When First Contact Is Established WIll We Still Have Sci Fi Shows?

I had a thought whilst enjoying some good sci fi shows over the Bank Hols this Easter. When First Contact takes place, will we still have sci fi shows on that we can watch, albeit in a different way taking into account the new reality? It's just that I would miss the innocence of programmes like V (original film/mini series) , Star Trek , and Babylon 5 for example. Although I know First Contact for real and having some questions answered would be more important.

As fiction becomes fact, you will just have a new reality to work from. A new set of facts.
A whole new realm of scifi to write.

originally posted by: Wirral Bagpuss
I had a thought whilst enjoying some good sci fi shows over the Bank Hols this Easter. When First Contact takes place, will we still have sci fi shows on that we can watch, albeit in a different way taking into account the new reality? It's just that I would miss the innocence of programmes like V (original film/mini series) , Star Trek , and Babylon 5 for example. Although I know First Contact for real and having some questions answered would be more important.

And would we be too embarrased to put Star Trek on TV again?

what a cool question.

It depends on what the aliens allow.

Why not? Would meeting aliens suddenly mean we stop dreaming?

First contact would be with one race...there must be countless more out there that we can dream of.

originally posted by: Wirral Bagpuss
Although I know First Contact for real and having some questions answered would be more important.

Here's the scenario. We have friendly First Contact, get to know the aliens pretty well, then show them some photographs of various UFOs taken throughout the years. Their response: "Yeah, we've seen those things, too, but we don't know that they are, either. Weird, huh?"

Even if we find out some new tech there will still be problems that need answers, so a program about cars would be sci fi to someone from the 1700's but today its just fact

yes, after open contact we will still have sci fi;
it will be known as the "democracy and tyranny free TV hour"
and will be enjoyed by several people

Here's an idea for you...

When the aliens arrive, what's to say they aren't turning up to swap sci-fi shows???

There are a couple of examples (I can think of at least one) in Star Trek where the intrepid crew swap databases with various alien cultures - one of which is an alien planet that seems to have "run out" of stories, and are deliberately seeking new literature, etc. It's in Voyager, perhaps someone can find a YT vid and post it here.

On a more serious point though, I think we will always have sci-fi as long as there are people watching screens (or playing in holodecks, when they get invented). Science Fiction has always been popular, because of the fact that as humans we like to daydream and ask "what if?".

Bear in mind there are plenty of films/movies out there that are in the sci-fi genre that you might not really think of as sci-fi. "Safety Not Guaranteed", "Primer", and "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" are just threee that spring to mind. They don't have big flashy phaser blasts, no transporters, no spaceships, but they deal with things that haven't been invented yet - so they are science fiction... and the last of those (Eternal Sunshine) really is a 'what if' story. As in, what if you really could erase someone from your head on a whim. Totally fascinating.

I'd like to think that when we meet alien cultures shows might be created showing scenarios about how we might have developed if we never met aliens. That would be intersting to see.

But I suppose we have to get to the point of actually making contact first... my money is on 4th April 2063 personally, but who knows?

Of course we would.

Just what would be written about would change and adapt just as Sci-Fi had done through the ages already.

The only way Sci-Fi would stop being written, is if we stop writing fiction.

We will be too busy in our breeding pens and being prepared as food to worry about it.

Either that or "Sci-fi" will just be relabeled "Drama".

Yes, it will simply be called Drama, instead of Sci-fi.

originally posted by: Leonidas
We will be too busy in our breeding pens and being prepared as food to worry about it.

Either that or "Sci-fi" will just be relabeled "Drama".

beat me to it, lol.

originally posted by: Leonidas
We will be too busy in our breeding pens and being prepared as food to worry about it.

Either that or "Sci-fi" will just be relabeled "Drama".

Unfortunately, my vision is a bit bleaker - I envisage us watching soap operas staring aliens... I shudder at the thought!

a reply to: Wirral Bagpuss

I think we will have science fiction after first contact. The first reason I have for saying that, is that science fiction is such a broad genre, that the loss of alien mysteries from the genre would only denude it by a certain degree, rather than destroy it utterly. The other reason is, that what with the observable universe being so bloody large, and baring in mind that the observable universe is not all that is out there, just all that we see, there are many possibilities remaining to future authors.

Even if we were to be contacted by five species from beyond our previous understanding, it would be very unlikely that those five species would be able to lay to rest all of our questions. The question of whether we are alone in the universe being answered, would just spawn new questions, like how much IS out there, what manner of beings are there in the rest of the universe, where are the strongest, and fastest, and smartest civilisations? How do they interact with others? What are the strangest naturally occurring phenomena in the universe?

There are so many galaxies, and so many star systems, and so many planets, that to suggest that just because one big question might be answered definitively, the entire genre ought to collapse, is to ignore the sheer scale of the unknown. After all, that is what science fiction is. It is a journey into possible futures, and while there is space in the universe to speculate about, until every civilisation has been identified and learned of in detail, there will be mystery, there will be that unknown element which has driven science fiction throughout its existence as a genre.

Maybe not as many bad science fiction shows.

In good science fiction extraterrestrials are characters just as humans are. After contact, there would be more to base those characters on, not less.

Oh, there is also plenty of science fiction which has nothing to do with extraterrestrials. Good science fiction is actually about humans, ET just sometimes gives them interesting things to do.

reply to: Phage would be reality tv docu style.
Intermingling what we've imagined, and what comes to pass as truth.
Which would underscore the lesser held belief that ANYTHING is possible.

whos to say they wouldn't see a sci fi show like startrek as comedy gold.. I kinda find them funny..i mean who the hell would keep a first officer around for so long named will...people are ALWAYS shooting at him..damn it will we just fixed this ship..this is why we cant have nice things

a reply to: prevenge

would be reality tv docu style.

I hope not.