Is the fate of the SciFi Channel more Battlestar Galactica and less "another SciFi Channel Original Movie"? The channel's president, David Howe, is suggesting that the answer is somewhere in between... and that we should look to Amanda Tapping and the internet for the shape of things to come.
Talking to the LA Times, Howe admitted that "none of us could ever overestimate the success of 'Battlestar' in terms of putting us on the map with not just a critical audience but actually with a new audience... I think all of us will be depressed when it's over." However, that doesn't mean all hope is lost for the channel's future; in fact, they're working on something special for the year after next:
Howe and his team are pushing online as well and view the cable channel as just part of the hard-wiring needed to get today's sci-fi and fantasy fans. Sci Fi is now working on a project for a 2010 premiere that Howe calls "the Holy Grail": The channel is teaming television writers with video-game designers to create a franchise that is both a television series and a massive multi-player game on the Internet — more than that, the fans who play the game will actually help shape the show's story arc.
Is this the Stargate MMO that we already know about, or something else...? Interesting, too, that this is due in 2010, same as Caprica - Should we write off next year for the channel already, once Galactica finishes...?
Crossing the streams between television and video games isn't the only way for the channel to breed success, of course; the article also mentions Howe pointing to Sanctuary as a model for a future course of SciFi. So look forward to many more greenscreened monsters in your future, while we wait for our MMO saviors to take us away.
Sci Fi charts its course for the future [LA Times]