nominees:

Star Trek you can pick any of the series and make an argument for it if you want; you'll prob get flamed if you say enterprise or voyager though

babylon 5 from what I read this show tried to kind of do what star trek didn't meaning cut out the one episode and everything is solved stuff

battlestar gallactica I think this show was more about kind of action and drama and less typical sci fi stuff

stargate SG1 I don't really know anything about this show except that black guy looked kind of weird with that stuff on his face, I was kind of surprised something based on a movie that wasn't wildly popular or great did well but I believe this series got pretty positive reviews

firefly didn't really watch this show (in fact I haven't really watched much of any of these besides star trek) but the serenity movie was certainly enjoyable

3/8/2010 3:58:18 PM

ST:TNG /QED

3/8/2010 3:59:13 PM

Surface Set in NC, featured Lake Bell (solid) and a pre Gossip Girl Leighton Meester (schwing), got fucked by the '06 Winter Olympics and never got a second seasons...one of the biggest TV tragedies of the past 20 years

3/8/2010 4:00:05 PM

Is X-Files not nerdy enough for any votes?

3/8/2010 4:00:23 PM

What's the grading criteria?

3/8/2010 4:00:40 PM

Quote :

"ST:TNG /QED"

^The thread title says "best".

3/8/2010 4:07:37 PM

Well the "nerdy" thing throws me off. Is there a difference between a "sci-fi series" and a "nerdy sci-fi series?"

3/8/2010 4:17:37 PM

^Good question, as I was wondering how Alf would fit into this discussion

3/8/2010 4:21:07 PM

Its nerdy if it comes on cable

3/8/2010 4:23:56 PM

Then I vote LOST.

3/8/2010 4:24:58 PM

The X Files

and

Quote :

"Surface Set in NC, featured Lake Bell (solid) and a pre Gossip Girl Leighton Meester (schwing), got fucked by the '06 Winter Olympics and never got a second seasons...one of the biggest TV tragedies of the past 20 years"

All of a sudden I feel closer to you, my brother

[Edited on March 8, 2010 at 4:37 PM. Reason : k]

3/8/2010 4:36:37 PM

SLIDERS

3/8/2010 4:40:33 PM

pure scifi, either tng or sg1. scifi drama, DS9

3/8/2010 4:41:36 PM

Can we just leave it at Star Trek TNG and avoid this can of worms?

3/8/2010 4:43:28 PM

if we're talking overall best scifi of any type its ds9.

3/8/2010 4:53:37 PM

Earth 2

3/8/2010 4:57:00 PM

The Twilight Zone

3/8/2010 5:23:05 PM

Red Dwarf



How are we defining Sci-Fi? Does The Prisoner count? How about The Pretender?

[Edited on March 8, 2010 at 5:27 PM. Reason : Hell, CSI is pretty much SciFi]

3/8/2010 5:24:02 PM

^Ah yes, Red Dwarf, had I known the realm of sci-fi comedy were involved I would have mentioned it. Without a doubt my favorite show ever.

3/8/2010 5:47:24 PM

I honestly thought Heroes had a chance after the first season, but was I ever wrong about that.

I nominate Sparks.

[Edited on March 8, 2010 at 7:05 PM. Reason : local flavor]

3/8/2010 7:05:02 PM

Quote :

"SLIDERS "

HA!

3/8/2010 7:43:48 PM

Quote :

"SLIDERS"

FTW!

3/8/2010 9:16:12 PM

Sliders season 1 is pretty good. after 2 it's just ridiculously bad.

3/9/2010 6:30:58 PM

SG-1 was awesome for like 3-4 seasons

then daniel kept dying, mcguyver got a promotion, it turned into fargate, etc.

fun fact: the first episode had some full-frontal nudity

3/9/2010 7:23:55 PM

Quote :

""SLIDERS" FTW! "

I agree

That show was sweet

3/9/2010 7:26:41 PM

Quote :

"Sliders season 1 is pretty good. after 2 it's just ridiculously bad."

lies

[Edited on March 9, 2010 at 7:31 PM. Reason : to clarify: the second statement is lie, not the first.]

3/9/2010 7:31:05 PM

i downloaded surface the other day and just finished watching it...how did i miss this show?

3/23/2010 1:47:19 PM

Quote :

"Quantum Leap"

FTMFW! My wife got me that set for x-mas last year.

