What's your fave sci-fi TV series so far and why?

[Anders]

I searched a bit around, and the series I am thinking of may have been Space Precinct. But I'm not sure.

[Anders]

Thank you for making me remember Space: Above and Beyond, even though I first thought it looked a bit odd, it actually turned out to be great. I had completely forgotten about that series.

Here's a list about Sci Fi series: http://library.digiguide.com/lib/category/30

I still can not find that Sci Fi series that I used to see at the Sci Fi channel about 5-10 years ago. The main character was a human, and I think he was a cop.

[MALCOLM XERXESÖ]

ALIEN RESURRECTIONÖ

RADHIL,

Thanks for the intel!

I found ALIEN RESURRECTIONÖ to be the best film in the series since ALIENSÖ, but found 1 of the casting decisions lamentable, despite acknowledged star status.

[Radhil]

WhatÆs all this about MR. JOSS WHEDON ruining ALIENÖ?
Please elaborate.

Joss Whedon came up with the core concepts and wrote the majority of Alien: Resurrection. Whether or not it's his fault the movie wasn't that good (or honestly, whether or nor the movie was good or not) are matters for debate. Although I find it interesting to note that The Powers That Be (I forget exactly which studio) commissioned and dropped at least three scripts for Alien4 before buying Whedon's, so there certainly was suckage to be had beforehand.

[MALCOLM XERXESÖ]

FAVOURITE SPECULATIVE FICTION SERIES

DOUG O,

I grok the fullness of the totality concerning SPACE: ABOVE & BEYONDÖ, FARSCAPEÖ & FIREFLYÖ! 8)

What did you perceive to be the latterÆs downside?

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

COLONYEARTH,

ADMIRAL KATHRYN JANEWAY was my favourite STARFLEETÖ Captain to date: she enforeced strict military discipline while honouring The Prime Directive whenever it was possible, but more importantly than that, she never let her crew & vessel get pushed around.
She would always ask politely for permission to cross someoneÆs area of space & offer to trade fairly or buy to obtain what was needed, but when push came to shove, she did what was necessary to fulfill the Mission Objective, & she did so in a military manner.

STAR TREKÖ was & is entertaining fare, despite material such as öSPOCKÆS BRAINö.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATIONÖ struck me as being overly Politically Correct.
Exempli gratia: DOCTOR ôMUTINYö CRUSHER & her son ENSIGN WESLEY ôCOVER-UPö both disobeyed direct orders from CAPTAIN PICARD, thereby placing the entire crew in mortal danger while jeopardising Federation political standing.
I would have had them both court martialled & expelled from my vessel, were I in charge.
DOCTOR PULASKI was a woman who recognised that wearing a uniform means that oneÆs personal feelings are always secondary to oneÆs duty.

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9Ö had strong secondary characters in GARAK & GENERAL MARTOK, so I was able to stick it out for the entire 7 seasons, despite the annoying references to COLONEL KYRA NERYS as ôa Bajoran terroristö, when what she did was analogous to being a French Resistance member, or Greek Partisan.

ENTERPRISEÖ is contradicting all the decades of established canon, so I shanÆt be surprised if the so-called ôTemporal Cold Warö *SNORT!* is used as a Deus ex machine-type excuse to say that each season of the programme ônever took placeö, just as would happen in ôimaginaryö SUPERMANÖ stories of the 1950Æs & 1960Æs, when we would learn that it had all been a dream.

MR. PATRICK TROUGHTON was my favourite DOCTOR WHOÖ.
For your suggestion of animating the existing soundtracks of ôlostö episodes, receive 100 bonus marks & go to THE TOP OF THE CLASSÖ! 8)

STARGATE SG-1Ö does not get its full props.
I was impressed immediately by the fact that the series acknowledged events in the film by incorporating that history into the pilot telefilm & subsequent episodes.
Regrettably, due to scheduling changes & out of town contractual obligations, I have fallen quite far behind with this programme, having seen only up to the Season 4 finale, but I anticipate many thrills, chills & spills while catching up on what I have been missing.
I am extremely pleased for them that they will have achieved 8 seasons! 8)

FIREFLYÖ was sabotaged by FOXÖ when they did not broadcast it in proper sequence, then cancelled it before showing the remainder of the episodes in their possession, as usual.

