That would be a really stupid thing for them to do and it'll annoy a lot of people.
If they end up doing that, I'll probably download the first 10 episodes but not watch them until shortly before the second 10 were going to be broadcast.
Talk about NOT learning your lesson. The downward spiral in ratings for BSG and Stargate started specifically when they split things into two 10 episode parts. They were on a high ratings streak and just stopped for no good reason. Other networks copied them stupidly thinking it was an equally good idea and ran into the same problem. Splitting seasons in two just means viewership will erode.
[QUOTE=croxis;164766]Why can I envision the Sci Fi executives standing around the table and discussing and planning things like the cylons do?[/QUOTE]
Oh, my God, I just envisioned the perfect season finale, combining Sci-Fi's dickery with Ron Moore's admiration of the soprano's finale.
INT: Galactica Sickbay. Roslin is in a hospital bed, with Adama and Cottle by her bedside.
Cottle: I'm sorry, but there's nothing more to do.
Roslin: (weakly) It's all right. I've known this was going to happen for a while now. I'm not afraid. At least we've found Earth, before the end. When does the Fleet make the last jump?
Adama: As soon as you give the word, Madam President. *Picks up a nearby phone, dials it to intership, and hands it to Roslin.*
Roslin: All ships, this is the President. Prepare to jump. *beat* Jump. (leans back in the bed, closing her eyes for the last time).
EXT: The Fleet beings jumping, ship by ship erupting in a flare of light, until Galactica is the last one left. When she jumps, the screen cuts to black as soon as the flare appears. We don't even hear the end of the sound effect.
Hold on the black screen for ten seconds, then cut to
INT: An unremarkable, bland conference room in an unremarkable, bland office. All we can see are Ron Moore and David Eick at the end of a conference table, and a large metallic Sci-Fi channel logo on the wall behind them.
Moore: You know how much that ending's going to frustrate everyone, right?
Sultry Woman (off-screen): Trust us. It's better this way.
Eick: I still think our original idea-
Moore: Shut up! Don't make them angry.
Gruff Man (off-screen): Smart idea, kiddo.
Pleasant Man (off-screen): Your families will be returned to you unharmed, since you were so cooperative. Raul at the front desk will take care of everything. You can go now.
Moore and Eick exit. The camera pans around, revealing that seated at the table are the eleven known Cylons (Sultry Woman was Six, Gruff man was Tigh, and Pleasant Man was Doral).
Cavil: They're gone. You can come out now, brother.
A door to an anteroom opens, and out steps a lone man, obscured in the shadow of an artificial plant.
Boomer: Did you see the final cut of the last episode?
Tigh: You think it was worth waitin' an extra year?
The man steps from the shadows into the light before he replies.
Rick Berman: I saw it, and it certainly was worth it. And I can say with full sincerity that I am [i]very[/i] pleased.
Hard cut to black, and "All Along The Watchtower" plays over the credits.
It is romor mongering at its best but this IS sci-fi we're talking about so its not that far fetched and reason enough to worry. Stating that the rumor was apparently started by a cast member is what makes me a little uneasy. In the past it's been the cast that have spilled the beans on things like this. I know it is very likely David Eick and Katee Sackhoff are probabaly laughing their ass off right now seeing the effect of their little hoax:D
They can be very convincing. After showing a friend of mine "Sex, Lies, and a Video Blog," I had to swear that Sackhoff wasn't actually going to be missing from season 3 because she was pregnant with Eick's love child.
Moore's attitude annoys me, he doesn't seem to care if they delay the second half or not. I guess it doesn't matter how many fans they upset now because there won't be another season anyway.
Worf
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
As discussed in IRC...
so they'll probably do it
i was just typing that
that way they can say that it was the fact that it was ending that drove away fans
and thus use that as an excuse to never do a proper story arc again
I really don't understand the Scifi Executives as of late. RDM has been determined to be odd, perhaps even crazy, so he can at least be blamed in part for that but the Scifi channel seems to act as if the budget problems came mysteriously out of thin air and are suddenly a world-changing problem. Worse, the only options they even remotely consider seem to be those which alienate whatever fanbase the channel has managed to recover from the disaster that was its last terrible budget-related decision. It is as if the network executives have never once even bothered to acknowledge that they even have an audience in the first place. Even before Farscape, SG1, Atlantis, Invisible Man, BSG, and the other projects that they have put so much effort into alienating the fans of, they were doing the same damned thing. Sure, some of these shows were faulty on part of the production staff, but the Scifi Executives often held a good deal of fault in their elimination of marketing or FOXesque death-scheduling habits. I worry about what they'll do to Eureka once it too grows bigger and more expensive than the other shows in their lineup.
God damnit, a little (financial) foresight would work wonders.
