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Favourite Sci-Fi Series

elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
Just curious to see what are peoples favourite sci-fi series. If you want to include fantasy (Game of Thrones, etc) go right ahead, though I won't be. I'm just doing my top ten sci fi shows I guess but list however many you want.

For me sci-fi wise its probably

1. Star Trek (all of them though I'm not big on a lot of the movies)
2. Stargate-SG1
3. Doctor Who (old and newer)
4. Babylon 5
5. Firefly
6. The X Files
7. Red Dwarf
8. The Twilight Zone (old and newer)
9. The Outer Limits (old and newer)
10. Futurama

Runners up: Sliders (but only season 1 and 2), Battlestar Galactica
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Comments

  • MoomintrollMoomintroll Member Posts: 1,498
    I don't have a favourite, but here are two which I really liked but probably don't get mentioned so much.

    1. Invasion Earth.
    A strange gooey, zergish creature/civilisation/something! from another dimension starts stealing humans and returning them.

    2. Taken. (Stephen Spielberg Presents)
    Still watchable. Alien abduction based series following two family lines and spanning several generations, from WWII until the present day.
  • ImperatorImperator Member Posts: 154
    Firefly. No doubt about it. The characters, the dialogue, the wild wes... I mean space.

    Second would be Futurama, and also Zoidberg.

    I once watched all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1 during a summer, but can't really bring myself to re-watch them, I keep noticing the rather bad production values and such.
  • KidCarnivalKidCarnival Member Posts: 3,747
    Babylon 5 - unrivaled. Crusade... umm. Na, not so much. I really wanted to see more techno mages, and sadly, Galen happens to look VERY much like a German stand up comedian, so it was doomed for me.

    Deep Space Nine - I like TOS, TNG, some of VOY, very very little of ENT; DS9 is simply lightyears ahead of every other Trek, pun intended.

    Stargate Atlantis - never watched all SG-1, couldn't warm up to the team; Universe was awful.

    Andromeda - had potential, but sadly also Kevin Sorbo - went downhill fast, but I still liked the first 2 seasons (before Sorbo went on a total ego trip and made himself the chosen one, leaving out other "main" characters of any hint of plot beyond admiring their fearless leader).

    Falling Skies - though since the "It's so crazy it might just work" line in the season 3 premiere, it's approaching "cheesy guilty pleasure" territory and the writing wasn't always stellar. Still, I prefer this very much to Walking Dead; it's post apocalypse and the show is (almost too) fast paced, so I'm spared from endless "let's talk about our feeling" episodes where nothing really happens.

    The 4400 - debatable if it's scifi. I will never forgive the cliffhanger ending though.

    Heroes - certainly more fantasy than scifi. Volume 1 was genius; after that... well, narrow path between brillance and batshit insanity; guilty pleasure.
  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    ...

    Star Trek. Because it's the only Sci-Fi series I've watched... I don't watch TV much.
  • francofranco Member Posts: 507
    Battlestar Gallactica. The Miniseries and Episode 1 were amazingly good. Everything was eventually downhill after that. Believable human drama on an apocalyptic scale.

    Star Trek. Of course. "To boldly go where no man has gone before". WHO could resist that?

    Flash Gordon. Although this wasn't TV, this old movie series may have started it all. I knew Buster Crabbe when he was much older and worked for awhile on Wall Street. Real gentleman. In fact, I remember him saying "Franco no" and admonishing me whenever I wanted to order Boston crème pie at the commissary.

    Lately, though, I find it hard to watch sci-fi series unless I find it really believable first on a human and then on a scientific level.

    There is a bit of a sleeper called "The Last Enemy", British series with Benedict Cumberbatch. It comes really close to what is going on now in the US with the NSA revelations. You can find it on Netflix.

  • hansolohansolo Member Posts: 136
    edited June 2013
    Star Trek DS9 and Babylon 5 are the best in my opinion.
    ST Voyager isn't bad either, but has a few not so good episodes.

    The rest ist too episodic for my taste (as you can see I like coherent story lines ^^), or the production value is too bad, or
    the plot too silly.
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808
    In my opinion (and in this order):

    1) Firefly
    2) Star Trek Deep Space Nine
    3) Falling Skies
    4) Star Trek TNG
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    I love scifi and fantasy has been pretty good the past few years.

