I hereby declare a totally unofficial but no less necessary open call to all and sundry to come up with a new name for the channel formerly known as SCI FI.
Having eschewed its excellent track record of amazingly good (good in my book meaning: worth asking My Own Dear Personal Mom to videotape for me because I have chosen to buy a case of shiraz every month rather than shell out good money on cable just so I can watch three or four shows a week) (much like a good movie is also known as an 80-mile movie because that's the round trip necessary to get to a movie theater) original dramatic programming bit by bit, the channel's claim to its name is now tenuously held by its airing of the admittedly still-good Stargate SG-1 (a Showtime import, begging the question) and the occasional half-decent adaptation of some great books as a movie or mini-series.
Where once I hounded mercilessly each week to get my videotape with the week's episodes of Farscape, the Invisible Man and Lexx plus tasty reruns of great stuff like Babylon 5 and Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica, now all that is left after a pretty crappy finale for Farscape (cheap shot central, though I've heard that the cheap shot ending was originally somehow to be resolved in the "next season" opener that is now never going to happen because one of the partners in the shows production - yes, the Sci Fi Channel - pulled the plug) is the aforementioned Stargate SG-1.
Well, at least they've brought back Daniel Jackson, pleasing the distaff fans.
And now where once there was a feast of great writing, top quality special effects and great ensemble casts acting out science fiction story lines, first we were given... a medieval carnival confidence trick updated as a talk show called "Crossing Over" in which some pseudo-psychic out-Oprah's Oprah with messages from the dead "Your husband wants you to get on with your life" "Your girlfriend is remembering that one time you had sex and the condom broke" "Bobby always liked you in that color you're wearing." Maybe John Edwards' crew refrains from stealing audience members' wallets to look for clues to these people's lives, but I wouldn't put it past 'em.
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Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I don't have cable, but I feel your pain. I only stumbled across the first couple of episodes of Farscape via an $8 DVD in a discount bin.
I suggest (borrowing from some 40s fandom writer, maybe Fred Pohl, talking about the term sci-fi) they call it "skiffy".
2 - Bill Sherman
Far as I'm concerned, Sci Fi was forever tarnished the day they cancelled Mystery Science Theatre 3000. . .
3 - Kate Sherrod
You know, I neglected to mention this in my entry here, but yes, I kind of mark the termination of MST3K as an early sign of the channel's decline. The powers that be there redeemed themselves with some of the other original programming for a while, but now I fear they are beyond all hope.
4 - Murphy
...the whole thing began when MTV stopped playing music videos...
The end is near, friends...*SIGH*
"skiffy" is just too cool. I'm using that one.