WIDW #10 - Creating My Dream Network
Apr. 19th, 2005 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6This is a huge one, where I just sort of focused on my ideal cable network. If you want, you can do your own, but of course it's fairly labour intensive so I don't really expect this meme to propogate. If you want, then these are the 'rules':
1. Choose Broadcast or Cable
2. Choose a network name, logo, and, if desired, overall programming theme.
3. Create or recruit programming subject to the following conditions:
a) You cannot buy the rights to any new show currently in production that is already attached to a network. You can, however, buy rerun rights to any show's past seasons (regardless of whether another network has exclusive rerun rights), or buy new episodes of a show cancelled by another network and not yet picked up by another.
b) You cannot have programming that you know would be impossible - if you know an actor is the lead in a sitcom on NBC, you can't have him playing in your show. If you know an actor has said she wouldn't want to return to a series that's been cancelled, you can't produce new episodes with them (but could decide to do it without them). You don't have to do in-depth research, the principle is don't cheat - if, when you think of the idea, your mind says you can't do it because of something you heard, then you can't do it.
c) You can be assumed to have the budget for the rights to any adaptation of a book, comic, movie, etc, (or to pay for the rights to make new episodes of a cancelled series) that is not already in production, to the best of your knowledge, and to do as much new programming as you want, so long as each show remains a reasonable budget (you can't pay $100 million an episode for a new TV series)
You can be as specific or general as you'd like, from day by day and hour by hour schedules, to a few key shows and a general theme for the rest of the programming you'd like. But for goodness' sake, put it behind a cut tag.
My Network: The Infinity Channel (Cable)... it's simple enough that the name may well already be taken, but I've never heard of one so under the principle "don't cheat" in 3b, I'm free to use it.
Logo: Simple is best. A stylized infinity symbol, perhaps with the word Infinity in it. Maybe if I want to be cooler, a Moebius strip shaped into an infinity symbol, which can lead to cool 3-D promos.
Theme: The best in Speculative Fiction TV and movies - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and supernatural or paranormal Horror - if it's weird, it goes here. (Horror which relies on exclusively human killers has no place on this network)
For all the original programming on my network, after a year I'll sell it to syndication to any station that wants it, as well as, of course, doing DVD season sets.
Weekday Reruns: During the days of the week, we air reruns of some of the greatest shows. We'd rotate the actual series in and out, but constant favorites (which would almost always run 4 or 5 days a week, in order, and not go off the air after a few runnings of the whole series):
Buffy, Angel, Stargate SG-1 (with some arrangement being made so that the Buffy and Angel episodes that happen at the same time are on the same day - schedule other shows like Firefly in the gaps that would result, or out of order 'best of Angel', theme episodes, and the like)
Other weekday shows that after say, two runs of the whole series will go off for another series and come back in maybe a year or two: Sliders, the Treks (up to Ds9, no Voyager or Ent unless we really have a gap in the schedule), Quantum Leap, X-Files, other shows that I never really watched but fit in the network theme, like Hercules and Xena.
Late Nights: Lesser-known movies, runs of 'Brilliant But Cancelled Early' TV shows (Prisoner, Firefly, others), and reruns of the weeknight programming. Old episodes of Dr. Who.
Newer Programming:
Saturday Morning Lineup:
A general theme of 'Superhero Saturday Morning', with most of the shows revolving around superheroes.
7am-9am:
Anime: Probably a few anime shows for kids, probably purchased from overseas. Hopefully none of the 'kid has animal/robots that get into duels' or 'kid plays at some competitive game' variety, but I probably won't be awake at these times so they can air them.
Sword and Sorcery: I'd like to maybe do a pure fantasy, sword-and-sorcery type. Maybe do more of the old Conan cartoons, as I really liked them.
9-9:30am: Power Pack: For the younger kids... four young siblings are given super powers by a dying alien when their parents are kidnapped by another alien race. They must save their world, and then cope with life as superheroes while their parents don't even know. Adapted from the Marvel comic, of course... and though it's generally targeted towards younger kids, the main guiding principle (as it should be for of all the shows) should be that while it should be accessible by the young, it doesn't talk down to them and should not annoy or be too stupid for adults.
