Over the last few years my family and I have binged all of Star Trek, then moved on to Star Trek adjacent shows like The Orville and Stargate. At the moment we’re not really watching anything sci-fi. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for similar shows (or maybe some books) that fill the void left by Star Trek. In particular I really like the episodes that deal with interacting with other civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration more-so than say, an anomaly episode.
I found Farscape impossible to watch because of the main character. The show suffers because of the classic misogynistic writing where all the female characters are tripping over themselves to get noticed by the bland, aggressive, stupid, and overly cocky “average Joe” that was thrust into an unusual situation. It’s extremely dated writing and as a woman, it really irritates me.
The rest of the show is great! But the main character just ruins it for me completely. Unfortunately that kind of writing is everywhere in older sci-fi. I started and gave up on Stargate: Atlantis for the same reason. I wish someone would release an edit with the more obnoxious parts removed because I can tell that I’m missing out on some great sci-fi but it’s just unwatchable to me.
On the other hand you’ve got shows like ST:TNG, ST:DS9, Battlestar Galactica, even Lexx, where either women are treated with respect and not overly sexualized, or if they are sexualized then so are the men, and the men are kind, intelligent, and curteous, or if they’re not then they’re probably a villain.
Mmm, I know exactly what you mean. I’m tired of limp lead characters who just tick the boxes of a target demographic to self-insert into.
The Expanse suffered a bit from that (the main guy had all the magnetism of limp celery) but was saved because every single other character was genuinely interesting. Farscape had a much smaller cast, so there was no escape!
I always thought Farscape could be amazing if they rewrote it and got some good actors. The plot of good and the character development could be magnificent. It is such a great concept.
That could be said of a lot of things … a great concept let down by lazy writing and poor casting. Yet these things get money thrown at them - great effects, lighting, locations, makeup, etc etc