h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are any fellow UK SF H2G2ers watching SF-UK (late Saturday night or early Sunday morning on C4)? It was produced in association with the Sci-Fi channel so may be shown elsewhere in the world as well.

If so what do you think of it?

I'm rather enjoying it, certainly one of the better TV programs about SF that I have seen in a while.

On the down side there does seem to be a tendency to concentrate a bit much on television and movie SF at the expense of the more interesting sections on literary SF.

They also use the term sci-fi intermittently and it is unclear if they are using its correct meaning or its more commonly accepted meaning, something which makes the meaning of their statements unclear.

But nevertheless worth watching for any SF fans out there.

I saw the one about Crash and Ridley Scott and stuff, but I was so irritated by the flippant and wannabe-trendy presenter that I didn't really take much of it in. It did strike me a little like it was someone's science-fiction Media Studies assignment that had been erroneously broadcast. I mean, SF is such a huge and popular subject that it would surely benefit from a bit of serious prime-time coverage and decent funding, not just a few stills scanned from 'The Making Of...' books.

Still, nice to see that there is a little bit of critical thought going on about SF.

That was actually one of the weaker episodes that I've seen. The first one on HG Wells was much better (although it still had an unhealthy obsession with the movies to the expense of the novel).

Whilst I agree with your point that SF deserves a much better treatment by the media I think this is likely to be the best we will get.

Mainstream TV basically has one story about SF. It runs like this
"There is this form of writing and TV and movies called sci-fi. All the people who watch it are really really sad and dress up as Dr Spock with big ears. Lets laugh at a lot of them. Imagine being so obsessed with a stupid TV program. Ha Ha Ha. And now over to a two hour special on who shot who in Eastenders"
(Bitter, not me )

Z

Yes, people do tend to dwell overlong on the fact that SF is often a great deal less 'real' than more mundane stuff, and confuse conceptualism with escapism (ie people think that SF 'nerds' have to escape into flights of fantasy because of their inherent nerdishness, whereas IMO I enjoy SF because of its sheer inventiveness and potential for provoking thought).

I never knew Mr Spock had gone to Evil Medical School.

Nothing wrong with escapism. To quote from someone who I can't quite recall "Who are most opposed to escape? Goalers."

The Dr Spock thing was deliberate we know that it was Mr Spock but the type of TV programme I was referring to doesn't.

Z

On balance I thought SF UK wasn't bad.There were some shrewd choices of subject matter-Doctor Who and Jerry Cornelius,Gerry Anderson and Ballard,and an interview with Nigel Kneale! - and the presentation was thoughtful.Interesting defence of Zardos,too,though it didn't win me over.I do think there could've been more on literary SF-did it cover Wyndham,Aldiss,or Brunner,for example? Or Adams for that matter?I think it may have missed an opportunity in neglecting the current healthy state of Brit SF,what with Iain Banks,Peter F.Hamilton,Stephen Baxter and Michael Marshall Smith,among many other good writers(if any of the above where covered in editions I missed,well,I take it all back).Still,an honourable try all the same.Perhaps it can be repeated at a pre-insomniac timeslot at some point?

On balance I thought SF UK wasn't bad.There were some shrewd choices of subject matter-Doctor Who and Jerry Cornelius,Gerry Anderson and Ballard,and an interview with Nigel Kneale! - and the presentation was thoughtful.Interesting defence of Zardos,too,though it didn't win me over.I do think there could've been more on literary SF-did it cover Wyndham,Aldiss,or Brunner,for example? Or Adams for that matter?I think it may have missed an opportunity in neglecting the current healthy state of Brit SF,what with Iain Banks,Peter F.Hamilton,Stephen Baxter and Michael Marshall Smith,among many other good writers(if any of the above where covered in editions I missed,well,I take it all back).Still,an honourable try all the same.Perhaps it can be repeated at a pre-insomniac timeslot at some point?

I think it is quite unlikely to get a 'main strem' timeslot simply because serious treatments of SF are not that valued in the mainstream.

A shame.

As you say an honourable try and the fact that I found myself wanting to argue with the program sometimes indicated to me that there was at least substance there.

In terms of 'up to date' stuff they did interview Kim Newman who crops up in Interzone quite a lot so is part of current British SF.

Z