Those of you who read my other blog will have been regularly skipping my series of entries entitled "Foray into Science Fiction Fandom" in which I comment on or explain various directions of science fiction for those with more inhibited ideas about the limits of the genre and its cultural setting. The point of that entry series is to map out traditional areas of more imaginative pop-culture.
I don't have air channels, cable or satelite television in my home. My family uses websites like Hulu and Fancast, Netflix, and our local library to appropriate serial programming. This week I was asked to house- and cat-sit for someone with satelite television and I learned something rather saddening. The Sci-Fi channel (pronounced "skiffy" for those who like pseudo-affectionate nicknames) has changed its name to "SyFy." Long-time fans seem to be upset by this. I understand why, and it's a cultural phenomenon that deserves scrutiny.
Colin Ferguson, who plays Jack Carter in the Sci-Fi Original show "Eureka," noted in an interview at a fan conference that science-fiction fans comprise a highly discerning audience. We are highly critical but also dedicated and obsessively loyal to programming we deem valuable. Science Fiction fans respond well to that observation, because it appeals to our aspirations for ourselves. Science-Fiction fans generally consider themselves intelligent, independent, observant, and creative. Science-Fiction fans read. I would bet that we also spend slightly more time on the internet.
Unfortunately, with intellectual independence, science-fiction fans are also very diverse. There are shades of science-fiction fandom from black to white, and in every color family, primary and secondary. Diversity, when coupled with the penchant for intelligent criticism, does NOT make a stable or predictable audience, which can dry up our cash-cow teets. Essentially, any program aimed toward that audience will likely only appeal to a fraction of the demographic, one or two color families, and only of a specific shade or depth. We're hard to please.
Sci-Fi's switch to the SyFy label is aimed at widening the demographic. The executives wish to catch the attention of the mainstream, of people who ARE swayed by outdated stereotypes and the simplest of advertising, who are more easily satisfied. Years ago they began including programming which defied their long-standing finicky audience, such as WWE on Monday nights, "reality" programming, and info-mercials. They began trucking in derivative programming (trite and badly-dialogued repetitions of older, successful franchises), rather than original ideas.
Science-fiction fans have felt abandoned and debased, and possibly exploited, like a woman whose husband hired a prostitute. I worry that I've caught conformity, like some STD. Do they have a test for that? An antibiotic?
I predict that true science-fiction fans will simply divorce the channel, and share custody with valuable programming, much as they have learned to do with other stations. X-Files is a sci-fi stepchild. Doctor Who sprang infant-like from the b&w loins of sixties BBC and only hangs out with SyFy programming because they keep the freezer stocked with hot pockets, and they know William Shatner. HBO and Sci-Fi begat the bastard Stargate. Firefly is bi-racially part science-fiction and part western, but only a nodding aquaintance to the cable channel. Lost is so unrelated to the SyFy channel they could marry and it wouldn't bother the city-folk. Fringe, Moonlight, and many more have come and gone in the same situation, as have dozens of others which appeal to that elusive demographic simply because they are brilliant with that sparkle of creativity - that fifth C of a diamond in the rough.
As an unshakable fan of science-fiction and fantasy past, present, and future, I accept my place as an arm of popular culture but will remain loyal to my own tastes, such as they are.
