I’d like to say that it came to me in a dream but, in truth, it came to me as I was lying wide awake at 5:30 a.m. My french bulldog had stirred me out of a deep slumber, pacing around until I got up to let her out and, once her business was done, returned to bed where she immediately drifted off. No insta-sleep for me though. While Lulu lay beside me, snoring up a storm, I stared up at the ceiling and, over the course of the next two hours, came up with the premise of my new SciFi series.
I eventually drifted off, slept for a couple of more hours and then awoke creatively rarin’ to go. Throughout the day, while I was walking the dogs and running errands, I broke the story: a tease, five acts, a tag, colorful characters, big stakes, humor, and my trademark twists, turns, shocks and surprises.
The plan is to write the pilot between now and when the Dark Matter writers’ room kicks off on June 12th, hopefully set it up for a fall of 2017 premiere, and convene a second writers’ room in August.
It’s all coming together nicely – except, of course, for the title. I hate coming up with titles (which is why I had YOU, the fans, choose all the Dark Matter season 2 episode titles. Thanks.). So how about it? Despite the fact that you know absolutely nothing about the prospective new show, what cool SF titles would you suggest?
Hey, check it out. I’ve bee twitter verified! Do you know what that means?!!!
Yeah, me neither.
Meanwhile, over on my dedicated Dark Matter – @DarkMatter_show – twitter account, I’ve been uploading behind-the-scenes pics from the first season finale:
THREE drops off the laundry.
Jodelle clowning.
The troops get their marching orders.
Searching the vents – an homage to Alien.
Glitch
Out of Time
R E M
Don’t ask me why, just some words that come to mind reading your thoughts on your new SciFi project….
Oow, One’s NOT laundry!
Did think those search scenes were reminiscent of something familiar. Glad Five didn’t end up the same way as Dallas!
Titles: The Pandora Effect (or Continuum or Paradox) or based on YouTube video popularity you might try “Dancing Baby Kittens in Space” which will guarantee at least 100 million visits to the trailer. 😉
Looking forward to the new season.
Lulu woke you as she knew the idea was breaking out of your subconscious. For titles I offer:
The Whisper Room
All but the dead
Mercenary Me
Fumin or Fuminshou – due to the lack of sleep that spawned the idea
42 – always a classic
I am looking forward to what others come up with.
Two and a Half Aliens – the brand new sci-fi sitcom?
With nothing but the idea that you’ve got an idea for a show, here are a few mostly (okay, completely) lame suggestions off the top of my head.
First and foremost, I’m hoping it’s “Wormhole X-Treme!” or maybe something with “Stargate” in the title. Barring those wishes, here’s the rest.
Quantum Entanglement
Escape Velocity (I know it’s an older movie title, but still a nice title)
Laser Cats!
The Dogs of Deneb 4
Hyperwarp
Universal Elements
Folding Space
What I would like to see? SGU:TNG! I know, I know, MGM and all that.
Alternatively: Pugs! In! Space!
Would this show take all your attention, or would you split your time between that and the inevitable DM season 4? So many questions.
Cause and Effect
Effect Without Cause
Outer Rim
Comes the Night
Absolute Zero
Centripetal
Descent
Conundrum
Awakening
Cool another Joe Mallozzi Sci Fi series! When I lay awake at 3:30 am I am not creative I am desparately trying to get back to sleep. I’m with you I hate coming up with titles. Twitter verified means that that account belongs to the one and only officially Joseph Mallozzi – in case there’s a Joe Mallozzi wanna be out there, Twitterers know its’s really you.
Also, I wish I could sleep as late as 5:30! Still with the insomnia.
The Bubba and Lulu Show.
Ultralords! Although, KathyC had a good one with the “Bubba and Lulu show”.
Another sci-fi show from your mind is always a great thing to hear! Titles for them are difficult as you don’t want to turn off people that are just casual sci-fi fans or not really into the genre that much. Here are my ideas:
Into the beyond (or Void)
Outer Reaches
Beyond the Void
Dreamspace
You could get the Continuum people angry with you by calling it…
Conundrum.