Moore also has to stop fucking around this season. We ended up spending nearly a straight season recovering from a strange attempt to make the story more "dynamic" by shaking things up at every turn but with what gain? Enough. Just get back on the story and end it already.
Well, if I recall, in an interview RDM stated his dislike for the stand-alone shows, told the execs it wouldn't work, and more or less proved it with the flaky four or five Season 3 episodes (and a couple in Season 2)...whether he screwed the pooch on purpose with the stand-alones or not...
I also read that RDM and Eick had essentially compressed the final two seasons into one (sound familiar?), which I hope will result in a tighter story a la Season 1/first half Season 2.
Season 4 of Babylon 5 was very tight and strong. The unfortunate thing (as everyone knows) was--thanks to the lack of foresight by execs--we had to meander through the Byron story in Season 5 as a result. Now, if this is it for Battlestar Galactica (this series, anyway), I hope that the execs just let them finish the story, instead of coming back in and saying 'we changed out minds.' BSG had it's share of filler story last season, but bring in a Byron and it'll be adding insult to injury.
I think the key to their lack of foresight is they don't understand this show and others like it attract a certain audience from the start and thats all you will get throughout its course. They make decisions as if every season will start attracting completely new viewers when what they need to do is figure out how to retain as much of the original core audience. If they didn't learn their lesson during the Pegasus cliffhanger they never will. The show was in a ratings streak, barely loosing anything from the time it started, then bam, in one of the most intense episodes which would have held that audience easily they made everyone wait months and they never recovered to the same level.
As far as I'm aware, it was [B]his[/B] decision to expand Season 3. Scifi wanted Season 2 to be a longer run (something which RDM seemed to [B]not[/B] approve of at the time on the grounds of distracting focus from the primary story...HAH), but when it came down to S3, they allowed the BSG production staff to make the call. Of course, correct me if I'm wrong.
And Vorlons, do I dare bring up the arbitrary Farscape season splits? Multiple times per season, the show would simply take a break for a week or three. This was most common during the third season where it had four breaks.
Fortunately they have not messed with Eureka yet. The show has a great day and timeslot. I'm convinced BSG is keeping them distracted from messing around with it. Once BSG is gone, Eureka will probably get messed around with since its their other most popular show. They need to stop using their heavy hitters as lead ins for their crap programming like Painkiller Jane or Flash. I bet thats really whats behind the possible split. They want the second half of season 4 to help launch their next cheese of the season show.
That is their typical strategy. Why do you think Atlantis was the victim of a soft reboot? The show was ignored successfully for two full years and finally came into its own. The network not only supported but officially endorsed this silly move (which is sure to alienate most of the rapidly growing fanbase). They lost SG1 and somehow think that if they [B]rehash[/B] the worst parts of it they'll have a winner. Eh?
What they really need to do is stop green lighting crap scripts like Flash Gordon and Jane and support shows that have a large fanbase, like say...Dresden? But that would be something logical! How dare I think without their consent. I'll go give myself a lobotomy now.
Though I think Eureka will be safe for a bit longer. Atlantis and Caprica are going to offer a sufficient distraction for the show to run on without unnecessary ratings pulls. Why is it so hard for them to keep their fingers out?
In the mean time, I'll continue enjoying Eureka. It just gets better with every new episode.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
The executives don't care about how large a fan base a programme has. They care about what they think their target demographic wants to watch.
Apparently, their target demographic wants to watch crap.
Because the scifi channel is in itself a contradiction. According to them sci-fi is not in or cool so they try to avoid it as much as possible. Go figure. That's why they've headed in the direction of more fantasy based stuffand outright unrelated programming such as ECW.
Another fun example of Scifi's intelligent reasoning: Instead of commissioning six high quality films that would attract a mainstream audience, Scifi executive Bonnie Hammer stated that they would attract more of their target audience with casual B-movie caliber flicks produced at low cost and in large numbers. She seemed to believe that these types of [B]intentionally unintelligent[/B] and simplistic movies would attract the audience who isn't hardcore scifi (See above) and further expand whatever viewerbase they already gained. Because of course someone who comes in for a vampire-zombie T 'n A action movie is going to stay around and watch Eureka...
[SIZE=1] My posts seem to be getting more cynical as they progress ;)[/SIZE]
I miss the days of Sci-Fi when they played marathons of Star Trek, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, etc. during the day and their new shows: Farscape, Dark Skies, First Wave, etc. in the evening followed by more Star Trek, Twilight Zone etc. all night.
They should put me in charge. I'd sort it out. First decree would be to put more B5 reruns on. Then I'd make sure they'd stop showing Stargate 5-10 times a month (here in the Uk anyway). Then I'd broker an exclusive deal with JMS for a kick ass new series. I mean its a win win scenario :)
[QUOTE=Sanfam;165346]Stargate is fine. Stargate can be good. Stop the actual crap, please. :p
You know what I miss? The Invisible Man. Simple, almost formulaic episodes that provided solid entertainment for a while. Then it was canceled.[/QUOTE]
Hear, hear!