    TV
    SCIFI
    1. Firefly
    2. Star Trek TNG
    3. The Twilight Zone

    Fantasy
    1. Game of Thrones (1st three books are excellent)
    2. Walking Dead

    Fav SCIFI Movies:
    Star Wars Original Trilogy

    Fantasy Movies:
    Lord of the Rings Trilogy (movies were good the books were better)
  • CoM_SolaufeinCoM_Solaufein Member Posts: 2,606
    Star Trek stuff
    DS9
    TNG
    VOY

    BSG the newer one not that crap from the 70's. I can't believe I liked that when I was a kid. The new series was awesome for the most part, except the last episode. Have mixed feelings on that.

    Buck Rogers. Buck was alright but I sure would have liked to have seen more of Wilma.

    Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Just when it was getting interesting those morons at Fox canceled it.

    X-Files
    Millennium
  • Metal_HurlantMetal_Hurlant Member Posts: 324
    Babylon 5 is the best for me.
  • MortiannaMortianna Member Posts: 1,356
    My Top Five:

    1. Star Trek: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY -- I haven't seen ENT and I refuse to watch the second Abrams movie after having seen his first abomination. Among many other things, I cannot stand Quinto as Spock! ~.~
    2. X-Files
    3. All of the old sci-fi/supernatural thriller anthologies: Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales from the Dark Side, etc.
    4. Doctor Who (esp. Tom Baker and David Tennant)
    5. Battlestar Galactica (I haven't seen the old ones yet, as I'm only in the 2nd season of the new series)
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited July 2013
    Mortianna said:

    My Top Five:

    1. Star Trek: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY -- I haven't seen ENT and I refuse to watch the second Abrams movie after having seen his first abomination. Among many other things, I cannot stand Quinto as Spock! ~.~

    Enterprise is alright in the first two seasons. This is when the series is very episodic. The third season is very serialised (it still had its interesting episodes/moments). The episodes were by in large nothing special (and the all encompassing storyline that stretches from Season 1 episode 1 to Season 4 episode 2 is kind of meh) though some of the characters were fun (Phlox and Shran namely). The fourth season is when its at its best (when I mean fourth season I mean not the first two episodes of the fourth season and absolutely not the last episode). The best way I could describe the series would be that they tried a little bit of everything; sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn't. Overall I liked it though and I wish it had ended with at least a fifth season.

    I agree the Abrams movies suck. Don't watch the new one whatever you do. Not because of Spock (I have no issues with Quinto) but because its basically just an action movie with a painful lack of substance. I grimace at the thought of Abrams directing the next Star Wars movie quite frankly.
  • TyranusTyranus Member Posts: 268
    My top 5 for...

    SCI-FI
    1. Star Wars - Wars tells a better STORY than Trek
    2. Star Trek - But Trek is our future! Wars really is just a magical land of space ninjas
    3. Stargate - I love both SG:1 and Atlantis, but I prefer the latter. Universe was terrible.
    4. Sliders - The show that got me into SCI-FI as a genere
    5. Dr. Who - Always a classic, although I don't care for Matt Smith half as much as I liked David Tennant.

    Fantasy
    1. Game of Thrones - It's by far the best fantasy series on television and will be for quite some time.
    2. Game of Thrones - There's tits and dragons and blood galore!
    3. Game of Thrones - Seriously, have you WATCHED this show!?
    4. The Walking Dead - This series is the pinnacle of the Zombie genre. It's really just a 36+ hour long movie at this point
    5. Spartacus - This is one of those shows that you have to be patient with. The first 4 episodes of each season tend to suck (with the exception of S2: Gods of the Arena, which was awesome from the start) but they get amazing towards the end of each season once you begin to care about the characters and the story. The director was quoted as saying he wanted to "out-'300', '300'", and he does.
  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376
    One that hasn't been mentioned that I remember fondly is:

    Quantum Leap
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    Probably Firefly and X-Files. I liked Fringe as well, but not to the extent of those.
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    Firefly was pretty awesome.... They should bring it back...

