Following my list of Space Adventure movies in the century so far, I thought I would take a similar look at TV from the same time period.
Farscape (1999 – 2003), Where better to start a list of programs from this century, than in the previous one! The Australian-American series ran for four seasons, before being concluded with a three hour mini-series. The Jim Henson Company, were responsible for both the alien make-up/prosthetics and animatronic puppets. The show had a great cast, the highlight being Claudia Black. The world-building was excellent, but the standout was the story. In a time before longform TV as we know it now, most of the episodes were standalone or short narratives over a small number of episodes, however, there is always an overarching story arc. 
Frank Herbert’s Dune (2000) Produced by the Sci Fi Channel, and regarded by many as the definitive version of Frank Herbert’s novel. I found it a little tedious, and prefer David Lynch’s 1984 film version. A second series: Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (sometimes called Dune Apocalypse) followed in 2003. Based on the books Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune. A better series overall, mainly thanks to James McAvoy as Leto II.
Andromeda (2000 – 2005) Marketed as Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, it was based on an and unused material by the late Roddenberry. The show ran for 110 episodes over five seasons. Set in a future dystopian, post-apocalyptic universe, the premise of the show is fighting against the odds to make things better, a very Roddenberry idea. I seem to remember the show was no very late at night in the UK, I watched the first episode and then saw odd episodes over the years. I remember enjoying what I saw, but never enough to seek out a whole series. 
Cowboy Bebop (2001 -2002) – Japanese animated series made up of 26 episodes and a movie. Set in a future where Earth almost uninhabitable, and humanity has colonized most of the Solar System. The story concentrates on a an Inter Solar System Police. Described as a cyberpunk blend of Western and pulp fiction, it meets all the space opera credentials for this list. An American live action version is reported to be in production for Netflix, although recent reports suggest it will be much delayed due to a knee injury suffered by star John Cho. 
Star Trek Enterprise (2001-2005) Running for 98 episodes across four seasons, Enterprise was set around a century before the original series and captain Kirk’s five-year mission telling the early years of Starfleet, and the first starship Enterprise. I lost interest during the first season, but understand it got better. 
Firefly (2002 – 2003) The show that gives this article its title. Cruelly cancelled mid season, there are only 14 episodes, but they are all fantastic. Although episodic, flashback episodes tell the origins of the characters. Set on the fringes of civilised society echoing pioneer culture and western movies, key members of the crew fought on the losing side of a civil war. Handled differently this could have been very problematic. A combination of fantastic world-building and characters set the short lived show head and shoulders above others, this made it easy for them to transition into Serenity, the movie that finished the story. 
Battlestar Galactica (2004-09) When I was kid in the early 80’s I used to watch the original Battlestar Galactica every Sunday evening for years. Or did I? How the mind plays tricks on us, it only ran for 21 episodes (plus 10 episodes of Galactica 1980, which I didn’t see). While I loved the show at the time, re-watching it in the 90’s revealed that it wasn’t very good. However, the re-imagined version is nothing short of a masterpiece. Retaining the original concept, and technically a sequel to the original show. The action and drama of the show were enhanced by a smart script with political undertones with contemporary relevance.
Stargate Atlantis (2004 – 2009) Although I watched and enjoyed the original Stardgate movie, I have never seen any of the TV show. I did however start watching Stargate Atlantis, which I understand to be a continuation of the original show. A military survival series, set in a new galaxy and unable to contact earth, I enjoyed the first season, them it moved from free to air TV and I haven’t seen any further episodes. 
Doctor Who (2005 – ) Doctor Who ran for over 700 episodes from 1963 to 1989. When it returned in 2005, nobody knew what to expect, I don’t think anybody expected it to be so good and to re-cement itself as a British institution. It has lost its way since the departure of Steven Moffat, but still remains fun and watchable. 
Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008 – 2020) The clone wars were mentioned by Princess Leia, and then again by Luke and Ben in Star Wars, without any explanation as to what they were. Following the prequels (clones were introduced in Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)) came The Clone Wars filling in the can between episodes II and III. I have never seen any of them, but understand they are popular. 
