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Science fiction crossover projects can be very hit or miss.  For every series or film that gets it right (see “Firefly”) there is another series or film that makes you want to poke your own eyeballs out (see “Tank Girl”).  Genre crossovers seem to work pretty well on paper, with excellent novels such as “Perdido Street Station”, “American Gods”, and “The Outback Stars” to name a few recent publications, handily making the case that genre crossovers can be vital and interesting.  However, this success does not always translate to film and television.  Whether it is an adaptation of a graphic novel or book, or an original series, sci-fi crossover programs have had a very unstable history.  Even when the right tone was found, the necessary audience was not always around to appreciate it.

To understand why the sci-fi crossover has had such a spotty existence, it helps to look at a few productions that got it right, but failed anyway.  Three such productions are “Nightmare Café”, “Brisco County, Jr.”, and the aforementioned “Firefly”.  Each series used science fiction tropes, in combination with another recognizable genre, to create something different and new.  Unfortunately, each series also met with an early demise.

Nightmare Cafe

“Nightmare Café” premiered in 1992, sharing a night with “The X-Files”.  A very dark show with comic overtones created and produced by Wes Craven, it was marketed as “horror-light” for fans of Craven’s film work.  A master of the horror film, Wes Craven is known for such projects as “The Last House on the Left”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Swamp Thing”, and “The Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise.  “Nightmare Café” combined elements of science fiction, horror, theology, mystery, and romance.  The series revolved around two seemingly ordinary people who find themselves at a diner.  Frank Nolan and Fay Peronivic have both recently been involved in incidents that brought them close to death.  They soon discover that there is no leaving the café, and it is, in fact, a sort of purgatory and they are both dead.  Both of them are destined for Hell, unless they can rectify a wrong that they each committed while they were still living.  If they can accomplish that, they will be allowed to remain in the café, as waiter and waitress.  As they both try to repair the damage they left behind in their old lives, a parade of characters makes their way through the café, and Frank and Fay help them solve their own issues so that they can move on from Purgatory.

The show ran the gamut from funny, to creepy, to heartbreaking, depending upon the issue that needed to be addressed in order for the guest character’s soul to continue its journey.  The characters were from every walk of life, and Frank and Fay did their best to help each soul move on.  It was a rather beautiful conceit, but unfortunately, it proved to be too high a concept for most people, and the show was canceled after six episodes.  This is an example of one of the primary reasons that sci-fi crossover series do not last.  The majority of them require more analytical thought, and a greater willingness to suspend disbelief, than their single genre counterparts.  Since most people turn on the television so that they do not have to think, a show that is intellectually challenging can have a tough time pulling in an audience.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Firefly

This same phenomenon occurred with the short-lived series, “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.”.  Meant as a vehicle for the criminally underrated actor, Bruce Campbell, “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” was part-action comedy, part-Western, part-Steampunk, and part-science fiction.  The show premiered in 1993 and ran for 27 episodes before being canceled.  It was one of the first projects created by successful writer/producer Carlton Cuse, who went on to produce and/or write for such series as “Martial Law”, “Nash Bridges”, and “Lost”.  Again, the premise was high concept.  The show revolved around a Harvard Law School graduate, played by Bruce Campbell, who traveled around the Old West looking for the gang that had killed his famous sheriff father.  However, the people in this version of the Wild, Wild West carried futuristic guns, and Brisco kept finding and collecting golden balls that were imbued with strange properties.  The show was less confusing and random than it sounds, and earned a cult following that has remained vocal and active to this day.  It also required a certain level of commitment and concentration to pick up all of the puns, allusions, and important plot points contained in the often dense, but very funny script.  After the first season sadly, it became apparent that audiences just couldn’t be bothered to work that hard.