WhatÆs all this about MR. JOSS WHEDON ruining ALIENÖ?
Please elaborate.

BABYLON 5: CRUSADEÖ pleased me on several different levels, despite the fact that I missed 2 episodes, due to schedule changes & pre-empting by inferior programming.
I wanted to see more of MS. MARJEAN HOLDENÆS character arc.

SPACE: ABOVE & BEYONDÖ impressed me greatly, particularly with the bigotry against In Vitro Homo sapiens & the politics surrounding them & their rights.
The A.I angle struck me as yet another interpretation of MR. PHILIP K. DICKÆS Replicants, which did not upset me.
Happily, the Cylons appear to have taken up that role in BATTLESTAR GALACTICAÖ.

THE TWILIGHT ZONEÖ is virtually perfect, especially when shot in b&w.
THE OUTER LIMITSÖ strove for the same impact, but Dark Fantasy can always go places that Pure SF cannot.

THE X-FILESÖ served me most excellent well, & while I missed most of the DOGGETT/REYES episodes, I would have liked to see the show have become theirs alone, as the dynamics between MULDER & DR. SCULLY, MEDICINE WOMAN had been exhausted once they conceived a child together.
I was sorry to see SPECIAL AGENT DIANA FOWLEY killed off, as I was in love with her.
Naturally, I shall see whatever subsequent films are released.

I never saw the series, but I did enjoy TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH MEÖ sufficiently so that I would like to see what I had missed.

JEREMIAHÖ is a programme which I have seen only sporadically, but I shall give it a proper chance whenever I can get hold of the DVDÆs or find a ôtape fairyö.

SEAQUEST DSVÖ was entertaining despite the WESLEY ôCOVER-UPö-type character, but it began turning into Leprecaun Werewolf episodes of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAÖ, with giant salt water crocodiles trying to eat them, et cetera.
The replacement of MR. ROY SCHEIDER with M.I. sounded its death knell for me.

SMALLVILLEÖ is DAWSONÆS CREEKÖ, but THE UNCANNY X-MENÖ & SUPERBOYÖ are its denizens, instead.

I loved VR.5Ö, unconditionally.
Fortunately, I managed to get all 13 episodes before it was closed down.
I knew it would not last, as it was too intellectually challenging for the average ôsuitö.

SPACE: 1999Ö thrilled me when I was a lad (Season 1 had better music!), but it has not aged well, & has become frightfully dated in ways that THUNDERBIRDSÖ, CAPTAIN SCARLETÖ, JOE 90Ö, SECRET SERVICEÖ, et cetera, have not.
U.F.OÖ still pumps my ænads really hard! 8)

I never cared for LOST IN SPACEÖ, as I always felt that DOCTOR SMITH was a chickenhawk for WILL ROBINSON, but I found the motion picture with MS. MIMI ROGERS an excellent revisitation to the original premise when I saw it @ the cinema.
If the reboot series follows that continuity, then I shanÆt be upset.

To my mind, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYERÖ/ANGELÖ are Dark Fantasy/Horror.

[colonyearth]

Originally posted by Radhil
LOL.... While it was Farscape's little follow-up show I did keep up with Lexx. It was amusing, and good in it's own way in that it was always what it intended to be - utter farking cheese.

More than I can say for recent Star Trek ventures.

Here, here! on the Trek thing. Berman must go!

[Radhil]

Thank GOD no one included Lexx (whew! What's that smell?!),

LOL.... While it was Farscape's little follow-up show I did keep up with Lexx. It was amusing, and good in it's own way in that it was always what it intended to be - utter farking cheese.

More than I can say for recent Star Trek ventures.

[colonyearth]

(Continued from previous posting)


Some of you listed some obscure ones and ones that had cult followings like Roswell and such. I haven't really gotten into them and was never a huge fan of the "teen heartthrob SF show" thing...not that that means they weren't good.

Andromeda is one I always thought was just too cheesy and too T&A in a bad way...but now that it's on SCI-FI I'm gonna give it a try, though I'm just not convinced that Sorbo can act his way out of wet paper bag.

The original Battlestar Galactica suffered from bad, stupid writing, but had a great premise...which leads to the new BG, which I think needs some slight changes and could suffer from the ole "look all our Cylons look human now so we can save money" syndrome, but I see potential and had a basic like of the mini-series and will tune in to see where it takes me.

