New Poll: Your 3 Most Favourite Science Fiction TV Series

We can only pick 3?!

Star Trek: The Next Generation — I grew up on this, one of the few shows my entirely family loved. Picard’s wisdom, Data’s search for what it means to be human, Worf’s attempts to hold onto his family identity…not that I could have said much about that when I was 9. But the adventure was wonderful, and it was the first time I realized that alien stories were our stories, and how cool that could be.

Stargate — It’s not brilliant the way some shows are. It’s a sort of alternate universe where characters recover quickly from devestating trauma (and/or death *g*) swiftly in order to move on to the next adventure, but SG-1 is a wonderful team, different from each other but always there for each other. It’s hilarious; the writers are well aware of the scifi tropes that they are so blatantly sending up in most of the storylines, and yet they manage to engage your emotions, too; I’ve shed tears over this show, and one of its characteristics is the moment that should be too cheesy to work and yet somehow uplifts you or tears you to bits. I love this show unabashedly.

Doctor Who — I’m a recent convert, and the best thing I can say about Doctor Who is that it restored to me that sense of the world as a dangerous adventure. Not a battle (although one may often find oneself in the middle of a fight or a revolution!), but full of wonder and amazement and the need for courage and for each other. (As a Christian, the companion’s relationship with the Doctor at times reads beautifully like us and Christ.)

I have runner-ups, though. X-Files was a stunning show, so character-driven. Farscape I have only seen bits of, but it is (as my friend says) “perversely brilliant.” I just began watching Blake’s 7, and I am loving it so, so much. I wish Firefly had gotten a longer run (it even had a preacher on board!). And some people don’t like Babylon 5, but it’s a wonderful piece of serial storytelling, and there are moments that I will never forget.

No The Prisoner? It’s not only the best SF series, it’s quite possibly the best television series of any genre that’s yet been made! (Yes, I know, there’s always one whiner… )

Star Trek: The Original Series. This is what I grew up on. It’s where it all started, so to speak, for me.

Doctor Who is almost as important as Star Trek. I’m not a big fan of PBS anymore since time has passed it by. But back in the ’70’s & early ’80’s before cable, PBS was a great station. You had all the great kids programs, before they all went PC, like Sesame Street, The Electric Company, etc. But most of all you got a large dose of British Comedy & Sci Fi.

I can still remember the first time I ever watched Monty Python & Doctor Who back to back on a Sunday night when I was supposed to be asleep because it was a school night. Hmmph. School. What did I ever learn there that compared to what I got from British comedy & Sci-Fi? Through PBS I was introduced to Monty Python, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Blake’s Seven, The Young Ones, Alexei Sayle, Hitchhiker’s Guide.

And my third choice was the original Battlestar Galactica. Looking back at it nowadays I really don’t have a big thing for it but at the time it was a big deal to me. I especially loved the Cylons & John Colicos was great. Around the same time I also watched Buck Rodgers all the time. Not that I would watch it today but again at the time one had very limited choices & you had to take your Sci-Fi where you could get it.

The TV Planet of the Apes wasn’t on the list either. And here’s one that no one’s probably heard of, War of the Worlds, an extension of the 1953 movie. It only ran for two seasons in 1988 & ‘89. The first season was the best. The second season the producers made a number of changes to the show to make it “better,” which of course killed any of the good parts of the first season. Not surprisingly it’s ratings tanked & it was canceled.

Note: I watch little TV and only recently began receiving the SF channel. I prefer reading and don’t like being tied to serial storytelling (therefore the irony god embedded me into my #2 pick–who says he/she doesn’t have a sense of humor?).

1) The Twilight Zone (original) and The Outer Limits (oringinal). Who wasn’t riveted by these shows which laid down the template for intelligent SF storytelling. And those intros!

2) LOST. Best intro since the above. To me, best show since above. Geektastic, with great character storytelling, fantastic cliffhangers and…oh, snap, I’m a total LOSTtie.

