Sci-Fi market saturated?

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  • Sci-Fi market saturated?

    Someone asked me a question the other day, "Is the tv market saturated with sci-fi deadly virus stories?"


    I told him no. If you take Walking Dead it was way different then Helix (canceled). Then you have stories like 12 Monkeys but its a time travel series, and even though it has that viral apocalypse in its story, it is way different then WD or Helix.

    Just wanted others take on this as what people (execs) perceive as saturated becomes an excuse to put your story aside.

  • #2
    Re: Sci-Fi market saturated?

    I mean, if you believe some people there are only two real stories:

    A) A stranger comes to town
    B) The hero goes on a journey

    That's it. Either someone comes in or someone leaves.

    I do think that "this story's been told too many times" is a pretty common stick that writers use to beat themselves out of writing.

    Personally I can't think of that many deadly virus shows. There are certainly fewer of them than there are, say, cop and lawyer shows, and we get new ones of those all the time. Hell, at one point there were four different versions of just Law & Order on TV at the same time, all of which had the same formula but managed to be reasonably distinct series.

    The premise is rarely what makes a script unique - it's usually something in the finer details, like the voice, tone, or character dynamics.

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    • #3
      Re: Sci-Fi market saturated?

      Virus stories (The Strain is another) are quite commonplace. But sci-fi in general still continues to be popular right now, in TV and features.

      That said, what's fatigued with one company may be precisely what another company is looking for. I had a cluster of meetings recently on a TV project and each exec contradicted the next (and Gersh). Every company has its own unique tastes and parameters.
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      • #4
        Re: Sci-Fi market saturated?

        I'll have to agree with that EvilRbt. Virus stories have been done, however, what you don't see much of is hard sci-fi. Space fantasy and cyberpunk is a bit more lacking than the virus stories. Then again, hard sci-fi is more difficult to make. Or so it would seem.
        I love Wing Commander, Mark Hamill is awesome. That is all.

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