Buck Rogers was great camp but not the best show. I would love to see it revamped for today and re-envisioned.

VR5...was a good idea and I was enjoying it...would've been interesting to see where it was going but it was a FOX hatchett job as well. It had a kinda Blade Runner homage potential to it.

Max Headroom...I'd forgotten about that...it was fun and sadly another FOX axe fell upon it.

Highlander...again not really SF to me but I liked the series...too bad the last film didn't follow through to me and deliver all it could. The first flm rocked, the 2nd and 3rd sucked...I really wanted 4 to deliver...in the end...I didn't care if there was only one or not.


Wow, I wrote a lot but I think I covered everything. Also wanted to ask anyone if they remember these old, sometimes fun though very campy shows: Space 1999 (what a stupid premise but they can be fun to watch sometimes, especially for the disco theme and the 70's psycology); Jason of Star Command (Shortlived Sat. morning SF starring Jimmy Doohan -- though I fear I'm showing my age on this one... ); and finally, it's a cult classic and word has it it's about to be revamped (again...this time for TV)...Lost in Space.

SF to me has various levels and sub-categories: Science or Space based, SF/Horror like X-Files, some of you include things like Buffy which to me is more Supernatural Fiction (well it has the same initials so what the hell ), and some of you included stuff like Smallville, which to me is kind of a sub-category but to me is more Superhero.

Thank GOD no one included Lexx (whew! What's that smell?!), and no none included Hercules or Xena neither of which I would count in SF though they are SF/F and were both really, well...stupid IMHO.

Ok...I think my novella is complete now. Anyone know a publisher?

CE

[colonyearth]

Ok...my list:

1) B5 (No contest -- the greatest SF vision ever brought to TV)

NOTE: From here out it's not really in a fav order per se...since each show thrills me in different ways and I love them for their uniqueness.

2) Star Trek (TOS, TNG -- sorry DS9 bored me to tears, Voyager was more about the holodeck than anything though I am in a minority in that I actually liked Janeway. Too bad she was never given a consistantly good show and arc, and Enterprise is IMHO nothing less than apocryphal and should be wiped from the ST cannon, which is too bad also since I saw such great potential there until Berman placed his usual kiss of death on the premise. Berman and Co. must go for Trek to survive!)

3) Dr. Who (Definately a groundbreaking series and the longest consistantly running SF show in history. I LOVED the early Dr.'s, Hartnell through Tom Baker -- and boy did the BBC f@!k up in tossing those early episodes away when they did since I adored Troughton. I think they should hire a really good animation studio and, using stills for design purposes, re-animate the missing episodes to the original soundtracks, which are still in existence. At least that way we could have the episodes back...I'd buy them if they were done well. After Baker #1 and J N Turner took the reigns it went the way of current Trek unfortunately and became somewhat dull, lacking it's fun and irreverant humor and turned pat and predictable. But YEY! More Who is on the way! You go Russell Davies you big queen! "Family" in charge of Who...ain't it great?!)

4) Farscape (Again one of the truly most original visions I've seen -- nothing really compares. It was in a universe of its own. Too bad SCI-FI had to show their ignorance once again and cancel it before we got the fifth season. If you haven't seen all 4 seasons I highly recommend it to all -- it was a thinking person's SF show filled with more turns than a Disney theme park roller-coaster and the best Henson Creature Shop work ever done. And again, YEY! The mini-series to end the arc is in the works...so we'll finally get the end of the tale instead of being left hanging where we were -- don't worry no spoilers )

5) Stargate SG-1 (This show is pure fun with one of the best ensemble casts on TV. The cast, crew, producers and writers are having a blast doing this show and it comes through in every episode. For those of you who only saw the first season or two or have stopped watching for some reason...go to Netflix or something and get S1 thru S6 on DVD and catch up...it's been one hell of a ride and S7 just had the BEST finalle ever that is the first step in the launching of the new "evolved" gate on Stargate: Atlantis which I personally can't wait for. This cast is fun and come across as family to each other, which is one thing I love in characters...do I feel like they're my friends too...do I love them as people? And these guys are great at it. If you got tired of Jaffa in the woods then pay closer attention it's much more than that, with three dimensional characters that I love to share in adventures with and come through to me as more than friends in the show. S7 to some has been off but I think it's been a great exercise in developing characters and letting the cast stretch their acting legs a bit. Not to mention one more achievement for Stargate SG-1...it's the longest running single cast SF show in TV history now that it will get an 8th season. Remember, that's with one cast.)