I am actually most creative when sleep deprived too! I have a great title but it’s reserved for my TV series that I would love to pitch to SyFy. Any advice for how to approach them, considering that I am a complete unknown but have a proposal package & pilot script, etc.?
Congrats on being verified! It means you are who you are saying you are, not a poser pretending to be you.
How about The Adventures of Bubba & Lulu?
I see that the new MacGyver show is premiering on Friday nights on CBS along side Syfy’s Friday night scifi lineup in the Fall. Will Dark Matter be affected by this?
Have you thought about creating a comic book or a short reader about the pets in your life?
Seventh Sun
Harrier Rising
Outpost Red
Dragonstar
Hyperion’s Ring
Outcast Moon
Shattered Space
Laser Tag
Gus
Flashbang
The Adventures of Zippy the Time Worm
I figured those could cover an array of SciFi posibilities.
Also, dogs are great muses, go Lulu!
Syfy introduces from Joseph mallozzi who brought you Dark Matter and Stargate SG-1 and famed author Marko kloos “Frontlines” a space war epic.
Sorry Joe I just would love to see his books brought to life.
Congrats Joe!
I hearby give you permission to use any of the following titles:
Supernova
Stellar Drift
RefracCongrats Joe!
I hearby give you permission to use any of the following titles:
Supernova
Stellar Drift
Webgurl 😊
Refraktion
DNA
Chroma
Interspace
Did you ask Martin Gero? I think he’d be awesome at coming up with titles. Of course it’s tough without knowing even vaguely what the show is about. It’s a real shot in the dark.
When you come up with some words that evoke the feel of the show, start looking for synonyms. Spread the net wide and look for words where you have an initial positive reaction. One or two words, something punchy or intriguing. Anyway, that’s what I would do. I’ll keep brainstorming.
Cheers, Chev
A couple more…
Raccadillo and Teal’c, SciFi P.I.s
Deep Space Radar Telemetry /DSRT
Plausible Deniability
Joe, can I ask a question? How did you break the story of this new SciFi series?
I’ve had this sci-fi premise for ages in my head but beyond the premise and vague notions, no idea how to get past what I have now! So how did you think the premise of your new show through to the point where you had a teaser and 5 acts?
I hate naming things too. It depends on what your show is about. It could be the name or alter ego of your main character or if its based around a ship – it could be the name of the ship.
Congrats on getting verified on Twitter, cause, you know, that is a big deal!
A new show? Wow :O That is so great!!! 🙂 I really think we need to know more to make a proper name recommendation. But… maybe ‘Insomniac’s Dream’, ‘Shot In The Dark’ (saw that on a Starbucks menu, but that would be plagiarism), or ‘Thank Lulu’, because if she hadn’t woken you up, maybe the idea would take longer to come to you.
Hmm, show titles, for a sci-fi show .. I know nothing about? Easy!
“Moonshiners” if it is a 1920s inspired smuggler story with a hidden base on the moon maybe?
“No space left” a gang running from the authority of some kind.
“Starcraft”, I would LOVE a tv-series based on the lore of that game.
“Aurora colony”
Synchronicity,,,
Transemo -rise of rationalism-
Diquebut
Quinn’s man -the adventures of the puppet of the master of puppets masters puppet-
I woke up at 1, and three, and three thirty, and fourish, and then finally, 5:15. Yay. Dreams about purple marbles and green glass, a road trip, and looters who wanted shoes as tribute. I think I am disturbed.
I actually am pretty good at titles and nicknames, until I say I am, and then I suck.
Canine Emptor
Rogue Tides
Sparks
Lonely Dimension
Death in the Nth Dimension
And this is fun:
http://www.kitt.net/php/title-scifi-fantasy.php
Road of the Dream
Dreamscape
Speed of Dreams
Powered by Lulu and Joe
Hmm. I am not a good head line writer nor fancy with titles, but a couple of quick thoughts:
Meet Joe M. – a daily life of an avant guard celebrated show producer,
Pug Nationous,
Hot Wheels – The tour to find the best, neatest, outrages food trucks, or
Hunter’s Quest
(was thinking of “Countdown”, but found it is a new movie title)
A KEen MInd
Just a couple of thoughts
The Silent Deep
Cool! I could watch another Mallozzi sci-fi production.
