TVSquad

(this is random memory from the commercial spot I wasnt paying that much attention too) The cases being shown on SVU deal with freaky serial killers. I guess they are freaky enough to be considered other worldly or some such. I gave up trying to figure what the SciFi channel considers science fiction along time ago.

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a show about alien sexual assault would be so awesome

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Well, I don't remember any sci-fi themes on svu. SciFi shows fantasy genre too, on top of my head, earthsea isnt scifi...

maybe they think svu cases are fantasy?
episodes airing tonight are: Manhunt(S2), Chameleon(S4), Dominance (S5). Someone confused the programming schedule of scifi for usa network... hehe

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The, so called, Sci-Fi channel has become anything but. Apparently the people that run it think that ghosts and psychics constitute all there is in science fiction. They certainly meet the fiction part but are sorely lacking the science. The only thing I now watch is Stargate S.G.1

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The Sci Fi Channel has also aired Sixteen Candles, Mission Impossible (Tom Cruise version), Hanniba, and regularly airs Quantum Leap--all of which marginally qualify. Sci Fi is trying to get away from being perceived as the network for comic book collecting, Dana Scully lusting Trekkies.

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i'm sorry how is Quantum Leap about a time traveller from the future marginally Sci-Fi?!?!

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Because virtually evey episode dealt with regular human interests. The science fiction elements were ancillary to the plot. Donald Bellsarion even said this himself back in the day. he wanted to keep those elements to a minimum so as not to stray into shows like The time Tunnel or Doctor who. it wasn't until the ratings slipped in the final season that he added an evil leaper and other sci fi elements. the show tanked because of it. it alienated the viewer base who weren't science fiction fans. Ergo, it is only marginally science fiction.

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Maybe not "trying to get away from" their core sci-fi base--maybe more like trying to air things that will give them the opportunity to advertise their expensive original programming. But SVU makes zero sense. It's not fantasy and it's not sci-fi. I mean, detective stories are a genre, too, but...does NBC need to squeeze Law & Order dry?

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Thank you Stephen Prescott for being the voice of reason. I too am mystified how Quantem leap "marginally qualifies" as SciFi. In what way could we make it MORE Sci-Si?
Perhapse the main character could have a hologram friend? No no no...too obvious...
Or perhapse a portion of it could take place in the future....no no...too easy...
Maybe the main character could some how ...jump or "leap" into other peoples bodies, taking on their lives for a short while...no, that's just plain silly.
I guess well just have to keep it the serious character driven drama that it is...with absolutely NO science fiction in it at all.

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I ssee Stephen and Phantom have no clue what the word "marginally" means. Too much TV, too little reading. sad.

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As far as I'm concerned, there are three major categories of sci-fi:

Other Worlds: space travel, future
Strange Beings: aliens, robots, psychics, ghosts
Time Travel: uh, self-explanatory

Time travel gets its own category from me mostly because it doesn't fit in with the others. But it IS sci-fi. Sci-fi uses fantastic elements to tell a story, not the other way around. Quantum Leap is not marginally sci-fi, it simply is sci-fi because it satisfies the storytelling aspect and adds some fantastic elements.

And before pedantics run in here, keep in mind I'm using "sci-fi" to mean "science fiction", even though some will not equate the two.

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Well, Jamie, apparently all your reading hasn't helped you figure out that "marginally" means "barely," and that a show about time travel doesn't "barely" qualify as sci-fi. It's pretty square in the sci-fi camp. No matter what Donald Bellasario called it while he was trying to reel in viewers who get the heebie-jeebies from the "sci-fi" label, traveling through time and body-switching is fictional science; ergo, science fiction.

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Perhaps if the Sci Fi Channel got the funds to actually bring to air all the shows it recently announced as being in development, they wouldn't need filler material like this.

Unlike many of the other nework's upfront, the Sci Fi Channel's announcements the other week merely highlighted their development slate and not shows committed to at least airing the pilot & a few episodes.

Or so I'm told anyway.

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they're showing american pyscho at 10

yeah...weird

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Perhaps its all one giant Outer Limits theme

Don't touch your dial. We control the T.V. set...

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Jamie's right, Quantum Leap BARELY qualified as being Sci-Fi. It had a sc-fi setup but every episode was just an examination of the human condition from someone elses point of view. The jumping to different times and bodies was just a crutch to allow the writers to explore entirely different situations each week without needing to coherently tie them together. The plots could have been taken from Love Boat or BJ and the Bear.
A real Sci-Fi show has to be more than just a gimmick. You could call a show "Time Warriors from the Andriod Planet" and have the characters dressed up as aliens, but if they spend every week just talking about their relationship then it isn't Sci-Fi. It's got to be interwoven into the plotlines.

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Ya know if SciFi is running out of the umpteenth repeat of Stargate (the Law and Order of the SciFi universe) they could consider getting some new (to them) stuff to air. The new Dr Who is a decent sized success and it seems to me that classic eps would do well. So why not buy a few seasons of Tom Baker and run them instead of stretching it and running SVU.

Or along those lines--repeat Farscape or one of the other shows they've produced over the years. Of course, if they repeated Farscape, the fans would just get pissed again that quality sci-fi shows like it are cancelled while Stargate is still going.

Of course, that makes sense and is in keeping with what the network really is supposed to be about and we can't have that.

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