Cancelled?!

I'm sure all sci-fi fans now know about the tragic cancellation of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. This got me thinking about other cancelled series, and made me want to go blog about them. Here we go:

Firefly

Starting with the cancellation that made the least sense. Firefly is probably one of the greatest science fiction tv series ever made, and yet only 14 episodes were ever made. I also heard that only 11 were actually aired by FOX in the US, and that they weren't even shown in order. I really don't get it. This was a series with humour, drama, real characters, exciting stories, mystery, Joss Whedon's genius and a whole load of potential.

Sure, thanks to the persistance of the cast and crew and the militant fans, Firefly got it's conclusion in the form of the film Serenity. It wasn't enough though. This was a series that could have gone on for several seasons. So many stories were left unresolved. What was the Shepherd's story? The Hands of Blue guys? Mal and Inara? I know there are comics, but it's not the same.

I'm not sure what went wrong with Firefly. Lack of support by FOX can't have helped. Maybe sci-fi snobbery stopped people from tuning in too. I've recently watched season 1 of Joss Whedon's other great work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it's really no better than Firefly. No spaceships though, so maybe that's why it was more popular. I still think Buffy is probably the better series overall, but that's because it had seven seasons to keep getting better. Firefly was killed long before it should have been. It's turned into something of a cult hit though, which is some consolation I guess.

Star Trek: Enterprise

I'm sure many people think this deserved it's cancellation. To be honest, before I watched any of it, I didn't like the concept of a prequel Star Trek series at all. The first couple of seasons were actually quite good though. Kind of TNG like in the idea of mostly random, not story arc adventure episodes. They were a decent insight into the early Star Trek universe. I get why people thought it was a little slow though. It couldn't have gone on much longer without some major twists to add some excitement. What they came up with was the season 3 Xindi story arc, with several characters becoming a lot darker, and T'Pol being naked a lot more often. Don't get me wrong, I did thing the Xindi arc was exciting and definitely a decent story, but the changes to the format of the series were too radical in my opinion. I can see that they might have alienated a lot of fans.

However daft the changes were, and however lame that season 4 opener was as a conclusion to the Temporal Cold War (lame story in itself), season 4 of Enterprise showed a series that should not have been cancelled for a long time. Season 4 was one of the best seasons of any Star Trek I've seen. The Vulcan stories, the Augments, and the beginnings of the Federation. This really was something special, and it just kept getting better. And then...cancelled. A stupid ending with a needless death, totally ruined by the fact that it wasn't even from the Enterprise character's point of view. If they'd cancelled it after season 2, or season 3, I could have understood. To cancel it when they did was just cruel.

Stargate Atlantis

As much as I love Stargate and loved Atlantis especially, I will accept that it was definitely on the decline when we found out it was about to be cancelled. I think a lot of mistakes were made in the last two seasons. The team wasn't together as often as they used to be, the Michael story was resolved in a rather disappointing way, Amanda Tapping was seriously underused...and I'm sure there were other problems. Atlantis did seem to peak in season 3. However, there were some truly great episodes in the last couple of seasons. Great Replicator stores, introduction of evil Asgard as bad guys, and that fantastic finale.

Even if you can argue that Atlantis was on it's way out, the real tragedy is that this was cancelled with the promise that it wasn't over. There would be movies to carry it on, but the tv series was being sacrificed for the sake of Stargate Universe. The films haven't happened, and are on hold indefinitely. Stargate Universe is not like Stargate SG1 or Atlantis at all. It's not nearly as good and I doubt it will be. I went into it with an open mind, hoping that it might actually be the best of the franchise, and it's not delivered. I'd much rather have seen Atlantis go a few more seasons.

Stargate SG1

I guess you can hardly say it was tragic for a series to finally be cut after ten good seasons, but it was still a shame. The biggest shame was, again, the time they decided to do it. It was announced during the first half of season 10, which was some of the best SG1 ever aired. I know some think it should have finished after season 8, and I do agree that the change between 8 and 9 was a bit too big, but it was still a damn good show. I think if there had been more transition rather than just a load of huge changes all at once, it would have been better, but it was still worth watching for those last two seasons. I won't dwell because SG1 obviously had a great run and is still the longest running sci-fi show in history, but it was still a bit of a shame.

