Your Best and Worst Sci-Fi TV Shows!

[Thanee]

Nice job with the make-up there. Your blue skin isn't showing through...

Bye
Thanee

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I like Firefly, I like Star Trek: The Next Generation. I like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and I like what I've seen of Stargate: SG1.

I don't care for much else. I dislike what I've seen of Babylon 5 and Farscape.

 

[billd91]

I notice that the two people who rated Red Dwarf in their Top 5 Worst are American. Seeing as my brain can not comprehend someone not liking the antics of the crew of the Small Rouge One can I put this down to the eternal American/British humour conflict?

Otherwise I'm very, very confused.

Nope. As someone raised on PBS, I can assure you that I'm well acquainted with British humor spaning 5 decades. I've tried to like Red Dwarf, but it's just not in me. I'd rather toss Black Adder into the DVD player

 

[kenc]

MacGyver saving the world from all manner of alien threats I could buy into. Col. O'Neil is another matter. He's a complete idiot, who needs technobabble explained to him--sometimes repeatedly--that even I, an English Major who hasn't taken an advanced science class in his life--can easily understand. He's a bad tactician, a bad leader, and a moron. And he's in charge of the most important combat/diplomatic special ops team in history? Riiiight.

Lord Pendragon,

Maybe you should give SG1 another chance, if you really believe O'Neil is like you describe you have missed, completly, some of the more subtle aspects of his personality and abbilities. He is not an idiot ( it is a clasic ploy, his enemies dismiss him out of hand to their chargrin). He does not need technobabble explaned to him I think he just likes to have Sam close by and the best way to do that is to have her explain things over and over, heck I would keep Amanda close too

Ok I am not an English Major so do not rip my grammer, spelling or use of words

Do give it another chance.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I notice that the two people who rated Red Dwarf in their Top 5 Worst are American. Seeing as my brain can not comprehend someone not liking the antics of the crew of the Small Rouge One can I put this down to the eternal American/British humour conflict?

Otherwise I'm very, very confused.

Doubtful. Blackadder and Monty Python are my PVR's 'record whenever you find them' list. Rowan Atkinson may be the second funniest man to ever live, after Cleese. Love H2G2 in all it's incarnations. It just takes more than a wierd accent for me to find it funny (although it helps)

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Lord Pendragon,

Maybe you should give SG1 another chance, if you really believe O'Neil is like you describe you have missed, completly, some of the more subtle aspects of his personality and abbilities. He is not an idiot ( it is a clasic ploy, his enemies dismiss him out of hand to their chargrin). He does not need technobabble explaned to him I think he just likes to have Sam close by and the best way to do that is to have her explain things over and over, heck I would keep Amanda close too

I respectfully disagree with everything you've said above. Analyzing character, subtle aspects of personality, etc., is what English Majors do. He is an idiot. Note that he is an idiot regardless of whether he's speaking with his enemies, or safe within the SGC. He does need to have the technobabble explained to him multiple times, and it has nothing to do with Sam. There are plenty of scenes where the individual providing the re-babbling is Daniel, or Thor, or some random scientist, although Sam is certainly the most common culprit.

I had this discussion with a friend once, who is a staunch lover of the show. In the end he admitted that all my gripes about the show were true, but that he enjoyed the adventure of the show, the production design, the humor, and the characters--however implausible. I can respect that. We each of us value different aspects of a story or TV show in our own way. Not everyone values a cohesive and intelligent plot as highly as I do. Not everyone is as bothered by silly, exaggerated characters as I am.

In contrast, some folks enjoy a sense of adventure, despite all these things. Some folks appreciate slapstick humor, in spite of these things. And yes, some folks prefer Dumb and Dumber over Memento

Do give it another chance.

The sad thing is, I've seen quite a number of SG-1 episodes. I've been living with my dad the last two years due to illness, and he likes SG-1, so I'd say I've seen a good two seasons' worth of episodes. I've given it all the chance it's going to get.

