New type of science fiction TV show

[vogelbek]

In recent years, I have had my brain tickled by some fun science fiction TV- "firefly" and "battlestar galactica" both stand out, for different reasons. But as much as I enjoy those shows, the former died after only 14 episodes and the second is scrapping with dismal ratings, dispite being one of the most dramatically intense and innovative shows on these days.<br /><br />Science fiction is in a tough way because many of the traditional viewers are tech savy bit torrenters, and many mainstream viewers are bored with the now formulaic shape that many science fiction shows take. <br /><br />To break up the status quo, my thinking is a show about the first human landings on mars sometime in this century. Mars exploration scenes could be shot at someplace like the mars desert research station, and the science and engineering of the spaceflight and planetary explortation would be ment to be top notch in accuracy.<br /><br />The goal of the show would be to appeal to the millions of technically involved adults arround the world with a no holds barred look at exploring a new world. NASAs relatively recent woes would make fictional technical (and social) problems on the surface believable,without hitting too close to home for most viewers.<br /><br />Depending on the scope and budget allocated, you could have anywhere from just a few people on the surface of mars with a set of disembodied mission controler's voices giving instructions to a 1st crew on the surface, a second crew on route, a mission control, and the astronaut's families back on earth.<br /><br />The key to sustaining such a show is to become a primetime contender with fantastic content to avoid the bit-torrent problem, and to figgure out somthing innovative to non-obtrusively insert some product placement to keep up advertising revenue in the age of TiVo. I expect it might take the form of advertising in the astronaut's public broadcasts back to earth, in addition to more standard product placement among mission contr

 

[kelvin_zero]

Yes I would certainly watch it.<br /><br />I got the impression from previous threads that a series of miniseries approach could be easiest to write, each covering a period of history.<br /><br />Im still interested in an ongoing Hard SF series in one setting, but still not sure how to do that without relying on excellent writing.