Angel

I think a lot of things went wrong in Angel and could have been handled better. Joss Whedon rarely messes up, but the last two seasons of Angel weren't what they could have been. Cordelia's demise didn't seem worthy of the character she'd become. It took three seasons to get to the point where she was a Champion like Angel. She was on his level. And then she wasn't herself for season 4 (even though it was a cracking story with some excellent twists, it was still harsh on Cordy) and then she appeared once in season 5, just to die. I wasn't so keen on that. Also wasn't keen on how owning Wolfram and Hart was handled. Another great twist, but it could have been better.

Angel was definitely on the decline when it got cancelled, but I feel like it could have been so much better with more time. The cancellation lead to the final story arc being rushed through, and that ruined it. I would have liked that final season a lot more if I'd known it was going to continue. Mind you, never liked Spike being in it. He got his heroes death in Buffy. He didn't need to come back. Whatever the faults though, it should have got another season.

Invasion

This was a slow one. Didn't grip a lot of people from the start, and that was it's major problem. It got more and more interesting as it got going, but it was still a little too slow. That final episode was really exciting though, and from the sounds of it season 2 would have been a big improvement. Unfortunately it never got that far though. It really should have done. This was a show with a lot of potential.

Farscape

Tragedy doesn't even begin to cover the magnitude of this criminal cancellation. Probably one of the greatest sci-fi series ever made, and that ever will be made. Farscape was not on the decline. Every season was different with new and unexpected twists, and it always threw out something exciting. The season 4 finale was such a massive cliffhanger. I really cannot believe it got cancelled there. Season 4 was brilliant! With Scorpy on board, Grayza as baddie, Scarrans vs Peacekeepers...it was amazing.

I will really never understand it. The good thing about Farscape though is that it did get four seasons, unlike Firefly. The concluding mini-series did manage to conclude nearly everything. There were a few jumps and unexplained things that would have benefitted from a season 5, but it worked anyway. Farscape was probably a season away from a good conclusion anyway, and the mini-series did a damn good job. Still would have prefered another season and it was a stupid thing to cancel, but it was enough.

Dollhouse

And this is the reason I thought of this post. WHY FOX, WHY?! I understand it's had poor ratings, but I really can't understand why. Sci-fi snobbery again? Lack of advertising? I can't imagine it's because the show isn't up to it, because it really was turning into something brilliant. Perhaps it had a bit of a slow start, since there was a lot of explaining to do and a lot of getting into the characters. Took a while not to see them as Faith and Helo. Still, it really came into it's own towards the end of season 1. Alpha made a huge difference. Season 2 so far has been brilliant. Loads of new twists, and loads of links to that fantastic season 1 episode 13, Epitaph One.

I really feel for Joss Whedon. This was a very different show, and it had the potential to be something special. I don't believe that season 1 matched up to seaon 1 of Buffy or Firefly, but it would have got there. Definitely tragedy.

(this post will be added to when I have more time/ideas)

Dr Who - The Waters of Mars

Thank you Russell T Davies for giving us the first Dr Who special since The Christmas Invasion that really was special. Don't get me wrong, the others have been good (or just alright in the case of The Next Doctor) but they've not quite matched up to the epic season finales we've had. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords and Stolen Earth/Journey's End were all fantastic, whereas most of the specials were more like normal episodes.

The Waters of Mars was different though. A darker Doctor and a darker story, similar in that respect to The Family of Blood. The Doctor is sick of the rules, and so he decides to change them. He was almost Master-like in the way he decided that he was the one with the power. Bit of a sudden change, but you could see what drove him to it.

The story itself was good because it didn't need too much detail and backstory. We could see that the characters had a lot of background, but what mattered was what was happening now. It didn't matter what the Martian water monster was, just how it affected the crew.

Those last few minutes where Adelaide kills herself to right the timeline, and the Doctor realises what he's done, were some of the best I've seen in Dr Who. The Doctor realises he's gone too far. He used his power to try and change a fixed point in time because he was arrogant enough to believe he could rewrite the law. Because of that, he was responsible for a suicide. Adelaide showed more bravery than he did, because she was prepared to die, whereas he wasn't prepared to do the right thing. Fantastic lead into the final story for the Tenth Doctor, and interesting that he saw Ood Sigma just before the end.

I've seen the trailer for The End of Time, and I'm incredibly excited.

Battlestar Galactica - The Plan

And They Have a Plan. That was written in the opening sequence of Battlestar Galactica for a long time, and over the course of four seasons we found out more or less what the plan was. Well, moreso in season 4 really, the the episode where Ellen makes her reappearance. The purpose of The Plan was to show us what it actually was and how it was carried out up until the point where the Cylons withdrew from the Colonies and the Cavill's got spaced.