Stargate Universe (2009 -2011) An exploration team find themselves onboard an Ancient spaceship several billion light years from our Galaxy. Running for 40 episodes over two seasons, the show was cancelled after the final season was in the can resulting in an ending described as a semi-cliffhanger. A shame, as I enjoyed the show. 
Caprica (2010) – Set a generation before Battlestar Galactica and telling the story of the creation of Cylon’s and sowing the seeds for the destruction of the twelve colonies. The show was filled with interesting characters played by some really good actors. Sadly the story unfolded too slowly and it failed to find an audience and was cancelled before the first season had finished airing. This is a great shame, the tease real for the unmade second season look really good.
Agents of SHIELD (2013-2020) The MCU’s longest running TV show is largely earth based, but the whole firth season is set in space, and is pretty good.
Dark Matter (2015) Six people wake up on a deserted spaceship with no memory of who they are or what they’re doing there. Running for three seasons, I am yet to see it. 
Killjoys (2015-2019) What started out looking like it was going to be a second-rate Syfy channel space opera gradually became more interesting and compelling. As well as an overriding story arc, it also included more relevant characters and storylines. Beyond all this, the real reason for watching is the shows secret weapon, rising star Hannah John-Kamen in the lead role.
The Expanse (2015- ) Based on a series of novels by James S. A. Corey (the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Set in a future with a colonized Solar System, a fragile cold war like peace exists between Earth, Mars and the Belt (an asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter). Essentially a cold war/conspiracy thriller, the brilliance of the show is that as an audience we don’t take sides; all three sides are represented, and there are good and bad on all sides. This is further complicated as the good characters are flawed, and the bad ones have redeeming features, just like real life! Simply one of the best shows around at the moment.
Lost in Space (2018 – ) When I was kid in the 80’s I loved the re-run of the 1960’s show. I only watched the first two or three episodes of the new version before loosing interest. It appears to be popular with a third season being commissioned. 
Star Trek Discovery (2018 – ) Moving away from the single episodes of most of the Trek franchise to telling one long form story per season has changed the show dramatically. Interesting stories and fantastic casting have made it a positive move. Set before the events of the original show, the writers have done an amazing job of fitting the story into existing narratives. 
Altered Carbon (2018 – ) With two seasons aired so far, Altered Carbon has become legendary for its cost of production. The high budget really shows with the lavish production design. Based on the 2002 novel of the same title by Richard K. Morgan, a key to the story is how, memories and consciousness can be transferred from one body to another allowing recasting to become part of the narrative. 
Krypton (2018 – 2019) Set on Superman’s doomed home planet around 200 years before his birth. Running for twenty episodes across two seasons to mixed reviews. I haven’t seen any so can’t comment further.
Nightflyers (2018) Billed as a psychological thriller (aka a pretentious horror) about a spaceship exploring the universe for alien life. Based on a novella by George R.R. Martin. It ran for 10 episodes, I lost interest by the second. 
Another Life (2019-2020) A crew travel into space to try and unlock the mystery of an alien artifact that may be threatening life on earth. Combining adventure with mystery thriller the concept of this show looks really good. Unfortunately It didn’t work for me, I gave up after two episodes. 
The Mandalorian (2019- ) Episode One of Jon Favreau’s Star Wars TV show snuck in before the nations cinemas closed, and screened in UK cinema’s as part of the Disney streaming launch. All the hype seems to have surrounded the character who has erroneously become known as baby Yoda. The show, is actually very good! 
Star Trek Picard (2020- ) Patrick Stewart returns to the Star Trek universe as a now retired Jean-Luc Picard. The story makes reference to the events of Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and brings back a few characters from the past, and introduces some really good new ones. On the whole it is excellent, but isn’t as consistently good as the first season of Star Trek Discovery. 
