One of the biggest hits ever for the Sci-Fi Channel was the revival of the Battlestar: Galactica TV series. The list of awards the series pocketed during its four-season run is very long and diverse, ranging from Hugo and Saturn awards to Emmys, VES awards, and pretty much everything in between. Many consider this series the pinnacle of the channel’s original programming – and they are right, at least in part. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there, especially after the channel has been renamed to SyFy.
Many of the channel’s original programming has failed to live up to the public’s expectations. One notable exception is “The Expanse”, with its second season being one of the 10 must-watch TV series this year, especially for true science fiction fans, which won a Hugo for the channel for the first time since Battlestar: Galactica. Otherwise, its list of past programming is filled with series that are gone, often because of the viewers losing interest in them completely.
And there were quite a few interesting concepts among them, too. One of them, Blood Drive, was the goriest series we’ve had the chance to see for years, with cars running on human blood, roadside diners serving human burgers to their patrons, and innocent-looking youngsters spreading gruesome diseases – and these are just a handful of the series’ episodes. When taken in small doses, the series was a lot of fun – unfortunately, it was cancelled the day its final episode was aired.
The channel also had several series that took an intriguing setting and turned them into shows that somehow failed to capture the viewers. One of these was Dark Matter, a series following a bunch of people after they wake up with their memories erased on board a spaceship, in an often hostile environment. The series received average ratings at best during its three-season run and got cancelled this September.
Sometimes, it’s not the channel’s fault that things go haywire. Helix, one of the most impressive shows in the channel’s post-Galactica lineup, received mixed reviews from critics (some even said it was “funny” to a point – its fans perhaps wouldn’t agree). While the first season was hectic, often inconsistent, and slow-paced at times, it did work. Unfortunately, in the second season of the series, the fine satire and thrills from the first have evaporated, leaving a dull and slow show that most fans of the first season couldn’t follow to the end.
Something is very wrong over at SyFy. The channel that gave us series like Eureka and Warehouse 13, Stargate Atlantis and Z Nation, and Battlestar Galactica, seems to have lost its touch, delivering mediocre content at best. Hopefully, they will find out what and fix it because, with so many contenders delivering quality science-fiction television, it will be hard for the channel to stay meaningful in the future.
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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