9:30-10am: Batman cartoon: This treads very closely to violating the 'nothing I know to be impossible' clause. I don't believe this is doable (since there already is a Batman cartoon), but I don't know for sure, and what I'd like to do is either a) new episodes of Batman Beyond, or b) a new 'Batman family' series. I think the name's been used before, but Gotham Knights is a good name - Batman cartoons using a more up to date continuity. Batman's still Batman, of course. The original Batgirl is now Oracle, and there's a new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Nightwing works primarily in another nearby city, but stories would still involve him and occasionally focus on him. Although Batman would certainly be a key character, stories wouldn't all revolve around him - many of them would be more or less solo missions of Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, with limited appearances by Batman. If Batman isn't possible, do a Spider-Man cartoon instead - maybe even continue the old good Fox Cartoon.
10-10:30am: Gargoyles: Reawakened- Or something... first rerunning old Gargoyles cartoons, and then, eventually, producing new episodes.
10:30-11am: X-Men Cartoon: Still unsure whether to just pay for the rights to new X-Men Evolution or try and do something new. If I did go with something new, I'd probably try and make it based on some newer X characters, maybe a combination of NM and Generation X, with the big X-Men being teachers but not being the focus of the stories (except Wolverine, who's probably got to be in everything). No Professor X either - both other shows have done him, in this one he's gone, maybe in space, maybe dead, maybe working on other matters at Muir Island.
11-11:30am: Runaways: Six kids whose parents hang out together for 'charity purposes' decide to spy on their parents one night, and discover that they're all actually supervillains. Together they must run away and find a way to take them down. Potentially live action, but could go either way.
11:30-Noon: Cybergeneration: Based on the short lived RPG that took off from Cyberpunk 2020. I was quite taken with it. The premise: It's 2027, and America has become a corporate-run near Orwellian future. However, the Carbon Plague is changing things... this nanotech based virus is running rampant. If you're over 20 and contract it, you die. If you're under 20... you change, are rebuilt into one of several predefined types of nanotech cyborg, granting you awesome abilities beyond those of men. There are the Tinmen, who have metal-like limbs they can reshape by thought... Alchemists who have a store of dedicated nanites that can rearrange chemicals by touch... Bolters who launch tazer-like tendrils from their hands, Scanners who can pick up thoughts of those nearby, and Wizards who access and interact with the virtual world by thought. There are also a few much rarer types, and more appearing as the plague grows on, leading to one conclusion - the Carbon Plague is directed by intelligence. The government is panicked, getting more draconian, ready to quarantine or kill any of the Changed. Meanwhile, other special interest groups want to recruit the Changed to their own causes and change the world. The series follows a few of these changed kids who band together to survive.
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Sunday Morning Lineup:
I've always been kinda annoyed that there was nothing good on Sunday morning, cartoonwise. So, on my channel there are not only Saturday Morning cartoons, but also Sunday Morning cartoons.
Since we're flying in the face of the church programs anyway, we might as well include slightly more blasphemous (but still appropriate for children) material, like a cartoon featuring witches as protagonists.
However, since I tend to be busy Sunday mornings nowadays, a little more on the anime side too. I won't get too specific with the programming. Maybe some older cartoons too, since they'd be cheaper.
-
Other than Saturday and Sunday mornings, I'm generally aiming for 2 hours a night for new programming, although 'movie night' may be three hours - 2 hour movie (or more if it's a long movie - no edits for time) with some other programming before or afterwards.
Specific days for all the rest are of course flexible and subject to change... many were put into a specific day simply because I didn't have a day in mind for them, and there was a gap.
Fantasy Friday:
Neverwhere: The Series
The continuing adventures of Door and Richard and others as they try to find the last remnants of Door's family, travelling through the 'Below' of other cities, an underground and rooftop world parallel to the real world, where people who drop through the cracks go.
Island in the Sea of Time: No one knows how or why, but the Island of Nantucket, along with a Coast Guard ship in the area at the time, has been thrust back more than 3000 years into the Bronze Age. Now, in order to survive, they must venture out, make trade with the people of the time, and use their advanced technology to bootstrap the rest of the world... And then one group decides to break off and use their knowledge and technology to make themselves kings.
Loosely based on the book series, although dramatic changes and a much compressed timeframe, to better mesh with a TV series format.