3/23/2010 2:01:02 PM

I'd have to vote for Sliders as well --

On that note, if you have Netflix, you can stream all of the seasons of Sliders for free.

3/23/2010 2:12:36 PM

Ok, I'm trying to catalog the sci-fi franchises, this seems as good a thread as any to put it in. I didn't include a lot of older stuff unless it's relevant to something being aired today. Otherwise I'd be here forever writing about Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. I'm also omitting the books from each franchise because, and lets be honest here, at that point I may as well put in fanfics

Major Space-Based:

Star Trek: Pick one, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine (my personal favorite ST), Voyager, Enterprise, and eleven theatrical movies of quality varying from fantastic to shitty-shitty-shitshitshitty with a new movie being planned.

Battlestar Galactica: Original Series, 1980 series, 2000s Reboot Miniseries and regular series (please dear god don't watch multiple episodes in succession unless you want to enhance feelings of despair and hopelessness), a made-for-tv movie, and Caprica plus an intent by SyFy to milk this franchise for all it's worth.

Babylon 5: The original 5 seasons and 2 major storylines, Crusade (13 episodes, didn't get a chance to mature like it could have), and 7 movies ranging from TV pilot quality to decent made-for-tv quality with one more in development hell.

Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, Infinity, The original theatrical movie, and two direct-to-video movies with three more in the works.

Non-Major Space Based: (calling them Minor seems inappropriate considering what actually falls under minor)

Firefly: First season and a movie

Red Dwarf: 8 small series (only about 50 episodes), and the recent miniseries

Minor Space Based: (didn't last long or no spin-offs)

Andromeda: Five seasons.

Space: Above and Beyond: They got a season on Fox, it wasn't bad so Fox cancelled them.

Major Non-Spaced Based:

Doctor Who: 26 original seasons, 4 new series seasons, a few spin-offs here and there, a boatload of made-for-tv specials, one made-for-tv movie, and a handful of 10 minute clips for various charities.

X-Files: The series (9 seasons), two movies of eh quality, one spin-off. This show had an amazing ability to survive on the Fox network.

Sliders: Five seasons

Quantum Leap: Five seasons

Minor Non-Space Based:

Earth: Final Conflict: Five seasons, some of agony-inducing quality and some that were passable.

The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.: They got a season on Fox, it wasn't bad so Fox cancelled them.

Earth 2: One season. It was on Fox, and they were probably right to cancel this one.

Currently Active Non-Space Based: (could be Major or Minor, depends on if the fanbases dissipate after they go off the air, Doctor Who and BSG don't fall under this category style because they had fanbases from the previous runs before their restarts)

Heroes: Four seasons with a fifth one still very possible

Lost: Six seasons. Are there any spin-offs possible in the future?

Eureka: Three seasons with a fourth one upcoming.

Torchwood: Three seasons. Please God don't give Fox control of the potential fourth season like I've been reading about online. If Fox gets control, there won't be a fifth season.

Lots not mentioned, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon (as mentioned earlier), Lois & Clark, Small Wonder, ALF, Futurama (dear god the number of SciFi cartoons would take ages to catalog), The Six Million Dollar Man (and The Bionic Woman), The Avengers, Lost In Space, Alien Nation, Mork & Mindy, V, and a slew of others.

3/23/2010 2:49:11 PM

^ wow that list just reminded me how bad the scifi genre has gotten.

3/23/2010 3:40:19 PM

Quote :

"Lost: Six seasons. Are there any spin-offs possible in the future?"

I fucking hope not. In order to call something Science Fiction, doesn't there have to be some scientific explanation behind the fantastic shit that happens? When Lost started, I hoped desperately that it would be science fiction (secret government facilities, experiments, etc) but it's really just fantasy. bad fantasy at that.

3/23/2010 3:48:03 PM

^blasphemy. There will be a scientific way to explain it all in some freakish twist ending.

3/23/2010 4:23:56 PM

Wouldn't Seaquest be considered minor non-space based? Shit that ran for a few seasons.

3/23/2010 4:33:50 PM

Quote :

"Torchwood: Three seasons. Please God don't give Fox control of the potential fourth season like I've been reading about online. If Fox gets control, there won't be a fifth season."

Torchwood is the worst show i've ever seen.