    Why has Terminator not been mentioned? Mad Max? Moonbase 9? Starfleet?
  • rexregrexreg Member Posts: 292
    edited August 2013
    Just curious to see what are peoples favourite sci-fi series....this is the original question the kicks things off...i rarely, if ever watch TV, so....
    my favourite SF series is the Dune books.
    Post edited by rexreg on
  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376
    Something Asimov for me if we are going books. Tough to pick between the Elijah Bailey/R. Daneel Olivaw books and the Foundation Series. I still resent the heck out of the I Robot Will Smith star vehicle (oh yeah, that Susan Calvin is such a babe! you go Will!).
  • SapphireIce101SapphireIce101 Member Posts: 866
    I love Star Trek. I like the Abrams Star Trek movies. Are they the best? No. Are they terrible? In my opinion, no. In fact, my favorite Star Trek movie is a tie between Wrath of Khan, and First Contact. As for Star Trek Series, I've watched most of them except for the Original Series.

    I loved Firefly. Nathan Fillion is an awesome actor.

    Battlestar Galactica is another one that I like, even though I really only watched a couple of episodes.

    Loved the X-files. I was really sad when it came to an end.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,530
    1. The X-Files
    2. The 4400
    3. Sliders
  • Night_WatchNight_Watch Member Posts: 514
    Strange Days at Blake Holsey High! that's about as sci-fi as i get =)
  • NeroNero Member Posts: 16
    1. Farscape -- How did you guys miss this!? Coolest show ever. Seriously.
    2. Star Trek TNG -- Love the characters, the best of the treks.
    3. The X-Files -- Arguably the most quality television series to date!
    4. Battlestar Galactica -- Interesting plot and characters, enjoyable to watch.
  • ErgErg Member Posts: 1,756
    Nero said:

    1. Farscape -- How did you guys miss this!? Coolest show ever. Seriously.

    This!
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    edited August 2013
    Nero said:

    1. Farscape -- How did you guys miss this!? Coolest show ever. Seriously.

    I didn't like it to be honest. I watched the first 5 episodes and stopped because I couldn't get into it. Same with Battlestar Galactica.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    I have to say I'm one who didn't like Galactica as well. Farscape on the other hand is one of those series I watched every episode and the specials as well :)
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    For Farscape I thought the dialog was rather flat and uninteresting. But I tried to watch Farscape after Firefly, so maybe I was somewhat spoiled by Firefly's incredible wittiness. And Ka D'argo's character annoyed me, and I hated him.
  • Magnus_GrelichMagnus_Grelich Member Posts: 361
    edited August 2013
    I love sci-fi, and many sci-fi shows, but for me, Babylon 5 was the one that I had a real emotional connection with. One that I never got with Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anything else.
    It made the characters - and the races - believable in a way no other show has been able to do.

    I do like to pretend 'Legend of the Rangers' never existed, though.:D

    In terms of books, however, I've been reading the 'Horus Heresy' series since it first came out. It has fleshed out the Warhammer 40K universe so immensely and vibrantly, and given new depth and meaning to the lore and factions. Even Chaos is portrayed with sympathy at times, at least among certain characters.:)
  • ErgErg Member Posts: 1,756
    Awong124 said:

    For Farscape I thought the dialog was rather flat and uninteresting. But I tried to watch Farscape after Firefly, so maybe I was somewhat spoiled by Firefly's incredible wittiness. And Ka D'argo's character annoyed me, and I hated him.

    I also watched Farscape after Firefly and I remember my fist opinion being that it was a nice show but not as good as Firefly.

    But the more I (re)watch it the more I liked it. Now for me Farscape is to tv shows what BG is to videogames, i.e. something you put aside for a while to watch/play something else but you always go back to it once and again to rewatch/replay it.
  • ErgErg Member Posts: 1,756
    Some other great (imo) sci-fi shows not yet mentioned in this discussion are in no particular order:

    Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: forget Firefly or the Avengers or Buffy, this is truly Joss Whedon's masterpiece!

    Day Break: Groundhog Day meets 24!

    Orphan Black: very interesting new show (only one season aired so far), terrific performance of Tatiana Maslany as the main protagonists (yes, plural)!
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