The Best Science Fiction TV Shows

What are some of the best of Sci Fi on the small screen? Thinking in terms of plot, action, special effects and impact, which do you think are some of the best out there?


Personally, my favorite is Firefly, the show that was cancelled last year after airing 11 episodes. The writing, plot, actio and CGI were outstanding, making this a number 1 choice for me.

However, Taken is a close second, given the overall story and feel to the series, this is certainly a classic show. If you like US history in the latter half of the century, this is a good show to follow. Also if you like UFOs.

Also closely following is Babylon 5, who's five year arc is very impressive. Great story, characters, okay CGI etc. This has to be one of the best politically wise, where there's diplomats, troubles and everything else that makes B5 and interesting place.

Finally, Battlestar Galactica, the new one, (only one that i've seen) it pretty good with camera stuff and excellent starfighter action. The storyline is also excellent, although as of yet, incomplete. There is talks of continuing it.

I also suppose that the original star trek series were good, althoguh having not seen them, i can't comment on that. Star Trek really started the sci fi genre on TV, and i suppose we have to thank them for that.

 

Space: Above and Beyond was a fantastic show when it aired. It was a bit of a cross between a good version of the Starship Troopers movie and BattleStar Galactica. It was entertaining, intelligent, creative, and didn't lag. Also, the special effects are as crisp today as when they were first made years ago.

I feel a need to give an honorable mention to Stargate: SG-1. Might not be the best sci-fi series out there, but it has run longer than most science fiction shows and is easily the most humerous of them all. It also has only rarely devolved into the rediculous, quasi-science-fiction stories which often polluted the original (and some of the later) Star Trek series(es), as well as other sci-fi franchises.

Even though it was a miniseries and not exactly a television show, and is often more cinematic than television-friendly, Children of Dune makes for some of the best television ever, and some of (if not the) best filmmaking of all time.

 

Firefly was a classic that never got its chance to shine. Wonderful writting, intriguing characters, and great acting.

Children of Dune was great too. It wasn't a series but as a mini it was a definate step up from its predicesor (which was no small feet because the Sci-Fi Dune was an instant classic).

One that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet is Farscape. If for no other reason it deserves some mention as the only science fiction tv show with a larger female following than male following.

 

two of my favorites haven't been mentioned yet: Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future, and Aeon Flux.

 

The best in my opinion are;

Stargate SG-1
Babylon 5
Battlestar Galactica (Original Series)
Farscape
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Thunderbirds

 

Not a shocker, but my opinion is that there are two stratifications of sci-fi TV...

BABYLON 5

then

Everything Else

In the "everything else" pile you have clear stand-outs (Trek [TOS, TNG, DS9], Firefly, Galaxy Rangers) but nothing compares to the Babylon Project...

 

I concur.. B5 is the alpha to pretty much every other omega, save 1: The original "The Twilight Zone"...



Other shows worth mentioning:

"The X-Files" (figure it slides under scifi)

"Battlestar Galactica"

"Voyagers!"

"Red Dwarf"

"Quantum Leap"

"Amazing Stories"


"Doctor Who"



Couple of shows that, had they been granted the time to develop a fan following, WOULD have been memorable:

"Firefly"

"Harsh Realm"

"American Gothic" (More horror then scifi, but what the heck)

"The Adventures of Brisco County Jr."

 

I forgot to mention Doctor Who.

 

Lets see here,

1. Star TrekS9
2. ST:NextGen
3. ST:Voyager
4. Sliders


I never watched Babylon 5, and I'm to young to have seen Battlestar Gallactica.

 

Forgot about Stargate, good movie, haven't really seen the series.

Children of Dune, how could I have forgotten that one. It was excellent. I don't know about Dune though, haven't seen it

 

B5

'Nuff said.

 

I was actually going to start a thread similar to this

Best Sci-fi shows:

The X-Files- by far the best. Great writing, imaginative, great characters.

The Dead Zone - on USA, starring Anthony Michael Hall- better than Stephen King's book, chilling and haunting to watch.

ST Voyager - Basically it was BattleStar Galactica in the ST univers. Janeway kicked serious butt

Firefly- damn Fox for not giving this show time to grow. Great writing, great cast.

Oddyssy 5 - Showtime- only on for like 2 seasons- about a group of astronaunts who witnessed the end of the world and were sent back in time 5 years to figure out how to prevent it from happening.

Battlestar Galactica - the 70's series was cheesy (I know I just watched all the episodes on DVD) - but it paved the way for the return of Trek. And thanks to GL, sci-fi was no longer squeaky clean and all jumpsuits- things were lived in. The new Battlestar Galactica is really great, btw- it runs circles around the original.

Quantum Leap- Scott Bakula... enough said.

Roswell- this show should've never been cancelled- it had all the possibilities of being a great show, maybe if it had been on Fox instead of WB to start w/ it could've gone far. Had a great cast and concept.

 

A decent show that become exponentially better with every passing month is Dark Angel. It changed from a somewhat boring and lifeless drama to a thrilling, imaginative, exciting, deep, carefully planned, edge-of-your-seat thriller by the end of its second season. I shall never forgive Fox for cancelling it just as it reached its prime only to replace it with firefly...which, as we all know, went absolutely nowhere on network television. Instead we now have "The Bachelor / Bachelorette" spinoffs ad nauseum.

 

The original Battlestar Galactica was, as I think someone has already mentioned, quite cheesy. But it was still pretty good for what it was, and for the time it was on.

One show that hasn't been mentioned yet is Quark. I know it was only on for about eight weeks, but that was because it was so far ahead of it's time. If it had come out five years later it probably would have lasted a lot longer. Now I can only hope that they some day release the series on DVD.