Maybe if I don't do that, instead do a similar series based on the cosmology I set up for the GURPs game and am using in my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alternaljournal, combined with the general idea (a whole community, perhaps a city or something smaller like a university, thrown into another world), allowing for a magic-meets-tech series.
SF Movie Sunday:
Movies or miniseries, a mix of the big Hollywood ones and ones produced directly for us. The Originals would include adaptations of both classic and modern works of SF, trying to be faithful (changes can be made for the sake of convenience or time, but not ones which miss the point entirely or change the plot significantly)
Specific Titles Include (assuming rights could be procured): The Forever War, The Timeline Wars, Rendezvous with Rama, Doomsday Book, Gateway, Timescape, Neuromancer, A Canticle For Leibowitz
There'd also be some 'revival' miniseries/movie... if it's not feasible to get the rights to a full series, then do whatever is possible to continue the story in some case. For example, a Farscape mini set after the last one, or a Buffyverse mini.
And, because it's my damn network and I'll do whatever the hell I damn well please, some of my more obscure favorites: Jumper, by Steven Gould, and maybe the Star Pilot Grainger series by Brian Stableford.
Also on this night:
Prisoners of Gravity: This used to be a show on public television in Ontario. It was a basically a show where they talked about and interviewed creators of SF, Fantasy, and Comics, particularly the print form of each, usually around a certain theme. If say the theme was 'Immortality', they'd talk to a whole bunch of different authors who deal with different aspects of Immortality. The framing device for the interviews was a goofy guy, self-proclaimed Commander Rick, who was sick of the ills of the world so built and attached a rocket booster to his car, loaded it full of books and comics, took off, and made it up to space where he crashed into a secret satellite system with an AI, that let him tap into various video feeds around the world. If we could get Commander Rick back, I'd be happy to use him, but if not, take the show name and maybe do something slightly different (maybe have it hosted by the AI). Half hour.
News From Infinity: SF news-of-the-week show. I think any SF-based channel should have one. Covering all speculative fiction areas, and maybe if there's time, a 'cool science news' bit. Half Hour.
--
Other shows would go on various days, I don't have any chosen in advance. I might also expand to three hours each night, but leave a night 'free', if there's a TV juggernaut on that day, like Survivor/Friends or whatever, or especially if something really good in SF on another channel is on.
Outer Limits: I don't believe this is currently in production anymore (if it is, I'd do another show with a different title but same idea: an anthology show with a different story every week). I like the name and production values of Outer Limits, but too often they just did lame stories, fell into ruts where you could predict the 'twist' at the end, and in general I'm not fond of all of their writers. I'd rather do stories which focus a lot more on adaptations of short SF stories by famous authors. There would be original works too, of course, but there are many really great short stories that couldn't easily be made into a movie, but would work great in a one hour format.
Unnamed Sliders-esque show: A device is found for breaching the barrier into other, alternate histories. Similar to Sliders in base concept, I suppose, but done better, with attention paid to such things as languages in worlds where the divergence is way in the past (so most worlds will have diverged in the last few hundred years). Also, probably rather than 'lost, trying to find their way home' (which would be my initial choice for this sort of series, but we don't want to be too much of a ripoff), start off with a group of people who are doing this from a home base, maybe a university lab, and a combination of people who are doing it for the love of science and adventure and those who want to profit from it (by bringing back new technologies from other worlds, etc). So we can have stories of the private lives of these people as well, stories where what they find comes back to plague Earth, and stories set entirely on alternate worlds. Later in the series, after the world is threatened by other conquering paratime organizations the government might take over the day to day running, but retain the stars of the show as 'experts', or we could have a season finale where the characters are forced to destroy their way home while on an alternate world.
Ransom (tentative title, came from a dream of mine): Modern day Earth is rocked when a huge spaceship arrives in orbit. That's not the biggest surprise though... it's soon discovered the ship was sent as an ark, to take thousands off Earth before a second alien race's jump-gate arrives in the system and Earth is conquered. When those chosen for survival take flight and find somewhere else to rebuild the human race, they're soon forced to realize two facts... first, their travels are bound by relativity, and for every planet they visit, centuries pass back home, and second... they're not the only race on the ark, and they have to share.