You could pull a Syfy and call it Stir Trak… =)
Life Do Us Part
Without knowing the content, or even the intent, of the show, it’d be very hard for us to come up with a name. Then again, I’m still not quite sure how Dark Matter relates to the show’s content. Probably should’ve called it Grey Matter since they all have “brain issues” with their memories all being rewritten and stuff. 😉
Here are my unrelated tries:
Quantum Flux
Beyond Oort
Resolute Destiny
Far Reaches
Iron Stars
Just spitballiin’ here. No clue if any of these match or will work for you(although I do really like Beyond Oort!).
-Mike A.
More fab BTS photos.
A new SF show, and title suggestions too – awesome
Reset To Default
Intercept Bearing
Minute Defect
Novel Construct
Just Transfer
Got to love homographs 😎
I love some of the earlier suggestions such as Glitch, R E M, Out Of Time, Mercenary Me, Escape Velocity. Some of my own suggestions: Cheylan 5, Pursuit, Phase To Black, Counting Sheep.
Love the BTS pics especially the Alien homage.
Hope you sleep better tonight! Pleasant “inspirational” dreams!
Here’s some more titles …
Kickshot
Starfall
Contents Unknown
The Paradigm Shift
Fractal Chaos
[REDACTED]
Paragons of Viridis
A Distance from Halcyon
Armigerent
Epicurious
Hazchem Heroes (- sorry but it made me laugh!)
or
Dark Star or Mattergate !? No?
But, but, but…there aren’t enough hours in a day for you to run one TV show without nearly running yourself to death. How in space are you going to handle two at once? (Completely taking for granted that there WILL be a season 3 of Dark Matter.) 🙂
Joe,
I have what might be a good idea for TV series. I have an arc for the first season roughly sketched out. I am NOT a writer- and I have no desire to be writer ( I am a musician, composer)…. Any suggestions, opinions, thoughts…. Would be appreciated:-)
Notes:
ESCAPE VELOCITY is also the title of one of Christopher Stasheff’s classic, comedic SciFi novels (1983, Ace /Berkely Publishing, NYC).
“(The?) Outer Reaches” was the title of two SciFi anthology-style TV series in the 1960s & ’90s, IIRC. Would someone please check?
(Having home wifi problems here)
…but my cell is picking up data signal…
Sorry, I confused with “Outer Limits” TV series,
BUT
there is an old SciFi anthology book titled THE OUTER REACHES.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outer_Reaches
Entrails.
das
My nephew spent a whole weekend complaining about his Copernicus project so my title suggestions are:
Axis Mundi
Helios
Ise
Amaterasu
Firmament
Lots of good suggestions here. You should be able to pick one. When I was young, at night I’d lay awake and look up at the ceiling, walls, and door too. The door was a dark wood, so I would imagine my room was floating in space. When I looked at the dark door, I could see the stars from space outside my floating room.
So maybe you could call your new show “Space Ceiling”? “Ceiling of Stars”? “Floating Stars”? Ok, I’ll stop thinking.
Name for your TV show idea:
Atmo – I’m assuming your show will have lots of atmosphere
Course Adjustment – Each episode forces a course adjustment so they can reach their final destination
Firefly – Just resurrect Firefly… I hear Nathan Fillion is looking for work.
Some great titles. Sadly Glitch is already taken by a recent Aussie shoe. (Worth a watch!)
Good luck with your new project.
A writer friend called a couple days ago.
After the all too senseless mastication
of well over a dozen obnoxiously innocuous topics
our seemingly reckless speeding bullet train
eased to a full stop at its grand destination.
Welcome to Epigrammatical Ambiguity.
