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The Final Frontier 9
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Final Frontier 9 (Disk 2 of 3).adf
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Beeb_Trek
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1995-11-09
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5KB
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92 lines
TF01
3,Beeb Trek!
4,by Simon Plumbe
Well, it's finally happened! After 26 years of showing Star Trek in
the UK, it finally seems as if the BBC has come to realise that not
only is science fiction popular on TV, but also that Star Trek is a
popular show and is worth broadcasting!
What do I mean? Well, for the first time in the history of the BBC,
they are currently showing more than one Star Trek series
simultaneously. When I first discovered what was going on, I couldn't
believe my eyes, but it seems as if someone finally discovered the
fact that Trekkers who didn't own satellite dishes wanted to see more
than 45 minutes of Star Trek a week.
For a few weeks prior to the release of this issue, not only have the
BBC been showing Star Trek: The Next Generation in it's usual 6:00 pm
slot on Wednesdays, but they also started showing Deep Space Nine on
Thursdays at 6:00 pm as well! This in itself came as a shock, I'm
sure, to most British Trek fans, but it didn't stop there! As well as
that, they decided to start a repeat showing of Classic Trek on
Sunday mornings!! Now when the BBC suddenly decide to start showing
THREE different episodes from three different Star Trek shows a week,
something is definitely going on! It is even more surprising when you
realise that it is all on the same channel!! They even took to
showing a complete re-run of the entire animated Trek series during
the summer!
To top it all off, they even broadcast a few of the other pilots for
shows created by Gene Roddenberry as part of a season of sci-fi
movies, including Planet Earth and Genesis II. Granted, both of these
had been shown within the last couple of years, but what is
interesting was the time slot. Imagine watching an episode of TNG on
Wednesday only to find another 90 minutes of Gene-penned sci-fi
straight afterwards!!
It would seem that, going by recent trends, the BBC is finally
starting to take an interest in broadcasting popular programmes - on
BBC2 there has been a recent upsurge of other SF/fantasy shows.
Looking at what has been shown over the last few months and it does
hold more than a few surprises - a number of recent and "classic"
cult shows are all being aired, admittedly in many cases in the anti-
social 6:00 pm slot, but they are being aired nevertheless. As well
as Trek, we have been treated to The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Space
Precinct, The New Avengers, Buck Rogers, and many other shows with
several hours a week of programming being given over to this type of
material.
As well as this, there are a great deal of programmes in the pipeline
waiting to be shown including Earth 2, Highlander, M.A.N.T.I.S., Star
Trek: Voyager, a possible re-run of Space 1999 and other Gerry
Anderson shows... the list is apparently endless.
Why this change has come about is uncertain. Certainly ITV seem
unaffected by the interest in SF/fantasy and continue to show
programmes at completely random times - often edited - and usually
out of sequence. The number of shows that have been started and then
left unfinished, or started and moved about so that viewers lose
track is beyond belief. Other shows bypass nationwide broadcast and
are left to local stations to show as part of their late-night
programming. In fact, this is the only way that shows like Alien
Nation and War Of The Worlds have been seen, and even then they are
subject to the whim of the individual TV company. Most stations
edited War Of The Worlds and although Central TV didn't, they have
yet to show Season Two although they have shown the first season
twice.
However, I think the BBC must have taken inspiration from other shows
currently on the air. Channel 4 has had an unprecedented success with
Babylon 5 which, despite being positioned in a 6:00 pm slot, is their
highest rated imported show on the station! While most sci-fi shows
are guaranteed to do well because of the sheer volume of SF fans in
the UK, for a series like Babylon 5 (which had received a great deal
of pre-launch criticism, primarily from Star Trek fans) proved that
the demand is definitely there for high quality SF. Following that,
when a major station like Channel 4 devotes an entire weekend's
programming to SF (in their rather disappointing Sci-Fi Weekend), it
was inevitable that the other stations were bound to take notice.
The BBC have also had first hand experience of that themselves with
the popularity of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman. For
the BBC to show this is a prime time slot is unheard of, but for them
to repeat each season straight after it's broadcast is unbelievable.
Looking at the current situation, it does appear that the BBC are
gearing themselves towards catering for SF/fantasy fans, and
transmitting shows that are either destined to be popular or are
already popular elsewhere. In all, it seems as if there is hope for
the BBC yet...!