Geektown Awards – Best New & Returning Sci-fi/Fantasy Series
We kick off the next batch of awards heading onto home turf… The Best New & Returning Sci-fi/Fantasy Series categories. It was another great year for genre tv, and it looks like 2020 is going to continue that trend. Last year saw a close race for the New Sci-fi/Fantasy Series, but this year both that and the Returning Sci-fi/Fantasy Series had very clear winners. Here are the shows you picked.
Best New Sci-fi/Fantasy Series
Nominees: Black Summer – Netflix, Carnival Row – Amazon Prime, Curfew – Sky One, For All Mankind – Apple TV+, His Dark Materials – BBC One, See – Apple TV+, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – Netflix, The Kingdom – Netflix
Bronze: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – Netflix
Silver: Carnival Row – Amazon Prime
And the Gold goes to …
Winner: His Dark Materials – BBC One
After a failed movie attempt and years of wrangling, Philip Pullman’s acclaimed novel series ‘His Dark Materials‘ finally gets the tv adaptation it deserves, thanks to the folk at Bad Wolf, as you put it into the top slot for this category with over 30% of the vote.
The series sees Dafne Keen (‘Logan’, ‘The Refugees’) take on the lead role of Lyra, the young protagonist of the story who lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Placed there at the request of her Uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy – ‘X-Men’ films, ‘Atonement’) she lives a sheltered life amongst the scholars and college staff while under the watchful protection of The Master (Clarke Peters – ‘The Wire’) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Ian Gelder – ‘Game of Thrones’).
When the glamorous and mesmeric Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson – ‘Luther’) enters Lyra’s life she embarks upon a dangerous journey of discovery from Oxford to London. Here she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen – ‘The Crown’), Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare – ‘Tyrant’) and journalist Adele Starminster (Georgina Campbell – ‘Krypton’) at a glittering society party where she first hears about the sinister General Oblation Board.
Best Returning Sci-fi/Fantasy Series
Nominees: American Gods – Amazon Prime, American Horror Story – FOX (UK), Black Mirror – Netflix, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina – Netflix, Star Trek: Discovery – Netflix, The Expanse – Amazon Prime, The Handmaid’s Tale – Channel 4, The OA – Netflix, Stranger Things – Netflix
Bronze: Star Trek: Discovery – Netflix
Silver: The Handmaid’s Tale – Channel 4
And the Gold goes to …
Winner: Stranger Things – Netflix
With no ‘Doctor Who’ series last year to steal the top spot, I had thought this category might be wide open… Then along came ‘Stranger Things‘ with a spectacular 3rd Season, and all bets were off.
‘Stranger Things’ has always been a great show, but Season 3 kicked everything up to 11. Along with the awesome Gen X/elder millennial nostalgia, we had a great new location with the Starcourt Mall, some wonderful new threats, but the same brilliant cast. The show totally deserves its place at the top this year, if for nothing else than the amazing Neverending Story sequence (obviously, spoilers in the video above if you haven’t watched it yet!) which had me joyously giggling like a child all the way through. I can’t wait to see where the Duffer Brothers take things when it returns for Season 4.
