The Blog of Xangis

Most sci-fi shows fail to make it past the fourth season. I’m convinced it’s because there’s a limited number of plots that can be done on a spaceship, at least by below-average writers (as in, writers who aren’t good enough to write for Stargate SG-1.)

There’s a certain point, usually in the fourth season, that the female characters start showing up with a little less clothing than they did in the third season. It’s a last-ditch attempt to get ratings by showing some “titten und arsch,” but science fiction audiences usually aren’t retarded enough to fall for it (see Enterprise as a perfect example of this).

This is often preceded by the “Ill-Conceived third season romance” where the show will have two characters who don’t even belong in the same room hook up in some sort of steamy, tumultuous relationship reminiscent of one of many long-running daytime soap operas. This typically has absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot of the show and is more of a “Hollywood vomit” where the clichés of the industry prevail over the style of the genre. Third-season Battlestar Galactica is a good example.

I don’t see this as going away anytime soon. Writing to the lowest common denominator has taken over and we’re stuck with the crap the lazy, uncreative writers want to feed us. Nevermind that there’s nigh on 100 years of excellent fiction to draw from, we *LOVE* to see the same old crap regurgitated over and over.