The Sci-Fi Channel Becomes The SyFy Channel

I write in the science fiction genre, so the following is sort of like throwing bricks in a glass house, but I couldn't help but weigh in on this topic.

In a monumentally pathetic move to re-brand the Sci-Fi channel so they can register the logo as a trademark and "reinvent" itself, the genre representing channel has renamed itself as the SyFy channel.

This move follows after GE (the owner of the SyFy Channel) attempted to register Sci-Fi as a trademark and claim ownership of the logo and failed. Now they can register the new name as a trademark but will suffer for it since, historically, people who refer to Science Fiction as SyFy typically don't enjoy, respect or understand the genre or the fans. This is absolutely perfect considering the SyFy channel started falling out of grace with Science Fiction fans as they started piling on bad reality television shows, wrestling, and other unrelated television shows such as Ghost Hunters. Add the fact that they use the channel as a dumping ground for long dead series that play right next to more impressive reruns. I've also heard many, many science fiction fans complain that they show the same movies over and over again, this is true. Pile atop that the straight to DVD B-Movie and worse quality "Sci-Fi Original" films that they use as filler or feature during prime time the station has turned some die hard Science Fiction fans away for good.

On a more positive note I have enjoyed some original programming (the Stargate Franchise, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Eureka and others), but I find those shows are making up for the rest of the poor programming less and less. I shouldn't expect integrity and quality from a channel GE sees as a secondary concern compared to other stations such as MSNBC but there was a time when the Sci-Fi channel was pretty good, good enough so our Canadian version couldn't measure up. Those days are gone, sometimes the Canadian Sci-Fi channel (simply named: SPACE), is actually better.

It's sad to see a genre channel increase its rate of deterioration. We can only hope that science fiction content continues to invade main stream television so we don't have to channel surf to SyFy.

RL