(Although similar to BSG in initial concept, I actually came up with it years before the new BSG, there are some differences... one is the use of relativity, which I've always wanted to see in a regular TV show. The main ship travels through a hyperspace which obeys relativity, while most of the alien races use jump gates which allow instantaneous travel - but the jumpgates have to be sent to a new Star system at sublight speeds. So we'd get to see the universe develop, and allow for tricks where the Earthers found a colony, go to another star and come back and visit it 50 years later, or a main character is left behind on a short trip and they catch up with him a few days later their time, but years later to him, etc. The other big difference is that the alien race conquering Earth isn't specifically chasing them. At times races including them want to find the ship for the technology, far in advance of anything they know, but they don't really care about Earthers)
Delta Green: From the RPG, which I really grew to dig while running XET. (Taken from the DG rulebook:) "Evil never dies. Darkness never retreats. In the cracks and crevices of our society there are monsters undreamed of by the rank and file of humanity. I've been there. I've seen them. They exist in the spaces between things, in the folds of existence where we can't find them. Sometimes they cross over, sometimes they manifest, and all Hell breaks loose. This is pure evil, pure destruction. This is the Apocalypse, and I've been fighting it tooth and nail" X-Files meets Cthulhu Mythos horror, a series focused on one cell of the conspiracy Delta Green, with relatively new members, fighting to both prevent the destruction of humanity, or at least hold it off for one more day, but to keep all trace of that fight secret, for fear it may drive mankind insane. It'd be TVMA rated series, with swearing and violence, but it'd still be creepy and weird and have an ongoing plot despite the general episodic nature of the individual investigations. Over the course of the series, we'd see the new people get involved, realize that Delta Green is _not_ sanctioned by the Government in any way, main characters killed, go insane and in some cases even become power-mad villains.
Whedon-o-Rama: In essence, a new show by Joss Whedon, his choice as long as it's within the category of Speculative Fiction. Buffyverse or Firefly, great (I would explicitly place Firefly on my lineup but I know Fox has a deal that Whedon can't return the series to TV anywhere but Fox, so by the rules I can't), or even something else entirely. If it's completely mundane with no unnatural elements to it at all, sorry, have to keep theme intact, but I wouldn't expect him to write something like that anyway. If it's fantasy, I might include it in the Fantasy Friday, otherwise it could go somewhere else.
JMS Show: Let him run wild. If he wants to take over one of these other shows, depending on which one, that works fine. If not, let him do something he wants to do.
Post Apocalypse Show - EMPs and genetic plagues have screwed over the world, and one man must wander aimlessly. Not really too well-developed, but it seems a standard sort of idea. I would also like something where most of the world population is dead, maybe suddenly, and the survivors have to find each other and bound together - I'd probably do one or the other, but not both.
Animated Night - Shows that are animated, but stongly adult
oriented (not x-rated or anything, but not designed for kids). To the extent that there may be coarse language or nudity if the story calls for it.
Either: Paranormals - In the wake of the White Event, approximatley 2 people in a million have developed unusual powers or physical deformities. In Wisconsin, a Clinic for Paranormal Research opens up, and many Paranormals check themselves in... except when one group discovers there are nefarious intentions behind the clinic and escape.
Or: Wild Cards - based on the book series, naturally, involving an alien virus which causes people to either become super-powered Aces or hideously deformed Jokers.
Don't think I could do both of them, too similar, so one or the
other.
Sleeper - Holden Carver is a deep undercover agent infiltrating a
criminal and terrorist organization of superhumans, who think he's a rogue agent. The only problem is, the only man alive who knows he's undercover is in a coma, and never expected to wake up. Now Holden exists in a gray area, trying to serve his country, but unable to do that without committing acts that are as bad or worse than those he's working against. Based on the comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
A high fantasy or SF series (or both), since animated monsters and aliens are much easier than CGI or puppetry ones. Probably half hour.
Some strong SF-based anime, probably purchased from somewhere else since producing all of this stuff ourself is expensive enough. I do have to give anime credit, they're ahead of us on animation made for adults. Probably half hour. Maybe Cyberpunkish, or Space-based in other ways.
By my count, that leaves me with one hour left to fill, so I might fill it, if, say, my network was running in the US, by buying the rights to the new Doctor Who. If not, then looking for good, existing, English language SF produced in other countries and just importing it. I've seen some decent stuff. If all that fails, well, I think we're lacking a series dealing exclusively in time travel, so maybe a new series on those lines.
