Yes, there have been some notable exceptions over the years — "Battlestar Galactica" being the prime example — but most of what the Sci Fi Channel has produced has been rather insultingly bad. Insulting to science fiction fans, at least.

And now they're going to try to appeal to a more mainstream audience? Is it any wonder science fiction fans are skeptical?

Maybe it's not as bad as we fear. One of the big reasons NBC Universal is making this change is because it can't copyright the words "science fiction," but it can copyright "SyFy."

(Whether it can get anyone to pronounce it correctly remains to be seen. A lot of fans are derisively pronouncing it "see fee" when it's supposed to be pronounced "sci fi.")

Maybe the whole copyright thing would have been the way to explain it to fans. We may be geeks, but we're not stupid.

And yet the folks at Sci Fi/SyFy seem determined to treat the geeks like we are stupid.

Again, it is any wonder we're skeptical?

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com