I'm going to exclude the reality stuff, so sorry fans of Ghost Hunters, WWE and Face Off.....successful for sure but I don't want that skewing this poll
From the Sci-Fi 5 Archive: On this day in 2009, the series finale of Battlestar Galactica aired. It's a controversial finale. What do you think? My words are read by Ryan Myers.
it's always wild to me how few members of the BSG cast have had notable careers since the series ended. many were quite young at the show's beginning, and since it didn't drag on for seasons in the double digits, it wasn't as if it ate up their entire career. it was pretty well regarded for a SyFy channel show, at least for the first 2 seasons.
there are notable exceptions to this, obviously, like the cast who had significant careers prior (McDonnell, Olmos, Vernon). and Katee Sackoff keeps getting shoe-horned into seemingly every franchise on the planet (no hate to miss Sackoff, but i think we can all agree it is excessive).
it's just strange. the acting chops of that cast were next level. yet for the most part, their collective resumes are short guest appearances on other television series. hmm.
1. battlestar galactica (2004) - i watched bsg in 2011 at age 16 and it fired previously unheard of neurons in my soupy depressed teenage brain. the existentialism is off the fucking charts. the characters are SUBLIME. i still cry whenever i heard the adama & roslin theme song. bsg also sparked my love for sci-fi! before that, i mainly read and watched fantasy. i’ve been meaning to do a rewatch because i want to see how much my thoughts have changed as an adult.
2. warehouse 13 - what if some items were PLOT RELEVANT and had SPECIAL POWERS and a team of SECRET AGENTS neutralized their powers via dumping them in PURPLE GOO. fantastically fun show. you will cry though. and you will always think hg wells is a bisexual woman that looks like jaime murray.
3. killjoys - i lovingly describe this show as badgood television. one of the last syfy shows to embrace wacky 90’s sci-fi, complete with practical effects, stupid filler episodes, found families, and corny lines that only make the show better. there’s also two evil lesbians! who are in LOVE with each other! and oh my god just look at hannah john kamen…
4. star trek: deep space nine - still haven’t finished this show because it’s sooo fucking good and i don’t want to run out of episodes. (unfortunately that means i’ve put off watching all the other treks until i finish LMAO) the pilot made me sob and that never happens. every character is a genuine delight. KIRA NERYS….JADZIA DAX….BEN SISKO. has the legendary lesbian kiss scene that panicked conservatives across america. have i mentioned kira nerys
5. fringe - haven’t wanted to engage with fringe since learning about jasika nicole’s experiences on set, but it’s a fantastic procedural sci-fi show about weird science and parallel universes with wonderfully memorable characters. fringe also taught me about the potential for tv to explore themes and motifs in longform storytelling, which influences the way i analyze tv today.
I miss Syfy airing shows in groups which not only facilitated crossovers, but also illuminated a lot of hindsight implications as to the culture's genre and irl preoccupations were at the time.
We went from Farscape/Lexx to Stargate/BSG to Eureka/WH13 (/Sanctuary) to Haven/Lost Girl (/Merlin?) to Defiance/Continuum to Bitten/Z Nation to Dark Matter/Killjoys/Expanse/12 Monkeys (/The Magicians) to Wynnona Earp/Van Helsing, and each grouping has fairly noticeable common themes. That some years were entirely duds of single-season failures are analyzable for the fact that entire years tended to lose together (for various possible reasons).
Unfortunately, the streaming age hangover has now broken the pattern and everything is 1-season duds. Industry is on fire, hoorayyyyy
This is the new trailer for the upcoming BSG cash cow prequel ”Caprica,” which will be showing on the newly named “SyFy” channel ( did this channel really need the sexy phonetic makeover?)
Analysis of the trailer informs me its a mix between Gossip Girl and Frankenstein BUT WITH ROBOTS…. and James Marsters (1.01 for those who want to skip straight to the good part)
This trailer does not exactly fill me with a sense of awe or arousal, in fact it looks rather preditable, boring and the use of the term “frak” didnt even give me that sense of homeliness it once did. Plus I am not the first to comment on the lack of big arse spaceships. I assume the guys decide to bring their daughters back from the dead as cylons but one is the “evil” one and one is the “good” one and there is some kind of unease and misunderstanding and a shady government official gets involved and someone dies.
Excluding specifically Stargate SG1/Atlantis/Universe/, BSG, and Farscape (we'll get back to those and yes Farscape started in the 90s and SG1 had the first five seasons on another network in the 90s )