XPost: rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.tv   
   From: david@creeknet.com   
      
   Obveeus wrote:   
      
   >   
   > "David Cheatham"  wrote:   
   > > Yup. Or you can do what Lost did, and realize that sci-fi fans are   
   > > so starved for good shows they'll find your sci-fi by themselves,   
   > > so what you do is you package it as a character drama, and then   
   > > later show it's sci-fi. ;)   
   >   
   > Admittedly, I don't watch Lost, but I think you have that backwards.   
   > Lost packaged itself as sci-fi and then later revealed itself as just   
   > another character drama (soapy stories about who will 'hook-up' with   
   > whom).   
      
   Nope.   
      
   It packaged itself first season as a 'scripted' version of Survivor, a   
   hypothetical 'What if a bunch of people really were stranded on an   
   island?'.   
      
   Incidentally, part of this origin later showed up with the *other*   
   survivors, the Tailies, who were the 'competing team'. (Except more   
   like the 'slowly killed off before we met them team'.)   
      
   Also it showed up with the beach camp vs. the cave camp when the group   
   split up, in a later season. Different 'teams', although they never   
   really were competing, they just had a difference of purpose (The beach   
   team was still waiting for rescue, the cave team was trying to figure   
   somewhere safe and easy to live.), although there was at least one   
   argument over resources.   
      
   Anyway, back to first season, the only 'sci-fi stuff' was 'Why are the   
   trees shaking?', 'How did the pilot just get yanked out of the downed   
   airplane cockpit and what did that?', and 'What the heck was a polar   
   bear doing on a tropical island?', with none of those questions   
   answered. In theory, dangerous, and moderately odd, wildlife could   
   explain everything.   
      
   Also there was a strange locked hatch, and other indications that the   
   island wasn't uninhabited, but that wasn't really 'sci fi' indicators.   
      
      
   The first totally inexplicably thing was really seeing the Smoke   
   Monster at the end of season 1.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)