Not satisfied with just Star Wars, Disney went to space with their other big acquired property: Marvel. They started in 2014 when they took a less well know Marvel property Guardians of the Galaxy and had a smash hit with a more, fun and comic take on the superhero genre. a sequel Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017) followed. To be fair parts of The Avengers movies were also set in space, and Thor is from another planet. It wasn’t until Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Taika Waititi’s brilliant but bonkers take on the character that you would call it a space adventure. After a decade, and about 20 movies Disney finally gave a woman a leading role in a Marvel movie. While a lot of the movie is based on earth, Captain Marvel (2019) is an intergalactic character, as is Marvels big bad Thanos. All the characters of the MCU came together to fight an intergalactic battle with the big purple one in Avengers Infinity War (2018) and the biggest film of all time (if you don’t adjust for inflation) Avengers Endgame 2019. That brings us nicely onto Avatar (2009), with an even higher boxoffice if you adjust for inflation. James Cameron’s first movie since 1997 when he made a little film about a shipwreck. As you would expect from Cameron, it made great advances in effects and technology, especially in 3D. I am not a fan. As yet he hasn’t made another film yet, but understand he is filming about 100 sequels back to back with the first due for release in about two years. 
DC’s ventures into space were less successful. The Green Lantern (2011) about a group of intergalactic supper powered policemen was rubbish. Man of Steel (2013) was a reboot of a 1970’s movie about a man called Kal-El who is sent to earth as a baby before his home planet is destroyed. He ends up fighting against bodies from his home world. It isn’t bad, but not as good as the 1978, and 1980 movies, and like those movies, all subsequent sequels are terrible. 
Ridley Scott decided that we were all wrong, the most interesting thing about his Movie Alien (1979), and James Cameron’s sequel to it Aliens (1987), wasn’t the Xenomorph, or Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. It wasn’t the brilliant world building of the story where corporations are more powerful than countries. He decided the derelict alien ship, and how the Aliens got there was more important. He then gave us two extremely average films, Prometheus (2012), and Alien Covenant (2017). There are some excellent characters that aren’t used very well, and some who don’t know how to run to the side. 
Lets not be too tough on Ridley Scott, he has given us an excellent movie in the genre, The Martian (2015). The story of a man left behind on Mars. This is part of a crop of Sci-Fi movies that feel more realistic and closer to where we are now than Star Wars or Star Trek. The pick of these for me was Gravity (2013). A film so spectacular in IMAX 3D (the only good 3D experience I have had) that I have not re-watched it again, it just won’t be the same on TV. Other films in this sub genre could include Christopher Nolan’s excellent Interstellar (2014), Danny Boyle’s underrated Sunshine (2007), Claire Denis bleak but brilliant High Life (2018), and James Gray’s disappointing Ad Astra (2019). A film doesn’t have to be fiction, or particularly outlandish to be compelling, providing it is told well, and there are two such examples from the last two years: Damien Chazelle’s telling of the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong in the film First Man (2018), and the documentary on the same subject: Apollo 11 (2019). The latter is breathtaking look at the mission using stunning NASA images, no talking heads, or voiceover. 
I wouldn’t include Passengers (2016) in the list of realist sci-fi movies, as it is too glossy and Sci-Fi, it is however worth seeing for the interesting plot, that is more disturbing the more you think about it. Part of the premise of the film is people in hypersleep on their way to a distant planet. Obviously something always goes wrong in these movies. Others worth watching are: Pandorum (2009) a film that takes these ideas, and gives them a horror and survival adventure spin. Pitch Black (2000) is an even better take on the horror space adventure, possibly the best and most original since the first two Alien films. It’s sequel The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), was terrible, but the third film Riddick (2013) isn’t bad, although its attempt to recreate the original are a little forced. Life (2017) has the almost real world setting, a fictionalised version of The International Space Station, it rapidly turns into Alien when an alien life form gets loose. It isn’t Alien, but it isn’t bad. 
The man who gave us The Fifth Element (1997) Luc Besson, was back this century, with another bold and bonkers tale: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). The film had mixed reviews, as Besson’s work often does, I liked it. The title is a little misleading and under serves one of its characters, based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline; Laureline is the more interesting character and probably has a larger part in the story than Valérian. That asside, it is bright and bold and like nothing else, except maybe The Fifth Element!
Saving the best for last. When I went to see Joss Whedon’s Serenity (2005), I had not seen (or even heard of) Firefly, I have since watched the whole (short) series more than once. The movie is nothing short of a masterpiece. It works whether you have seen the TV show or not. It is all the more impressive, as it was Whedon’s feature debut as a director. The budget was less than $40million or about a quarter of Revenge of the Sith that came out the same year. This doesn’t show, as the film looks amazing, largely thanks to clever photography and practice sets/effects over CGI. Ticking every box for a space adventure, and a western, the film is fun, and often very funny, but there is a far deeper message about society, about right and wrong, but it is far more nuanced than anything you will get from Disney or Star Wars, it isn’t black and white, or light and dark, The Alliance is not The Empire!
