Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

The Fall 2009 season is almost upon us bringing us sixteen shows in the Science Fiction and Fantasy vein, ten returning series and six new entries including AMC’s The Prisoner mini-series (see our Fall Preview for more information on each these shows). That’s quite a lot of television viewing, even if you only plan on watching half of those shows on a regular basis. Last week I gave my list of five must-watch shows for the upcoming season. Now it’s time to take a look at five shows facing some pretty big question marks as they prepare for their Fall bow. This includes one returning show that faces the task of winning back fans and four new shows that I question whether it is really worth our time to commit to watching on a weekly basis.

Not dead yet!

Heroes (NBC, Returns September 21st)– How much does this one have left in the tank? After a stellar first season (weakened a bit by an anti-climatic finale, though) this show has struggled through its two subsequent seasons. And this has lead to a significant drop off in viewership as the series tumbled down to only around six million viewers by the end of last season. The creative team just cannot seem to reconnect with what made the show great early on and the show has continued to deliver erratic episodes. Bryan Fuller returned to the series late last season, sparking some sense of hope among fans, but he quickly abandoned ship. Allegedly that was planned all along, but I would much rather see his name in the credits. So we have to ask at what does the future hold for this show? How many times can they kill of characters to only have them come back to life again (and we already know Tracy is coming back)? How many times can the time travel to reset the timeline? How many more characters can they throw at us? The show has just become tired and has to rediscover itself pretty quickly otherwise NBC (who remained patient with it last year) will most likely show it the door. And there is no one in the real world who can time travel and save it.

V (ABC, Debuts November 3rd) – Those who remember the original mini-series know that it was quite an event when it aired in 1983 giving us one of the biggest special effects laden spectacles ever to be seen on television up to that point. And the follow up mini-series was kind of fun as well. But by the time they had turned this into a weekly series, they seemed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Now ABC will put us through the whole cycle again, but without the mini-series kick-off. My whole problem with V, which became a factor from the second mini-series on (spoilers to follow), is that once the humans found out that the aliens were actually just lizards wearing costumes, what was the point for them to keep the disguises on? Those things must have been incredibly uncomfortable, but they continued to wear them throughout the run of the series. I was hoping that the new series would dispense with that and use some sort of transformation gimmick instead, but the preview trailer suggests not. This was something I could just never get past in the original version and will apparently have to deal with in the remake. I will definitely tune in to see how the new version looks, but I am hoping it diverges significantly from where the original went after the initial mini-series.

Stargate: Universe (SyFy, Debuts October 2nd) – Trapped on a starship at the far side of the galaxy with no way home, Captain Janeway and her crew must struggle to survive with only their wits in Delta Quadrant . . . oh wait. Wrong franchise! But still, it seems like we have the same story. Stargate: Universe follows the exploits of a team who, after boarding an ancient starship, get flung off into deep space and must try to find their way back to Earth. I have never been a huge fan of the Stargate franchise to begin with, so seeing that this is following the path of that other well know “Star” franchise does not really entice me into watching the series. Still, I admit that the previous two Stargate incarnations have been watchable and have delivered consistently competent episodes, so I will at least take a peek at the early episodes of this show.

Eastwick (ABC, Debuts September 23rd) – Based on John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick which also spawned the film starring Jack Nicholson, this series follows three women with magical powers who find that their abilities increase when a devilish visitor comes to town. I admit that the preview trailer peaked my interest in this a bit, but ultimately I wonder if this one will just be Charmed for an older crowd. The fact that this concept has been tried twice before on television and resulted in two failed pilots for both NBC and FOX does not bode well for Eastwick’s future. And ABC has not had a good track record recently in the Science Fiction and Fantasy realm beyond Lost for the last few years (though we have to give them credit for continuing to try). At this point, I’m thinking this will be one of the early casualties for the coming Fall season.

Vampire Diaries (CW, Debuts September 10th) – Oh my god! This series is going to be just the coolest! I mean I have all the books and Paul Wesley is just so dreamy , and . . . Oh wait. I’m not a fourteen year old girl. So maybe I’m not the demographic they are shooting for. This series is adapted from L.J. Smith’s book series of the same name and essentially gives us Twilight for the small screen. In fact, reading the descriptions of the Vampire Diaries novels, I can barely distinguish them from what I know about the Twilight series. But I guess that just shows how far off the mark I am from that target audience. I actually think that this one could be a hit for the CW (God knows they need one), but unlike Supernatural, which this will lead into, I doubt this will attract many viewers beyond its core demographic. They have to just hope that there are enough girls in that pre-teen to young teen range that will keep coming back for more of this.

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