager had a really weak first and second season

Well, Voyager fizzled out because it didn't know

what the hell it was trying to accomplish, and

it kept trying to mutate as it went along, and

still didn't know what it was trying to accomplish,

which is why it failed. And it sucks, though,

because I thought it had a really great ensemble

cast. It did, it just didn't know how to use

them. Yeah, like, I think once they brought on

Seven of Nine, and not to knock Jerry Ryan, that's

when the show, and it jumped the shark, and it

was at its peak, I feel, in seasons four and

five. There were some really good episodes in

six and seven, don't get me wrong, but that's

a show that maybe should have had a bigger plan.

If you could somehow start the series the beginning

of season three and move forward, I'd be okay

with it. There's certain shows, and I think sci

-fi gets this because it takes a long time to

establish the universe. Well, sci -fi, it's generally

a long journey. Yeah. Whereas you're looking

at other shows and it's basically a sprint or

a villain of the week type thing Like you look

at every cop show that's on TV right now. It's

freaking villain of the week Oh, yeah, it's there's

nothing there's nothing I mean, yeah, it pushes

the stories of the characters along a little

bit here or there but ultimately it's villain

of the week whereas sci -fi has Kind of villain

of the week, but they're also dealing with this

more comprehensive struggle along the way, which

I feel that Think that's kind of a lost art I'm

not saying that some of the shows out now don't

cover this because a lot of them do it's just

I Feel like they're not I don't know as strong

as they used to be because a lot of the shows

don't last very long I would say doctor who's

a really good example of episodic television

that you could almost jump in At any point and

get it almost immediately, but the formula stays

the same. They just restart it every every few

years so that they can reinvigorate it with new

you know a fresh start in case you don't want

to go back over the last 40 some years of continuity

which is kind of nice you can just start from

ground zero which which don't get me wrong is

nice if you like the show but it's it you know

i i think that that's the only reason the longevity

for that show has continued as long as It has

where a Star Trek it's fizzled out because it's

not because it's trying to evolve and grow into

a new show and it's focused on a new cast, but

I think because They get way too far off of where

it started. Yeah, I think in some ways the universe

has become stale Like in Star Trek for example,

if you look at the whole Pre Abrams verse, so

we're looking at everything Star Trek nemesis

and backwards Yeah, there were stories left to

tell, but the characters that we've grown accustomed

to and thought were interesting, their journeys

were over. Like, Voyager got home. Cool. Well,

for instance, they should have made a DS9 and

Voyager film. Or at least a television movie

of some kind. Well, regardless, they should have,

I mean, they should have skipped Nemesis, I mean,

or if they were gonna, well, never mind, skipped

Insurrection, which is just a long TNG episode,

move Nemesis back one, and then make some DS9

Voyager films. Yeah, I think DS9 is the one franchise,

I think, that really could have held its own

as a film. The problem is DS9, to the large majority

of people, is not as culturally relevant as TNG.

Which really sucks, because that, once again,

strong cast. But if you ask people who they remember

more, Data or Odo, I guarantee you the answer

is going to be Data. But again, I think that,

I mean, there could have been ways that they

could have united all three casts, being that

they're all in the 24th century. Oh, absolutely!

and kind of pushed it forward some and even if

they wanted to sprinkle in some of the original

series cast they could have they could have made

it like a best of cast type thing and had you

know some kind of a perilous event that's going

on across the you know the galaxy and they need

you know the best of certain crews like maybe

take you know for the doctors they get you know

Bashir and the holographic doctor or they take

you know several, you know, take maybe Data and

Odo and Worf and Cisco and, you know, had Janeway

kind of playing second fiddle to Cisco or, you

know, I mean, taking kind of a best of crew,

which I think that could be a fun topic to play

around with. Like, there could have been an epic

multi -part crossover movie event. Were they

going to have done this within the budgets of

their own shows, in theory? They could have but

it I think it would have been interesting if

they had turned that into a trilogy rather than

making Three movies. Yeah. Well, I even even

the next generation movies the first context

should have been the last next generation movie

absolutely And then because they kind of, I mean,

not that I disagree with, you know, Riker and

Troy getting married and moving off and, you

know, Warf and Geordi staying with Picard, and

I kind of disagree with Data's demise, whereas

I agree with it in the continuity of the comics

where he becomes captain of the Enterprise. So

I mean, there's all kinds of different directions

they could have gone and still given everybody

their send off without having to basically annihilate

the ship and the cast. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

and that's the thing with sci -fi. You either

have something fantastic and it goes out way

too soon or you have something fantastic that

turns out to be shit or because I don't often

hear things turning. I don't often hear things

starting as shit and turning out to be great.

