![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Development News... Now that's more like it - I have Chapter 4 of TDD-609 ...Second Movement completed, and a decent start made on the concluding Chapter. Somehow - don't ask me how - I managed to come up with just the right components of an interesting sequence pretty much at random, and that "broke the ice". Colour me satisfied!
On TV Tonight... I'm right now doing catch-up on new BBC series Outcasts - yeah, the one I was convinced would be presented as "no, not science-fiction at all, no siree-bob". On the BBC website, the creator seemed quite keen not to get a certain label stuck to the sole of his shoe...
About the actual show: Outcasts - not the most appropriate title, but we can let that slide - isn't full-bore "space opera", nor should it try to be. It is completely legitimate to use a futuristic setting, even a drab, utilitarian one like this, to tell human stories - sci-fi fans can actually handle such things, and some of the best shows and episodes have been about just that. It's early days, but this can become something more interesting than it currently is - if someone drafts in a committed sci-fi writer, not some reluctant pen-pusher retreading ancient plot ideas circa 1st-2nd season Star Trek - Next Generation. Grade: B- Can try harder.
Okay, I'm done. Tune in next Monday for another edition of Outcasts Watch!
On TV Tonight... I'm right now doing catch-up on new BBC series Outcasts - yeah, the one I was convinced would be presented as "no, not science-fiction at all, no siree-bob". On the BBC website, the creator seemed quite keen not to get a certain label stuck to the sole of his shoe...
Outside the Doctor Who franchise, the BBC has had limited success with prime-time sci-fi drama.Why does sci-fi have to be "only for sci-fi fans"? Why this fear of stepping on the toes of the mythical "rabid geekdom"? Just stop - stop treating sci-fi as the shiny plaything you only take off the shelf and wave in front of the baby's eyes to pacify them when they start fretting. Why has the Beeb's sci-fi output been so patchy? Because they're unwilling to take a risk or two, just to please a "small section" of the viewing public they're so reluctant to admit exists - all whilst slurping up the juicy mechandising income from Doctor Who...
Even (writer Ben) Richards shies away from saying his new series falls into the genre. "I've tried to avoid labelling it," he says.
"It clearly has sci-fi elements, but I would never want to say this is only for sci-fi fans because I don't think it is. But I don't want to be patronising to the genre. ..."
About the actual show: Outcasts - not the most appropriate title, but we can let that slide - isn't full-bore "space opera", nor should it try to be. It is completely legitimate to use a futuristic setting, even a drab, utilitarian one like this, to tell human stories - sci-fi fans can actually handle such things, and some of the best shows and episodes have been about just that. It's early days, but this can become something more interesting than it currently is - if someone drafts in a committed sci-fi writer, not some reluctant pen-pusher retreading ancient plot ideas circa 1st-2nd season Star Trek - Next Generation. Grade: B- Can try harder.
Okay, I'm done. Tune in next Monday for another edition of Outcasts Watch!
