The Best Science Fiction Series of All-Time

[Tolls]

monolith:
He had a rough ride...he wanted to play the Doctor all dressed in black, not always heroic, sort of early Hartnell...but John Nathan Turner wanted a sort of wacky character...so you ended up with a deranged Doctor and that absurd uniform.

Add to that some of the worst scripts around and the show barely survived.

I think it would've worked a lot better and he would've felt more comfortable with the slightly more toned down look...for starters he could've been quieter, since he would'nt have had to shout over the noise of those colours!



Ah well...it's the 40th anniversary in 21 months time, so who knows...

[Gibsie]

Bah, how could nobody mention Lexx, the best sci-fi show ever (note: that is a fact, not an opinion).

Plus, it even has a gay robot head character, what more could anyone want?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Gibsie
Plus, it even has a gay robot head character, what more could anyone want?

It has a gay robot head?!?! How exactly does that work?

[monolith94]

Hmmmmm. I liked his acting. I guess since I watched it when I was younger I didn't really notice the writing... :shrug:

[Ming]

#1 Bab5
The best long running story. They set up so much of the later seasons in the first two. They had a long term "idea" and stuck with it. Yeah, the acting gets a little "cheesy" at times, but the writing was great overall, and they spent the money on special effects (for a tv show)

#2 Farscape
Didn't watch it when it first came out. Then, the DVD's came out and they played the whole series from the start on the SciFi channel in order 4 days a week. I didn't know what I was missing. Great writing, good ideas, great characters, and only sometimes does the acting get bad. Everybody says how DS9 was "down and dirty... real life", but Farscape has that beat by a longshot. Real people, real problems!

#3 Star Gate
A movie that actually made the transition to TV. Good casting and acting. Good plots. Nice special effects. Very seldom do I see one that I don't like.

#4 The Outer Limits
The original series, or the new one... doesn't make a difference.
Yeah, some of the stories are lame. But overall, many good stories, and the acting is usually pretty good. You never know which "famous" actors are going to turn up in an episode.

#5 Flash Gordon (duh...
Yes, I know they were originally movie serials... but when I was growing up, they were on TV all the time. Even in black and white, they were the best SF going back then, and got me hooked on SF. Yeah, you can see the ships hanging by springs, and the acting was beyond belief... but it was a FUN!

[Paul Hanson]

Of course Stargate SG-1 should be declared greatest sci-fi of all time because it's the only sci-fi show where Richard Dean Anderson appears in every episode.

[Gibsie]

Originally posted by DinoDoc


It has a gay robot head?!?! How exactly does that work?

Well, it's the head of a robot... that eventually becomes gay, falling in love with a dead man! But it doesn't have a choice in the matter, as it accidentally received a love-slave program. simple, really.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Paul Hanson
Of course Stargate SG-1 should be declared greatest sci-fi of all time because it's the only sci-fi show where Richard Dean Anderson appears in every episode.

If the reason for me watching a programme is due to a cast member, then it would be a female cast member.

[Saint Marcus]

Star Trek Deep Space Nine, especcially seasons 5, 6 and 7, is the all time best sci-fi series ever.

[Caesar the Great]

star trek TNG, DS9, the original, voyager even the new one, all great

stargate sg1 kinda like the characters the plots kinda dumb though

babylon 5 really like the plot, otherwise it was pretty good

even kinda like andromeda, didn't really like the characters but it had some good episodes

x-files was great until duchovney left and anderson took a backseat to those other guys

[November Adam]

Anyone remember the name of that time travelling show back in the eighties. Where the main character (think his name was Boggs), had a little pocket watch that would turn green when they set history back into place.

I really liked that show but for the life of me I can't remember its name.

I remember it also had a kid in it who always wore a red and white stripped T-shirt (no not Waldo).

I think the main actor acidentally killed himself, by putting a gun with a blank in it to his head.

[soma]

If the reason for me watching a programme is due to a cast member, then it would be a female cast member.

You're not thinking of a certain vampire slayer or maybe her wicker, lesbian friend now would you?

On a different note, the refreshing thing I find about Farscape is that it contains a human (even more notably, an american) that isn't interested in solely spreading love and harmony, even to the people who are trying to kill him. That's what annoys me about other sci-fi shows, yes, even star trek. The do-gooding american captain shows all other space aliens about love and friendship and the rest. Farscape has none of that crap, and I love it!

[Khan Singh]

X-Files would come in at number 6 for me. Some incredible episodes, and the only SF series since Twilight Zone to actually be scary. I don't think it is in the top 5 because it does have a set formula that gets a little repetitive---ie,

Plot point 1: Mulder digs out an x-file that matches a crime in upstate NY where a guy died from mole bites-----but the bite marks are far larger than those of normal moles. He shows it to Scully. Scully smiles and says that moles never attack humans, it's just absurd. It must all be some sort of hoax. Or maybe it was wild dogs. Despite her scepticism she agrees to go with Mulder to NY.

Plot point 2: They arrive in NY and begin investigating. They stop at the farm next door to the isolated house where the attacks took place to ask if the inhabitant saw anything unusual. The creepy owner of the farm comes to the door, but appears to dislike the light. Mulder looks carefully at him---and he has no eyes! He is a mole man! The farmer runs out the back and as Mulder runs after him he is attacked by moles of unusual size, with huge sharp teeth. He shoots at them. They run away. Scully suddenly comes through the door and asks what Mulder was shooting at. Mulders says "The moles, Scully! The moles!" Scully says, "Moles, what moles? She hadn't see any moles. Was Mulder absolutely sure it hadn't been a cat?

Plot point 3: They talk to the local sheriff, who reveals that the town has a large chemical plant on the edge of town that used to do hush-hush work for the government. They go there and Scully discovers a broken old tank containing traces of promolerone fulminate, a chemical that can promote growth in animals.

Plot point 4: Night falls on them at the chemical plant. Suddenly, the mole man appears------and with him are thousands of large and hungry moles! They attack. Mulder thinks quickly and throws the mole man into a vat of chemicals and lights it on fire. The moles scatter and flee.

Finale: The fire has destroyed all the evidence. Scully's report is inconclusive. She tell Mulder that the large moles were probably the result of the chemicals, and the mole man was probably due to a rare condition know as Vander's disease. Mulder asks how Scully can be so blind. Scully groans.

Sound familiar? They did a few too many shows like that. X-Files also loses a few points for not completing their story arch. Finishing the alien invasion arch would end the series, I guess. But if you are going to have a story arch, then you have to finish it sometime.

But unquestionably a very good series. My favorite episode: Fluke Man. Insurance Man was also good. Scariest moment? The ghost outside the space shuttle.

When Lexx is good ( the Mantrid storyline, for instance), it is pretty good. But when it is bad, it is REALLY bad. Even B5's worse moments aren't close to the rotteness that Lexx descends to five or six times an episode. Who could possibly think that watching the bug bomb fall off its target wire 5 times in a row would be entertaining? Is there anything less funny then their President and his wife? Have they ever, ever heard of pacing?

A great theme is always worth a lot. .....terum Brunnen-G!

[Ming]

Yeah... There were a lot of great X-Files episodes...
They should have let the show end instead of continuing as a shadow of it's former self... sigh...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by red_jon
Lol, I have nothing against straight people! Having straight people doesn't detract from it, I just noticed that sci-fi is a genre where gay people don't seem to exist too much.

I don't know if you ever noticed it, but on "The Next Generation" they occasionally have men with shaven legs walking around in Uhuru-esque miniskirts. How much more gay can you get?