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It does my heart good to see so many science-fiction and genre-related shows on the airwaves. I struggle to watch and keep up with them all, but that’s a good thing.

I’m always afraid some morning I’ll wake up and find this was all a dream, and science-fiction will have vanished from the small screen and replaced by “Roseanne” reruns.

Of course, being a genre fan means getting used to having your heart broken. How many times, prior to the Internet and Airlock Alpha, did I rush home to catch the show I was currently passionate about, then plunk down in front of my TV in time to catch an unscheduled rerun of “Dateline NBC” or some reality show where my program was supposed to be? I’m not one for curse words, but I’ve been sorely tempted to let the networks have it when they’ve done this to me.

Looking back, I can see that many programs actually paved the way for the current state of sci-fi on television. Still, I miss them and wish that, in true genre fashion, they would return from the dead to fill my thoughts and heart.

I thought this time I’d like to honor some of the best, that died way too soon and deserved another year at least.

Birds of Prey

This The WB network program was intended to be another “Smallville,” this time focusing on some of the Batman family. Based on the comic book of the same name, the show featured intelligent women with abilities that complemented each other as they worked together as a team to take on mutant bad guys.

The main characters were Barbara Gordon, who went from Batgirl to being called Oracle after a serious injury put her in a wheelchair; the Huntress, the daughter of Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) who had the ability to track and fight with the best of them; and Black Canary, the youngest of the crew. She had the sonic powers her comics counterpart had.

Throw in Alfred the Wayne’s butler who provided caustic remarks and reality checks now and again, and you had a pretty varied crew.

I’m still convinced that this show would have survived if they had paired it with “Smallville” instead of airing it on a different night. Yes, the mutants were very reminiscent of the meteor-powered freaks that Clark faced week by week, but the setting was different (a large metropolitan area) and the women got to save the day in this show.

I will always be grateful to the show’s producers for putting in a very short scene at the end of the final episode for the fans, many of whom knew this was the end. In it, Alfred spoke on the phone with Batman, and he told the Dark Knight how proud he would be of his daughter and the rest, and that they will represent him very well as they continued to protect Gotham City just as he would do if he were there.

The Chronicle

This SciFi Channel show was ahead of its time, with a pacing and focus similar to that of the now-popular “Eureka.”

“Where there’s stink, there’s ink” was the clarion call of Donald Stern, the editor of the Weekly World Chronicle, a tabloid newspaper that really did print the news, unlike the shoddy journalism in low-level publications like the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The main character was Tucker Burns, a young writer who needed a job desperately, and was hired by the Chronicle only to discover that the paranormal is indeed real.

One of my favorite episodes was one that combined Elvis impersonators (causing the cast to quote Elvis songs) and vampire hunters.

The program was witty, full of surprises and interesting characters and events.

Witchblade

It has been rare for TNT to venture into genre territory, but this series, another based on a comic book, was special from the first episode.

I’ve often stated that magic can be an easy out for bad writers – you just call out the “woo-woo ray” and it solves everything without explanation. But this show was like “The Dresden Files” in that the magic was clearly defined and actually made sense.

Sara “Pez” Pezzini, a New York City detective, crossed paths with an ancient device of amazing power, and it attached itself to her arm. Yancy Butler did a great job of breathing life into this complex character.

Sadly, personal demons in the actress’ life are blamed by some for this show being cancelled after only two seasons, but it was a wonderful thrill ride.

As an aside, if anyone remembers Will Yun Lee, who played Pez’s partner Danny Woo, he’ll be portraying Jae Kim in NBC’s new upgrade of “Bionic Woman” this fall.

Brimstone

Fox has made a habit of bringing genre shows to the screen, only to cancel them far too soon, I feel. One of the best was this supernatural drama about Ezekiel Stone, a police detective (funny how that profession keeps showing up in sci-fi shows) who returned to Earth after 15 years to help the devil capture and return 113 of the worst bad guys to Hell.

Peter Horton, who starred in the show and was trying to bring something different to television, did a wonderfully understated job of missing his old life while shooting the eyes out of the baddies, returning them to the Nether Regions.

I loved the twists and turns in this program. Believe it or not, even a car was one of the hellions. Stone had to blow out its headlights.

“Smallville” fans would recognize John Glover, who is Lionel Luthor, as the devil, one of the highlights of the program.

Sadly, Fox announced that the program was cancelled before the last episodes aired. No wonder the ratings went down in the last several weeks!

Some other honorable mentions of shows that went away too soon include Fox’s “VR-5,” UPN’s “Nowhere Man,” NBC’s “Surface,” ABC’s “Invasion,” and Fox’s “Dark Angel.”

Wayne Hall is the news editor of Airlock Alpha, writing out of the Washington, D.C. area. He can be reached at whall@airlockalpha.com.

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