I am going to ask you a question, she said
but i need a spontaneous response.
Just say the very first thing that pops into your head.
“When you think of clever or catchy titles of hit tv shows,
what title comes to mind? & why?”
The response off the top of my head was: “Grey’s Anatomy”.
Its a clever play on theme wording.
(The long running prime-time drama is
about the personal lives of surgeons working at a hospital
with its central character named Merideth Grey.
In real life there is a medical text book
titled Gray’s Anatomy.)
Without explaining why she took me on
this unnervingly preposterous journey
she said goodbye and that was that.
I shrugged it off. Took a slow deep breath, exhaled
and went back to tackling work projects, household chores
and a bowl of cherry garcia
topped with homemade dark chocolate shavings.
Not more than 10 minutes following the odd phone conversation
an original title along with a new concept for a science fiction series
popped into my head.
Albeit, that I’ve no desire to break into writing for television,
I am gifting it to you as it might be something
you can either fit into your spin off or make use of in part
for DM’s season 3-4.
.
The Title: “Plaito’s Retreat”.
(There was an infamous swingers club in NewYork in the late 70’s
called Plato’s Retreat).
The central character, is Pascal Plaito and the theme explores
moral/ethical ambiguity vs free will/ freedom of choice
while introducing the audience to an abundance
of very cool hi tech emerging technologies.
The story has nothing to do with being a sexual swinger.
It does however, deal with defiance of societal norms
and blurs the lines between morality & perversion.
Pascal is a fully evolved android that thinks, feels
and is very much self aware.
He exists in the not too distant future when:
A.I’s have been globally and intergallactically
prohibited/banned by marshal law
from self programming their own evolution.
Obstensibly due to moral/ethical concerns.
(Apparently some androids tried self programming
to become more human-like many years ago.
Many died in the process and others
ended up with severe cognitive disabililities).
Also outlawed is bio hacking,brain-computer interfacing,
human brain to brain interfacing via IoT assistance,
bionics and any form of transhumanism
other than for medically authorized
life saving or rehabilitative purposes.
i.e prosthetics to replace a missing limb or nano bots inserted
to correct spinal cord injury, blindness or cancer.
Sorry kids, we know you love
her homemade brownies
but there will be no allowing your 90 yr old
beloved aunt Martha to continue living
via uploading her consciousness into a look alike android.
Seems waay too many people, quite especially teenagers,
were tempted to use biohacking and implanting a wi-fi chip
directly in their brains for malevoleant purposes.
Also the easy public access to the technology
made them physically & intellectually lazy.
Kids stopped going to school or even going outside to play.
Then of course, the worst happened on a few planets.
Terrorists used the technologies available to terrorize the masses
and in some places were able to bring entire government systems down.
Pascal travels from galaxy to galaxy aboard a galaxy class star ship
the size of the USS enterprise offering a safe haven/sanctuary/home to
self programming androids, trans humans and bio hackers
who can then carry out their experiments in one of the dozen or so
extremely hi tech ( state of the art) labs on board.
He does charge a hefty fee to grant you passage
aboard his FTL traveling, futuristic, 5 star sanctuary
but he sometimes takes on a charity case
if he finds their need or desire compelling enough.
The permanent crew count starts out with just him and a sympathetic human friend
and increases as the series progresses and some who have been granted shelter
and lab access -elect to stay.
Individual emotional stories will be introduced in each episode.
Much like ST-TNG and Voyager, each episode will involve
an in depth focus on one character at a time.
The audience will really get to know each main character
and guest star character well
and at times there will be clear hero’s.
clear villains.
While other times
ambiguity and confusion will prevail
leaving the audience debating whether or not
that person should be permitted to do whatever it is they are doing.
Lines will be blurred. Boundaries irreverently crossed
and human logic forcefully thrown into chaos.
Anywhooo If ya cant use it…. just post it. Maybe someone will find a way to develop it so the idea does not go to waste.
GForce and I think alike as I was going to say Pugs In Space. My friend Kate who died in April would have loved that. She loved pugs.