3) V–the series. I put this simply because it was so remarkably convoluted and it was a howl watching its narrative deterioration each week. The evil dinner take-out emperor rampaging through the galaxy becomes the benevolent force uniting it through the alien/human Star Child. All in one season! And who can forget Jane Badler’s Diana stuffing her face with big white rats (her favorite)? And her expelling June alive in a glass coffin into the cosmos, so she could appropriate consort Charles (wink!)? Tres amusant. And earthlings able to immediately figure out alien technology to serve the moment? Absolute hilarious, cartoon storytelling. Hopefully, the new series with Elizabeth Mitchell (of LOST) will be something worth watching, because she certainly is.

Star Trek, TOS and TNG. The original characters are so iconic, I don’t mind the corny elements. TNG’s characters are wonderful as well, and the stories have a richness to them that transcends what TOS was generally able to do.

From the list, I said Quantum Leap, as I always loved watching that growing up, but LOST is what really gets my vote – and at this point, I think it’s firmly established itself as belonging to sci-fi territory. I’m more into LOST than I’ve ever been into any show, and given my obsessive tendencies, that’s saying a lot. Most of the things I love so much about Harry Potter I’ve found in LOST – intricate plot threads with tiny details that turn out to have major later significance; plenty of literary allusions; a cosmic battle of good against evil; a focus on redemption… And most of all, outstanding characters who really live and breathe (and whose names offer all sorts of interesting clues to the role they will play). Arabella, I’m a total lostie too!

Meant to ask – is The Tripods based on the books by John Christopher? That was a good series of books.

Not fair Korg! Only 3?

As much as I love Firefly I had to go nostalgic.
And why do the British do such great sci-fi TV?
Dr Who was incredibly good for such a long time. And scary!
Only the Thunderbirds could get me out of bed at 6am every morning. Too many gadgets for this boy to ignore.
And The Tomorrow People as a representative of many great British kids’ sci-fi. Great ideas, grainy old video, derring-do. Could have also gone with Tripods or Space 1999.
Now to find the DVDs and inflict them on my kids…

Doctor Who – In particular the Tenth Doctor

Star Trek- The Next Generation – Only show I remember from my childhood that wasn’t educational programming or home fix-it shows. I wasn’t the Star Trek fan, it was just what Dad had on.

The X-Files – I don’t actually like this one, but the poll said to pick three. I only like Doctor Who so…

Wow, some of these I’ve never heard of. My top three are the Chris Carter trifecta:

1) The X-Files
2) Millenium
3) The Lone Gunmen

Admittedly, the last one is a bit of a default pick because none of the other series I recognized stuck with me. I never cared much for Star Trek in any incarnation until the most recent film. I remember V scaring the ever-loving hell out of me when I was about 5 years old and my older brother watched it. Although, I’m interested to see what the updated TV series will look like. I really wanted to like the Terminator series, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so. Nearly every friend I have loves Farscape, Lexx, and Firefly. They just never broke through with me. And much to my wife’s chagrin, Lost drives me absolutely insane — it’s like watching Dragonball Z with less fighting. It wants to be a character drama so badly, and I can’t help but hate every single character on that show. Probably a character flaw on my part…

Heroes is one of my biggest TV disappointments of recent years. Volume 1 was just fantastic. The characters were compelling, the plot was exciting, and the concept was a little over-used, but executed really well. It was the first show in years that I made a point of watching every single episode. Then, the second season happened and I haven’t watched the series much since about the fourth show of that season.

For me, sci-fi TV begins and ends with The X-Files. I know that might be sacrilege to some here. But to a kid whose formative years were in the early 90s, The X-Files are the quintessential expression of paranoia and the paranormal that I still find fascinating. Mulder’s loosely associated band of confederates were some of the best characters on TV, especially the Lone Gunmen.

The X-Files movies, on the other hand…

And while it could only be classified on the margins of science fiction, and certainly not in the same vein as some of the high science fiction in this poll, I will gladly submit Chuck as a show with some sci-fi elements that is just completely frikkin’ cool. If you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch some of it on NBC’s website. I want a Jeffster t-shirt so bad…

I only picked two. I didn’t watch much sci fi. I did watch The Twilight Zone, but only after my cousin forced me to watch one. And I liked it, but sometimes they were scarier than I like.

And then there was My Favorite Martian. I know, I know – stupid and cheesey, but it was fun and it didn’t give me nightmares.

The other one that I liked, that also scared me, wasn’t on the list – One Step Beyond. Or does that not fit in with sci fi?

