sci-fi is all about the **sustained** quality of writing and the use of real imagination, rather than using recycled plots. if good writing isnt there, then truly nothing can save the show. This is why Farscape, for all of its faults, was still entertaining sci-fi. This is also why "star trek enterprise" was bottom-of-the-barrel bad.

I'm a pretty big Sci-Fi fan. If it's sci-fi I'll pretty much watch anything. In recent years I faithfully watched Firefly (incredibly awesome), Terminator (terrible writing and worse plot and pacing but still compelling just because it was Terminator and Summer Glau is awesome), Dollhouse (Joss Whedon just can't get a break lately), Alcatraz (Sam Neil was the only good thing it had going for it besides a decent premise that they squandered), Terra Nova (which had virtually nothing going for it beyond dinosaurs, yet I still watched it) and Caprica (which was excellent if sometimes a bit plodding) and all were summarily cancelled. Now we're stuck in a huge sci-fi drought. Which might be the reason that after watching the pilot of "Defiance" I am shocked to discover that I liked it. I mean I really liked it. You can pick a million things about it to harp on as being 'off' in some manner or another, but I hate that shit. If something entertains me then it's good enough in my book. And I was indeed entertained by the "Defiance" pilot, and see a lot of promies for the future if it comes together like I hope it will. If all that makes me somehow "less intelligent" in your book then fine, but I honestly don't give a rat's ass.

netnerd85 wrote on May 12, 2013, 03:22:

Ant wrote on May 11, 2013, 21:43:
I also couldn't get into Defiance show/series after two episodes.

Lol, you have to watch more than that to get into a show sometimes. Took half a season for the Event to "get good", then it was cancelled It was still a bit meh, better than Flashforward show, not as good acting but still a bit better. What else didn' survive that period... V? eh... that was...

I try not to watch shows until there is 2 seasons now. You can deal with 2 seasons. 1 season of a show is just a tease.

I will return when it gets better. I am enjoying Oprhan Black though, but last night's episode was a meh!

Ant wrote on May 11, 2013, 21:43:
I also couldn't get into Defiance show/series after two episodes.

Lol, you have to watch more than that to get into a show sometimes. Took half a season for the Event to "get good", then it was cancelled It was still a bit meh, better than Flashforward show, not as good acting but still a bit better. What else didn' survive that period... V? eh... that was...

I try not to watch shows until there is 2 seasons now. You can deal with 2 seasons. 1 season of a show is just a tease.

ViRGE wrote on May 11, 2013, 18:58:
Unfortunately the H.G. Wells spinoff is dead. W13's "3… 2… 1…" was the backdoor pilot, and while it did well SyFy(NBC Uni) decided to produce Defiance instead.

I haven't seen any news stating it's been killed off, do you know different? It may very well look like it's never going to happen but... never know. Time is ticking, they probably don't have any money left though

I also couldn't get into Defiance show/series after two episodes.

They probably don't have the money to do that.. they can't even show the CGI up-close because they have no budget for it.. so how would they do an entire episode about the space battle and invasion?

netnerd85 wrote on May 11, 2013, 16:31:

Agent.X7 wrote on May 11, 2013, 15:13:

netnerd85 wrote on May 11, 2013, 03:36:

Jack9 wrote on May 10, 2013, 20:29:
It's better than Haven or Warehouse 13 or Eureka or any of the half-assed scifi that was dominating TV the years before. I can't understand the undeserving vitrol Defiance is getting. There's literally nothing wrong with the show and lots of things right. If you didn't like the pilot episode, I'm not sure your opinion is in line with the general scifi audience. I had to live through the first seasons of ST:TNG. You don't know terrible son.

I'm sorry, what's wrong with Warehouse 13, apart from that annoying hipster bitch and that new... thing... they brought in for the B team.

Okay, so it's heading downhill but it's still been good previously.

Hoping they make that H.G. Wells spin off show...

Not likely considering H.G. is played by one of the stars of Defiance.

She has left herself open apparently and it's the same channel... so little conflict there. She can be killed off I am sure, who would pass up a leading role in their own show? no actor.

Unfortunately the H.G. Wells spinoff is dead. W13's "3… 2… 1…" was the backdoor pilot, and while it did well SyFy(NBC Uni) decided to produce Defiance instead.

Agent.X7 wrote on May 11, 2013, 15:13:

netnerd85 wrote on May 11, 2013, 03:36:

Jack9 wrote on May 10, 2013, 20:29:
It's better than Haven or Warehouse 13 or Eureka or any of the half-assed scifi that was dominating TV the years before. I can't understand the undeserving vitrol Defiance is getting. There's literally nothing wrong with the show and lots of things right. If you didn't like the pilot episode, I'm not sure your opinion is in line with the general scifi audience. I had to live through the first seasons of ST:TNG. You don't know terrible son.

I'm sorry, what's wrong with Warehouse 13, apart from that annoying hipster bitch and that new... thing... they brought in for the B team.

Okay, so it's heading downhill but it's still been good previously.

Hoping they make that H.G. Wells spin off show...

Not likely considering H.G. is played by one of the stars of Defiance.

She has left herself open apparently and it's the same channel... so little conflict there. She can be killed off I am sure, who would pass up a leading role in their own show? no actor.

.net_Drifter wrote on May 11, 2013, 04:43:

RaZ0r! wrote on May 11, 2013, 03:54:
I'm still mad Firefly was cancelled.

