An idea for a new TV programme...

[Tiplodocus]

There's a letter in this month's EDGE magazine that basically says:

"I don't drive a car and I'm not really interested in cars but I really enjoy watching TOP GEAR. Surely there's room for a programme in a similar style devoted to computer games that drags in your casual viewer as well as your devoted car fan"

I'd go a bit further - surely there's room in the market for a Top Gear style programme all about Science Fiction and Fantasy.  

As well as the fans, you could catch all those people that like science fiction and fantasy but don't really know it (the thirty somethings that rave about Star Wars and are hyping the new Doctor Who to the heavens).  

You could cover all the genre - there's plenty of celebs with an interest to bring on and interview, you could even do stunt sections like they do on Top Gear (but instead of racing a bobsleigh with a rally car, you could, say, recreate favourite scenes from novels and comics using proper stuntmen and/or animation etc.  

Those warehouse style programs seem popular at the moment (there's even a cookery one).

So what do you think?


PS: It'd be called TOP GEEK, obviously.  

[Max Kon]

Sounds fun, I'd watch it

[Jared Katooie]

If it was done then it'd be done in an annoying and patronising way and fail as a result.

That's what happens whenever someone makes a game programme.

[Jared Katooie]

Actually that sounds overly negative. I like the idea and in the right hands believe it would make a good programme but I just dont have faith that that would happen.

I dont know if the Top Gear format would be the way to go but it absolutely has to be presented by Patrick Stewart.

[Dudley]

Pitch it!

Bloody excellent idea.  Can see it being customised for anything from Sky one to Channel 4 - but reckon BBC3 would take it for sure (would have to be a cheap version, obviously - no stuntmen)

[longmanshort]

it absolutely has to be presented by Patrick Stewart

... who has publicly stated many times that he doesn't like sci-fi ...

And, rather annoyingly, he decided to visit my old University's drama department a year AFTER I graduated with my next-to-useless theatre degree ...

[House of Usher]

That sounds like an amusing idea. I'd watch it.

Almost inevitably annoying and patronising; and I would add that most of the presentaers and interviewees would feel obliged to talk in a weird voice - you know, the one that communicates an exaggerated sense of wonderment and awe.

Sci-fi UK was not a bad series that tried to give a comprehensive overview in a very small amount of programming, but its appeal was probably limited to enthusiasts only.

[Jared Katooie]

"... who has publicly stated many times that he doesn't like sci-fi ..."

Hey, I never said it was a realistic idea, just a good one. :)

Wouldn't it be great if you could get a degree in science fiction?

[Quirkafleeg]

Woss might be up for it...

Though sf docs telly (apart from the sublime SF.GB) are always rubbish (still shuddering from the memory of Space Cadets)

[longmanshort]

Wouldn't it be great if you could get a degree in science fiction?

You can. Well, it's an MA ... was available at De montford or somewhere like that. Was severely tempted when I left uni, but I didn't have the right degree to do it ...

[Tordelbach]

I suffer from similar feelings of guilty pleasure regarding Top Gear (as a car non-scrot), but I fear that much of what makes that show's geekiness bearable is that Clarkson & Co are generally criticising or celebrating (usually) high quality real world machines that a huge proportion of the whole population knows SOMETHING about, either through begrudging necessity or genuine gr?.  They are also very much symbols of wealth, prestiege and adulthood - aspirational items for many.

SF on the other hand is a minority interest (except perhaps on Sky 1), frequently crappy and ill-considered in its execution, and mainly loved solely by the at best marginally geekish (or to quote Lisa Simpson, those with 'nerdish leanings').  It would be an uphill struggle to sell a thoughtful SF review/comment programme to the multitudes who still think Shatner's SNL "Get a life!!" routine the height of cutting put-downs.  

Ah don't mind me, my mind has been mushed by a long and boring meeting.  Live the dream!  'Gamesworld' worked quite well (didn't it?), and maybe a better model 'Sky at Night' is a gem, particularly as it's now on BBC3 during waking hours.

[Matt]

It'd probably end up been hosted by craig charles and move to channel five.

[Tiplodocus]

I think SF has moved on somewhat in the last twenty years though.  People keep mentioning Sky One as being a popular home for science fiction shows of all kinds - Murdoch doesn't do things if there's no money in it so there must be some audience there. Things like Smallville, Buffy and Angel have sort of crossed over into the mainstream.

And every list program is predictably topped by Star Wars - that can't be just the geeks voting.  And who's watching all of these comic book movie adaptions - again, not just the geeks.

My basic thought is that a lot of people like Science Fiction but don't realize that they do.

Sure, you'd have a lot of problems getting a producer who wants to treat it seriously (check out every item on the National News that conerns a science  fiction film or James Bond - they just can't do it straight - always have to have a stupid gimmick).  Laughing WITH, not AT, that's the key.

It's good that everybody already has ideas about how cheap, crap, patronising and annoying these things turn out to be - that makes it very easy to spot when such a show would be going wrong (with Craig Charles presenting it on Channel 5!  Brilliant - we'll need to include a segment for baseball, soft porn and Rommell.)

[Bico]

Actually, there *was* something along those lines a few years back, hosted by Craig Charles, who went on to take the piss out of the fans that had made him famous and generally act like he was too cool to be presenting the likes of this.
And then he went to jail.

[Dudley]

There was a documentary last night on The Secrets of Plastic Surgery in Ancient Egypt.  Damn near the uber-Channel 5 programme.