Admittedly, Patrick West may shoot himself and/or his argument in the foot with his first example of quality American SFTV:

[W]hereas the US has given us Flash Gordon, The Twilight Zone, many incarnations of Star Trek, The X-Files, Quantum Leap, Futurama and, more recently, a re-vamped Battlestar Galactica, Britain's principal contribution to the field can be summed up in two words: Dr Who. Granted, The Quatermass Experiment was popular back in the 1950s, and The Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy was superb - but the latter was sci-fi parody, and inadvertently betrayed our timidity when it came to taking this genre seriously. It was also perhaps even an unconscious admission that our previous attempts to do so had been execrable... Perhaps we like to think [Who] was good because the Americans liked it. We Brits always seem to think that Americans liking something is a seal of approval. Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Office, etc. [Who] remains correctly categorised as a ‘cult programme'. And as everyone knows, ‘cult programme' is euphemism for ‘shit programme'.

Them's more than a few fighting words - not least because I can't agree with any argument that disses Blake's Seven while holding Quantum Leap up as an ideal of good science fiction - but there's a certain ring of truth to it, nonetheless... For all of British TV's genre successes, whether they're Primeval, Being Human or even Jekyll, there's always something weirdly... apologetic about them. It's not just a question of budget and ill-conceived special effects - although, yes, that as well - but almost as if they can't quite conjure up enough abandon to let themselves not be slightly embarrassed and/or arch about the whole thing.

What do you think? Is British SFTV lacking behind American shows? And if so, why?

British TV's sci-fi inferiority complex [Spiked]

House
We admit it; we think that this show is already sci-fi. We've had to resort to trusting the writers - and Polite Dissent's Dr. Scott - that everything they mention on the show is real, because our knowledge of medical science is practically non-existent. But House offers everything we want in a television show: snark, soap opera and screwed-up characters. It's only one small step for man away from being Battlestar Galactica! And that's before you get to the illnesses of the week and the curious, convoluted explanations behind them. Science fiction-ish, at least.

Bones
Put aside the same-quasi science that House employs (Seriously, they could be making up everything on this show and we wouldn't know) and there's still a compelling reason why this show should be classified as sci-fi: They have their own holodeck. We'll let Slate explain it:

Angela is responsible for designing the single goofiest piece of faux-scientific technology I've seen on TV: a 3D hologram program that projects not only the revolving image of a reconstructed victim, but the likely scenarios of the killing, onto an ultra-groovy light table in the soaringly modern digs of the Jeffersonian Institution. Why these renderings can't be done on a regular computer screen, or sketched on a cocktail napkin, is never clear, but they look cool as hell.

Yes. Yes, they do... And that one piece of equipment - combined with the ridiculous inventions and experiments occasionally carried out in the name of science, and wholescale embrace of nerditry in general - is enough for us to claim this as Stealth Sci-Fi.

Numb3rs
It's not enough that mathematical genius Charlie Eppes does work for NASA, or that characters disappear because they're going off to spend six months on a space station? Okay, maybe not - although, really, writing someone out because they're going to spend time on a space station is pretty awesome - but what other show employs real mathematicians to work out the complex number-crunching necessary to explain each episode's deus ex chalkboard? It may not be sexy, it may not have time-travel or giant monsters attacking Rob Morrow, but still; we're calling this one some kind of science fiction.

24
With nuclear bombs, weaponized viruses, computer hackers taking down the country's infrastructure and whatever else Jack Bauer finds himself involved in on an annual basis, 24's world is definitely a parallel Earth with more than its fair share of super-science going on. Add to that the seemingly superhuman Bauer himself - a man who can shake off a heroin addiction by will power alone, and who isn't afraid to bite out a man's jugular vein if necessary - and we're convinced that this show is at least as sci-fi as Jericho... and also needs to crossover with Fringe immediately.

Top Chef
Everytime someone talks about "molecular gastronomy," it's clear that Bravo's foodie companion to Project Runway has some hidden roots in science fiction. Admittedly, very hidden, but we all know it's there. Plus, come on. Padma's definitely a Terminator. You can see it in her cold, steely stare whenever she tells someone to pack their knives and leave.

We noted on Wednesday that none of Fox's seven recently-announced pilots were the kind of sci-fi fare that we've come to expect (and worry about) from the network, and now that news of ABC and NBC's latest pilots has been released (more here), it may be time to wonder if sci-fi's lure has faded in light of recent ratings flops.

Of course, NBC's sci-fi phobia isn't entirely unfounded; in the last couple of years, Journeyman, Bionic Woman and My Own Worst Enemy have proven to be high-profile SF launches that flopped for the network, and with falling ratings for Heroes and rumors of the possible cancellation of both Knight Rider and Chuck circling, NBC could be forgiven for thinking that science fiction isn't really something they can succeed with long term (They'd much rather stick with er clones; two of the network's few announced pilots are medical dramas: Mercy and Trauma). In fact, you could make the argument that science fiction as a genre doesn't have a great track record for broadcast networks in general, especially considering the ratings worries of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and content concerns leading to reworkings of both Dollhouse and Virtuality over at Fox. Maybe the success of Fringe and Lost has more to do with JJ Abrams' name and the personal dynamics of the shows over the science portion (Remember, too, that Lost's producers have talked about having to introduce the sci-fi elements of the show secretly, over time)...?

(This is where you can insert your own argument about the failure of shows like Knight Rider or Bionic Woman being more closely attributed to their quality than their nature, and I think that definitely should be taken into consideration. But, at the same time, was Bionic Woman really that much worse that, say, NCIS? Or Law & Order? Do mainstream audiences hold sci-fi series to higher standards than other genres, or do the majority of them just stay away, and there's a discerning, curious crossover audience that'll give a show a try before bailing if it's not up to their standards?)

Instead, it's beginning to look as if television networks are beginning to look at more fantastical escapism for their audiences; Fox have a new pilot about reincarnation, and ABC have given the go-ahead to a television version of The Witches of Eastwick. Even Flash Forward, ABC's new high-profile series from David Goyer and Brannon Braga, could end up being played as a more spiritual/fantasy-based drama, depending on whether the series stays with the original novel's reason for the worldwide flash-forward (by-product of the Large Hadron Collider being activated), which - considering they've said that each season will end with another flash-forward, may not be the case.

(Interestingly enough, ABC may be the network to pay attention to next fall; in addition to Flash Forward and Eastwick, they've also greenlit Happy Town, a mystery pilot from the makers of Life on Mars that's described as being the next Twin Peaks.)

If we are about to see television networks shift away from hard sci-fi towards a particular urban brand of fantasy, there are some good reasons why, outside of the (relative) failure of sci-fi shows; the sleight-of-hand of urban fantasy allows for cheaper shows that require less world-building or technobabbled explanations that may confuse audiences, for example, and in the ongoing journey for television to grab as many youthful eyes as possible, exploiting the genre of Twilight and Harry Potter would seem like a no-brainer. Most importantly, of course, the term "science fiction" scares mass mainstream television audiences for some reason, despite the success of Fringe and Lost and Heroes, and the networks are just following the advertising dollars... which, of course, are following the mass mainstream audience.

It's not permanent, of course; all it'll take is another "surprise" hit SF show and we'll see science fiction stage another takeover bid, just as Heroes begat Journeyman, Chuck, Bionic Woman et al, and Lost's success brought us Surface, Threshold and Invasion. Jesse Alexander, we're pinning all our hopes on you.