This and all previous WIDWs available here.
1. Choose Broadcast or Cable
2. Choose a network name, logo, and, if desired, overall programming theme.
3. Create or recruit programming subject to the following conditions:
a) You cannot buy the rights to any new show currently in production that is already attached to a network. You can, however, buy rerun rights to any show's past seasons (regardless of whether another network has exclusive rerun rights), or buy new episodes of a show cancelled by another network and not yet picked up by another.
b) You cannot have programming that you know would be impossible - if you know an actor is the lead in a sitcom on NBC, you can't have him playing in your show. If you know an actor has said she wouldn't want to return to a series that's been cancelled, you can't produce new episodes with them (but could decide to do it without them). You don't have to do in-depth research, the principle is don't cheat - if, when you think of the idea, your mind says you can't do it because of something you heard, then you can't do it.
c) You can be assumed to have the budget for the rights to any adaptation of a book, comic, movie, etc, (or to pay for the rights to make new episodes of a cancelled series) that is not already in production, to the best of your knowledge, and to do as much new programming as you want, so long as each show remains a reasonable budget (you can't pay $100 million an episode for a new TV series)
You can be as specific or general as you'd like, from day by day and hour by hour schedules, to a few key shows and a general theme for the rest of the programming you'd like. But for goodness' sake, put it behind a cut tag.
My Network: The Infinity Channel (Cable)... it's simple enough that the name may well already be taken, but I've never heard of one so under the principle "don't cheat" in 3b, I'm free to use it.
Logo: Simple is best. A stylized infinity symbol, perhaps with the word Infinity in it. Maybe if I want to be cooler, a Moebius strip shaped into an infinity symbol, which can lead to cool 3-D promos.
Theme: The best in Speculative Fiction TV and movies - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and supernatural or paranormal Horror - if it's weird, it goes here. (Horror which relies on exclusively human killers has no place on this network)
For all the original programming on my network, after a year I'll sell it to syndication to any station that wants it, as well as, of course, doing DVD season sets.
Weekday Reruns: During the days of the week, we air reruns of some of the greatest shows. We'd rotate the actual series in and out, but constant favorites (which would almost always run 4 or 5 days a week, in order, and not go off the air after a few runnings of the whole series):
Buffy, Angel, Stargate SG-1 (with some arrangement being made so that the Buffy and Angel episodes that happen at the same time are on the same day - schedule other shows like Firefly in the gaps that would result, or out of order 'best of Angel', theme episodes, and the like)
Other weekday shows that after say, two runs of the whole series will go off for another series and come back in maybe a year or two: Sliders, the Treks (up to Ds9, no Voyager or Ent unless we really have a gap in the schedule), Quantum Leap, X-Files, other shows that I never really watched but fit in the network theme, like Hercules and Xena.
Late Nights: Lesser-known movies, runs of 'Brilliant But Cancelled Early' TV shows (Prisoner, Firefly, others), and reruns of the weeknight programming. Old episodes of Dr. Who.
Newer Programming:
Saturday Morning Lineup:
A general theme of 'Superhero Saturday Morning', with most of the shows revolving around superheroes.
7am-9am:
Anime: Probably a few anime shows for kids, probably purchased from overseas. Hopefully none of the 'kid has animal/robots that get into duels' or 'kid plays at some competitive game' variety, but I probably won't be awake at these times so they can air them.
Sword and Sorcery: I'd like to maybe do a pure fantasy, sword-and-sorcery type. Maybe do more of the old Conan cartoons, as I really liked them.
9-9:30am: Power Pack: For the younger kids... four young siblings are given super powers by a dying alien when their parents are kidnapped by another alien race. They must save their world, and then cope with life as superheroes while their parents don't even know. Adapted from the Marvel comic, of course... and though it's generally targeted towards younger kids, the main guiding principle (as it should be for of all the shows) should be that while it should be accessible by the young, it doesn't talk down to them and should not annoy or be too stupid for adults.