I'll start by saying that this is most definitely not for people who haven't seen the series. Razor could possibly (just possibly, wouldn't recommend) be enjoyed as a stand-alone TV movie. The Plan requires detailed knowledge of everything that has happened so far. I wouldn't even recommend it to a casual viewer, and if you don't remember the events of season 1 very well because you haven't seen it for a long time, I'd recommend refreshing your memory first. If you do remember it well, then The Plan does a good job of tying everything together. We get to see the attack on the Colonies from the Cylon point of view, and in a lot more detail than we did from the human point of view in the miniseries. We get to see how Ellen Tigh survives, how Anders survives, the Cylons on Galactica and their plans, how Boomer was controlled. All definitely interesting to see.

This film expands on what we saw in late season 4 about Cavil where he's coming from. He wants to be a machine, but he also craves approval from his creators. He wants to be loved for being a perfect machine. Everything he did was because of his revulsion of humanity and his belief that they should be punished. The Plan showed that there truly was no humanity in him at all, no conscience. I thought he'd probably kill the boy at some point, but it was still pretty chilling to see how casual he was about killing a young child and then pushing the body to the floor.

The film in itself was a little strange, I thought. I know the whole idea was to put the extra bits in with the original footage, but sometimes it was a little too obvious that that was what was happening. It didn't help that there was no footage included of some of the major players. I'm guessing that maybe Mary McDonnell refused to appear even in archive footage, because I can't think of any other sane reason to not show such a major character. Sure, she wasn't a major part of the Cylon's plans in the way that some others were, but she was still present at some major events. Leoben's airlocking for example? Cavil got it into his head that Adama had to die, so he had to be in it. Starbuck was always important, both to Leoben and to Anders on Caprica, so she had to be in it. Apollo wasn't really so important, but he got to be there, just because it makes sense to show the main players. Why no Roslin, or even Billy?

Another person conspicuous by their absence was obviously Number 3. Mentioned once, and early on some archive footage was spliced in with some new stuff, but it really wasn't much. Okay so maybe Lucy Lawless wasn't interested, and nothing can be done about that, but I'm sure that someone who was so vocal and at some points even seemed to lead the Cylons would have been more involved in the plan. To barely even be mentioned was strange. D'Anna Biers was in the fleet, and yet no explanation was given as to why she wasn't at the Cylon meetings.

I think I have just one more complain about it, and it's not really a very big one. I found the Simon who was with the previously unmentioned and never heard from again knuckle-dragger a little bit strange. I don't know whether they were trying to make a point that John Cavil was so different from the others and so much more of a machine, by giving Simon a more human story where he actually fell in love. If that's the case, then why just Simon and not Aaron Doral? The Doral's and the Simon's were always the most emotionless, and they all seemed pretty much the same. It was just strange to change one now. I guess it shows that they can't all be the same though, which was more obvious in the sixes and eights. I did actually like the new Simon, even if it was a slightly unecessary story. Again, puzzled by the new woman, who was probably in it because she's Edward James Olmos' wife.


All in all, I did enjoy The Plan. I'm a Battlestar addict who will always want more. I do agree with some things I've read about it being unnecessary, and do see how some might consider it to be dragging BSG on for too long. Not saying I agree though. For me, this is like The Silmarillian. Of course it's not needed to enjoy the rest of the series, and once you've seen the series you don't need to see this. It's something extra for people who want to know everything about the world. People who watch Daybreak and are left desperate to know more, even if it's just going back to see a season and a half from the Cylon point of view. For the Battlestar addicts, The Plan is worth adding to your collection.

Now I've spoken about the actual film, I have to mention the music. Bear McCreary truly is amazing, and it either shows my love of his soundtracks or my absolute geekiness that I spent a lot of the film picking out which themes I knew and being able to name them. The Final Five theme makes any moment in Battlestar Galactica exciting for me, so I was pleased to hear that so early on. Nice to hear the Earth theme too, used as it originally was as a Caprica flashback theme. Something Dark Is Coming was included too, and I've not heard that for a while. That one reminds me a lot of season 2. The final credits song, apparently called Apocalypse, was great. I like all the tracks with Raya Yarborough's vocals. I'm definitely looking forward to adding another soundtrack to the collection.

Last comment, based on something I saw on Bear McCreary's blog. I think my geek level just hit maximum, because I recognised that the planet in the universal logo was Caprica and not Earth before I even read and confirmed it in that blog. I think I go above maximum by actually being proud of that I did.