Well, as of now, every episode of...

 Posted on 8/19/1994 by STRACZYNSKI [Joe] to GENIE


Well, as of now, every episode of year one has aired with the exception
of "Chrysalis," which will be a bit down the road yet.

A quick thought.

When this show first went on the air, I had been promising that the
series would be something different, stuff and an overall approach -- the
basic arc -- not done before on television. After "Midnight," and to some
extent "Soul Hunter" and "Infection," a number of folks on various nets were
saying it wasn't as advertised. I read those posts, and at times was
frustrated by them, because I knew what was coming in "Sky," and "Signs and
Portents," and "Babylon Squared" and others.

I think that the point has been made...and the promise kept.

I think we've done pretty good.

I will put our first season against the first season of *any* prior SF
series. Step back for a moment and look at what we've had just so far:

Signs and Portents...And the Sky Full of Stars...Babylon Squared... The
Parliament of Dreams...Mind War...Deathwalker...Believers...and the rest.

And we're *just* getting started...and "Chrysalis," the best of the
bunch, is still lurking around the corner.

Those of you who've been around, and have seen the majority of the aired
episodes, know what we're trying to do, and where we're trying to go with
this. In another topic, the show was described as "a meta SF saga," and I
guess that covers it as well as anything else.

I just think it's useful, at this point, to step back from the individual
episodes -- the details -- and look at the whole first season as a whole
tapestry...and I think we've covered a LOT of new terrain, and done some
pretty nifty stuff.

In the final analysis, I think we've made a little history with this
show...had an effect on how SF Television will be done henceforth, and brought
a "screw 'em, let's go for broke" philosophy back to the genre, which
(personal opinion) had grown, in TV, a bit on the stuffy side. Bar fights,
main characters who lie, bad guys who do good things and good guys who do bad
things, bathrooms, fasten/zip and lessons in Centauri anatomy, we've broken
some of the taboos, and I think that's a positive thing.

(Pound for pound, though, on reflection, I'd have to say that the X-Files
also had about as good a first season as anything I've ever seen, though
technically it's not SF...not really horror...more in the category of Really
Weird Stuff.)

Anyway, just some thoughts at the end of the day.

jms