 

[Brakkart]

Best

Babylon 5 - Excellent plot arc, scripts, acting and SFX. What every show should aspire to equal. Got every show on VHS, now getting the DVD's.
Firefly - Completely different take on the future, great instantly likeable and recognisable characters. Very refreshing.
Battlestar Galactica 2.0 - Didn't think it would work, boy am I happy to be proved wrong!
X-Men Evolution - Superb storytelling, just criminal that this series got cut short like it did.
Lost - Completely gripping storytelling, and it makes me think, which is always good.

Worst

Star Trek - Any of them except for DS9 (and even that had more than its fair share of rubbish episodes).
Andromeda - *shudders*
Farscape -aka Muppets in Space... whoever came up with this show should be dragged out into the street and shot!
Space 1999 - More like Space $19.99 as that had to be the budget per episode. Just awful!
The X-Files - The best example there is of a show trying to stretch a small amount of plot out for as long as it can.

 

[D+1]

Best

X Files
Star Trek (TOS)
Star Trek (TNG)
Red Dwarf

Can't really nominate anything else as I either did NOT consider it really great SF or simply haven't seen them. E.g., Babylon 5 falls into the latter category. I'd probably really enjoy the hell out of it, but while it was on I never saw more than a few minutes of even a single episode. After missing most of the first season I just decided not to try playing catch-up.

Worst

X Files - For the same reasons that someone else put it on both best and worst lists. The last few seasons of the show it absolutely failed to do a bloody thing worth watching. Asking question after question, piling mystery on mystery, wrapping riddles in enigmas in conundrums and never giving you a thread that actually starts to unravel anything or answer any questions... and the single most disappointing, lame, useless series ender that they could possibly have invented if they'd actually tried.
Buck Rogers - Oh, God! The Seventies! The SEVENTIES!
Transformers

I'll think up some more and file a report tomorrow...

 

[Qlippoth]

Worst
...
Buck Rogers - Oh, God! The Seventies! The SEVENTIES!
.

I painfully recall an episode where the height of court entertainment included the 25th century's ultimate art form: Roller disco with silky sashes.

 

[Testament]

BEST in no particular order.

Battlestar Galactica: New series, I've never seen the original. Amazing, gritty, intelligent and intense sci-fi. This is war, and the crew of the Galactica are flying by the seat of their pants in some great stories. I'll never forgive them for having Boomer be a Cylon though, she's too cute to be a cyborg!

The X-Files: The hell with the metaplot, the individual episodes were top-notch, often slyly humorous sci-fi/thriller/horror stories. And Mulder and Scully made a great duo.

Stargate SG-1: Its not intellectual, or ground-breaking, but dear god its fun! I love sitting back and enjoying another ripping adventure story about the team. Would be even better if they knew when to keep someone dead (I'm looking at YOU Apophis!).

Robotech/Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Wow. This series shaped my childhood and started my long love affair with anime. Main characters die, the heroes get thrashed regularly. All the wastefulness and horror of war captured in a fantastic space opera epic.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Can it really be called sci-fi? Sure, all the trappings are there, but at the end of the day its a spiritual and psychological human drama. The lives of the children and those around them are steadily ripped apart and put together only to be smashed again. One of the only shows to really emotionally move me on a regular basis. I'll never forget hurling the TV guide at the screen and shouting "HE'S NOT WORTH IT!" during "Tear".

Red Dwarf: Oh smeg. No rhyme or reason to it, but any show that features this kind of stupidity and hillarity has to get my vote. And how can you not love Kryten and The Cat?

I'll now confess that I've never seen Babylon 5. On my list of things to do at the end of the year.

WORST, in no particular order.

The X Files: I said forget the metaplot, but when it drags a great show into the toilet like this one did, it's hard to do so. After the movie it just kept getting worse and worse until it bore no resemblance to its origins.

Star Trek Voyager: Way to ruin all the potential that you had with the original concept guys!

Mutant X: Just typing it make me want to wash my hands. Nothing good about it, bad scripting, no plot, lame characters...

Star Trek Deep Space 9: More like Deep Sleep 9. I watched the entire first series WAITING for something interesting to happen. Gave up, I might give it another try some time considering how long ago it was, and how much praise its gotten here.