Summer Glau, the Sci-Fi siren

Summer Glau is the 29 year old actress who has been making mostly science fiction or fantasy television since she was age 20. The above photo shows her being ogled by the geeks of "The Big Bang Theory" sitcom, who consider her a goddess. Most people remember her as River Tam in Firefly and Serenity Film.

Given the general cult popularity of fantasy and science fiction, why do you think it is so difficult to get a network television science fiction series to last 100 episodes? Summer Glau has failed about 5 times now.

I found these seven long running TV series that are fantasy and science fiction. Only one of them ran on a major network television (X-Files). I don't consider CW to be major network TV.

Stargate SG1 214  (1997-2007)
X-Files 202  (1993-2002)
Smallville 195  (2001-present)
Star Trek Next Gen 178  (1987-1994)
Charmed 178  (1998-2006)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine 176  (1993-1999)
Star Trek Voyager 172  (1995-2001)

I've watched "The Cape" and she is pretty fuckin hot

I think you're being a bit hard on Summer. I'm sure she tried her best.
Seriously though, I don't see the Twilight Zone or Outer limits on your list.
The British have had few exceed 100 with Dr. Who still going strong.
The main reason they don't last is the quality of the scripts.

Go easy on Summer, not her fault. Firefly should've gone a lot longer than it did.

I love SGU right now. I think it's well written and great characters. Never miss it.

Quote: zippyboy

Go easy on Summer, not her fault. Firefly should've gone a lot longer than it did.

I didn't mean what I said as a personal attack. I meant that this woman is very hot and very popular, yet even she can't seem to get a sci-fi show to last more than one season on network TV.

Sci-Fi shows also tend to cost more, with all the special effects.
A drama shot in a studio can be moderately popular and turn a profit. Sci-fi often has to be extremely popular to break even.

To really stretch the envelope...

My Favorite Martian (1963-1966)
Mork & Mindy (1978-1982)
ALF (1986-1990)
Third Rock from the Sun (1996-2001)
Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-2011+)

All sitcoms, but they could be considered Sci-Fi.

Quote: Dween

To really stretch the envelope...

My Favorite Martian (1963-1966)
Mork & Mindy (1978-1982)
ALF (1986-1990)
Third Rock from the Sun (1996-2001)
Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-2011+)

All sitcoms, but they could be considered Sci-Fi.

I think it is a stretch to call these series Sci-Fi. They are more or less "fish out of water" comedies.
We don't think of the Simpson's as Sci-Fi even if it has some aliens.



And not all sci-fi series are that expensive to produce. Dollhouse, which starred the other young sci-fi goddess, Eliza Dushku, was fairly inexpensive to make.




I suppose the answer is the most obvious. Most of these series requires devoted watching. If not, you really have trouble figuring out what is happening. The most successful series are the ones that you can tune in on any episode and you understand everything.

Quote: pacomartin

I think it is a stretch to call these series Sci-Fi. They are more or less "fish out of water" comedies.

Futurama is full-fledged science fiction. It's set in the future, for one thing, and is mostly internally consistent.

Quote: pacomartin

Given the general cult popularity of fantasy and science fiction, why do you think it is so difficult to get a network television science fiction series to last 100 episodes?

I think you answered your own question. The popularity of TV Sci-Fi is currently concentrated in a relatively small cult. That is why, absent broad comedies, it is marginalized to small networks and the "Stephen Baldwin" movie channel.

I don't think the general American TV watching public wants to think very much about what they are watching, but what about "Lost" on ABC? It had a pretty good six season run.

P.S. I enjoyed Summer Glau in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Too bad it only lasted a season and half.

Quote: Ayecarumba

P.S. I enjoyed Summer Glau in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Too bad it only lasted a season and half.

I loved SCC. Summer was great, she really has the 'weird girl' thing down after Firefly and this. Also great in SCC was Garret Dillahunt, but he's awesome in everything he's in. Hell, Deadwood even brought him back a second time after his first character died! The most surprising actor on SCC was Brian Austin Green. He actually had some acting chops, who would have known from his 90210 days? I was more than a little angry at Fox when this show got canned and have pretty much stopped watching them for anything other than sports.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I don't think the general American TV watching public wants to think very much about what they are watching, but what about "Lost" on ABC? It had a pretty good six season run.

P.S. I enjoyed Summer Glau in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Too bad it only lasted a season and half.

