Thoughts on television programming

You know how I call this series of blogs Ramblings?  Well by that I mean that it goes all over the place and doesn't really have a specific subject.  I just ramble on about whatever comes to mind, which means to waffle.

Today I am thinking of television shows that I have watched over the years, and that I watch now.  For those of you who aren't so interested then I apologise, but I just thought that I would go on about something that is important to me.

I am a very big fan of Star Trek in it's various incarnations, even most of the Enterprise episodes I have seen.  I haven't seen all of them, which is a rarity for Star Trek, because I have seen every episode of all the other versions of Trek.  The original series of Star Trek is, in my opinion, a case where the television series was wasted.  If the studio behind that original series hadn't have tried to change things but had left it to the people who were making the programme, then perhaps the series would have lasted much longer and been better, especially if they hadn't have kept on lowering the budget every year.

At present I am watching the last few episodes of a series called Dollhouse, which was created by Joss Whedon (the man behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer).  I heard that changes were made before the first episode was even aired on American television, and that the whole idea of it was altered so much by those changes.  Perhaps if the studio had left the creative team to do what they wanted, then the programme may have been better and not had so much inconsistency, and perhaps it would have lasted longer than it was allowed to.

Another Joss Whedon show that was cancelled early on was a series called Firefly, which was a space based series.  This was a case of it being cancelled before suddenly becoming an incredibly popular programme.  Unfortunately the studio behind it had already made their minds up.  Because of that, the team behind that series made a cinematic film which has since gone on to become a very popular and much spoken about science fiction film.

Star Trek itself is another one of those television series that has proved it was finished early, because it became so popular after cancellation that it spawned a series of films based on the original series' characters, and various different spin-off's (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, the recent incredible film from JJ Abrams' fantastic team, oh and the Animated Series).

There are other programmes that I have seen over the years that I wonder about.  Heroes is a series that I wonder if the studio had tried to change too much, and if that is why it went down the pan?  The first season of that programme is genre television gold in my opinion, but then it strayed a little bit each year.  I think it has potential for revival if someone has the balls to try it, but I doubt that someone would.  I also think that it could make a good film if someone took the time, but again I doubt someone would even think of that.

I watched Lost from beginning to end but, if I am being honest, I felt let down by the ending.  I thought that I had wasted all of that time watching that series, especially when the studios let them have their own way with the series.

I am watching a television series that is from the same people who were behind Lost, and that is Fringe.  Similar to The X-Files, but also different enough as to not be a carbon copy.  What can I say, I am the sort of person who absolutely loves Sci-Fi and genre based television.  I am looking forward to hopefully watching another series that the people behind Fringe and Lost have developed, which is called Alcatraz.  That is different where I think they are looking at things that happened while the prison was up and running, where prisoners suddenly show up decades later in San Francisco, and a team have to catch them all over again.

Another programme I have started watching is Alphas, which is similar to Heroes in the way that it is about people who powers, but this time there a group of good people with these powers trying to capture those others who are using their powers for bad basically.  Slightly different, but like I said similar at the same time.

I suppose where I am going with all of this meandering chatter is the fact that I don't like it when programmes get cancelled, especially US programmes because, in all truth, if we watch the programmes or not in the UK or anywhere other than the US it doesn't really matter, because they could still can the series in the states.  It is irritating to me that it is like this.  I wish it wasn't, but there we have it.

And so ends a meandering ramble that sort of says something.  There are other programmes that people watch which aren't genre programmes but still get cancelled.  I am sure that a lot of them get just as pissed off as I do about these things.

Do you know what?  I'm just three minutes away from the very end of Dollhouse's last episode now.  I thought it was going to be crap, but it looks like the last few minutes are going to be quite poignant.  Go figure, all about how technology can go too far and the potential catastrophic consequences of such.   I'll take it off pause in a couple of minutes, but first I'll finish this, help the cleaners at work by taking the trash to the bins, and then watch those last couple of minutes.

I still haven't seen the last ever episode of Enterprise by the way.  When I do, will I be disappointed like Lost (and the original Dallas to some people), or blown away like Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country?

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

11/11/11 November 11 2011 (40 years, 11 months, and 16 days old).