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

SciFi is a broad, broad subject. In multiple media. It shouldn't be split along the Atlantic, the stories are remarkably similar, with a lot of cross-pollination. However, the way that stories are brought to life on either side of the pond are significantly different.

Looking at the most commen medium people will see science fiction, the television. US churns out huge amounts of the stuff. A great wave of SciFi and Genre shows are produced, but they have a huge market there - 250 million people in the US. The UK has a much smaller market, 60 million people and so produces a lot fewer, but more of them are more finely crafted.

The US market is easier to break into, more eyes, more chance of your show being seen, however it is also less forgiving. A show does not get the viewers then the guillotine falls and studio execs wield greater power. The UK has a harder market to break into, but is more forgiving, allowing series to grow and expand. The end result is that both countries can produce excellent SciFi and Genre shows, just the US is a bit more wasteful.

So the US can produced gems such as B5, GvsE and Firefly and then craps all over them - these are all excellent shows, all buggered about with by studio execs and destroyed (even B5, that last, tacked-on series 5 grrrr!), but to get to them you wade through miles of Andromeda and (sorry to say) Star Trek. The UK has its SciFi heritage but recently (well, slightly recently) there was Ultraviolet, Strange and there must be another one (Gods, there must be, but I cannot think of one).

The best SciFi production, however, came about as the closest thing to a joint production between the UK and US - Farscape. Henson (Arguably a very UK-centric company with the London branch producing a lot of the animatronics to begin with, and hiving off to form Henson Oz)and the US SciFi channel joined forces to produce this in Australia, and really pushed the boat out. Inventive, witty, dark, serious, comic this show was is still current pinnacle of what can be done.

Well, that should do it for the TV, maybe onto the books when I get a chance Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

Agreed on most points, but could someone explain why Farscape was considered so good to me? I watched it for awhile, but it always left me feeling sort of letdown - and I mean EVERY EPISODE I watched of it left me feeling that way.

The effects were great, and the characters intriguing, but I always felt the writing and acting never quite lived up to the possibilities. And the whole setup just sort of seemed contived, if not done to death already (Human slips through a Wormhole-time warp-black hole-whatever and then has adventures somewhere else - it's been done many times before...).

Maybe I'm missing something here, so I'm willing to hear others explain to me why it was so good with an open mind....