Top sci fi tv shows of all time: now discussing YOUR LIST

There has been talk of a Scott brothers'-produced, web-based short-story series set in the Blade Runner universe. That is something that could potentially develop into a tv series.

In any case, I like the idea of near future dystopia focused on telling great and possibly unrelated short stories that would allow the mythology of the universe to develop slowly over several seasons.

 

I am absolutely NOT suprised to see Battlestar take the number one spot. This show demonstrated the full potential of the Glenn Larson's original concept, whihc RDM has rightly said could never have recieved the treatment it needed in the 1970s. Battletar was magnificently executed, filled with great performances, and had special effects and sets that look like they came from a $200 million movie. 20 years from now the Pegaus Arc, the discovery of Kobol and the exodus from New Caprica, among other moments will be spoken of in the same breath as the introduction of Khan, the assimilation of Captain Picard and the death of Sheridan at Z'Ha'Dum. In short, Battlestar isn't just great sci-fi, its one of the best TV shows ever made.

 

EDIT: Double Post

 

Completley agree, nothing else comes close in terms of full on science fiction, this is television at its very best.

 

If this were your list, what would you have taken off, what would you have added, what would you have shuffled?

My list removes most of the fantasy and horror as well as the superhero genre, and everything I disliked or just don't know., paring the whole thing down to 30. New additions in bold. Lost stays in on the basis of season one and the recommendation of my esteemed JC colleagues.

1. Battlestar Galactica (New)
2. Star Trek
3. Babylon 5
4. The X-Files
5. Dr. who
6. Stargate SG-1
7. The Twilight Zone
8. Futurama
9. Firefly
10. Star Trek: The Next Generation
11. Mystery Science Theater 3000
12. Lost
13. The Outer Limits
14. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981 BBC)
15. V
16. Star Wars: the Clone Wars
17. Star Trek: The Animated Series
18. Stargate Atlantis
19. Star Trek: Deep Space 9
20. Farscape
21. Sliders
22. Dark Angel
23. Battlestar Galactica (Original)
24. Space 1999
25. The Thunderbirds
26. Dune miniseries
27. Mork and Mindy
28. Space: Above and Beyond
29. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
30. Planet of the Apes

 

Farscape's a good addition. I'd add Red Dwarf, Enterprise and possibly Seaquest and place Alien Nation higher if it's as good as I remember.

 

1. LOST
2. Battlestar Galactica (New)
3. Star Trek
4. Babylon 5
5. The X-Files
6. The Twilight Zone
7. Dr Who
8. The Outer Limits
9. Firefly
10. Futurama
11. Star Trek: The Next Generation
12. Farscape
13. Star Trek: Deep Space 9
14. V
15. Quantum Leap
16. Mystery Science Theater 3000
17. Dune Miniseries
18. Dark Angel
19. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981 BBC)
20. Star Trek: Enterprise
21. Battlestar Galactica (Original)
22. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
23. Sliders
24. Stargate SG-1
25. The Thunderbirds
26. Space 1999
27. Stargate Atlantis

...

Eleventy billionth: Star Trek Voyager



I haven't been a fan of the whole Stargate thing. Never could get into it.

 

1. Farscape
2. Battlestar Galactica (New)
3. X-Files
4. Eureka
5. Babylon 5
6. Firefly

Huh. I really don't watch a lot of sci-fi

 

I don't get it, putting Lost at the top of a list of science fiction shows? I love to carry the torch for Deadwood, but I wouldn't mock a list of comedy shows by putting it at the top on the basis that it's very funny at times...

1. New BSG
2. Babylon 5
3. New Outer Limits
4. Firefly
5. Star Trek TNG
6. Stargate SG-1
7. Farscape
8. The X-Files
9. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
10. Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
11. Star Trek: Enterprise
12. Star Trek: Voyager

DS9 would probably be on here except I haven't watched enough of it.