I have probably missed lots, but these are the ones that spring to mind. I pleased to say the genre is in good health at the movies, and on TV, but that will have to be an entire article in itself. 
Be careful what you wish for! There was a small but very vocal group of fans who called for The Last Jedi to be remade, and, or expunged from Star Wars canon. To a certain extent, The Rise Of Skywalker does that, winding back on some plot points, and conveniently forgetting others. It is certainly a film that doesn’t seem to like Rian Johnson’s entry into the series. Chances are if you are reading this you have seen both The Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker, if you haven’t be warned there are SPOILERS ahead. For the record I really like The Last Jedi, it is bold, brave, and my favourite of the three sequels. The Rise of Skywalker is probably the weakest, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. It is largely a fun watch. To begin, here is a brief synopsis:
This July will be the tenth anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace so it seemed to be a good time to look back at how, what at the time was the most anticipated film of all time has aged. I actually went to a midnight screening the day the film came out, sad I know! My impressions at the time were somewhat mixed. Looking back I still think the same. 
The casting of Liam Neeson, Ewan Mcgregor, Natalie Portman and Terence Stamp is great and Jake Lloyd was okay as the young Anakin. There were two fantastic set pieces, the pod race and the final battle. The lightsabre fights are excellent giving a new dimension not seen in the original trilogy. The rest of the plot was a little strung out and a bit over padded. The mysticism goes too far mainly the whole immaculate conception of Anakin concept. The designs of the ships and buildings are excellent showing a shiny and new pre war look in contrast to the old dirty and damaged look of the original trilogy. Queen Amidala’s ship was inspired by the Lockheed “Blackbird” jet and looks stunning. The Naboo star fighters are also perfect, reminiscent of X-wings but in keeping with the rest of the design more streamline. They did however miss an opportunity to show a shiny straight from the factory Millennium Falcon.
George Lucas has claimed that the script contains aspects of his first draft for A New Hope (the original Star Wars from 1977). He has also claimed that he had the story ark from episode I to VI worked out from the start. Both these claims seem a little stretched although I’m sure he had some ideas and concepts that he wanted to use. When comparing episodes I and IV some of the connections in the storyline feel a little forced suggesting the story arc was not as evolved as he would have us believe.
Then we come on to the big problem Jar Jar fucking Binks. Was this character created as comic releif or to entertain kids? It is as if the film makers didn’t know who their target audience was! Did they want to appeal to the kids who had loved the original films and grown up with it. Or did they want to bring a new group of kids in. the result was the kids film and the fans film linked by the floppy eared clown. The problem isn’t limited to JarJar, the entire Gungan race is a problem. Their dialogue is annoying at best, the society they live in doesn’t seem to make sense and is not believable within the context of the film. Queen Amidala’s constant change of outfits and the over the top design of the outfits is a joke. They are clearly designed to make the decoy queen plotline work. Unfortunately it fails; anyone who had looked at a review of the film knew that Queen Amidala was played by Natalie Portman. that’s when the concept failed as it was clear the handmade sent by the queen to observe Qui Gon was Natalie Portman. The characters can be a bit wooden, I refer to the dialogue not the delivery. This I suspect is the reason for Darth Mauls lack of dialogue, it was cut because it wasn’t very good.
In conclusion taken on its own merits it is a good solid film enjoyable film. The first in a trilogy that gradually gets better culminating in Revenge of the Sith . Taken from the point of view of a fan of the first three films it is a bit disappointing and the best of the trilogy, Revenge of the Sith is at best on a par with the weakest of the original films Return of the Jedi. Like the trilogy as a whole it isn’t bad but it could have been so much more. George Lucas has one last shot at redemption. He has stated that the story finishes with the redemption of Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi so the story can not go beyond that point so he has to go back generations to the start of the Jedi and find out how and why the Sith were wiped out. But he won’t do it so we will have to settle for the six films we have. The possibilities for this film could be endless but I know it will never get made.
Fandango Groovers Movie Blog 