9:30-10am: Batman cartoon: This treads very closely to violating the 'nothing I know to be impossible' clause. I don't believe this is doable (since there already is a Batman cartoon), but I don't know for sure, and what I'd like to do is either a) new episodes of Batman Beyond, or b) a new 'Batman family' series. I think the name's been used before, but Gotham Knights is a good name - Batman cartoons using a more up to date continuity. Batman's still Batman, of course. The original Batgirl is now Oracle, and there's a new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Nightwing works primarily in another nearby city, but stories would still involve him and occasionally focus on him. Although Batman would certainly be a key character, stories wouldn't all revolve around him - many of them would be more or less solo missions of Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, with limited appearances by Batman. If Batman isn't possible, do a Spider-Man cartoon instead - maybe even continue the old good Fox Cartoon.
10-10:30am: Gargoyles: Reawakened- Or something... first rerunning old Gargoyles cartoons, and then, eventually, producing new episodes.
10:30-11am: X-Men Cartoon: Still unsure whether to just pay for the rights to new X-Men Evolution or try and do something new. If I did go with something new, I'd probably try and make it based on some newer X characters, maybe a combination of NM and Generation X, with the big X-Men being teachers but not being the focus of the stories (except Wolverine, who's probably got to be in everything). No Professor X either - both other shows have done him, in this one he's gone, maybe in space, maybe dead, maybe working on other matters at Muir Island.
11-11:30am: Runaways: Six kids whose parents hang out together for 'charity purposes' decide to spy on their parents one night, and discover that they're all actually supervillains. Together they must run away and find a way to take them down. Potentially live action, but could go either way.
11:30-Noon: Cybergeneration: Based on the short lived RPG that took off from Cyberpunk 2020. I was quite taken with it. The premise: It's 2027, and America has become a corporate-run near Orwellian future. However, the Carbon Plague is changing things... this nanotech based virus is running rampant. If you're over 20 and contract it, you die. If you're under 20... you change, are rebuilt into one of several predefined types of nanotech cyborg, granting you awesome abilities beyond those of men. There are the Tinmen, who have metal-like limbs they can reshape by thought... Alchemists who have a store of dedicated nanites that can rearrange chemicals by touch... Bolters who launch tazer-like tendrils from their hands, Scanners who can pick up thoughts of those nearby, and Wizards who access and interact with the virtual world by thought. There are also a few much rarer types, and more appearing as the plague grows on, leading to one conclusion - the Carbon Plague is directed by intelligence. The government is panicked, getting more draconian, ready to quarantine or kill any of the Changed. Meanwhile, other special interest groups want to recruit the Changed to their own causes and change the world. The series follows a few of these changed kids who band together to survive.
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Sunday Morning Lineup:
I've always been kinda annoyed that there was nothing good on Sunday morning, cartoonwise. So, on my channel there are not only Saturday Morning cartoons, but also Sunday Morning cartoons.
Since we're flying in the face of the church programs anyway, we might as well include slightly more blasphemous (but still appropriate for children) material, like a cartoon featuring witches as protagonists.
However, since I tend to be busy Sunday mornings nowadays, a little more on the anime side too. I won't get too specific with the programming. Maybe some older cartoons too, since they'd be cheaper.
-
Other than Saturday and Sunday mornings, I'm generally aiming for 2 hours a night for new programming, although 'movie night' may be three hours - 2 hour movie (or more if it's a long movie - no edits for time) with some other programming before or afterwards.
Specific days for all the rest are of course flexible and subject to change... many were put into a specific day simply because I didn't have a day in mind for them, and there was a gap.
Fantasy Friday:
Neverwhere: The Series
The continuing adventures of Door and Richard and others as they try to find the last remnants of Door's family, travelling through the 'Below' of other cities, an underground and rooftop world parallel to the real world, where people who drop through the cracks go.
Island in the Sea of Time: No one knows how or why, but the Island of Nantucket, along with a Coast Guard ship in the area at the time, has been thrust back more than 3000 years into the Bronze Age. Now, in order to survive, they must venture out, make trade with the people of the time, and use their advanced technology to bootstrap the rest of the world... And then one group decides to break off and use their knowledge and technology to make themselves kings.
Loosely based on the book series, although dramatic changes and a much compressed timeframe, to better mesh with a TV series format.
