THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150057
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Larry Bonko, Television Writer
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
BEFORE ``BABYLON 5'' signed on in syndication last year, the creator and executive producer laid out the plot lines that would carry the sci-fi series through 1998.
``I could tell you now what the last scene of the last episode in the fifth year of the series will be,'' said J. Michael Straczynski at a gathering of TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago.
He is confident there will be a fifth season of ``Babylon 5,'' seen locally on WGNT. In fact, he expects his show to be on the air in 1998 and beyond. Straczynski believes television's appetite for science fiction is a long way from being satisfied.
In the 1990s, new sci-fi programming has been launched at warp speed.
NBC recently introduced ``Earth 2'' to its Sunday-night audience as a companion piece to another science-fiction series ``seaQuest DSV.'' On Jan. 16, on WGNT, Paramount launches the fifth network with another ``Star Trek'' spinoff, ``Star Trek: Voyager.''
Come Jan. 7 on USA, the ``TekWar'' series created by William Shatner, ol' Capt. James T. Kirk himself, premieres. Showtime is about to introduce a 1990s version of ``The Outer Limits,'' the series that spooked ABC audiences in the mid-1960s.
Check the listings and you will see an explosion of sci-fi programming, including a cable channel that devotes itself to nothing but this genre. ``The Twilight Zone'' landed recently on The Sci-Fi Channel. CBS is thinking about ordering new episodes for a 1990s' ``Twilight Zone.''
Even before ``Star Trek: Voyager'' signs on, Channel 27 has established itself as the sci-fi fan's best friend in this market with ``Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,'' ``Time Trax,'' ``RoboCop,'' ``Babylon 5,'' ``Sightings,'' ``Forever Knight'' and ``Highlander.''
With the crew of ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' catapulted from TV to the big screen, WTVZ here continues showing reruns of ``TNG.'' Channel 33's other science-fiction show is ``Space Precinct.'' ABC embraced the trend with ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.'' Fox is into sci-fi with two series, ``M.A.N.T.I.S.'' and ``The X-Files.''
Sci-fi is surging on TV where once it couldn't attract enough viewers to fill a phone booth.
It's so hot that Chris Carter, executive producer of ``The X-Files,'' is only too happy to put his show in the sci-fi category after first rejecting that label.
``Although I consider our show to be a show about progressive science, I'm happy to be called a sci-fi show because it brings in a lot of viewers.''
Sci-fi is so hot that the producers of ``Earth 2'' sold their series to NBC without a pilot episode. ``It was strictly a one-sentence pitch that went something like this: `Think of a show that revolves around a `Wagon Train' type of story on another planet,' '' said executive producer Michael Duggan.
In ``Earth 2,'' Debrah Farentino as Devon Adair leads an expedition to a world similar to Earth, which by the 21st century has become too polluted to support life.
When asked by TV writers if viewers might be overwhelmed by sci-fi, if couch potatoes are getting too much of a good thing, Straczynski pointed out that in the past, when Westerns ruled the dial, people didn't watch ``Bonanza'' because they watched ``The Big Valley.''
They watched all the Westerns.
Claudia Christian, cast as Lt. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova on ``Babylon 5,'' believes sci-fi is hot on TV and in films because we're about to enter the 21st century. ``It's a time in our lives when we can anticipate what might occur in the next century or so.''
Straczynski says it's just a case of getting re-acquainted with the future.
``There was a time 25 or 30 years ago when America was fascinated with the future,'' he said. ``Since then, we've gotten bogged down going to work, putting food on our plates, raising families. We have forgotten that we are part of the grand parade building the future.''
Others, including your humble columnist, say the sci-fi surge isn't based on such romantic notions, that it is due largely to mechanics - slick computer-generated special effects and digital imaging technology that allow sci-fi shows to be produced on modest budgets.
The production notes on ``TekWar'': ``The latest special effects will help tell the story of life on Earth 50 years into the future. Viewers will witness state-of-the-art technology including computer graphics.'' On the flesh-and-blood side, Greg Evigan stars as an ex-cop fighting the 21st century bad guys.
Shatner, who wrote the novels on which the series is based, is scheduled to appear as head of a cosmos detective agency. The man is as durable as Gibraltar. After the Jan. 7 premiere, ``TekWar'' airs on USA Mondays at 10 p.m.
Paramount is so certain that sci-fi will continue to be chic that the studio has built its new network around a program that goes boldly where no other TV show has gone - to the bridge of a starship with a woman (Kate Mulgrew) at the helm.
In ``Earth 2,'' Farentino, who has been on the tube in the past as a lawyer on ``Equal Justice'' and David Caruso's love interest in ``NYPD Blue,'' is roughing it on a hostile planet's surface, meeting human monsters (Tim Curry) and monsters who look like ET's ugly cousins. They shoot the series in New Mexico deserts, which is fine with Farentino.
``When people ask me how I like filming in this environment, I say it sure beats wearing pantyhose in a courtroom,'' she said in Los Angeles before filming began last summer.
Beam us up, Scotty. Again. And again and again. MEMO: Related story also on page E1.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
FOX photo
Carl Lumbly stars as the Mantis in the Fox series ``M.A.N.T.I.S.''
KEYWORDS: SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION PROGRAMS by CNB