Perhaps the most famous of the sci-fi genre crossovers is Joss Whedon’s “Firefly”.  The series premiered in 2002, and ran for 11 episodes, which were not actually aired in the correct order.  However, DVD sales of the one season were so incredible that a feature film was “greenlit” in order to tie up some loose ends.  The show revolved around a group of mercenaries traveling in a spaceship in a version of our world a few centuries in the future.  There’s been an economic collapse, both English and Chinese is spoken by everyone, and the frontier spirit has become more prevalent as humans move farther and farther out in to the galaxy, colonizing planets as they go.  Peopled with the kind of rich characters for which Joss Whedon has become known, the show made stars out of all of the cast members, and has remained popular to this day.  Interestingly, “Firefly” was canceled for slightly different reasons than the other two projects.  In the case of “Firefly” it was not the audience who found the show confusing.  Instead, it was the executives who did not know what to make of it.  With its cast running around in western gear, shooting old fashioned guns, spouting Chinese, and flying in a spaceship, executives simply threw up their hands, unsure of how to market the series and to whom.  The end result was that it was canceled.

There are certainly many, many more shows and movies that have attempted to combine science fiction with another genre. They are, of course, of varying quality, but the projects that are good, are like gold.  Challenging, intelligent, scary, or gut-wrenchingly sad, projects that take the best elements from multiple genres and throw them into the creative blender together, need time to find an audience.  Hopefully, executives will come to realize this.  I, for one, am very tired of sitting down on one of my recliner sectionals, turning on the television, and being disappointed when I discover that my favorite show has been unceremoniously cut from the schedule.

By Isabella Woods

Beatson was one of the lead radar specialists onboard the U.S.S. Canberra (SCG-2008), he assisted in co-ordinating Firehawk squadrons against incoming Dakota fighter waves during the early stages of the First Battle of Toyr’diablo.

However Beatson was killed in action when the Canberra was struck by a torpedo that ignited her Plasma Armament Reactor Room – destroying the ship.

Go to Campbell Beatson’s Character Page

Fiersis is an Ice Giant in the Graneede System a system devoid of habitable planets but rich in ore resources, which necessitates the need for a military and commercial presence, therefore there are four orbital bases in the system.

Fiersis is the third planet in the system and was used as a rendezvous point in October 2299 for the Reinager Invasion Group.

Go to Fiersis Places Page

Upon being attacked the Innsmouth and other ships concentrated their firepower on the largest Dakota vessel at the battle – the Dakota dreadnought. This proved futile due to the massive shields and firepower of the Dakota dreadnought.

The Innsmouth attempted to launch a broadside barrage, but in the process sustained massive damage herself, her engines were destroyed and she was adrift before being caught in Toyr’diablo’s gravity and crashing down to the surface.

Many escape pods were seen leaving the Innsmouth, the number of possible survivors is not known.

Go to U.S.S. Innsmouth Ship Page

After hostilities officially broke out on October 12^th 2296, only a handful of Torpedo Bombers have been captured, all current information on them has been learned through test flights of captured spacecraft.

The Torpedo Bomber is very vulnerable to fighter attack, and the Dakota fly their bombers in numerous waves to ensure success against an enemy ship, they also make certain the Type-I Space Superiority Fighters are providing close escort.

Only one Torpedo bombers is required to take out any Union capital ship up to a cruiser as each torpedo bomber carries up to 28 torpedoes each.

Go to Dakota Torpedo Bomber Craft Page

Gatlander attempted to assist in controlling gunnery screens for the Canberra when the Dakota ‘Strike Force Reinager’ jumped in on top of the Canberra’s invasion group, however this proved futile as the Canberra was struck by an enemy torpedo which detonated its Plasma Armament Reactor room igniting the entire ship. Gatlander along with Greene and all personnel aboard the Canberra perished.

Go to Bryan Gatlander’s Character Page

The First Battle of Toyr’diablo was a military disaster for the Terran Imperial Union. While marginally outgunned and outnumbered, additional misfortunes such as the early destruction of the Union command ship and the ensuring chaos that followed saw the massive defeat of the Union’s Reinager Invasion Group

Go to The First Battle of Toyr’diablo Battle Page