I could make a case for Voyager, but I can also

make a very strong case against it as well. And

that's because Voyager is my favorite series.

So I could go either way on that. Another show

that, cause we're talking. Yeah. Oh man. Anything

Weedon touches. And that kind of is a good lead

into what I want to talk about right now. You

look at some of the, I was mentioning it. Network

shows that are sci -fi. One big one. I forgot

to mention Marvel's agents of shield This is

a show very much superhero based but it takes

a continuity that was established in movies and

has to expand upon it and it's one of those things

that I Mean we've seen TV. We've seen movies

turned in the TV shows of varying degrees of

success Usually it's the opposite. And Marvel

sits in a very unique place, or S .H .I .E .L

.D. does rather, the fact that it needs to keep

audiences interested between films. Like, Agents

of S .H .I .E .L .D. Season 2 has to lead into

Avengers Age of Ultron. Which means it has to

be enough to save people enough for Avengers

2. And I think, is Ant -Man out next year? I

think so. Yeah, so it's got Ultron and Ant -Man

next year, so it has to sustain that interest.

And that's a tall task. But the bonus side of

it is the universe has already been built. The

problem is doing it on a television budget means

that huge universe can shrink remarkably fast.

Which is a reason SHIELD was frankly very boring

in the episodes before the mid -season hiatus.

Well, they were boring up until Captain America

2 came out. Yeah Yeah, I mean after the January

February break because the Olympics Yeah, there

were some good episodes in there But you're right

after Captain America hit that from that show

it hit the ground running and didn't stop That's

what that show has to be all the time now and

that's I feel the challenge that a lot of sci

-fi shows are now gonna have to face they're

now gonna have to look at Building universes

that are interesting and they're like I said,

there's a few shows that are coming out now.

I Think have their work cut out for them Gotham

is definitely one of them. I Don't think the

flash has much to worry about Yeah, because arrows

already built the universe for well, not only

that but it's just the nature With just having

seen the pilot already Yeah, I don't have any

doubt in my mind that that show will keep going

Another show that will try very hard to establish

its identity is Constantine because I think it

will that'll be get compared to Supernatural

I think that'll be the big comparison it gets

but but the thing with Supernatural is is even

though they haven't announced it I'm pretty sure

season 10's it. Oh god. I hope so I hope so because

the things that they've set up in the last season

at least what they tried to set up not in season

9 but season 8 the season finale of that with

what they were doing with Sam. I think that's

going to come back into play with Dean in season

10 because of the events of the season finale

of nine. I have my theory, but I'm pretty sure

I know how it's going to go down. But yeah, I

think season 10 is it for that. So I mean, I

think Constantine might have a shot. It may get

low ratings only for the first season. based

on that nobody knows what the hell it is unless

they've read the comic or You know, there's other

shows like I don't know if Grim's still going

but I'm not yeah, you know that I Guess we could

talk about this very very very briefly Where

shows kind of get a kick in the ass? To kind

of keep them going and I can think of this I

can think of a Star Trek example and I can think

of a really modern example of this. Star Trek

Voyager got a kick in the ass when hot sexy Borg

showed up. Because the Borg is the one of the

biggest villains in Star Trek and everybody loves

them. Nobody hates them. It's kind of like the

Daleks in Doctor Who. You have the Daleks show

up, people will watch. The Borg show up, people

will watch. Put tits on a Borg, people will watch

and fap. Please don't call me sexist when I say

that. Sex sells this is very much a true thing,

but that was like that was that shows kicking

the ass It needed seven of nine. It needed Jerry

Ryan. Um Another show that's I think attempting

to get a kick in the ass. There's a show called

once upon a time They're bringing in the characters

from frozen. I think it was doing fine until

they hit the Peter Pan thing And I'm just thinking,

I don't know. The Wicked Witch thing, I think,

did all right. The Peter Pan thing just got to

be flipping annoying. And then the Wicked Witch

thing, I was like, eh, it's another throwaway.

Because every half season, they got a new villain.

So, I mean, Frozen won't last long. Honestly,

I don't see that going past five seasons. Yeah.

I don't think it should. I mean, certain shows...

should have a definite ending. And that's the

problem, I think, with Star Trek, specifically.

I can think of the show that had a definite ending

in mind, in my opinion, or should have. Voyager.

What was the goal of Voyager? Get home. What

was the goal? It seems like the end of Voyager

got kind of, I don't know, thrown together at

the last minute, like saying, look, you're out

of money, you're at seven years, finish it now.