I forgot about "Lost" which certainly had sci-fi elements in it. Personally, I lost interest in "Lost". I actually preferred Dollhouse, Fringe and X-Files when they began to focus on a single coherent conspiracy theory.

Summer Glau was the only really good thing in TSCC. Otherwise the show could be dull.

Any excuse to post pix of Summer and Eliza works for me! Eliza on "Buffy" was great as Faith. (Remember her in True Lies?)

I couldn't stand SCC. I liked "Dollhouse" although the jump forward for the rushed series ending threw me. No mention of "Battlestar Galactica" on here?

Lest we forget another actress who grew up on Josh Whedon's TV series, Morena Baccarin. She has worked in the sci-fi genre most of her career. Rumor has it that she may play the Wasp when that character is brought to the big screen. Latinas really know how to wear heels.


=========================
One of the oldest superheros that has never been brought to the screen is the Prince of Atlantis, Namor. I understand that scientists think they have found the location of the real Atlantis, which they believe was destroyed by a Tsunami. It was so long ago that there aren't any ruins left.

Quote: pacomartin

I understand that scientists think they have found the location of the real Atlantis, which they believe was destroyed by a Tsunami. It was so long ago that there aren't any ruins left.

All they had to do was follow Patrick Duffy home:

Quote: pacomartin

Latinas really know how to wear heels.

I've never understood putting plattforms on shoes. They look uniformly ugly.

Oh, and anyone can wear heels lying down :P

SF shows on TV tend to be seen as geared towards geeks and teenagers. This is true, but still Trek, Babylon 5 (5 seasons, was it on the list), SG-1 and others sometimes delved into more adult (or grown-up if you preffer) subjects. Babylon 5 was particularly good at it, as was DS9. B5 dind't even make use of a reset button, if you can believe it.

They ended the V season finale last night. I couldn't follow it since I missed several episodes of the year. New episodes of V are not available on iTunes, Hulu, or even Amazon which seems unthinkably backwards for a mythology-heavy serialized series.

Quote: pacomartin

I suppose the answer is the most obvious. Most of these series requires devoted watching. If not, you really have trouble figuring out what is happening. The most successful series are the ones that you can tune in on any episode and you understand everything.

This is very true for me and for others with kids. By the time Lost became this huge sensation there was no way I could figure out what the hell was going on. Even shows with the story contained within a single episode but with a lot of flashbacks, like Cold Case, are a challenge to keep up with if you've got kids needing help with homework or snacks. You miss a few minutes and you're years behind. I find myself watching plotless shows like American Idol or Toddlers & Tiaras as a result. Reality TV is popular because of the short attention span required!

I have to ask what is going on in that first Baccarin picture. Is The Wasp trying to do DI?

Quote: teddys

I have to ask what is going on in that first Baccarin picture. Is The Wasp trying to do DI?

The comic is from November 2003. I am not sure what she is doing, but it was a controversial issue since someone tries to rape her.

The Wasp goes back to Sep 1963, when she and her husband Ant-Man formed the Avengers along with Iron-Man, Thor, and The Hulk. In the 4th issue they found Captain America who dates back to the late 1930's in suspended animation, and he joined the group when they revived him.

The other characters have all received movie treatment, but Ant-Man and The Wasp have been licensed for future movies. As The Wasp is a fashion designer, the competition is on to find a suitably elegant actress to play her part.

The Event on NBC ended it's first and last season with a cliffhanger which will probably never be resolved. I won't reveal since you may watch on hulu.
So in addition V on ABC, Medium on CBS,Dollhouse on Fox, and Fringe on Fox (probably just trying to get enough episodes for syndication),Supernatural and Vampire Diaries renewed on CW,and Smallville closing out the series.

Sci/Fi, Fantasy, and Horror for next year consists of shows about fairy tales on NBC and ABC.

Virtually no new scripted TV show was a hit this year, with most of them cancelled.

While live gambling on certain outcomes of a TV show would be a gimmick, it would certainly be a lot less obnoxious than the increasing use of product placement. While product placement used to consist of showing a bottle, mug, or box with a brand name prominently shown, it now seems to consists of mindless dialogue that reminds me of salesmanship in the 19th century. We are getting scripted lines on the level of "Boy this meaty Subway sandwich is lip smacking good".

I would rather see them legalize certain bets on trivia in the TV shows. At least it would be less overt and jarring to the story.

Because network TV is not run by science fiction fans, and because it caters to the lowest common denominator, while sci-fi fans tend to be more intelligent.