Comments
If they end up doing that, I'll probably download the first 10 episodes but not watch them until shortly before the second 10 were going to be broadcast.
Worf
Oh, my God, I just envisioned the perfect season finale, combining Sci-Fi's dickery with Ron Moore's admiration of the soprano's finale.
INT: Galactica Sickbay. Roslin is in a hospital bed, with Adama and Cottle by her bedside.
Cottle: I'm sorry, but there's nothing more to do.
Roslin: (weakly) It's all right. I've known this was going to happen for a while now. I'm not afraid. At least we've found Earth, before the end. When does the Fleet make the last jump?
Adama: As soon as you give the word, Madam President. *Picks up a nearby phone, dials it to intership, and hands it to Roslin.*
Roslin: All ships, this is the President. Prepare to jump. *beat* Jump. (leans back in the bed, closing her eyes for the last time).
EXT: The Fleet beings jumping, ship by ship erupting in a flare of light, until Galactica is the last one left. When she jumps, the screen cuts to black as soon as the flare appears. We don't even hear the end of the sound effect.
Hold on the black screen for ten seconds, then cut to
INT: An unremarkable, bland conference room in an unremarkable, bland office. All we can see are Ron Moore and David Eick at the end of a conference table, and a large metallic Sci-Fi channel logo on the wall behind them.
Moore: You know how much that ending's going to frustrate everyone, right?
Sultry Woman (off-screen): Trust us. It's better this way.
Eick: I still think our original idea-
Moore: Shut up! Don't make them angry.
Gruff Man (off-screen): Smart idea, kiddo.
Pleasant Man (off-screen): Your families will be returned to you unharmed, since you were so cooperative. Raul at the front desk will take care of everything. You can go now.
Moore and Eick exit. The camera pans around, revealing that seated at the table are the eleven known Cylons (Sultry Woman was Six, Gruff man was Tigh, and Pleasant Man was Doral).
Cavil: They're gone. You can come out now, brother.
A door to an anteroom opens, and out steps a lone man, obscured in the shadow of an artificial plant.
Boomer: Did you see the final cut of the last episode?
Tigh: You think it was worth waitin' an extra year?
The man steps from the shadows into the light before he replies.
Rick Berman: I saw it, and it certainly was worth it. And I can say with full sincerity that I am [i]very[/i] pleased.
Hard cut to black, and "All Along The Watchtower" plays over the credits.
Worf
It's not a joke. Those morons are in fact considering it even though everyone seems to agree its a ratings death sentence to split seasons.
Worf
so they'll probably do it
i was just typing that
that way they can say that it was the fact that it was ending that drove away fans
and thus use that as an excuse to never do a proper story arc again
God damnit, a little (financial) foresight would work wonders.
Moore also has to stop fucking around this season. We ended up spending nearly a straight season recovering from a strange attempt to make the story more "dynamic" by shaking things up at every turn but with what gain? Enough. Just get back on the story and end it already.
I also read that RDM and Eick had essentially compressed the final two seasons into one (sound familiar?), which I hope will result in a tighter story a la Season 1/first half Season 2.
Season 4 of Babylon 5 was very tight and strong. The unfortunate thing (as everyone knows) was--thanks to the lack of foresight by execs--we had to meander through the Byron story in Season 5 as a result. Now, if this is it for Battlestar Galactica (this series, anyway), I hope that the execs just let them finish the story, instead of coming back in and saying 'we changed out minds.' BSG had it's share of filler story last season, but bring in a Byron and it'll be adding insult to injury.
And Vorlons, do I dare bring up the arbitrary Farscape season splits? Multiple times per season, the show would simply take a break for a week or three. This was most common during the third season where it had four breaks.
What they really need to do is stop green lighting crap scripts like Flash Gordon and Jane and support shows that have a large fanbase, like say...Dresden? But that would be something logical! How dare I think without their consent. I'll go give myself a lobotomy now.
Though I think Eureka will be safe for a bit longer. Atlantis and Caprica are going to offer a sufficient distraction for the show to run on without unnecessary ratings pulls. Why is it so hard for them to keep their fingers out?
In the mean time, I'll continue enjoying Eureka. It just gets better with every new episode.
Apparently, their target demographic wants to watch crap.
[SIZE=1] My posts seem to be getting more cynical as they progress ;)[/SIZE]
You know what I miss? The Invisible Man. Simple, almost formulaic episodes that provided solid entertainment for a while. Then it was canceled.
You know what I miss? The Invisible Man. Simple, almost formulaic episodes that provided solid entertainment for a while. Then it was canceled.[/QUOTE]
Hear, hear!