6) Firefly (This show had great potential and was another example of a very unique premise. It had the unfortunate problem of being a FOX show, which was its main kiss of death...FOX never gives space shows a chance of SF in general for that matter. I think we got lucky with X-Files. I'm glad to hear that it looks like a Firefly feature film is going ahead...I'll go see it. And though you won't see Buffy or Angel on here for me...sorry just didn't get into them...I think Firefly was the first time I've truly been impressed with Joss Whedon...prior to that I just couldn't figure out what all the hype about him was, especially after what he did to the Alien franchise. But Firefly, I liked and wanted more.)

7) Crusade (I agree with others who've said, I think JMS had a lot planned here and would've blown our doors off just like he did with B5 had he been allowed to do so. Perhaps someday, we'll finally get to find out just what all he really had planned for us. I loved the characters and was hooked in 13 episodes, even with musical uniforms and suit meddling.)

8) Blake's 7 (I've never seen an episode in its entirety...and yet I list it here...what does that say for the show? It says it's one the best SF shows out there and I'm waiting for the region one DVD's! I can't wait to watch this show completely through...I love the characters and have heard nothing but wonderful things about it...it's one of those shows I've never been able to get ahold of but always wanted to. Come on region one!)

9) Space Above and Beyond (This is another show that was in the FOX short changed list. Such a wonderfully written and character driven show, with an arc and all...I wish someone would revive it somehow in some way, but it will probably never happen. I also wish they would release it on DVD. Most people seem to forget about it, so I was glad to see many of you list it...it's one of the unsung heroes of SF TV and I truly miss it and thought it had great potential.)

10) Twilight Zone (What can be said here...it's a classic.)

11) X-Files (Wonderfully written show that I can't say I followed religiously except in the first 2 or 3 seasons and in the last two seasons...what came in the middle was off and on. But one day I hope to own all, what 9 seasons? Right? And though I loved Muldur and Scully...I liked Doggett and the new girl and thought they could've run with it if the fans had given them a chance to settle in and gotten to know them. I hear that the next film will ignore the arced portion of the story and act as though Muldur and Scully are simply agents again in a one-off story...BIG MISTAKE IMHO! But I'll probably go see it.)

12) Twin Peaks (If you can include Buffy and others such at that I feel like Twin Peaks can be included as well. This is to me a classic and again I was getting into the next level of the story, if only Lynch had had a chance to get into it more I think we all would've been just as hooked with what was coming next. And now it looks like we're gonna have to wait at least 2 years before we finally get the full series on DVD thanks to Paramount...aaargh!)

13) Jeremiah (It's earth bound kinda SF, but such potential and would've become one of my favs had MGM kept its crummy mouth shut and let JMS do his thing. It's sad really but I saw great potential and could see where JMS was reeling me in big-time.)

14) This is the catch all list here: Earth: Final Conflict...good to start off but suffered from bad producing and no direction; Red Dwarf...seen a few but not enough to get into them, they're hard to find in Memphis to boot; Sliders...good show, suffered in the end, but Jerry was always fun to watch, especially when he was shirtless ; Earth 2...had a great premise but suffered from "slow-arc-idess," they needed to get into the story faster instead of running around in the woods for almost the entire first season, thus the cause of its demise, but I saw a lot of potential; Seaquest...again bad producing and lack of direction, not to mention it's hard to make a show in that setting and give us good SF...I mean the sea is finite unlike space, not to mention suffered from one of the worst uses of the trek created "reset button" ever between S2 and S3, though I liked the set-up for S3 better than the one in S1 and S2...Rockne O'Bannon did a million times better job with Farscape; MST3K...what can I say...I usually always bust a gut laughing, though the Hodgson years were by far the best IMHO; Quantum Leap...not full SF IMO but a great show; Smallville looks good but haven't had a chance to get into it.

(Continued in next posting......)

