00:00Having a strong and original central premise for the audience to invest in is the key to any show's
00:06success, especially in the world of sci-fi. But unfortunately for the interesting entries on this
00:13very list, due to a variety of reasons, each and every one of them were unable to make the most of
00:19their cracking premise. So I'm Gareth from WhatCulture.com and here are 9 Sci-Fi TV Shows
00:25that wasted incredible premises. 9 Torchwood
00:29The idea of a Doctor Who spin-off that explored how humans interacted with aliens when the Time
00:35Lord wasn't on Earth was an extremely exciting one. The premise for the show was actually set up in the
00:41first two seasons of the rebooted Doctor Who, with charismatic companion Captain Jack Harkness
00:47permanently brought back to life at the climax of Christopher Eccleston's one season as the Time
00:52Lord. The seedy origins of the Torchwood organisation, which Captain Jack rebuilt,
00:58was then explored in great detail through David Tennant's first season, including its creation
01:03by Queen Victoria. Unfortunately, Torchwood eventually got off on the wrong foot with the
01:08pilot episode though, and never really recovered from there. Rather than concentrate on the world
01:14of possibilities of how mankind deals with their alien visitors, the show tried way too hard to
01:20distance itself from the successful series it had spun off from. The characters were all so
01:25mean-spirited, and the feel of the show was so downbeat that it was hard to invest in any of the
01:31so-so alien threats put forward. And while on the subject of Doctor Who's stuff, who's your favourite
01:37doctor? I want to know in the comments section right down below.
01:408 Hard Sun
01:42In Hard Sun, Jim Sturgis and Agnes Dean played British police officers Charlie Hicks and Elaine Renko,
01:49who in the midst of their investigations find out a horrifying secret. The world will be destroyed
01:54in five years' time. A story that followed a pre-apocalyptic rather than post-apocalyptic
02:00world was as strong a premise for a new show as one could hope for. The idea was not only original,
02:07but could easily have been used to explore how Earth's citizens dealt with their imminent demise,
02:12and how governments would react to the ensuing panic. Unfortunately, rather than explore these broader
02:17issues, the show proved to be nothing more than a convoluted B-grade chase story, with various
02:23dark forces attempting to kill off the officers so that the apocalyptic events could remain secret.
02:28The show plays out like the boring opening sections of the film 2012, while leaving out any of the
02:34exciting bits and adding a truckload of exposition.
02:377 Ghosted
02:39This supernatural sci-fi sitcom from Fox looked like the perfect show to sit back and have a few good
02:45laughs at in the style of the Men in Black franchise, and hopes were elevated significantly
02:50when first-rate comedians Adam Scott and Craig Robinson were cast as the two leads.
02:56The story explores the characters of Max Jennifer and Leroy Wright, a professor and police officer
03:01played by Scott and Robinson respectively. The pair are kidnapped by an MIB-style organisation,
03:08the Bureau Underground, who set them on a task of crucial importance.
03:12The task for these two mismatched partners is to investigate supernatural activities that threaten
03:18to wipe out human existence. Unfortunately, the comedy pairing of Scott and Robinson fails to fire,
03:25with lame jokes and a distinct lack of chemistry holding the show back.
03:29On top of this is a lame romantic subplot between Scott's character Max and co-worker Annie,
03:34that is explored in an unengaging and unhumorous manner.
03:38It also takes up a stack of screen time at the expense of the more interesting supernatural events
03:43occurring around them.
03:456. Seven Days
03:46This premise saw an experimental teleport being made operational that transported our protagonist,
03:52Frank, seven days into the past to stop catastrophic events before they occurred.
03:57Frank was actually a rather intriguing lead man due to his contrasting moods,
04:02his uber-confident persona hiding his issues with depression.
04:05And the pilot episode is spectacular, with Frank heading back a week in time in an attempt
04:11to stop the murders of the US and Russian presidents.
04:14The next episode then managed to raise the stakes once more,
04:18as Frank used the teleport to stop a virus being spread that would kill 98% of the world's population.
04:25Of all the shows on this list, this is one that wasted its great premise by going too hard too early though.
04:31Having saved the presidents of the world's two superpowers, and then saving mankind from an extinction
04:36level event, the show simply gave itself nowhere to go.
04:40Each episode following this felt insignificant in comparison, and the ratings suffered accordingly.
04:465. The 4400
04:47The 4400 saw the return of, you guessed it, 4400 missing persons,
04:53all who were abducted from different periods across time,
04:57but return with no memory of what has occurred to them and without aging a day.
05:01Adding even more interest to this premise was the fact that some of the returning humans had returned with special powers.