3/23/2010 4:37:45 PM

[Edited on March 23, 2010 at 5:58 PM. Reason : sdf]

3/23/2010 5:58:37 PM

3/23/2010 7:12:34 PM

Not sure how I forgot Farscape or Seaquest. I used to watch that damned dolphin outsmart humans all the time.

Also, Lexx would go in minor space based.


Edit: Oh shit, and Time Cop! I think there were two of those, one by the same syndication company that Babylon 5 started with (PTEN, prime time entertainment network and the show was a quantum leap rip off) and one much more recently.

[Edited on March 24, 2010 at 1:44 AM. Reason : .]

3/24/2010 1:40:04 AM

oh yes! lexx!

what a fucking show!

3/24/2010 7:12:29 AM

What would be considered a non-nerdy SciFi show?

I can think of a few movies that probably fall into the non-Nerdy SciFi category, but not much in the TV medium.

3/24/2010 7:34:31 AM

^Roswell, Invasion, Supernatural? some stuff like that perhaps.

3/24/2010 8:02:52 AM

The only people I know who liked Roswell were female nerds.

And if you're going to include that you may as well throw in Buffy and Smallville.

I guess there's also The 4400.

[Edited on March 24, 2010 at 8:05 AM. Reason : .]

3/24/2010 8:05:08 AM

may as well

3/24/2010 8:05:42 AM

you also seemed to have left off Fringe. I don't watch it, not sure if it's nerdy or not.


Also Warehouse 13 is coming back on SciFi for a second season.

3/24/2010 8:12:09 AM

Ah, Dollhouse as well.

Sanctuary.

3/24/2010 8:42:49 AM

Well if he is including Lost and X-Files are in, then Fringe certainly should be added. And Warehouse is pretty damn good. At the same time, you may need to consider adding Eureka as well.

3/24/2010 8:43:40 AM

Does anyone remember TimeTrax? There were ton of these semi-low-budget scifi shows around in the early 90's. Most of them sucked but were entertaining on some level.

3/24/2010 11:49:32 AM

Timetrax is the Time Cop/Quantum Leap ripoff I mentioned earlier, I just couldn't remember the name. I watched episodes of the first season when I could, but it was school nights and I've never been one for staying up late (it aired Sunday nights at 11 in my area on Fox).

PTEN had such an odd track record in the early 90's. They put Babylon 5 out there, which became a cult classic. They put Hercules: The Legendary Journeys out there through 4 made-for-tv movies, which led to something like 7 or 8 seasons and around 10 or so seasons of Xena. And they put out Kung Fu: The Legend Continues which was actually about 40% decent and frankly was just a really good excuse to have David Carradine regularly back on TV.

But they also had Island City, which only lasted for it's pilot and stank. In it's defense, however, it did predict the design of the Isuzu Axiom a good 8 years early. So it's got that going for it, which is nice.

And something called Pointman which I have zero recollection of.

EDIT: It's weird how often Bill Mumy's stuff could appear in this thread. Babylon 5, Lost In Space, and of course his magnum opus SPACE CASES (which also featured a very young Jewel Staite).

Gah, there was another live action children's SciFi series in the 90's that I'm trying to remember. It had 3 characters, cadets iirc, who were lost far away from earth in 3 spacey vehicles. Kinda like Power Rangers in space just without the spandex or the martial arts fighting.

EDIT 2: Got it, Hypernauts. Wikipedia is my friend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernauts

[Edited on March 24, 2010 at 12:19 PM. Reason : .]

3/24/2010 12:04:11 PM

My space-biased nominees would be:

Firefly (probably the most original story and best all around cast I've seen in a long time in a tv show)

Battlestar Galactica (new version) (well acted and written and definitely deserves to be in the top)

Star Trek: Next Generation - needs no explanation

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 deserves some credit as well

Farscape - Jim Henson's creature shop.... need I say more?

Other Sci-Fi nominees in no particular order:

Twilight Zone
The Outer Limits
X-Files
The Dresden Files (I know it probably doesn't belong but I just really loved this show)
Babylon 5


http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/gallery/topscifishows?pg=51

A good list, but I don't agree with the ranking so much.

3/24/2010 12:43:03 PM

I used to watch the hell out of this when I was a kid.



http://www.wral.com/wral-tv/video/1180973/

3/24/2010 12:47:28 PM