Best Sci Fi show current or past?

[nightbladered]

So I didn't see this in the forum already(sorry if its already there and I am just blind) so I thought I would open it up.

For me I have 2 that I can't seem to pick between.

1. Stargate SG1
2. Doctor Who

Both rock, and while I don't like the new stargate spin off, I love the first show. I am just sad at how it ended.

And as for Doctor Who, well I love the new ones just as much as I loved watching the old ones.

[RobM]

I find 'best of all time' very hard to define.

I prefer to stick with shortlists and never have to pick a specific best.

But for what its worth, while I love SG-1, the old Doctor Who's, old british sci-fi like Quatermass...
The best ever sci-fi bar none was Red Dwarf.

Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf.

[nightbladered]

Best is defined easily, its best as the person posting thinks it is.

[RobM]

...yes, thank you nightbladered for that contribution to my written english.

I know what the word means, the problem is that except for some very simplistic people the very best is very hard to define, to nail down, to state exactly.
Hell, you yourself posted TWO ultimate favourites, even you have written you can't decide between them!

I'm actually usually very susicious of people who say that something is their favourite/best ever because very often two weeks later they've changed their minds. The 'best ever' is decided mentally as a mix of childhood nostalga, recent exposure, recent examples of an interdimentional travel series being terrible making another similar-but-not-very-good interdimentional travel series seem a lot better by comparison in your mind, friends suggestions, what you read on MySpace, what you think of the actors playing the characters in it and whether any of them have been arrested recently and what you think will make you look cool for liking.

Being unable to choose between two or three items is very healthy. People who declare that they are able to compile a list of something and even choose a top-ten order tend to change their favourite of all time quicker than they can post it. Since even you have two 'best ever at time of posting's I'd imagine you should cut some slack to people who find 'best' hard to define.

If you'd chosen any other topic like books or movies I'd have found it utterly impossible to give you a best-ever list of either shorter than five. Sci-fi for me - uniquely - only has one answer: Red Dwarf.

But thats the exception~

[iconoclast]

For me, nothing compares to Farscape. I would not only rate it as my favorite sci-fi show of all time, but also as my favorite TV show period. The writing was tremendous and the characters were engaging. Even Rigel and Pilot are such well developed and skillfully executed characters that you tend to forget they are puppets. At least I did. Somehow the show managed to be funny without being overly silly while at the same time being dramatic without going overboard and becoming maudlin or preachy.

I think what I like best about the show is the overall feel of it. I grew up watching Star Trek and as good as it has been in all its incarnations, there was always something about it that was just not quite right for me. It just seemed sort of sterile. The ships were so clean and everything they did was so regimented. Bound by their starfleet regulations and "The Prime Directive" the characters seemed more like bureaucrats or possibly even the brain-washed products of some kind of Orwellian society than space explorers. The characters on Farscape, on the other hand, seem more like real people faced with real problems. Their ship, their surroundings, even their costumes reflect an organic, chaotic and somehow more tangible existence. They have moral dilemmas, but these usually relate more to their personal convictions than any ever-present societal law like the Prime Directive. Only the Peacekeepers have that sort of mindset, but of course they are meant to be a fascists. Thats why they were the bad guys for much of the show. Call me an anarchist, but it seems to me that if there were a powerful militrary organization that controlled vast sectors of inhabited space, it would be more like the corrupt and brutal Peacekeepers than the altruistic Federation.

While I'm off on this tangent, maybe somebody can answer me this. Why is it that they never had seat belts for any of the bridge chairs on Star Trek? Their ships go many times faster than the speed of light, they are always crashing into things and getting knocked around during battles, yet no seat belts! I realize its more dramatic to see Kirk and Picard and all them flinging themselves across the bridge when they get hit by a photon torpedo, but where's the emphasis on safety? Surely they have the technology to make a good safety harness. I'm not saying they have to wear them all the time, but how about buckling up when there's a red alert? Probably lose fewer members of the crew that way.