05:07The idea of different members of the 4400 using their powers for negative reasons,
05:13with the increased fears and reactions of modern society towards the comeback kids,
05:18was extremely exciting and explored well in the shortened first season.
05:22Unfortunately, like our previous entry, the show moved too quickly and dug itself a hole it could not get out of.
05:28The final reveal of the first season unveiled that the humans had not been abducted by aliens as expected,
05:34but were instead taken by mankind of the future.
05:38Revealing the mystery so early in the show's run proved a dud move,
05:41the audience having little reason to stick around as the narrative possibilities dried up.
05:464. Manimal
05:47As the title unsubtly suggests, this show explores the life of a man who has the ability to turn himself into an animal.
05:56Depending on the requirements of the episode, Dr. Jonathan Chase would transform into a bird or panther,
06:01while occasionally popping into other forms such as a shark.
06:05Delightful.
06:06The show was appropriately cheesy in style, but without the humour that was required to make such a fun but silly premise work.
06:13Each transformation from man to animal was drawn out in excruciating detail,
06:18with actor Simon McCorkendale looking like he was extremely constipated while changing from human to animal.
06:24The stories were all lightweight police detective tales of the week,
06:28when the concept was really crying out for a more comic book feel,
06:32and the manimal really needed some more otherworldly type villains to take on,
06:36rather than the goon of the week served up here,
06:39as there was never any real sense of threat.
06:413. Flash Forward
06:43If there was ever a TV pilot that got fans excited about a new show,
06:47it was most definitely Flash Forward.
06:49The show followed the moment when nearly every citizen on Earth blacks out for a period of 137 seconds,
06:57with each person envisioning how their life would look in six months' time.
07:01Be it a return to alcoholism, the instigation of an affair or no vision at all.
07:06The shocking prospect of actually seeing what lies ahead in life proved a truly exciting and innovative premise.
07:13The opening episodes of the series were actually quite decent too,
07:16with our protagonist detectives chasing down those responsible while trying to avoid the fates that awaited them.
07:23But the biggest issue that the showrunners just couldn't overcome was that the audience literally knew what was coming,
07:28meaning it was tough to build up suspense to an exciting end point because we had already, you know, seen it.
07:342. Manifest
07:36This 2019 drama sees a passenger flight take off from Jamaica,
07:41and after encountering a storm, seemingly land a few short hours later at their destination point in New York.
07:47Then comes the ripping twist,
07:50with the reveal that the plane has actually landed five years in the future,
07:54with the flight presumed crashed and the passengers dead.
07:57The exploration of the passengers reintegrating into society alongside the investigation of what actually happened seemed a setup for spectacular results.
08:06Sadly, the show proved to be extremely pedestrian,
08:09with acting that wouldn't be accepted on the cheesiest of soaps and the most cliched scripts known to man.
08:15Melissa Roxburgh plays lead detective Michaela Stone,
08:19a passenger from the flight who hears mysterious messages in her head that proved to be important information.
08:24The scenes in which Stone hears said voices are unintentionally hilarious, though.
08:30Every big moment in the script is signposted a mile off,
08:33and we care less and less about the fate of the surviving passengers the more time we unfortunately have to be in their company.
08:391. Man from Atlantis
08:41The winner, or should I say loser, of top spot on this list,
08:45goes to this truly awful 1977 sci-fi bomb starring a pre-Dallas Patrick Duffy.
08:51Duffy's character, who is given the name Mark Harris,
08:55is an amnesiac who is believed to be the last survivor of the civilization of Atlantis.
09:00Harris has a ton of unique abilities,
09:03including superhuman strength, the ability to breathe underwater,
09:06and physical traits that allow him to dive to the extreme depths of the ocean.
09:11After being nursed back to health after arriving on land,
09:14Harris assists the US Navy on a number of missions,
09:17taking on various villains with uniquely aquatic plans.
09:20While the premise set the show up for some great B-grade action and fun,
09:25the program took itself way, way too seriously,
09:28and ultimately became laughably bad for all the wrong reasons.
09:31Attempts at a love story between Harris and Belinda Montgomery's Dr. Elizabeth Merrill are excruciating,
09:38always matched by an equally painful score.
09:40And the costume designs for the various villainous creatures are bad for even 1977 standards,
09:47looking like rejected costumes from the Doctor Who classic era.
09:50This one very much sank when it could have swam, baby.
09:53And that's our list.
09:54Know of any other sci-fi TV shows that wasted incredible premises?
09:58Well, throw them in the comments down below,
10:00and don't forget to like, share, and click on the subscribe button while you're down there.
10:04I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com.
10:06Thank you for spending some time with us today.
10:08Now try and keep from getting beamed up into space,
10:11and hopefully we'll see you soon.
10:12Bye-bye!
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