Russell T. Davies’ new series is getting a name change.
It was once called Aliens vs. Wizards. The new title is Wizards vs. Aliens.
Davies tells BBC Radio that the decision was one made by lawyers.
“Coming up now we’ve got a children’s drama that we’re making out these new Roath Lock Studios called Wizards vs. Aliens. it was called Aliens vs. Wizards until a lawyer stepped in, but there we go. By Easter it will probably be called Chickens vs. Rabbitsor something… It’s a great big, fun series for Children’s BBC that will be out in the Autumn,” he said.
Ugh. There’s enough children’s sci-fi/fantasy comedies! Lets get some realism. Keep the shows like Outcasts, SGU, SCC etc. At least I have Game of Thrones and Walking dead but I still miss my space ships.
Lawyers? What do lawyers have to do with the name change?
If you want realism, why are you watching sci-fi? We need more sci-fi in our sci-fi and less grit.
I get where Skiznot is coming from & from that perspective I totally agree, but I also get Alverant’s point. If I was looking for realism I’d simply watch the NASA Channel. That’s about as real as it gets. But I do like a touch of the real in my scifi, or least, something beliveable enough to make me think something like what is being portrayed could become a reality some day…like what Star Trek is so famous for doing for the last nearly 5 decades.
Plenty of shows have had realism and fantastic elements. Gritty or campy that’s just tone, you can have either type full of sci-fi. I wold be perfectly happy with a cerebral non-campy non-gritty show, adult doesn’t have to mean gritty. Blah, I get grumpy when there’s nothing in the space sci-fi slot. I can enjoy the cleverness of something like Dr. Who but it just doesn’t have that suspension of disbelief for me. Most of the stuff on Syfy is supernatural not sci-fi so all I really have is Fringe but it’s not a space exploration show. At least I have Game of Thrones and Walking Dead for Fantasy and Horror. I’ll just have to get my space sci-fi from reading until something good comes along.
This story just set me off because of the Aliens; it had me missing my Trek, BSG, SGU, B5 type shows.
First, I really really want to know why a lawyer had to step in and change the name of the show… there’s a whole backstory there that’s killing me with curiosity.
As for the “where’s the scifi?” argument, I can only guess that the economics of entertainment play a huge role in that. The people who have the money to spend don’t want to spend it on space opera because they think they won’t get the 5000% ROI that the spend so much time chasing.
They think the only way they can even approach what they want is by copying something that’s already been done, but they’re also scared of copying it too many times or not copying it well enough to make up that ROI they crave.
So they do it cheap, wonder why no one watches it, blame it on the genre or the “saturation of the marketplace”, and they don’t try again.
Meanwhile, we’re the ones left in the lurch, and it’s likely to stay that way until someone decides to take a chance and try to even up the balance between creativity and commerce, because right now it’s tilted towards 102% commerce.
Like Skiznot, Sam, I too miss my sci-fi shows! At the moment the only real sf show is Fringe, which I love but indeed, no space exploration, I need that, I must have that! Till that time I re-watch my favorite sci-fi shows like B5, DS9, hoping we will soon see another space oriented show. Last year I read that syfy ordered a new sf script from Robert Hewitt Wolfe, called Starship Defender! I really was hoping to see that one being developed but haven’t heard anything since so I quess that’s also off the table! ;-(