Maybe if I don't do that, instead do a similar series based on the cosmology I set up for the GURPs game and am using in my
alternaljournal, combined with the general idea (a whole community, perhaps a city or something smaller like a university, thrown into another world), allowing for a magic-meets-tech series.SF Movie Sunday:
Movies or miniseries, a mix of the big Hollywood ones and ones produced directly for us. The Originals would include adaptations of both classic and modern works of SF, trying to be faithful (changes can be made for the sake of convenience or time, but not ones which miss the point entirely or change the plot significantly)
Specific Titles Include (assuming rights could be procured): The Forever War, The Timeline Wars, Rendezvous with Rama, Doomsday Book, Gateway, Timescape, Neuromancer, A Canticle For Leibowitz
There'd also be some 'revival' miniseries/movie... if it's not feasible to get the rights to a full series, then do whatever is possible to continue the story in some case. For example, a Farscape mini set after the last one, or a Buffyverse mini.
And, because it's my damn network and I'll do whatever the hell I damn well please, some of my more obscure favorites: Jumper, by Steven Gould, and maybe the Star Pilot Grainger series by Brian Stableford.
Also on this night:
Prisoners of Gravity: This used to be a show on public television in Ontario. It was a basically a show where they talked about and interviewed creators of SF, Fantasy, and Comics, particularly the print form of each, usually around a certain theme. If say the theme was 'Immortality', they'd talk to a whole bunch of different authors who deal with different aspects of Immortality. The framing device for the interviews was a goofy guy, self-proclaimed Commander Rick, who was sick of the ills of the world so built and attached a rocket booster to his car, loaded it full of books and comics, took off, and made it up to space where he crashed into a secret satellite system with an AI, that let him tap into various video feeds around the world. If we could get Commander Rick back, I'd be happy to use him, but if not, take the show name and maybe do something slightly different (maybe have it hosted by the AI). Half hour.
News From Infinity: SF news-of-the-week show. I think any SF-based channel should have one. Covering all speculative fiction areas, and maybe if there's time, a 'cool science news' bit. Half Hour.
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Other shows would go on various days, I don't have any chosen in advance. I might also expand to three hours each night, but leave a night 'free', if there's a TV juggernaut on that day, like Survivor/Friends or whatever, or especially if something really good in SF on another channel is on.
Outer Limits: I don't believe this is currently in production anymore (if it is, I'd do another show with a different title but same idea: an anthology show with a different story every week). I like the name and production values of Outer Limits, but too often they just did lame stories, fell into ruts where you could predict the 'twist' at the end, and in general I'm not fond of all of their writers. I'd rather do stories which focus a lot more on adaptations of short SF stories by famous authors. There would be original works too, of course, but there are many really great short stories that couldn't easily be made into a movie, but would work great in a one hour format.
Unnamed Sliders-esque show: A device is found for breaching the barrier into other, alternate histories. Similar to Sliders in base concept, I suppose, but done better, with attention paid to such things as languages in worlds where the divergence is way in the past (so most worlds will have diverged in the last few hundred years). Also, probably rather than 'lost, trying to find their way home' (which would be my initial choice for this sort of series, but we don't want to be too much of a ripoff), start off with a group of people who are doing this from a home base, maybe a university lab, and a combination of people who are doing it for the love of science and adventure and those who want to profit from it (by bringing back new technologies from other worlds, etc). So we can have stories of the private lives of these people as well, stories where what they find comes back to plague Earth, and stories set entirely on alternate worlds. Later in the series, after the world is threatened by other conquering paratime organizations the government might take over the day to day running, but retain the stars of the show as 'experts', or we could have a season finale where the characters are forced to destroy their way home while on an alternate world.
Ransom (tentative title, came from a dream of mine): Modern day Earth is rocked when a huge spaceship arrives in orbit. That's not the biggest surprise though... it's soon discovered the ship was sent as an ark, to take thousands off Earth before a second alien race's jump-gate arrives in the system and Earth is conquered. When those chosen for survival take flight and find somewhere else to rebuild the human race, they're soon forced to realize two facts... first, their travels are bound by relativity, and for every planet they visit, centuries pass back home, and second... they're not the only race on the ark, and they have to share.
