TV shows axed too soon

[Rook]

Captain Power - saturday morning tv show that was way to mature for its own good. It did Terminator in 2030 better than any of the post Terminator 2 movies did. Guy who wrote and directed it went on to do Bablyon 5 which I hear is good but never got around to watching it.

[Lian_Kazairl]

Recently, Minority Report, and not so recently, Almost Human. FOX just seems to get a kick out canning futuristic sci-fi shows before they even finish one season (well, Minority Report at least wrapped up its story, but did get its run cut back by three episodes). Almost Human had potential and Michael Ealy was so great that it was a treat seeing him on The Following's god awful third season, even if he was a psychopathic killer. Minority Report grew on me super quickly, and by the end I couldn't wait for new episodes. I got more invested in the world than I would have expected from a TV show based on a movie that I didn't really like, and the way the show ended was both great and left me craving more at the same time.

It's been mentioned before, but Stargate Universe. A thousand times Stargate Universe. I'm still really salty about it getting cancelled just when things were getting super interesting. Seriously, the second season was soooooo good. I loved what they were doing with the characters (especially Rush and Young burying the hatchet and working together; I will forever love Robert Carlyle and Louis Ferreira because of this show) and the implications of their journey were also intriguing. The cliffhanger the show ended on was better than what we would have been left with if it had been cancelled after the first season (in fact, they designed it to have just enough closure that it could work as both a series and season finale), but damn it, just think what they could have done with a final season (or the planned and canned movie) to wrap everything up. Syfy's been on my shit list ever since.

[Klutz64]

^ SyFy has almost no say about anything pertaining to anything Stargate related. MGM has a really tight hold on that license, and so pretty much decides everything about it, including show renewals/cancellations. SyFy has been doing really well lately in my opinion. Short of their marketing department (WATCH THIS SHOW THERE IS AT LEAST ONE SEX SCENE WE PROMISE) and milking Sharknado to a painful degree, they've been putting on some solid scripted shows the last couple of years.

[Lian_Kazairl]

Well then, let me amend. Whoever ultimately made the decision is on my shit list, and if it was MGM, they seem content to let Syfy take the blame (and even defend the decision). I was already pretty iffy on Syfy before SGU first aired (most of their offerings aren't really my kind of sci-fi), and losing the only show on the network that interested me didn't exactly endear me to them.

I will say this about Syfy, though. I very much enjoyed Dark Matter when it came out on Netflix and I keep meaning to check out The Expanse, so I have a glimmer of hope that the network can actually be worth watching again.

[Arvis]

Almost Human

*sigh*  FOX never even gave me a chance to watch it.  The second I found out about it and thought "Holy crap, Karl Urban in a sci-fi buddy cop show with a ROBOT character!?" it was canceled.

SyFy has ... been putting on some solid scripted shows the last couple of years.

Eureka is one of my favorite shows (after the first season).

[Aeolus]

^ SyFy has almost no say about anything pertaining to anything Stargate related. MGM has a really tight hold on that license, and so pretty much decides everything about it, including show renewals/cancellations. SyFy has been doing really well lately in my opinion. Short of their marketing department (WATCH THIS SHOW THERE IS AT LEAST ONE SEX SCENE WE PROMISE) and milking Sharknado to a painful degree, they've been putting on some solid scripted shows the last couple of years.

The other problem with Stargate is that by the time Universe came out, SG-1 was well past its expiration date and Atlantis was flopping hard. It basically ran into the Star Trek problem of too many series running for too long and leading to franchise burnout.

SyFy was hot garbage for a long time, especially during the period where they changed their name to SyFy, but yeah, a new crop of shows were starting to form and their studio realized just how bad they really were and were starting to run with it. Too bad, that's when I had to cut the Cable.

[Artimicia]

Hm never saw Stargate... vaguely remember trailers and stuff but never got around to it.

[Aeolus]

Hm never saw Stargate... vaguely remember trailers and stuff but never got around to it.

Not entirely unsurprising. The Movie came out 22 years ago and the first TV series followed pretty closely after that.