And of course, the original Star Trek. But that one almost goes without saying. The other series in the franchise vary in quality, but the original is still, and always will be, the best.

 

I first grew up watching re-runs of the original Trek, and fell in love with the films that followed.

My favorite spin-off of Star Trek will forever be TNG. I don't think any series after, no matter how well they tried, could not connect with the fans in the same manner as TNG.

 

ROSWELL: started off darned cool... Then the creators wussed out and tried to appeal more to the "Dawson's Creek" fans and mellowed on the scifi aspects... I'm glad that show died.

"Dark Angel": I count this among the most disappointing scifi shows ever created. SOO Much potential. GREAT producers behind it. Could it have been any more POORLY executed? I struggle to find any compassion for these bicycle couriers.. (i mean, could they REALLY lead lives that are worthy of an entire tv show being devoted to'em?) The episode where Alba was in heat is still one of the most embarassing pieces of tv that i've ever seen..

 

Here are what I consider to be the Top 3 SciFi Shows and if I can ever scrounge up the money I plan on getting all of them on DVD:

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
This show took what was great about the original series did and made it even better. The look of the show is great even by today?s standards. Almost every show was a great piece of writing. Sure some aren?t as great and there were definitely some stupid ones that I wish had never been produced, but I feel that most were awesome. Despite the fact that most of the episodes were serious the writers managed to fit humorous bits into most. All of the characters developed no matter how small they were and even if they had only appeared in one episode. It?s too bad that Star Trek often gets a bad reputation from those who don?t watch it or have managed to only see a few episodes.

2. StarGate SG-1
I believe that this is one show that even newcomers can start watching even if they don?t have a lot of background knowledge of it. The premise is very simple: travel to new worlds, make new friends and fight the bad guys. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like Star Trek and TNG which might be why I consider it to be so great. While it does take itself seriously it is never as serious as any of the Star Trek shows. Every episode has a lot of comedy in them but not to a ridiculous degree. Hopefully the new spinoff series StarGate Atlantis will be as great as the original. Come 9 PM EST tomorrow night I know that for an entire hour I?ll be glued to the SciFi channel to catch the new episodes that will start airing.

3. Babylon 5
There are so many things that I find wonderful about this show that I feel I must apologize in advance if I forget about any of them. Firstly, the computer generated graphics for it is awesome and never look to be out of place like they do in so many of today?s movies. Outside of the Star Wars and possibly Star Trek franchises I can?t think of a show that has such a wide variety of alien species as this show does. Many people, including myself, often compare this to Deep Space 9 but I feel this is the better of the two. That is not to say that DS9 isn?t/wasn?t good. However one of the reasons I believe Babylon 5 is superior is that everyone on the station weren?t necessarily allies or friends. Even the best of friends could wind up fighting each other. Plus things didn?t always turn out too good.

 

Dark Angel is about the military program with supersoldiers right? James Cameron?

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Battlestar Galactica (Original Series)
Babylon 5
Stargate SG-1
quantum leap
sliders
tekwar
earth final conflict

 

Ah yes, thanks for the reminders above...

Odyssey 5, Roswell and Quantum Leap all good.

As is Jeremiah (also from jms!)

 

That is not to say that DS9 isn?t/wasn?t good. However one of the reasons I believe Babylon 5 is superior is that everyone on the station weren?t necessarily allies or friends. Even the best of friends could wind up fighting each other. Plus things didn?t always turn out too good.

while i agree that B5 was better than DS9, i wouldn't say that it was fair to say that everyone on DS9 were good friends all the time. DS9 had more intracast conflict than any other ST show. there was a lot of friction between Sisko and Kira, especially at first. Worf butted heads with almost everyone once he came aboard. Odo was continually struggling to reconcile his Bajoran- and Federation-shaped belief systems with his emotional ties to the Founders, and did actually betray everyone at one point while the station was under Cardassian/Dominion occupation. speaking of that time period, Kira got into serious conflict with the resistance over politics and tactics. Worf and Ezri had all their drama. Quark did all sorts of shady things, including basically selling the Dax symbiont to some wacko Trill reject and his mercenary buddies ("Invasive Procedures," i think). Bashir and Admiral Ross didn't exactly see eye to eye on Section 31. when O'Brien and Bashir were captured by the renegade cell of Jem'Hadar, O'Brien totally betrayed Julian's trust and disobeyed his orders.

and, well... there's always Garak. highlights on his part include kidnapping and torturing Odo and trying to kill O'Brien and his salvage crew on Empok Nor (yes, there were mind-altering chemicals involved, but still...).

 

V was excellent.

And I love the classic stuff. Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek.

 

No love for Buck Rogers? I loved it when I was a kid.

 

While more of a sci-fi/horror project:

The War of the Worlds series was quite good as well. Not only did it seamlessly integrate the continuity from the original story, the scripts during the first season were top notch.

Of course, it began to falter in the second season, but I still liked how the producers went from the premise that Earth was going to loose.. Too bad it ended before then.

Space Above and Beyond was good too. It just suffered from "Superman complex" far too often, whuch doomed the show.

I mean the regular characters were supposed to be fighter pilots, and that was good enough.

Yet they would always go on commando raids, spy missions, etc.. Those 5 pilots would do everything, and it just got old.

Space 1999 was unique. For its time, it was the most expensive show on television. Definately more science fact, than science fiction.

 

The War of the Worlds series was quite good as well. Not only did it seamlessly integrate the continuity from the original story, the scripts during the first season were top notch.

Two words: Rachel Blanchard. YUM!

I think she may have been my first boy-girl thing on TV (for people my age, otherwise Erin Grey [duh!])...