The original, or not the original series, that

one was the worst off, but I think that with

The Next Generation, you know, they had somewhat

of an idea how they wanted to end it, you know,

like bookending it with Q and having the trial

of humanity be the beginning and the end. But

even I felt that was a weak series finale. It

was, but it wasn't. It was satisfying in some

regards, but not as action packed as we would

have liked. True. I mean, there could have been

something more. I mean, I did feel that there

was a lot of, I mean, I loved how everything

played out, but I wish there was a little bit

more action to it. Yeah. But not to make it Abram's

action. And then there's, you know, the DS9,

you know, they make the Prophet thing and everything.

It's pretty much battle and taking, you know,

command of the space station and the wormhole

from day one. And then by the end, you know,

everything's, it bookends too. Yeah, I think

DS9, I think has the strongest of the Star Trek

finales. Which is funny considering it was not

very highly rated by many. Which is kind of sad

because you look at all that was accomplished

in DS9, DS9 told a wonderful war story. It did.

And Voyager told an okay story of getting home.

Honestly that show was more about the crew than

the voyage Honestly, yeah, it was But I mean

there was so many opportunities to get home,

but Janeway had her pet up her ass so All she

had to do all she had to do was blow cue that

once Yep, if she would have said yeah, I'll have

your cue, baby, and then She wouldn't take it.

He would have taken him home and you know what?

Jam I'm gonna set the queue. You know what after

we do this erase my memory Okay That wouldn't

be very hard for him exactly like here's your

baby here your home now fuck off you forget everything

I'll see you later But I digress um so I guess

to kind of wrap this up There's a lot of really

good sci -fi out there unfortunately a lot of

it's been cancelled But there are some shows

you should check out. One show, I really hope

it gets a fair shake this year. Marvel's Agents

of S .H .I .E .L .D. highly recommend this show.

Especially if you're into The Avengers and Age

of Ultron, which comes out in May. There are

crossover episodes planned. Well, and season

two is going to also bridge up to Age of Ultron.

Yeah, like there's gotta be shit mentioned. Yeah,

it's and I think that this season two is gonna

keep running with the momentum that the end of

season one had so I don't think there'll be much

time to worry. Yeah, and that's another sci -fi

show I'd recommend you check out. I'm trying

to think of what else I might like I said, I

don't want to label this under sci -fi shows

by recommend people give Gotham a chance. Like

I said, I really wish I could speak about Defiance

and Falling Skies. I just don't know much better

than Noah Wiley as the guy. Well, I know of a

show that actually airs and is produced and made

in Canada. And then they show it here on Sci

-Fi as well. It's Continuum. That's another one,

yeah. Oh man, I just thought of one that we missed

and I can't believe we missed it. Stargate. That

show had a million spinoffs. I know, Stargate

was pretty long run and I thought that was going

to be like the Star Trek of the modern day. And

no one talks about it. Which is really unfortunate.

So if there's any Stargate epic, like really

big fans. Tell me what I should watch because

I've got the role -playing game based on the

TV series But I don't know anything about the

TV series Although I was gifted the first seven

seasons on DVD when I was younger still have

them So I know it's on Netflix. I'd love to know

where to start. So feedback of this week in geek

net I would love to hear some people sell me

on this series. That's off the episode to start

get Atlantis and thought it was cool I Really

wish I could say more about it other than the

fact But I know The Holographic Doctor's in it

and MacGyver's a guy. Richard D. Anderson. And

Bone Bridges, I think. Another show I'd recommend

people check out on DVD. If you want some really

interesting old sci -fi, I really do recommend

you check out Captain Power and Soldiers of the

Future. And for a new modern -ish show, if you

really want something that'll make you think

it's really kind of edgy, The reimagined Battlestar

Galactica. All these shows are on Netflix except

for Captain Power. At least ones that I've mentioned

-ish. Steve, what about you? Like I said, I'd

mention Continuum for a modern one. I, of course,

am going to pimp out... Agents of shield as well

and in Gotham and flash and arrow and those kind

of things Supernatural you can almost argue not

only is supernaturalistic, but it also is kind

of Between that kind of borderline that and sci

-fi because they kind of jump into all different

areas Even though that's gonna end Also people

should keep an eye out for Star Wars rebels that

starts out really soon Yeah, I'm actually kind

of excited to hear what's going on with that

I don't get the station that it's gonna be on

but I am kind of interested in that as well just

because It'll bridge the gap and between three

and four as well as Set things up represent sevens.

Yeah, so Yeah, um, oh one final thing I wanted

to mention the series is on Netflix. I don't

know if it's there anymore If you want a really

interesting sci -fi cartoon, check out Tron Uprising.

That was really good. Movies, take them or leave

them. Legacy was okay. Anyway, so for Future

Imperfect, brought to you by the good folks over

at Starfleet at SFI .org. Starfleet, the world's

largest Star Trek online fan club, we have been...

Steve Megatron Phillips. I've been Mike the Birdman

Dodge saying, live long and prosper.