I also watched Star Trek (original), but when they were on as re-runs, because hubby liked it. But I didn’t really like it. I actually think the new movie, which we finally saw, is a whole lot better than the original series.

Scott, I’ve always heard great things about the latest BSG. But, I never cared much for the original show, so I didn’t pay any attention to it when it first came out on Sci-Fi. Friends started telling me how great it was, but by that time it was into the second season. And I just never took time to catch up.

Also, I have to add one more “sci-fi” show to the mix — quite possibly one of the more brilliant shows ever conceived: Mystery Science Theater 3000! It helped foster my love of old sci-fi and horror movies. It most certainly helped me develop an appreciation for movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space!

Yay, someone else who likes Futurama.

Am gravely disappointed that two of my favorite supernatural/horror shows weren’t nominated: The Night Gallery with the revered Rod Serling, and Night Stalker with Darren McGavin. Serling’s clipped delivery lent mystery to even the most mundane story, and McGavin’s Carl Kolchak’s sloppy nonchalance – I will never forget the casual way he dispatched vampires – was worth the admission, even without the cool plots.

But I’m guessing that they weren’t deliberate omissions: both shows pre-date Gen X and Gen Y.

revgeorge, Dark Shadows wasn’t on the list because it was abysmally bad. I know because I watched every episode.

As for my top three from the list:

1) Millenium Favorite episode: any episode featuring angels or demons but also The Ghost of Frank Black

2) X-Files. Why? : Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully. Her grave beauty gave meaning and significance to even the silliest plot. Two favorite moments: Scully singing Jeremiah was a Bull Frog to Mulder for a reason I can no longer rememebr; Scully dumping armloads of human innards onto a scale while calmly disputing Mulder’s contention that a series of deaths were not accidental.

3) Star Trek: NG Again, one reason: Patrick Stewart’s Picard. Now there’s my idea of a Star Fleet captain.

1. BSG, reimagined series: Everything Scott said is spot on. It’s one of the few series that I watched that understood scifi isn’t a plot crutch/devise but the scenery/setting for a good show. It’s also got some strong religious undertones. After it wrapped on a BSG site that I read, there were some strong rants from atheists saying all of the God talk ruined their good scifi. Thought about asking Travis for a guest post to start a discussion here since I think this crowd would have some good points to make. I am reserving judgement until I get farther in time away from it before I proclaim it one of the best scifi ever.

2. Babylon 5. Effects weren’t great, but JMS knew how to tell a good arc based story and gave up extra money for more control over his stories from the network and you can tell with the excellent story telling.

3. Stargate. I love this show. It’s not always great. It falls into conventional traps and technobabble. I think it’s just fun. I even liked it when Ben Browder and Claudia Black (from Farscape) replaced Richard Dean Anderson which really turned off other fans. It was also really good at poking fun at itself and scifi in general in later seasons. On top of being the only series that I own DVD’s for.

I’m a big fan of and grew up on the Star Trek movies, but was too young to be TOS fan. I liked later TNG, but not the biggest fan of the earlier episodes. Big Picard fan though.

Firefly is great, but it needed more leg room and episodes for more consideration for me. Fox didn’t know how great of a show they had there.

Need to watch Dr. Who, revgeorge has always made good comments about it and it seems to be really popular with this site’s fans and their excellent taste. Is there a good place to start watching?

Korg, I thought your list was excellent and very thorough. It’s not possible to get every show on it, but you did put a very exhaustive list and many of them are getting votes.

Another favorite Milleniumepisode was Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions with the angel of death, Sammael.

As for the science fiction angle, Night Stalker had some sci-fi episodes – one presaged the plot for Predator</i) for example. And I’m a little surprised you discarded Night Gallery: one of the episodes was titled: Pickman’s Model. And speaking of well-written supernatural shows, how about Brimstone?

I actually don’t have a problem with your selection: it’s great to be given the opportunity to mull over old favorites, and think about what made them great.

Well, at the risk of being booed, I loved ST DS9. I had a bout of insomnia a number of years ago and caught up in watching 2-am reruns. Got hooked on the Ferengi with their jumbo ears and the super evil Cardassian villian, Dukat.

Max Headroom was also an interesting concept.