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

This was a funny and well done show.

 

After much thought, if forced to pick a favorite Firefly episode, I would go with Ariel. The first half is very solid, but the second half, where Jayne first betrays Simon and River and is then forced to help them, leading up to Mal locking him in the airlock is great stuff. We also get our most exposure to the Blue Hand men here, and I think they're great villains.

Jayne: What are you taking this so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds!
Mal: Oh, but you did. You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me! But since that's a concept you can't seem to wrap your head around then you got no place here! You did it to me, Jayne, and that's a fact.

 

"Firefly" definitely deserved a better fate. It had an incredibly talented cast, great writing and a great concept.

At least it seems like the actors are all slowly finding ways to break thru with other projects...

Just imagine if Fox had even given it a MODICUM of a chance....?

 

16. 'Flash Gordon'

One critic of the 1950s "Flash Gordon" television series described the show as "so bad it's good." This classic brought Flash, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, and other characters into the homes of countless Americans.

So bad it's good works as an epithet for the 1980 film version as well.

 

I cannot believe they put this higher than Firefly. If it's so bad it's good, what could possibly have possessed the compilers to rank it higher than arguably one of the best, if briefest, sci-fi shows?

I do love the 1980 film regardless of what everyone else thinks, but that's another thread.

 

15. 'Logan's Run'

"Logan's Run" only ran a season or two but makes our list nonetheless. The show featured a futuristic civilization that, at first glance, looks pretty nice. Until you realize that they're going to waste you once you reach your 30th birthday. That's one way to solve the a Social Security crisis (though we hope not). The show followed Logan (Gregory Harrison, right) and his companions as they search for a mythical placed called The Sanctuary, which holds the promise of freedom.

The Michael York, Jenny Agutter movie is one of the last films of the pre-Star Wars age. It's real science fiction - a sealed, domed high-tech civilization in a post-apocalyptic American east-coast landscape. The dome has a fixed carrying capacity, so population control is a premier concern, with the culture obsessively focused around its novel solution to the problem.

As often happens in sci fi, the execution isn't quite as good as the concept, and it's easy to make the case that the short-lived series was better than the movie. Despite that, the series is all but forgotten, while the movie was rumored a while back to be getting a remake.

 

You think so? I once caught one or two episodes in reruns a long time ago (could've been on the USA network, when they used to show the most obscure reruns). I was not impressed in the slightest. It looked to be exactly what it appeared: typical `70s kitsch with dated hair & costuming.

Still, I'll give credit to whatever network it was to even try a TV version at all, given that sci-fi of this kind would have been incredibly expensive and a big gamble ratings-wise in the days of pre-Star Wars.

 

14. 'Star Trek Voyager'

"Star Trek Voyager" started off slow but ended as one of the better "Star Trek" spinoffs. In 1995, we watched as the crew of the star ship Voyager was catapulted across the galaxy. The story revolved around their trip back to Earth, which at full speed would have taken 75 years to complete. Led by Captain Catherine Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew), the ship and its crew finally did make it home - but not before several great run-ins with Borg and other creatures.

Here it is: Gonk's favorite Trek series. Unfortunately, Voyager and Enterprise brought absolutely nothing new to the formula. They were not equal to the task of doing something else besides what all the previous series had covered.

 

I liked the Doctor. Especially his cameo in First Contact.

 

Voyager was the Trek show where i finally lost interest. Too many annoying characters. This show completely destroyed the Borg as effective villains.

The Doctor and Paris were about the best parts... And the Doctor wound up suffering from DATA disease with his overexposure by the end...

And i can't believe Janeway was promoted to Admiral before Picard, darnit!

 

Burn everything to do with that show.

Burn it now.

 

In all fairness, Picard didn't have to put up with Neelix on a daily basis.

 

I watched some of the first season...and then I lost interest.

 

I can't believe diharrea like this show is coming after shows like "V", and "Firefly". There was better writing put into one scene of a Firefly epsiode than an entire season of Voyager. Just because Robert Picardo is amusing and Jeri Ryan was attractive doesn't mean the show was not crap.

TNG had about 3 characters you could kill instantly and you'd have a better show on your hands. DS9 probably actually had fewer than that.

This thing could have killed off everyone but 7of9 and the Doctor and nobody would have cared. And the Doctor's a machine anyway so you could have brought him back.

"Oh, we're supposed to be on our way home but there's a scientific anomoly over there. Let's research it." In what MULTIVERSE does that not cause instant mutiny, especially with a divided crew?

Feeling glum? Just head to the holodeck and fight some Nazis.

This show was the armpit of science fiction and decent writing. It was like FULL HOUSE in space, but without the satisfaction of hating Bob Saget. That this, like that show and 7th heaven, should have continued on for years and years while incredibly better shows got axed is unforgivable. I should get people's names who watched this show but never bothered to turn on firefly. For shame.

 

The holodeck does seem like a technology perfectly engineered for the task of producing throwaway Trek episodes.

 

I think it had tons of potential in the first few TNG epsiodes, especially when we first saw it in the introduction with Data.

Unfortunately it became a device used to essentially do the anchronistic epsiodes from the original Star Trek with a little more plausibility. You know, the time travel ones or were there were planets that looked uncannily like one of Earth's time periods.

 

True... but then I think of all these series like Firefly and Babylon 5 where they just don't feel the need to do those epsisodes in the first place.

Dont' get me wrong: one or two are fine. But when it becomes a whole segment of epsiodes I mean... come on. I'm already watching Star Trek, why do I have to watch "Star Trek in WWII"?

 

All the complaints stated in this thread so far are pretty valid. But despite all that I always like Voyager. They did have a LOT of missed opportunities for good stories. The two-part episode "The Year of Hell" really showed what this show could have been. They were running out of supplies, the ship was falling apart, and were completely outgunned and outnumbered by hostile aliens. Of course time travel and the dad from That 70's Show erased all of it.

 

In terms of its concept, I've always felt that Voyager came the closest to capturing the feel of TOS, in that it was one crew exploring space. Having said that, however, I always felt that it was really unrealistic for Voyager to always look the way it did. I understand that Ron Moore originally wanted Voyager to gradually become more patched and battle-scared as the show went on. I think this would have made Voyager more realistic and would have emphasized the power of Star Trek's optimistic view of the future. Even as Voyager is literally falling apart around them, the crew is hellbent on returning to the Federation. I also think that this is the reason why Year of Hell and The Killing Game are the only universally liked Voyager episodes because the Krenem and the Hirogen completely beat the crap out of the ship. As a result these were only times that it actually looked like Voyager spent seven years trapped on the other side of the galaxy.

 

Did they ever do an episode where the letters O, Y, and A were scorched off the hull during a battle?

Because they totally should have.