Does it really matter though? In this day & age when nearly anyone who wants it has access to cable or satellite TV, and can get a decent amount of channels? The only show I never miss on network TV is "The Big Bang Theory". A lot of the rest of my viewing are specialty/niche channels (AMC, History channel, ESPN, etc.) I'd venture that a decent portion of the population would rather watch the channels in their basic package rather than network TV.

Quote: pacomartin

Sci/Fi, Fantasy, and Horror for next year consists of shows about fairy tales on NBC and ABC.

What about the Spielberg creation Terra Nova on Fox? Starring the always enjoyable Stephen Lang, a futuristic family goes back 80 million years and fights dinosuars. How can you not like that?

Or the other Spielberg creation Falling Skies on TNT? Premiers in one month.

I blame it all on Stargate Universe. The real show about nothing.

We need to get back to the real reason we opened this thread... Pictures of Summer Glau!

Quote: gambler

We need to get back to the real reason we opened this thread... Pictures of Summer Glau!

Summer is pretty strong.

OK, I can deal with gambling-geeky and even math-geeky, and I admit I got into Star Trek TNG when I was a kid. I'm always up for hot women. But I draw the geek-line at ...

Quote: ItsCalledSoccer

OK, I can deal with gambling-geeky and even math-geeky, and I admit I got into Star Trek TNG when I was a kid. I'm always up for hot women. But I draw the geek-line at ...

Ahhhhgh my eyes!!!

Summer Glau is joining the cast of Joe Lynch’s The Knights Of Badassdom. The film’s story revolves around a group of Live Action Role-Players who somehow end up in a face off with Heavy Metal demons. The fellowship is coming together, and how. Hobbit? Hobbit? We don’t need no stinking Hobbit.

Quote: pacomartin

Hobbit? Hobbit? We don’t need no stinking Hobbit.

That's funny considering this is starring Peter Dinklage (who has been AWESOME on Game of Thrones).

Who can name the four women of Firefly (without looking it up)? You need character name and actress.




Possibly if this summer's big budget film, "cowboys and aliens" , will revive interest in the space western genre. The film "Priest" was from a similar genre, but unfortunately it suffered from ISS (idiotic script syndrome).

Don't forget Christina Hendricks, now of "Mad Men," played a substantial guest role too.

Gina Torres - Zoe Washburn
Morena Baccarin - Inara Sera
Jewel Staite - Kayley Fry
Summer Glau - River Tam

and the bonus

Christina Hendricks - Saffron Reynolds. Not her real name. She would have just lied anyway.

Browncoat Out.

Quote: Croupier

Gina Torres - Zoe Washburn
Morena Baccarin - Inara Sera
Jewel Staite - Kayley Fry
Summer Glau - River Tam

and the bonus

Christina Hendricks - Saffron Reynolds. Not her real name. She would have just lied anyway.

Browncoat Out.

You know your firefly!

Best quotes from Firefly according to Sci-Fi Wire

1) Mal : "Jayne, your mouth is talking. You might wanna look to that."

2) Zoe : "First rule of battle, little one ... don’t ever let them know where you are." Mal : "WHOO-HOO ! I’M RIGHT HERE ! I’M RIGHT HERE ! YOU WANT SOME O’ ME ?! YEAH YOU DO ! COME ON ! COME ON ! AAAAAH ! Whoo-hoo !" Zoe : "’Course, there’re other schools of thought."

3) Kaylee : "Yes sir, Captain Tightpants !"

4) Wash : "Psychic, though ? That sounds like something out of science fiction." Zoe : "We live in a spaceship, dear."

5) Mal : "Mercy is the mark of a great man." [stabs Atherton Wing] Mal : "Guess I’m just a good man." [stabs Atherton Wing] Mal : "Well, I’m all right."

6) Mal to Jayne : "Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."

7) Jayne : "Let’s go be bad guys !"

EDIT) Wash : "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal !"

8) Jayne : "Oh, I think you might wanna reconsider that last part. See, I married me a powerful ugly creature."

9) Simon : "Are you Alliance ?" Jubal Early : "Am I a lion ?" Simon : "What ?" Jubal Early : "I don’t think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though, I have a mighty roar." Simon : "I said ’Alliance.’" Jubal Early : "Oh, I thought ... " Simon : "No, I was ... " Jubal Early : "That’s weird."

