Your Best and Worst Sci-Fi TV Shows!

[Silver Moon]

Best:

1. Star Trek - TOS: Set a standard. Sure, you can nitpick about a lot of it but the episodes are still great fun to watch. Way ahead of its time.

2. Twilight Zone (Original) - Wonderful anthology series. A delight to watch.

3. Star Trek: DS9 - A masterpiece.

4. Quark - Quirky 1978 space satire brought to you by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Didn't last long but was a lot of fun. Galaxy Quest fans would enjoy it.

5. My Life and Times - Only ran for six episodes back in 1991 but I really enjoyed it. The premise was a man in a 2030's nursing home reflecting back upon key events of his life to his grandson.

Worst:

1. Galactica 1980 - Any show that depends upon Jerry Van Dyke exploring earth on a motorcycle has nowhere to go but down. And Cousin Oliver as the brains behind the missions didn't help much either

2. Land of the Giants - By far the weakest of Irwin Allen's quartet of consecutive 1960's sci-fi series. Bad acting and bad special effects. Most episode used the exact same plot (try to hide from giant people, get seen, get chased, get caught, escape).

3. The Lost Saucer - Mid-70's Saturday morning live action show starring Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi as aliens stuck on earth wearing costumes similar to today's Teletubbies.

4. Space 1999 - Very bad show all the way around. Bad premise, bad acting, even crappy miniatures (they had the toy model company make them for sale as a show tie-in and then used the same kits for the show).

5. Cleopatra 2525 - Everything about this show came off like a weak attempt to just recycle anything leftover from Xena/Hercules.

 

[Villano]

The only one I can remember that broke credibiity for me was Dianna Troi posing as a Romulan Tal'Shiar

Well, in that episode, she was kidnapped and forced to do it.

The one that bugs me is when Dr. Crusher had to solve the murder of the Ferengi scientist. The whole plot revolved around her suddenly becoming a "metaphasic field" (or somesuch) expert. For one episode, she's incredibly interested in engineering and attends a conference on the subject. She's also such an expert that she's the only one that can see worth in the Ferengi's theories. What the hell?

To me, it looks like they had a Geordi script lying around and rewrote it to Crusher, possibly because LeVar Burton wasn't available (he's conspicuously absent during the episode). She's Chief Engineer for a day. It was just a horrible idea.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Well, in that episode, she was kidnapped and forced to do it.

Right. But if you wanted that plan to succeed, it just strikes me that Dianna Troi is the last person you want to put in that job. Kidnapee or willing participant.

[edit to add] Though you're right in that the fact she was kidnapped makes the episode irrelevent in regards to Federation special ops.

The one that bugs me is when Dr. Crusher had to solve the murder of the Ferengi scientist. <snip>
To me, it looks like they had a Geordi script lying around and rewrote it to Crusher, possibly because LeVar Burton wasn't available (he's conspicuous absent during the episode). She's Chief Engineer for a day. It was just a horrible idea.

Heh. I remember that episode and thinking something similar. Though I didn't put together the missing LeVar with a a possible re-write of the episode.

[edit to add] This example doesn't really speak to special ops either, (though like mine, it does break credibility).

Now I need to try and think of some of the TNG episodes which did indeed involve crew members performing special ops. The Picard torture episode comes to mind. Possibly the one where Riker is posing as an alien on a pre-First Contact world...

 

[Raging Epistaxis]

Wow. Am I the only one here who likes Roswell?

No. I watched it fairly regularly and mostly enjoyed it too. But then again, I have been told that I am one of the least critical people around...

Ranking:
1 - B5 - Hands down my favorite space Sci-Fi -
2 - Stargate SG-1 Suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.
3 - ST:TNG - High points and low, but generally good stuff.

Rising Fast: Firefly - I could swear I had never heard of this show before my father-in-law got us the DVD set of the first(only?) season for Christmas. I've only watched the first episode so far but... wow. It might have given B5 a run for it's money if it had survived.

Honorable mention or Currently running: Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: Atlantis, ST: Enterprise(So much promise wasted. At this point it's kinda like a car sliding towards a brick wall. I know what's going to happen but I find myself compelled to watch anyway...)

I never got much into ST: TOS or Voyager - although I'd like to borrow the DS9 DVDs some day and watch them all. What little I saw of the show when it aired I liked. Terri Farrell (sp?) ... :drool: I had a major crush on her for the first season or so.

Trying to forget about: So many shows since the late 70's. How many wasted hours of my life will I never get back.

Can't say I've ever absolutely hated any show - I just don't watch it if I don't like it.

 

[Pants]

Now I need to try and think of some of the TNG episodes which did indeed involve crew members performing special ops. The Picard torture episode comes to mind. Possibly the one where Riker is posing as an alien on a pre-First Contact world...

Hrm.

The two-parter where Picard and Data look for Spock on the Romulan Homeworld.

The episode where Riker goes undercover on an alien world and gets put into an 'asylum.'


I can't think of any others, but the Picard Torture episode is classic.

 

[Villano]

Now I need to try and think of some of the TNG episodes which did indeed involve crew members performing special ops. The Picard torture episode comes to mind. Possibly the one where Riker is posing as an alien on a pre-First Contact world...

What about Ensign Ro going undercover as a member of the Maquis? Or the 2-parter where Picard infiltrates a gang of, um, pirates, I guess, as "Galen"? I can't remember the details, but Riker ends up pretending to go rogue and the device the pirates were after was some kind of ancient Vulcan telepathic weapon.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Now I'm going to see you in a weird barbarian hat every time I read one of your posts (for some reason, my dominant memory of those New Zealand shows).

Hmm... don't have a hat photo (though I did, indeed, wear plenty!), but will this do?

-Hyp.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

...my image of the Rules Smurf is forever changed...

 

[Kelleris]

...my image of the Rules Smurf is forever changed...

Truly, I have only myself to blame.

I gotta ask, though, were there ever some kind of warriors for one of the goddesses (Hera? Aphrodite? Eris?) that wore sort of leathery helmets that left their face visible but covered the rest of their head like a weird armory-headdress?

Okay, that's probably too odd a question to answer. But I can't think about Hercules or Xena without getting a flash of those helmets...

 

[jasper]

worst not mention yet
Jason of Star Command. Even the addition of Scotty in the second season did not help.