[DougO]

Here's my list (in no particular order):

Babylon 5
Star Trek:TOS, TNG, Enterprise
Firefly
Farscape
Highlander: The Series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Space: Above and Beyond
Red Dwarf
Quantum Leap
Sliders

Just like everyone else, I wish Firefly had not been canceled. Farscape had its up and down but was overall a great show. I liked all the B5 seasons, however my favorites were 2, 3, & 4. The Highlander televison series was a fun show.

I know it's really cheesy, but I started watching Mutant X awhile ago. It's just barely interesting enough to keep my attention.

-DougO

[MALCOLM XERXESÖ]

FAVOURITE SPECULATIVE FICTION SERIES

RC,

My favourite Speculative Fiction series of all time in the broadest sense of the term is THE PRISONERÖ.

My favourite ôHard SFö series is definitely BABYLON 5Ö.

My favourite Science Fantasy series is DOCTOR WHOÖ on the basis of the work done by MESSRS. WILLIAM HARTNELL, PETER CUSHING, PATRICK TROUGHTON & JON PERTWEE, along with STAR TREKÖ, mainly on the basis of öTHE GALILEO 7ö.

[frulad]

Well, in a rough order (As they may fluctuate by occassional whim)-

1- Babylon 5
2- Buffy The Vampire Slayer/ Angel
3- The Prisoner
4- Max Headroom (Am I the only here who remembers this brillant satire?)
5- Crusade (Killed by the hospital's administrators)
6- Firefly (Victim opf what is now known as "Crusade-Suits Syndrom")
7- Quantum Leap
8- Sliders (Until about midway through Season 2)
9- Star Trek (Oriinal Series/Next Generation)
10- Twilight Zone

Oh wait, what about Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, Stargate SG1, the original V Miniseries, Jeremiah.... DAMN This is too hard.



As for Kevin's lamentation that Sam never Leaped home- I caught the last episode when Sci-Fi held their Leap Day marathon back on Feb 29. Watch the episode again and they're pretty clear as to why Sam never made it home. (And the episode got me teary-eyed all over again.)

[circularREASON]

my 5 fave sci-fi shows....


1) Babylon 5 - the whole series.
2) Blakes 7 - A true gem - Especially the last episode where they all die - cool.
3) Doctor Who - Amazing for its time.
4) The Original Star Trek - ''Theres Klingons on the Starboard Bow''
5) Crusade - It is a shame it was not allowed to continue. I just got the feeling that JMS was going to pull something amazing out of the hat - pitty he never got the chance.

[Anders]

1. Babylon 5
2. Star Trek TNG
3. Star Trek DS9 (haven't seen the last seasons)
4. Farscape (only watched two seasons)
5. Star Trek Voyager

I really like all of these five. In the last month I have watched B5 season 4 on DVD, Farscape seasons 1 and 2, and reruns of Voyager on tv.

Other series I think I will like a lot, but for various reasons I have only seen a few episodes from:
Stargate SG1 (only seen two episodes), Crusade (only seen two episodes), Andromeda (only seen two episodes), Red Dwarf (only seen a few episodes), Enterprise (only seen 4-5 episodes).

And series I am not such a big fan of: V (just decent), Battlestar Galactica (OK), I don't like Buffy or Angel and I was never a big fan of The X-Files.

There was also a Sci Fi series on the Sci Fi channel that I used to watch a few years back, in a similar subgenre as Farscape, B5 and Star Trek. Those are the kind of series and movies I really like, not Buffy..etc.

I have watched a lot of Sci Fi movies though.

[Lily]

Hi all

I'm new to this bb.

My prefence is:

1. B5
2. Buffy (although it's not sci fi, so does it count?)
3. Voyager
4. Angel
5. Stargate SG1
6. Space: Above and Beyond (loved that show, but it didn't last long)
7. Seaquest
8. Crusade
9. Earth 2
10. The Others (again, it is horror, so I suppose it doesn't strictly count).

I don't think we've had Firefly, Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Jeremiah or VR5 in Australia yet, so I don't know what they're like.

As for Red Dwarf, it's one of my all time faves, but I've always considered it a comedy series rather than sci fi.

DS9 is by far my least favourite of the ST series, because I ready didn't particularly like any of the characters (except for Worf, but he was from TNG so he doesn't count) and Quark. You know something is seriously wrong when you're favourite character is a Ferengi!!!!

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, no series before or since, has been able to measure up to B5......it was just so damn clever.