You know, I watched the movie and liked it. Not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but nowhere near bad. I saw maybe 2, 3 episodes of the show and it was also pretty good, but not great, so I just do not get the extreme love people have for Firefly.
I read somewhere it was due to it being a "cowboys in space" type thing, which had never been done before, or something like that.
The cowboys in space theme is old. Battle beyond the stars, there was a space cowboy NAMED space cowboy. Then lets turn to anime. Galaxy Express had a bit of a space western theme in it in places.
Hell, even old scifi books. I seem to remember one called Santiago, vaguely, that was kind of cowboys in space in terms of theme.
As for the characters in it, I've either read or watched something that had someone just about like them in terms of personality or characterization, so I don't really see what was all that new here.
Another show I don't really get the love for was Stargate. Well, all Stargate series for that matter. I liked the movie, would have liked to see a sequel, but the series, none of them could I get in to.

It wasn't the concept so much as the magical casting of the shows stars. Sometimes you get a cast that just gels so well it actually makes a mediocre show great. (Castle, IMO. It's a boring procedural without the awesome interactions of Nathan Fillion and crew.) If they rebooted Firefly with a different cast, it would probably not be that great.


[Mal refuses to kill the prone, humiliated Atherton.]
Sir Warrick: You have to finish it, lad. [Mal doesn't move] You have to finish it. For a man to lay beaten, yet breathing? It makes him a coward.
Inara: It's humiliation.
Mal: It would be humiliating, having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the mark of a great man.
[He lightly stabs Atherton.]
Mal: Guess I'm just a good man.
[He repeats the poking.]
Mal: Well, I'm all right.

netnerd85 wrote on May 11, 2013, 03:36:

Jack9 wrote on May 10, 2013, 20:29:
It's better than Haven or Warehouse 13 or Eureka or any of the half-assed scifi that was dominating TV the years before. I can't understand the undeserving vitrol Defiance is getting. There's literally nothing wrong with the show and lots of things right. If you didn't like the pilot episode, I'm not sure your opinion is in line with the general scifi audience. I had to live through the first seasons of ST:TNG. You don't know terrible son.

I'm sorry, what's wrong with Warehouse 13, apart from that annoying hipster bitch and that new... thing... they brought in for the B team.

Okay, so it's heading downhill but it's still been good previously.

Hoping they make that H.G. Wells spin off show...

Not likely considering H.G. is played by one of the stars of Defiance.

Crustacean Soup wrote on May 11, 2013, 13:39:
Do you get Continuum in the US

No. The US is not allowed access to Continuum. US is missing out.

US is aware of Continuum though, but they poke fun at it, out of jealousy though.

At what point are they going to explain in detail how Earth got the way it is. Yes I know it was terraformed, but the show should've started off explaining the back story, then get into the soap opera bullshit. I don't care for the show so far, but maybe it'll get better.
Stargate is gone, and shows no sign of coming back in any form yet, so I guess this will have to do for now, as I keep waiting for something better.

Yes. Here in the US, SyFy just finished broadcasting the first season of Continuum earlier this year.

Do you get Continuum in the US or anywhere outside of Canada? That and Doctor Who are the only TV science fiction series I'm watching right now, though I haven't given this one much of a chance.

Just watched the pilot of Defiance, seems fine, why the hate?

ViRGE wrote on May 11, 2013, 00:44:

Tanto Edge wrote on May 10, 2013, 17:36:
I thot this show was terrible.
Has it improved since the first episodes?

It's getting more than 2 million viewers per episode; for SyFy that's a small miracle right now. W13, their otherwise reigning champion, is down to below 1.5 million. SyFy will renew anything getting over 2 million viewers right now, no matter how bad it is (and yes, Defiance is pretty bad).

Mr. Tact wrote on May 11, 2013, 00:32:
Even if Defiance is bad, you aren't much of a sci-fi fan if you are giving up on the show after only four episodes.

On the contrary. A well seasoned sci-fi fan should be able to tell the difference between science fiction and a soap opera. Defiance may have guys in rubber masks, but it's definitely a soap opera.

The difference is that Defiance can get really good, as soon as they stop dicking around in that 1 city and start exploring the world. Should they continue doing that in season 2 the show is dead.

.net_Drifter wrote on May 10, 2013, 19:59:

dj LiTh wrote on May 10, 2013, 19:24:
LOL just wow! I've forced myself to watch a few episodes hoping it might get better or plug the major plot holes or try to do something....hell ANYTHING that resembles actual science fiction. Nope not so far. Thats it for me, even morons need shows i guess.

BTW Why has this pure filth got picked up for a 2nd season yet BSG Blood and Chrome didnt get the green light for a 1st season after those excellent webisodes?

Personally, I liked the first 3 seasons of BSG but didn't really care for the last season. In fact, over time I've come to feel as though the last season was crap. If I had to compare it to a meal, it would be like getting a tasty multi course meal, and then being served a shit sandwich for desert. With that kind of bad taste in my mouth, I've pretty much avoided anything BSG related since, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Yup, this is me as well. I still haven't watched the last 5-6 episodes of season 4, just read about what happens and saw a clip from the last 2-3 minutes. For me it became clear the writers had no idea where they wanted to go with the story. I lost interest after they rescued the colony folks from the cylons. I watched much of season three out of hope that it got better and I got bored by it all.

The Defiance game looks interesting but I'm rather burned out on MMOs lately. I can't even get motivated to play guildwars2 or finish one character in Old republic.

Edit: "Don't you talk bad about SGU."

How can one not? I think they set the tone for that show in the first 5 minutes when you had the Lt. McRack/Lt. Boobs making out in the broom closet with the air force Lt. dude. Later on IIRC, the dude was making out with the senator's daughter. Ooh, drama! The producers/actors got mad at some critics for calling the Lt with nice breasts those names too. Uh, she was pretty and used mostly as eye candy. They weren't subtle about it. I made it 11 or 12 episodes before I lost interest.

This comment was edited on May 11, 2013, 12:38.

SyFy sucks, end of story !!! they killed my favorite shows, and dont even want to see any of their productions.

Isn't that what all the content producers do?