Back to Farscape. The development of the storyline was unequalled in sci-fi past of present. In the first season, the episodes were much like those on Star Trek or Stargate. Each stood alone and you could watch them in any order because their was very little change in the overall characters. Then, with the introductions of Scorpius and Stark, everything started to change. The flow of the plot became one continuous story arc. There were still 'stand alone' episodes occasionally, but more often than not developments happened in every episode that reverberated through the rest of story.

And as if all that weren't enough, I submit that the women of Farscape were hotter than those on any other sci-fi program, bar none. Sure, some or those Star Trek babes looked good in their ultra-tight uniforms, but the women in Farscape were sexy not just because of how they looked, but because of who they were: a thieving, nymphomaniac on the run from a conformist society, a pair of red-headed intellectual brats who think they're superior to everyone around them and or course a leather-wearing, tough-as-nails commando who just happens to be the main female character and the romantic lead on the show.

---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 PM ----------

BTW, Red Dwarf was hilarious. Watch the clip below at your own risk. I haven't seen it in years, yet I still can't get the Rimmer song out of my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhSHsIKf2e4

[nightbladered]

Originally Posted by RobM

...yes, thank you nightbladered for that contribution to my written english.

I know what the word means, the problem is that except for some very simplistic people the very best is very hard to define, to nail down, to state exactly.
Hell, you yourself posted TWO ultimate favourites, even you have written you can't decide between them!

I'm actually usually very susicious of people who say that something is their favourite/best ever because very often two weeks later they've changed their minds. The 'best ever' is decided mentally as a mix of childhood nostalga, recent exposure, recent examples of an interdimentional travel series being terrible making another similar-but-not-very-good interdimentional travel series seem a lot better by comparison in your mind, friends suggestions, what you read on MySpace, what you think of the actors playing the characters in it and whether any of them have been arrested recently and what you think will make you look cool for liking.

Being unable to choose between two or three items is very healthy. People who declare that they are able to compile a list of something and even choose a top-ten order tend to change their favourite of all time quicker than they can post it. Since even you have two 'best ever at time of posting's I'd imagine you should cut some slack to people who find 'best' hard to define.

If you'd chosen any other topic like books or movies I'd have found it utterly impossible to give you a best-ever list of either shorter than five. Sci-fi for me - uniquely - only has one answer: Red Dwarf.

But thats the exception~

I have a few movies I really like but my all time favorite is still Monty python and the holy grail.

As for books, well I could give you a few favorite book series but I couldn't give you a single favorite book.

[kager]

Let's see there are a lot of good one's

Startgate sg1
Stargate Atlantis
Star trek Enterprise
Buck Rogers

And, in my opinion the best Battlestart Galactica (The old one with Dirk Benedict as Starbuck)

[greyrain]

Originally Posted by RobM

The best ever sci-fi bar none was Red Dwarf.

Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf. Red Dwarf.

YES! That show was awesome!

[Circe]

I'm another fan of Red Dwarf, Farscape, Stargate Atlantis and Dr Who. Some Star Trek I liked, some I didn't.

I remember an old British show that used to air on PBS here called Blake's Seven, I rilly liked that series. The main character was a framed fugitive on the show, but it was the rest of the characters that kept my attention. The evil brunette vixen who was the main villain, Servalan, she was hot and intelligent, a nice combo. The nervous thief, I think his name was Viller or Vila. The pragmatic Avon, computer whiz and cold realist. The telepath girl, can't remember her name.

It was a dark and well written series. I'd like to watch it again after all of these years.

And lest I forget, I'll mention The Lexx. Just because it was odd enough and gross enough to keep me watching. Although I didn't rilly like the replacement girl for the Zev role, the original actress was better I thought.

[Lorie]

Depends on what you mean by "show" , if we're talking live action that would have to be Dr.Who. But that's because I have a hard time paying attention to Sci-fi shows and they don't (that I've seen) get to technical. I have started watching Firefly recently and that is edging into a favorite(can watch multiple times without cringing) place. Again, I don't seek out Sci-fi "shows" so my list is pretty short.

My partner is a techno guy and most the time I just sort of tune him out unintentionally when he talks about computer stuff (that's my example of how A.D.D riddled I am).