10) Jayne : "Ten percent of nothin’ is ... let me do the math here ... nothin’ into nothin’ ... carry the nothin’ ... "

11) Badger : "’Course you couldn’t buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle, but I got my hands on a couple..." ;
Mal and Jayne : sniggering; Badger : " ... of invites !"

12) Mal : "I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you."

13) Wash : "Every man there go back inside or we will blow a new crater in this little moon."

14) Tracey : "When you can’t run, you crawl. And when you can’t crawl, when you can’t do that ... " Zoe : " ... you find someone to carry you."

15) Jayne : "You know what the chain of command is ? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who’s in ruttin command here."

16) Mal : "Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill ’em right back !"

17) Wash : "Here lies my beloved Zoe, my autumn flower ... somewhat less attractive now that she’s all corpsified and gross."


18) Wash : "Terse ? I can be terse. Once, in flight school, I was laconic."

19) Zoe : "If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skin into their clothes ... and if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order."

20) Mal : "If anyone gets nosy, just ...you know ... shoot ’em. " Zoe : "Shoot ’em ?" Mal : "Politely."

21) Kayle : "Going on a year now, I ain't had nothins twixed my neathers weren't run on batteries." Mal : "I can’t know that."
Jayne : "I can stand to hear a little more."

22) Mal : "Wash, we got some local color happening. A grand entrance would not go amiss."

23) Badger : "What were you in the war ? That big war you failed to win ? You were a sergeant, yeah ? Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds ... balls and bayonets brigade. Big, tough veteran. Now you got yourself a ship and you’re a captain. Only I think, you’re still a sergeant, see ? Still a soldier. A man of honor in a den of thieves. Well, this is my gorramn den, and I don’t like the way you look down on me. I’m above you, better than ! Businessman, see ? Roots in the community. You’re just a scavenger." Mal : "Well, maybe I’m not a fancy gentleman like you, with your ... very fine hat. But I do business. We’re here for business."

24) Murphy : "Forgive my rudeness, I cannot abide useless people."

25) Wash : "I’ve been under fire before. Well ... I’ve been in a fire. Actually, I was fired from frycook opportunity. I can handle myself."

26) Wash : "How did your brain even learn human speech ?"

27) Mal : "Just get us on the ground !" Wash : "That part will happen pretty definitely !"

28) Mal : "Next time you want to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face."

29) Wash : "Man walks down the street in a hat like that, you know he’s not afraid of anything ... "

30) Mal : "You’re welcome on my boat. God ain’t."

31) River Tam : "Also ? I can kill you with my brain."

32) There are no cows in space!
Didn't you wear that like 5 years ago?
So?
Don't you think it's time you moved on?
I like it!

Quote: Malcolm Reynolds

Mal : "Mercy is the mark of a great man." [stabs Atherton Wing] Mal : "Guess I’m just a good man." [stabs Atherton Wing] Mal : "Well, I’m all right."

One of my favourite lines ever.

Quote: zippyboy

What about the Spielberg creation Terra Nova on Fox? Starring the always enjoyable Stephen Lang, a futuristic family goes back 80 million years and fights dinosuars. How can you not like that?

Or the other Spielberg creation Falling Skies on TNT? Premiers in one month.

I'm looking forward to Terra Nova - hope it doesn't disappoint!

Quote: pacomartin

7) Jayne : "Let’s go be bad guys !"
Wash : "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal !"

That's got to be a mix up. Wash said that line when playing with his dinosaurs near the beginning of the pilot episode. Mal, Zoe and Jayne were already in space grabbing the 'treasure' (it was so awesome that it turned out to be highly condensed foodstuff!) so he couldn't have said that prior to Wash's line.

Firefly is awesome. The only thing that has come close to (and may even surpass) the feeling of Firefly is the anime series Cowboy Bebop, which I would recommend to any Sci-Fi fan, even if not an anime fan.

Quote: progrocker

That's got to be a mix up. Wash said that line when playing with his dinosaurs near the beginning of the pilot episode. Mal, Zoe and Jayne were already in space grabbing the 'treasure' (it was so awesome that it turned out to be highly condensed foodstuff!) so he couldn't have said that prior to Wash's line.

I also thought it a bit weird, but assumed they may have meant to have a space in between the lines.

I also like Castle, where the last line is from. They have made a number of Firefly/Serenity references, although that is the most blatant.

