Blogs / Science Not Fiction

Just finishing its first season on BBC America is Primeval, a british sci-fi adventure series that shows how monster-of-the-week is really done.

In recent years, science fiction and fantasy shows have generally tried to steer away from plotlines that involve creatures appearing, then terrifying and/or eating bystanders, and then being dispatched at the end of the episode once the cast has figured out the creatures’ main weakness. This plot formula is only for the start of season one, the thinking goes, when audiences need self-contained stories to introduce them to the cast and the show’s milieu. The real meat happens later, as multi-episode arcs and more complex character development are brought in, and monster-of-the-week episodes, with their limited formula, go to the bottom of the story pitch pile. Primeval explodes this thinking by having a show built firmly around the monster-of-the-week device, while still advancing engaging season-length arcs and furthering clever character development.

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The latest installment in the Stargate franchise has arrived: Stargate Continuum. After the Stargate: SG-1 TV series was cancelled in 2007, the producers opted to bring back the cast in a series of direct-to-DVD movie releases (also available on iTunes and Blu-Ray). Perhaps surprisingly, even after 10 seasons of the original SG-1 and four seasons of its spin-off Stargate Atlantis (the fifth season is currently airing), the Stargate universe feels far from played out, as demonstrated by Continuum. In the Stargate universe, planets throughout the galaxy are linked by a network of wormholes created by the stargates, artifacts of a long-departed civilization. The U.S. Air Force has one of these gates, which it keeps stashed beneath Cheyenne Mountain. Teams sally forth through the gate to explore alien worlds. The producers have done an excellent job of expanding the premise of the original 1994 movie that launched the franchise.

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