A quick primer if in case you're ever interested in checking it out.

The Movie: Okay, but also kinda necessary for the later shows as the main plot starts here. Also required to get the joke as to why Kurt Russel is the guy to call when sending someone through a doorway to another world.
SG-1: The first and best TV series. Stars MacGyver and that one guy that stayed on from The Movie plus a few other yahoos. Typical 90s era TV show that had some really good episodes and some less good episodes. Do not watch past the Anubis arc! The show really should've ended with that but it didn't and the remaining seasons were dire. Also required to understand how the series got to Atlantis.
Atlantis: Is bad. Its where all those 00s era Sci-Fi TV actors were ending up once their previous shows ended and they had nothing better to do. Is not required for Universe.
Universe: The only standalone series of the bunch. Boarded the LOST bandwagon and had a Stargate warp malfunction, stranding a bunch of people in a place that they could not leave and if the infighting was going to doom them, then whatever was lurking around would've. Sadly, the show itself was among the earlier set of casualties, so it never really went anywhere.

[Klutz64]

"X-Files is coming back, but unfortunately only as a six-episode mini-series."
*proceeds to end the series in the middle of an episode*

Not even a proper cliffhanger, just... gets to the climax of the episode and ends.

[Aeolus]

"X-Files is coming back, but unfortunately only as a six-episode mini-series."
*proceeds to end the series in the middle of an episode*

Not even a proper cliffhanger, just... gets to the climax of the episode and ends.

Wait. You mean as in 'execs kicked down the door, barraged into the room and pulled every plug outta every socket' or 'gets to sixth episode, unresolved cliffhanger, done'? Because if its the latter, then that sounds about right (though if it was the former, that sounds about right too).

[Rucks]

Stargate Universe was tremendous.  Or at least it could have been had anyone actually watched it.

[Arvis]

Stargate Universe was tremendous.  Or at least it could have been had anyone actually watched it.

The problem with that show is having to try and get into all the other Stargate in the first place.  I tried.  It was really boring.  Gave up.  Part of me still really wants to get to the "tremendous" bits, but.... life is short, man.

[Rook]

"X-Files is coming back, but unfortunately only as a six-episode mini-series."
*proceeds to end the series in the middle of an episode*

Not even a proper cliffhanger, just... gets to the climax of the episode and ends.

supposedly there was always a plan to have multiple seasons with 2 of the episodes being story/canon and the other 4 being monster of the week

[Lian_Kazairl]

Stargate Universe was tremendous.  Or at least it could have been had anyone actually watched it.

The problem with that show is having to try and get into all the other Stargate in the first place.  I tried.  It was really boring.  Gave up.  Part of me still really wants to get to the "tremendous" bits, but.... life is short, man.

Not necessarily. I had only watched the original movie prior to watching SGU. I was aware of SG-1 and Atlantis, and I watched some episodes of the former while Universe was on the air so that I knew who some of the guest characters were. I was able to follow Universe just fine, and never felt like I was missing something because I hadn't watched the other shows. And SGU ended up being one of my all time favorite sci-fi series.

[Aeolus]

Stargate Universe was tremendous.  Or at least it could have been had anyone actually watched it.

The problem with that show is having to try and get into all the other Stargate in the first place.  I tried.  It was really boring.  Gave up.  Part of me still really wants to get to the "tremendous" bits, but.... life is short, man.

Not necessarily. I had only watched the original movie prior to watching SGU. I was aware of SG-1 and Atlantis, and I watched some episodes of the former while Universe was on the air so that I knew who some of the guest characters were. I was able to follow Universe just fine, and never felt like I was missing something because I hadn't watched the other shows. And SGU ended up being one of my all time favorite sci-fi series.

And even if there were story ties to the previous series it still wouldn't be worth watching Atlantis for.


And looking over the thread, I didn't see any mention of Big O (which still counts since it was a joint production like nu Thundercats). Granted a third season would've only made that even weirder than what we actually got with its "Was it all a time loop? A dream? A stage production?" ending.