Quote: progrocker

That's got to be a mix up. Wash said that line when playing with his dinosaurs near the beginning of the pilot episode. Mal, Zoe and Jayne were already in space grabbing the 'treasure' (it was so awesome that it turned out to be highly condensed foodstuff!) so he couldn't have said that prior to Wash's line.

Firefly is awesome.

My mistake. Those lines should have been numbered 7 and 8 since they were not related.

Yes, I think it is great that the Castle writers choose to put those little gems in their series despite 8 years and different networks.

This Castle reference is my personal favourite. Its the filming angle of Nathan Fillion almost breaking the 4th wall that does it for me.

Sc HD is running a Firefly marathon Sunday morning starting at 5am pacific, until midnight, beginning with the 2 hour pilot, and running each episode in order until the end. That an awesome 19 hours!!!! Clear your Tivos and get ready!

Quote: zippyboy

Sc HD is running a Firefly marathon Sunday morning starting at 5am pacific, until midnight, beginning with the 2 hour pilot, and running each episode in order until the end. That an awesome 19 hours!!!! Clear your Tivos and get ready!

Is it going to be in DVD order, or the order they showed it on its first series run? DVD commentary tells me they were different.

It's in the same order as stated on Firefly's wikipedia listing.

1 "Serenity" December 20, 2002[103] 11 1AGE79
2 "The Train Job" September 20, 2002[103] 1 1AGE01
3 "Bushwhacked" September 27, 2002[103] 2 1AGE02
4 "Shindig" November 1, 2002[104] 6 1AGE03
5 "Safe" November 8, 2002[104] 7 1AGE04
6 "Our Mrs. Reynolds" October 4, 2002[104] 3 1AGE05
7 "Jaynestown" October 18, 2002[104] 4 1AGE06
8 "Out of Gas" October 25, 2002[105] 5 1AGE07
9 "Ariel" November 15, 2002[105] 8 1AGE08
10 "War Stories" December 6, 2002[105] 9 1AGE09
11 "Trash" June 28, 2003[citation needed] 12 1AGE12
12 "The Message" July 15, 2003[citation needed] 13 1AGE13
13 "Heart of Gold" August 19, 2003[citation needed] 14 1AGE10
14 "Objects in Space" December 13, 2002[106] 10 1AGE11

My apologies to pacomartin for not formatting in proper tables.

Quote: zippyboy

My apologies to pacomartin for not formatting in proper tables.

Text is OK without the tables, but numbers get complex. Copy into an excel, and add the HTML codes (Hint you don't have to close the data with slash dat

Man! Mr. Martin's post looks strange on my screen. I can only guess it is because his post contains "[/dat]" in it (without using the extra brackets to enclose the [ and ]. Anyway, I see a closing parenthesis and his sig line and even the quote/reply/flag post buttons above his post! I can't even quote his post in this reply without making my post look just as strange.

Does it look that way to the rest of you? {Fun with formatting codes...}

Edit: Mr. Martin, may I suggest you leave your post as is? I don't think it should be possible for you to make those buttons change location, so maybe this is something the site designer should look into, assuming it looks this strange to others. (It did, and he didn't.)

Thats the DVD order.

And Doc, you are right about Mr Martins post. Im using Firefoxto view. And it looks hella weird to me.

Quote: Croupier

And Doc, you are right about Mr Martins post. Im using Firefoxto view. And it looks hella weird to me.

Without thinking I used a formatting code in my sentence. It seems to have screwed up the entire page in a strange manner,

Can 'Falling Skies' save American sci-fi TV ? American sci-fi fans are missing something. Where are all the aliens on television? Today, June 19 at 9/8c on TNT!


Mini apocalypse question in honor of new show
This year there are 132.7 million births and 56.3 million deaths worldwide.
In the year 2050 there are predicted to be 129 million births and 90 million deaths if nothing really bad happens.

Do you think you will ever see a single mini apocalyptic year when deaths equal or are larger than births in your lifetime?

Quote: pacomartin

Can 'Falling Skies' save American sci-fi TV ? American sci-fi fans are missing something. Where are all the aliens on television? Today, June 19 at 9/8c on TNT!

Did anyone else make it thru this new series? I gave up on it about 45 minutes in and only lasted that long because I really wanted it to be good. Should I have watched more of it?

You didn't miss anything. I Tivoed it, and fast-forwarded through most the second hour. Very predictable, typical boring characters, dialog and scenarios. A lot like Jericho was a few years ago, so I don't need to see the exact same series again.

Even Summer Glau couldn't have saved this story!