Great ideas don't always translate so well...
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00:00Having a strong and original central premise for the audience to invest in is the key to
00:05any show's success, especially in the world of sci-fi.
00:10But unfortunately for the interesting entries on this very list, due to a variety of reasons
00:16each and every one of them were unable to make the most of their cracking premise.
00:21So I'm Gareth from WhatCulture.com and here are 9 Sci-Fi TV Shows That Wasted Incredible
00:27Premises.
00:289.
00:29Torchwood The idea of a Doctor Who spin-off that explored
00:32how humans interacted with aliens when the Time Lord wasn't on Earth was an extremely
00:37exciting one.
00:39The premise for the show was actually set up in the first two seasons of the rebooted
00:43Doctor Who, with charismatic companion Captain Jack Harkness permanently brought back to
00:48life at the climax of Christopher Eccleston's one season as the Time Lord.
00:53The seedy origins of the Torchwood organisation, which Captain Jack rebuilt, was then explored
00:59in great detail through David Tennant's first season, including its creation by Queen
01:04Victoria.
01:05Unfortunately, Torchwood eventually got off on the wrong foot with the pilot episode,
01:09though, and never really recovered from there.
01:12Rather than concentrate on the world of possibilities of how mankind deals with their alien visitors,
01:18the show tried way too hard to distance itself from the successful series it had spun off
01:23from.
01:24The characters were all so mean-spirited, and the feel of the show was so downbeat that
01:29it was hard to invest in any of the so-so alien threats put forward.
01:33And while on the subject of Doctor Who stuff, who's your favourite Doctor?
01:37I wanna know in the comments section right down below.
01:408.
01:41Hard Son In Hard Son, Jim Sturgis and Agnes Dean played
01:45British police officers Charlie Hicks and Elaine Renko, who in the midst of their investigations
01:51find out a horrifying secret.
01:53The world will be destroyed in five years' time.
01:56A story that followed a pre-apocalyptic rather than post-apocalyptic world was as strong
02:02a premise for a new show as one could hope for.
02:05The idea was not only original, but could easily have been used to explore how Earth's
02:09citizens dealt with their imminent demise, and how governments would react to the ensuing
02:14panic.
02:15Unfortunately, rather than explore these broader issues, the show proved to be nothing more
02:19than a convoluted B-grade chase story, with various dark forces attempting to kill off
02:25the officers so that the apocalyptic events could remain secret.
02:29The show plays out like the boring opening sections of the film 2012, while leaving out
02:33any of the exciting bits and adding a truckload of exposition.
02:377.
02:38Ghosted This supernatural sci-fi sitcom from Fox looked
02:42like the perfect show to sit back and have a few good laughs at in the style of the Men
02:47in Black franchise, and hopes were elevated significantly when first-rate comedians Adam
02:52Scott 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.
03:04The pair are kidnapped by an MIB-style organisation, the Bureau Underground, who set them on a
03:10task of crucial importance.
03:13The task for these two mismatched partners is to investigate supernatural activities
03:18that threaten to wipe out human existence.
03:20Unfortunately, the comedy pairing of Scott and Robinson fails to fire, with lame jokes
03:26and 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
03:34Annie that 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
03:43events occurring around them.
03:467 Days This premise saw an experimental teleport
03:49being made operational that transported our protagonist, Frank, seven days into the past
03:54to stop catastrophic events before they occurred.
03:57Frank was actually a rather intriguing lead man due to his contrasting moods, his uber-confident
04:03persona 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, as Frank used the teleport
04:19to 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
04:29hard too early.
04:31Having saved the presidents of the world's two superpowers, and then saving mankind from
04:36an extinction-level 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.
04:47The 4,400 The 4,400 saw the return of, you guessed
04:51it, 4,400 missing persons, all who were abducted from different periods across time, but returned
04:57with no memory of what has occurred to them and without ageing a day.
05:01Adding even more interest to this premise was the fact that some of the returning humans
05:05had returned with special powers.