(Although similar to BSG in initial concept, I actually came up with it years before the new BSG, there are some differences... one is the use of relativity, which I've always wanted to see in a regular TV show. The main ship travels through a hyperspace which obeys relativity, while most of the alien races use jump gates which allow instantaneous travel - but the jumpgates have to be sent to a new Star system at sublight speeds. So we'd get to see the universe develop, and allow for tricks where the Earthers found a colony, go to another star and come back and visit it 50 years later, or a main character is left behind on a short trip and they catch up with him a few days later their time, but years later to him, etc. The other big difference is that the alien race conquering Earth isn't specifically chasing them. At times races including them want to find the ship for the technology, far in advance of anything they know, but they don't really care about Earthers)
Delta Green: From the RPG, which I really grew to dig while running XET. (Taken from the DG rulebook:) "Evil never dies. Darkness never retreats. In the cracks and crevices of our society there are monsters undreamed of by the rank and file of humanity. I've been there. I've seen them. They exist in the spaces between things, in the folds of existence where we can't find them. Sometimes they cross over, sometimes they manifest, and all Hell breaks loose. This is pure evil, pure destruction. This is the Apocalypse, and I've been fighting it tooth and nail" X-Files meets Cthulhu Mythos horror, a series focused on one cell of the conspiracy Delta Green, with relatively new members, fighting to both prevent the destruction of humanity, or at least hold it off for one more day, but to keep all trace of that fight secret, for fear it may drive mankind insane. It'd be TVMA rated series, with swearing and violence, but it'd still be creepy and weird and have an ongoing plot despite the general episodic nature of the individual investigations. Over the course of the series, we'd see the new people get involved, realize that Delta Green is _not_ sanctioned by the Government in any way, main characters killed, go insane and in some cases even become power-mad villains.
Whedon-o-Rama: In essence, a new show by Joss Whedon, his choice as long as it's within the category of Speculative Fiction. Buffyverse or Firefly, great (I would explicitly place Firefly on my lineup but I know Fox has a deal that Whedon can't return the series to TV anywhere but Fox, so by the rules I can't), or even something else entirely. If it's completely mundane with no unnatural elements to it at all, sorry, have to keep theme intact, but I wouldn't expect him to write something like that anyway. If it's fantasy, I might include it in the Fantasy Friday, otherwise it could go somewhere else.
JMS Show: Let him run wild. If he wants to take over one of these other shows, depending on which one, that works fine. If not, let him do something he wants to do.
Post Apocalypse Show - EMPs and genetic plagues have screwed over the world, and one man must wander aimlessly. Not really too well-developed, but it seems a standard sort of idea. I would also like something where most of the world population is dead, maybe suddenly, and the survivors have to find each other and bound together - I'd probably do one or the other, but not both.
Animated Night - Shows that are animated, but stongly adult
oriented (not x-rated or anything, but not designed for kids). To the extent that there may be coarse language or nudity if the story calls for it.
Either: Paranormals - In the wake of the White Event, approximatley 2 people in a million have developed unusual powers or physical deformities. In Wisconsin, a Clinic for Paranormal Research opens up, and many Paranormals check themselves in... except when one group discovers there are nefarious intentions behind the clinic and escape.
Or: Wild Cards - based on the book series, naturally, involving an alien virus which causes people to either become super-powered Aces or hideously deformed Jokers.
Don't think I could do both of them, too similar, so one or the
other.
Sleeper - Holden Carver is a deep undercover agent infiltrating a
criminal and terrorist organization of superhumans, who think he's a rogue agent. The only problem is, the only man alive who knows he's undercover is in a coma, and never expected to wake up. Now Holden exists in a gray area, trying to serve his country, but unable to do that without committing acts that are as bad or worse than those he's working against. Based on the comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
A high fantasy or SF series (or both), since animated monsters and aliens are much easier than CGI or puppetry ones. Probably half hour.
Some strong SF-based anime, probably purchased from somewhere else since producing all of this stuff ourself is expensive enough. I do have to give anime credit, they're ahead of us on animation made for adults. Probably half hour. Maybe Cyberpunkish, or Space-based in other ways.
By my count, that leaves me with one hour left to fill, so I might fill it, if, say, my network was running in the US, by buying the rights to the new Doctor Who. If not, then looking for good, existing, English language SF produced in other countries and just importing it. I've seen some decent stuff. If all that fails, well, I think we're lacking a series dealing exclusively in time travel, so maybe a new series on those lines.
This and all previous WIDWs available here.
