but that won’t stop them from making it anyway. There’s also going to be the second half of the last Twilight movie, which, although it totally unexcites me, will no doubt be among the box office champs of 2012.
* * * The big story of 2011, as far as SF and fantasy shows on television are concerned, was the huge success of HBO’s A Game of Thrones, based on the bestselling Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin. Response to A Game of Thrones was immense, generating buzz far beyond the usual boundaries of the genre, generating commentary in places like The New York Times, and inspiring references in comic strips, game shows, The Big Bang Theory, and even drawing a satire from The Onion—and making George R. R. Martin, who was already famous within the SF/fantasy genre, a widely recognizable figure outside it as well. HBO’s other genre show, the campy vampire show True Blood, had a disappointing fourth season that turned off many of its core viewing demographic; let’s hope they can do better with the upcoming fifth season (what they primarily need is to increase the quality of the writing, which sagged this season, and bring it back up to its former high standard; the actors are mostly pretty good, but they can only work with what they’re given).
The two biggest debuts of SF shows in 2011 were probably Terra Nova, in which scientists escape through time from a doomed and ruined Earth to attempt to restart the human race in a prehistoric era, and Falling Skies, in which embattled guerilla militiamen battle alien invasion forces who have destroyed much of the Earth and killed most of the people, both expensive shows for television, and both produced by movie director Steven Spielberg, in his first foray into television. Falling Skies, which is perfectly valid as a genuine bit of military SF, although offering nothing that print SF fans haven’t seen dozens of times before, seems to have established itself, but Terra Nova, the more expensive of the two to produce, because of all those CGI dinosaurs, is wobbling badly in the ratings, and may not make it. Another Spielberg-produced show, The River, which looks like a Lost-flavored horror series, is coming up.
Cult favorite SF show Fringe, another expensive show to produce, is also wobbling in the ratings, and may not make it. If Fringe and Terra Nova do die, they’ll be following many another expensive special effects heavy shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Firefly, and Stargate and its sequels into oblivion—the clear lesson being that supernatural shows, which are far less expensive to produce than SF shows (all you really need is some creature makeup), are more likely to survive on television than SF shows, particularly ones that take place in outer space. Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf, and American Horror Story are all coming back, to be joined by new supernatural shows, such as The Secret Circle, about witches, The Fades, House of Anubis, and the dueling fairy-tale series, Grimm and Once Upon a Time.
No Ordinary Family and The Cape died, and the long- running Smallville finished its final season, leaving the airways momentarily cleared of superheroes, although that probably won’t last long. V died. Spy spoof Chuck will finish its fifth and final half season in 2012. A Gifted Man, a rather peculiar attempt to cross the doctor show and the ghost show, featuring a doctor who is haunted by the nagging ghost of his wife, is sinking, and may already be gone by the time you read this. A new show, Touch, which, as far as I can tell from the coming attractions is about an autistic boy with preternatural powers of some sort, started early in the year; too early to tell how it’s going to be received.
The SF comedies Eureka and Warehouse 13 are returning, as are Doctor Who and Primeval and the British version of Being Human, although the fates of the American spin-offs of Torchwood and Being Human are uncertain, and they may both be dead. The animated SF satire Futurama, after being canceled for a couple of years and spinning off a couple of special features, is returning to regular production. Another animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is also returning. Mention should probably be made here of The Big Bang Theory, which, although not strictly a genre show, is so chockful of sly geek knowledge references to movie and television SF, print SF, online gaming, science, and comic books that I can’t imagine that it doesn’t appeal to the majority of genre readers.
A miniseries version of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars has been promised for a couple of years now, but has yet to make an appearance.
The 69th World Science Fiction Convention, Renovation, was held in Reno, Nevada, from August 17 to August 21, 2011. The 2011 Hugo Awards, presented at Renovation, were: Best Novel, Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis; Best Novella, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” by Ted Chiang; Best Novelette, “The Emperor of Mars,” by Allen M. Steele; Best Short Story, “For Want of a Nail,” by Mary Robinette Kowal; Best Related Work, Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea; Best Editor, Long Form, Lou Anders; Best Editor, Short Form, Sheila Williams; Best Professional Artist, Shaun Tan; Best Dramatic Presentation (short form), Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang”; Best Dramatic Presentation (long form), Inception; Best Graphic Story, Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, by Kaja and Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio; Best Semiprozine, Clarkesworld; Best Fanzine, The Drink Tank; Best Fan Writer, Claire Brialey; Best Fan Artist, Brad W. Foster; plus the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer to Lev Grossman.
The 2010 Nebula Awards, presented at a banquet at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2011, were: Best Novel, Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis; Best Novella, “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window,” by Rachel Swirsky; Best Novelette, “That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made,” by Eric James Stone; Best Short Story (tie), “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson and “How Interesting: A Tiny Man,” by Harlan Ellison; Ray Bradbury Award, Inception; the Andre Norton Award to I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett; and Solstice Awards to Alice Sheldon (aka James Tiptree, Jr.) and Michael Whelan.
The 2011 World Fantasy Awards, presented at a banquet on October 30, 2011, in San Diego, California, during the Twentieth Annual World Fantasy Convention, were: Best Novel, Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor; Best Novella, “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon,” by Elizabeth Hand; Best Short Story, “Fossil-Figures,” by Joyce Carol Oates; Best Collection, What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, by Karen Joy Fowler; Best Anthology, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer; Best Artist, Kinuko Y. Craft; Special Award (Professional), to Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot; Special Award (Nonprofessional), to Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press; plus the Life Achievement Award to Peter S. Beagle and Angelica Gorodischer.
The 2010 Bram Stoker Awards, presented by the Horror Writers of America on June 19, 2011, at the Long Island Marriott Hotel in Uniondale, New York, were: Best Novel, A Dark Matter, by Peter Straub; Best First Novel, Black and Orange, by Benjamin Kane Ethridge and Castle of Los Angeles, by Lisa Morton; Best Long Fiction, Invisible Fences, by Norman Prentiss; Best Short Fiction, “The Folding Man,” by Joe R. Lansdale; Best Collection, Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King; Best Anthology, Haunted Legends, edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas; Nonfiction, To Each Their Darkness, by Gary A. Braunbeck; Best Poetry Collection, Dark Matters, by Bruce Boston; plus Lifetime Achievement Awards to Ellen Datlow and Al Feldstein.
The 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award was won by The Dervish House, by