05:08The idea of different members of the 4,400 using their powers for negative reasons, with
05:13the increased fears and reactions of modern society towards the comeback kids, was extremely
05:18exciting and explored well in the shortened first season.
05:22Unfortunately, like our previous entry, the show moved too quickly and dug itself a hole
05:27it could not get out of.
05:29The final reveal of the first season unveiled that the humans had not been abducted by aliens,
05:34as expected, but were instead taken by mankind of the future.
05:38Revealing the mystery so early in the show's run proved a dud move, the audience having
05:42little reason to stick around as the narrative possibilities dried up.
05:464.
05:47Manimal As the title unsubtly suggests, this show
05:50explores 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
06:00bird or panther, while 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
06:10make such a fun but silly premise work.
06:13Each transformation from man to animal was drawn out in excruciating detail, with actor
06:19Simon McCorkendale looking like he was extremely constipated while changing from human to animal.
06:25The stories were all lightweight police detective tales of the week, when the concept was really
06:30crying out for a more comic book feel.
06:32And the manimal really needed some more otherworldly type villains to take on, rather than the
06:37goon of the week served up here, as there was never any real sense of threat.
06:413.
06:42Flash Forward If there was ever a TV pilot that got fans
06:46excited about a new show, it was most definitely Flash Forward.
06:50The show followed the moment when nearly every citizen on Earth blacks out for a period of
06:55137 seconds, with each person envisioning how their life would look in six months'
07:01time.
07:02Be it a return to alcoholism, the instigation of an affair or no vision at all, the shocking
07:07prospect of actually seeing what lies ahead in life proved a truly exciting and innovative
07:12premise.
07:13The opening episodes of the series were actually quite decent too, with our protagonist detectives
07:18chasing 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
07:26literally knew what was coming, meaning it was tough to build up suspense to an exciting
07:31end point because we had already, y'know, seen it.
07:352.
07:36Manifest This 2019 drama sees a passenger flight take
07:39off from Jamaica and, after encountering a storm, seemingly land a few short hours later
07:45at their destination point in New York.
07:48Then comes the ripping twist, with the reveal that the plane has actually landed five years
07:53in the future, with the flight presumed crashed and the passengers dead.
07:57The exploration of the passengers reintegrating into society, alongside the investigation
08:02of what actually happened, seemed a set-up for spectacular results.
08:06Sadly, the show proved to be extremely pedestrian, with acting that wouldn't be accepted on
08:11the cheesiest of soaps and the most cliched scripts known to man.
08:15Melissa Roxburgh plays lead detective Michaela Stone, a passenger from the flight who hears
08:20mysterious messages in her head that prove to be important information.
08:25The scenes in which Stone hears said voices are unintentionally hilarious, though.
08:30Every big moment in the script is signposted a mile off, and we care less and less about
08:34the fate of the surviving passengers the more time we unfortunately have to be in their
08:39company.
08:401.
08:41Man from Atlantis The winner, or should I say loser, of Top
08:44Spot on this list goes to this truly awful 1977 sci-fi bomb starring a pre-Dallas Patrick
08:51Duffy.
08:52Duffy's character, who is given the name Mark Harris, is an amnesiac who is believed
08:57to be the last survivor of the civilisation of Atlantis.
09:00Harris has a ton of unique abilities, including superhuman strength, the ability to breathe
09:05underwater and 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, Harris assists the US Navy on a number
09:16of missions, taking on various villains with uniquely aquatic plans.
09:21While the premise set the show up for some great B-grade action and fun, the programme
09:25took itself way too seriously, and ultimately became laughably bad for all the wrong reasons.
09:32Attempts at a love story between Harris and Belinda Montgomery's Dr Elizabeth Merrill
09:36are excruciating, always 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.
09:54And that's our list, know of any other sci-fi TV shows that wasted incredible premises?
09:58Well throw them in the comments down below and don't forget to like, share and click
10:02on the subscribe button while you're down there.
10:04I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you for spending some time with us today.
10:08Now try and keep from getting beamed up into space and hopefully we'll see you soon, bye!