marathag
Banned
Why? Its ITV, coming off from from the Andersons UFO, not Star Trek, that oly started to gain cult status.
SF film & TV without "Star Trek" or "Star Wars"?
- Thread starter phx1138
- Start date
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
As sci fi is often a way to discuss contemporary issues in a safe way, Space Vietnam? Space Cold War (which ST was)? Square jawed all American heroes facing down Aliens who look rather like Vietnamese/Russians?
ST was decidedly progressive: women officers, black officers (ok same person), Russians, Japanese and Americans working well as a team, and Sulu only wasn't gay because Takei refused to do it despite his own sexuality I believe. That probably doesn't happen. So white male Americans in space.
ST was decidedly progressive: women officers, black officers (ok same person), Russians, Japanese and Americans working well as a team, and Sulu only wasn't gay because Takei refused to do it despite his own sexuality I believe. That probably doesn't happen. So white male Americans in space.
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
I'd imagine something like the United States of Earth resisting infiltrators, liberating fawning far away natives, and through guts and guns making the Union of Servile States of the RuskoNam Empire quake, nuke powered rockets chasing away spinning saucers. Then a big movie about space pioneers, a young son who sees his family slaughtered by Alienoqui heathens and single handedly bringing them down, saving the girl, who isn't his sister, and becoming StarMarshall.
Mark1878
Donor
That reminds me add a few more Anderson series eg Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and others to th SF series independently to ST
For other British SF
Quatermass
Terry Nation apart from the Daleks also wrote Survivors and Blake s 7
Also in the 70s was the Toomorrow People
You don’t get Space 1999 (and it’s great ships the Eagle) for the same reason as you lose most other “space opera” on TV. No SW. So no jumping on the band wagon and you also don’t get the example of SW selling toys (that they didn’t even have) so the TV shows and the folks investing in them don’t have the knowledge of how much money can be had from toys to help make a profit. So with no HUGE Sci Fi craze. You probably don’t see expensive Sci Fi on TV.
You probably lose some Sci Fi cartoons as well. And a LOT of Sci Fi toys don’t get mad either.
You probably lose some Sci Fi cartoons as well. And a LOT of Sci Fi toys don’t get mad either.
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
I'm sure there was a 90s remake of the tomorrow People. Given there's a lot of old shows being revived on kids TV right now we're probably due a new one!
Mark1878
Donor
As noted Space 1999 is a British production from a production team doing SF series from the late 1950s onwards why should they stop their successful run. It Was on screen BEFORE Star Wars so the investment has already been made
Now it is British so not expensive SF. See Dr Who and Blakes 7 for other examples of cheap SF all before Star Wars
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
But did ST influence those commissioning and writing the shows? I imagine they'd be different if they still exist.
Mark1878
Donor
Unfortunately is was in the 2010s and I tuned off after the first quarter hour w a s a gunfight. I thought this w a s totally out of character
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
I remember one from when I was a kid, mid 90s, unless it was a repeat of the 70s show? There's a history of good sci fi on UK kids TV: Chocky, the demon headmaster, Dr who itself, tomorrow People.
Mark1878
Donor
Yes probably but the core concepts would not change. The ideas came out of written SF as well as standard TV Tropes. In the early 1970s Star Trek was not this massive thing. I would expect the writers to be aware of it but the Anderson production was funded because of their own ideas with the same money source going back to the 1950s
FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
The UK might be more of a driving force for sci fi. As I say the idealism and progressive elements of ST would be missing in the US so UK sci fi might fill the void?
marathag
Banned
The biggest US impact on UFO were using US Autos as futuristic British ones from the just 10 years into the future of 1980, and Wigs would be really popular on the Moon, for some reason.
One franchise we might consider is Superman, along with other comic strip characters. Such shows could be a bridge to green/blue screen techniques that could combine live action and partial animation. Space sci-fi would be a natural progression, just later than Star Wars. The ET flying bicycle is a good example.
Also, without Star Wars, it might take time for the concept of the blockbuster to take off. Sure, there was Jaws, but it was the first Star Wars that really began setting records. Without it, there'd probably be a chance for New Hollywood to pick itself back up rather than the commercialized approach. Holy shit, let's not forget how movie merchandising would be probably take longer to come back without Star Wars.
If no Star Trek, would Battlestar Galactica get made? Alien might have given us a TV show on Space Marines vs. aliens along the lines of Space: Above and Beyond, or possibly something from Heinlein's Starship Troopers. of course post-Viet Nam War, an out-and out military SFshow probably wouldn't have been popular.