7 replies on “Hugo Awards 2012”

1. Anyone else find the list of nominees in the Dramatic Presentation, Short Form to be depressing? Three Doctor Who episodes, one Community episode, and an acceptance speech from last year.

   Is genre short form (ie TV) dead or was this just a really thin year?

   • Don’t forget, a tv series won for dramatic presentation, long form.

     I think we’ve had thinner years, years when there was very little genre programming. Consider that in 1968, every single nominee was a Star Trek episode. If anything, we have more genre programming than in the past– though the quality may not be the best!

     • Recently started watching ST:TNG with my kids for two reasons. 1) They’ve never seen it and 2) There’s nothing else on of any quality for Sci-Fi.

       Admittedly, it’s cheesy. Season one has some painfully groan-worthy moments. My 14yo is rolling her eyes a lot, but still enjoying it, but my 9yo son is having a blast with it.

       Maybe I’m just getting old, but can’t we just have some *good* Sci-fi like the old days?

       • The old days of sci fi in broadcast are, in my opinion, dying. Online streaming of TV content is popular enough that ads between parts of episodes are no longer profitable enough to maintain most TV series. That means looking to DVD/Blu-Ray sales and/or product placement as a revenue stream. Chuck made product placement work because it was a sci fi world very similar to our own, but most Star Trek and Stargate type series can’t. Until we see more Dr. Horrible type shows online, we’re going to have a hard time getting good content. That’s why I hope the Netflix season of Arrested Development does very well. It can prove the validity of the model and get more good sci fi back on the air. These are high cost shows that don’t fit the broadcast advertising model any more.

         • I would love to see product placements in sci-fi shows that were nothing like our world. Something about the absurdity of it would really be good for me.

           Stargate could have easily had product placements, and they often did (Did you not see the obvious DELL logos on every piece of Atlantis computer gear?) but Star Trek and others, not so much.

           If it’s future based, it could still work (Picard could have asked for Tea. Lipton. Earl Grey. Hot.), others would have to be more creative but I’m sure they could find a way.

           Subtle product placements are good, but obvious ones aren’t. All of the recent car placements on shows that go out of their way to show the navigation system or fancy features… USA shows are bad about that. Show someone eating a bag of cheetos, I’m OK with it. Have someone go on for 30 seconds about how much they love cheetos, maybe not. Smallville went back and forth quite a bit here too, with bands and products. The Stride Gum bits were the worst.

           Anyhow… Back on point, there are still some good/decent genre shows… Fringe, Alphas, Eureka (not anymore, but would have been a good candidate for this year), Haven, and if you expand that to include Monsters/Fairy Tales, then you also get Supernatural, Being Human (UK/US), True Blood, Once Upon a Time, Grimm (haven’t seen it but I’ve heard good things), Vampire Diaries (which my wife loves, I don’t like it), and some others.

           What seems to be rare these days is Space-based Sci-Fi… Which there is definitely a market for, but seems to be more popular in movies than TV lately. Except Futurama, which doesn’t really count since it’s animated.

           I don’t care if it means Chiana flying a Ford shuttle wearing a space suit from Target while drinking Aquafina from a Camelbak, as long as the rest of the story holds up, they can do whatever it takes to keep it on the air.

           • At the same time, a number of pricey historical series of varying quality have (variously) thrived or received a few seasons, and they’ve not been able to do product placement.

             If they build it, an audience will come. So maybe it goes back to the original point. We’re seeing a lot of genre tv, but perhaps not a lot of quality or revolutionary genre tv (though again, consider Game of Thrones‘ audience and ratings), and perhaps networks are jittery about taking chances.

             Perhaps the success of movies will eventually have an influence. The mass media loves trends, and will rush to create one as soon as they believe it exists.

             • There is some truth to this, but the segment of th population most inclined to watch science fiction is the same segment most inclined to cancel cable and stream from Internet to TV directly, if a TV is involved at all. I won’t say it’s impossible, but the “minimum quality” bar gets higher all the time.