Golden Age of TV Sci-Fi

Remember the 90's? Duff whining indie music, teenage angst, the clone saga and empty Hollywood blockbusters. Its possibly the first era where people decided to do a 60's revival rather than have their own era. However it wasn't all dreadful.

TV SF was on something of a roll. The late 80s had brought back Star Trek, but it was through the 90s that things really kicked in. As usual, what helped was the holy grail of any SF TV series, Crossover appeal. For time frame, rather than dredge years up from my memory, think about from the start of The X Files through to the Start of Buffy the vampire slayer, which inadvertently was a factor in the early 2000 slump.

The X Files was a rare beast when it started. It was SF, undoubtedly so, unashamedly so (Lost, I'm looking at you) but it also had a real populist appeal. Helped by being set in the here and now, as opposed to the future, using existing organisations such as the FBI and particularly before it spectacularly exploded in its own mess, featuring a nice mix of Conspiracy madness and urban folklore. The result pulled SF into the mainstream and, as always, everyone wanted a piece. The advantage of this was that for a few years, it was easier to get a genre show commissioned. For the fans we got more space opera, like the Fantastic Deep Space 9, the legendary Babylon 5 plus a few that didn't make it past one season like Space: Above and beyond. People were also experimenting more, we got small town weirdness in American Gothic, a much more SF take on conspiracy theory and alien invasion from Dark Skies, decent episodic stuff from the likes of Sliders, Quantum leap, while starting early really gained prominence, and should really be considered alongside the X files in populist SF and more fun fantasy from Hercules and Xena. Now granted many of these fell by the wayside, but they all lasted their season and most still have followings. Towards the end we had Stargate SG1 who's franchise would be the torch bearer into the next millennium. Weird stuff was even produced like Lexx and the next mold breakers Farscape and of Course Buffy the vampire slayer.

So, what went wrong. Well, SF started getting expensive, Shows like The X Files from its stars, others from the level of effects. Second was the great populist shows going. X files vanished up its own continuity, Quantum leap finished, and X-Files spin off Millennium ended, never having made as big a splash as its parent series (In fact successful spinoffs in the genre are rare, Trek, Stargate, Buffy and Hercules are the only ones). Babylon 5's Crusade series died under the weight of networks seeking something less cerebral and more populist, and indeed that trend continued in the 21st century. Trek was becoming the very definition of bland, with Voyager generally preferring to be TNG 2. We also had Buffy, which broke the mold and re-write the rulebook on what a genre series could do, and naturally started its own brand of imitators, although the quality was far lower. Newtorks also became more nervous about putting money into a series that would flop. Stargate and Farscape aside (Both of which pretty much lived under the threat of an axe) Space opera was considered a no-no, too expensive. In fact the networks also developed an alarming habit of axing shows mid season, so episodes never got shown, we lost a good few good series like Odyssey 5 and Serenity this way, Buffy ran on but its spinoff Angel again was unloved by networks (Surprising since fans and critics were on the whole positive) and when Enterprise failed, Buffy, Angel and Farscape all ended we were looking at slim pickings indeed, Stargate, Andromeda and Charmed.

But now we're in a new golden age, and once again populist SF is at its core. Lost hit out at all, and while it was a little more ashamed of its SF trappings it did prove that people will accept a slow burn series with some pretty tricky concepts. Space opera was back with the remake of Battlestar Galacica and Lost was eventually followed by the superb Heroes. in the UK, where most terrestrial networks had conceded all Genre shows to sky, the BBC relaunched Dr Who, which was so successful that they commissioned two Spinoffs. It also gave a healthy kick to other networks who started making and buying their own series. Variety and experimentation are now rife again, and we have a wealth of great stuff out now aside from the aformenentioned shows we have the fun Chuck and Reaper, the ambitious Sarah Connor Chronicles, the just plain weirdness of Pushing Daises and a bionic woman remake, all available on free to view channels. And a fair few seem to have weathered the writers strike to get second series.

Long may it continue.