 

By way of explanation, Firefly is just barely in the top ten because I figured at barely one season it sort of needed to make way for some of the more classics on my list (Twilight Zone, etc).

As for LOST being in the first position, I justify it by the fact that Voyager has a position at the bottom of 'top' shows rather than at the top of an alternate list of shows for which all records should be destroyed.

The ironic thing is Harlan Ellison -- writer for City On the Edge of Forever, one of Trek's greatest shows (as well as a Babylon 5 consultant) -- he himself slams Star Trek like there's no tomorrow. Meanwhile he lists LOST as perhaps the only current science fiction show he's watched besides BSG (which he termed taking one of the crappiest shows ever made and making it into one of the best).

 

Ok, maybe I'm missing something - has the 4th season of Lost clearly marked it as science fiction? Just that I'd never classify it as sci-fi, as it doesn't appear to have had elements of current or future science that typically mark the genre. Has the show shifted away from the paranormal?

I see you your Voyager and raise you Mutant X. I still can't quite get over how that show got a second season.

 

Ok, maybe I'm missing something - has the 4th season of Lost clearly marked it as science fiction? Just that I'd never classify it as sci-fi, as it doesn't appear to have had elements of current or future science that typically mark the genre. Has the show shifted away from the paranormal?

Although the show has not revealed the FULL nature yet of what the Island is, it has incorporated time travel to a large degree in the fourth season. The major episode being "The Constant", where time travel was drawn straight from Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five", to the degree they made a point of referring it to being 'unstuck in time'. That is, the physical body did not travel in time, but the consciousness did, propelling a character's 1996 consciousness into his 2004 self [temporarily destroying that 2004 self until the 1996 self found a way to bridge the periods so that he didn't die from a brain anyeurism].

Plus the fact that upon the end of the season the Island itself disappeared -- presumedly via a pocket wormhole -- and sent a different set of characters (in this case thier physical bodies) backward and forward through the Island's history (they went back to 1954, forward to an unspecified point, backward to other unspecified times, and briefly WAY back to at least before 1875 or so), finally depositing them in 1974. A full half of season 5 was, subsequently, set completely in 1974 -- in fact it was probably the main storline of the two.

I see you your Voyager and raise you Mutant X. I still can't quite get over how that show got a second season.

Was that the one where the villian was Andy Warhol? Then I would tend to agree -- although I do admit that I always have found that man creepy.

 

Crusade: good choice. I'd bump the Planet of the Apes tv series, or maybe even Mork and Mindy for that one come to think of it.

 

1) Doctor Who
2) Firefly
3) Cowboy Bebop
4) Futurama
5) Mystery Science Theater
6) Stargate SG-1
7) Farscape
8) X-Files
9) TNG

 

I can't be bothered to compile my own list. I will mention some shows that the Boston.com list didn't include, however.

Blake's 7: though cheap and shoddy for the most part, it was gutsy and groundbreaking. If you thought new BSG invented dark sci-fi for TV, try catching the first 2 or 3 episodes of this British space-opera; I mean, what other show would have a convicted child-molester as its hero? And the series ended with one of the bleakest final acts in the history of episodic TV.

Ulysses 31: great cartoon when I was a kid.

Battle of the Planets: ditto.

Total Recall 2070: slick sci-fi series with a very heavy atmosphere. Inspired by two of Philip K. Dick's better known movie adaptations, Total Recall and Blade Runner, it was pretty watchable.

Roswell: great cast, erratic scripting. I liked it.

The Invaders: not a favourite of mine, but it should have got a mention.

Project UFO: used to watch this as a kid. Not great, but okay.

 

1. Doctor Who
2. Firefly
3. ST: TOS
4. Battlestar Galactica (current)
5. Stargate: SG-1
5. ST: TNG
6. The Twilight Zone (original)
7. Futurama
8. Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
9. The Six Million Dollar Man (as a child of the 70s, I cannot get away from its influence on my sci-fi-loving mind)
10. The Incredible Hulk (ditto!)

