The UK Embracing Sci-Fi

America and Britain have always had this special type of relationship, like that of a single mother and flippant overly emotional daughter.  but for the most part, we tend to get along because we do have some staggering cultural similarities. We generally both like people who are polite, understand the value of a good education, and of course love our television. However, whereas Britain has long been the commissioner of comedy it has made staggeringly low progress in other genres of television, specifically science fiction. But in the last couple of years they have seemed to, like the rest of the world, embrace this new untapped genre.

Science fiction has recently seen a spark in interest as a genre, just evidence by how many new science fiction shows there are and the increasing number of superhero movies and alien movies that have begun to be spat out every summer. However, America has always had a pretty healthy sceince fiction relationship. In regards to television and film at least. There is of course Star Wars that paved the way, but even on the small screen there has been Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Sliders,  The X-Files, Babylon 5, The Twilight Zone, Firefly,  Fringe, Heroes, Quantum Leap, – even in a comedic sense there was Mork and Mindy and Alf, and even The Jetsons. The United Kingdom had Doctor Who, some more Doctor Who, a little bit more Doctor Who, some Red Dwarf and followed by another heaping helping of Who and two spin offs.

For the longest time the only notable science fiction show to come out of Angle-land was Doctor Who– which is no laughing matter considering it is still the highest rated science fiction show in the world and the longest running. As well, it of course changed casts, directors, and writers throughout the years so it could jardly be considered the same show that it started out as. With that beign said though, it is remarkable that it has taken this long for England to widen its science fiction horizons.

Now part of the reason for this stagnation is that Britain is not big on the whole “choice” thing. Too many options tends to freak them out. They’re happy with just their three choices of ice cream, just a stnadard vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. They don’t need anything fancy like mint chocolate chip or chunky monkey. And the same would apply for television. For starters, there are not too manys tations the BBC has created and broadcasts itself. In fact most television networks around the world are those country’s versions of America’s networks. Film and Entertainment are our best industry after all. So, for the statiosn they do have they have a limited option of what to show. They need to cover a wide variety of bases to make sure ratings stay up and too much of one genre would kill that. So it is surprising to see the great stretch of new science fiction that has aired in Britain and made its way over to America.

Within the past five years or Britain has created Primeval, a revival of Survivors, The Eleventh Hour,Misfits, Life on Mars, and extending thie reach into fantasy there is now the extremely popular Being Human and previously there was Hex. Like America, Britain it would seem is beginning to embrace the science fiction genre and making a pretty successful run at it too, considering America has already taken one of their shows ( Being Human) and is looking to adapt another ( Misfits).

It would appear that the growth in science fiction has now crossed the pond from America, and made its way into the British film and television industry. Of course, Doctor Who will still probably be number one, but it is nice to see them expanding.

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