 

I'm a little surprised by how Western-European these lists are. To a lesser extent, I'm surprised at the lack of animated shows.

No love for the likes of Gundam.

 

I'm American, and I grew up watching English and American sci-fi shows. The only Manga we had in the 70s was Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets -- good shows, esp. BOTP, but hardly Top 10 material! In the 80s most of the best cartoon shows were produced in the Far East -- GI JOE, Transformers, Thundercats, etc. -- but it wasn't Manga per se. That wave didn't hit till the late 80s/early 90s, and by then I wasn't watching so much animated stuff as I used to. What else but Gundam did you have in mind? {I've never seen Gundam, BTW.)

 

10. Automan
[image=http://www.hobo-bonobo.co.uk/topten/images/0808281240176.jpg]

9. Starblazers
[image=http://seriesedesenhos.com/br/images/stories/starblazers.jpg]

8. Ultra-man
[image=http://www.badmovies.org/tvshows/ultraman/ultraman.jpg]

7. Dark Angel
[image=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FbG9rWPXqnc/SLRulupLcjI/AAAAAAAAHKE/pIbxeXqUDhI/s320/folder.jpg]

6. Smallville
[image=http://davidfilms.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/smallville.jpeg]

5. Chuck
[image=http://www.whiteblog.net/blogpic/chuck.jpg]

4. Transformers
[image=http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6176/primevsmegatron01vh6.gif]

3. Robotech
[image=http://www.shockya.com/news/wp-content/uploads/robotech_movie_still.JPG]

2. Lost
[image=http://thisfanslife.mlblogs.com/lost11.jpg]

1. Star Trek: TNG
[image=http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6359/40384306.jpg]

 

Brilliant:

X-Files
John From Cincinnati

Pretty good:

Firefly
New Battlestar Galactica (4.5 didn't work for me at all, though)

Loved it back in the day, merely like it now:

TNG
DS9

 

You are not far off in your response to Raven. We also have similar tastes in 1s and 2s =). Gundam is good but not top 10. However, I am the only post I have seen with Bebop in the top ten, and compared to alot of the crap listed so far, Ravens post about a lack of animated appreciation is well noted. Its not even my #1, but animated or not, its easily better than Battle Star Gallactica, yes the new one, let alone half the 1980s nostalgia fest that has been posted on this thread.

Having a good memory about random crap from your childhood doesn't make a show decent.

 

WARNING: my list requires an high amount of Googling.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion
2. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
3. Planetes
4. Aria
5. Battlestar Galactica (new)
6. Turn A Gundam
7. Babylon 5
8. Star Trek: DS9
9. Eureka Seven
10. Noein
11. Victory Gundam
12. Time of Eve
13. Star Trek: TNG
14. Firefly
15. Macross
16. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
17. Futurama
18. FLAG
19. Gunslinger Girl
20. The X-Files
21. Ergo Proxy
22. Stargate SG-1
23. Top wo Nerae!
24. Zeta Gundam
25. Cowboy Bebop
26. Dennou Coil
27. V
28. Sliders
29. Dune Miniseries
30. Uchuu no Stellvia
31. Quantum Leap
32. Starship Operators
33. Heroic Age.
34. Space: Above and Beyond
35. Terra e...

I didn't include Star Trek TOS for the same reason why I didn't include the original Mobile Suit Gundam, while both series had excellent episodes (and poor ones) and Gundam had an excellent story it's the movies where both series truly shines.

 

I can only say that The Twilight Zone and The X-Files head my list. I should also just mention that, though I don't know if it was on long enough or really even good enough to make it on a list like this, I did absolutely love Carter's stillborn Harsh Realm; Bairstow and Sweeney were absolutely brilliant as the leads and that 'battle simulation' episode was just . . . well, it could have been a Twilight Zone episode; it was that good.

I'd recommend anybody who loves good television invest in those DVDs; only nine episodes, as memory serves, but what brilliance.