Top 50 Science Fiction TV Shows

pbaumgar writes "Boston.com is running an article discussing their top 50 Sci-Fi TV shows of all-time. What are some of your favorites?" From the article: "Number 10 -'Sliders. 'Sliders' should have been a widespread hit, but it was ahead of its time. The show was about a wiz-kid genius Quinn Mallory, played by Jerry O'Connell, and his band of three companions who slide among Earth's alternate realities. Toward the end of the series, the show quickly slid in quality as three of its stars - O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd and John Rhys-Davies - departed and were replaced by others. A tragic demise to a fine show." They don't even give a nod to greatest-trek-of-all-time DS9, so I don't know about this list.

Comments

Space Above and Beyond

[vspazv]

It only lasted a single season but I really liked Space, Above and Beyond.

Re:DS9???

[Dachannien]

I don't see why a sci-fi series shouldn't have a soap-operatic quality to it. Babylon 5 (and, on its heels, DS9) showed other sci-fi writers that a long-term, overarching plot is well-received by many sci-fi fans. Witness Voyager, on the other hand, where the only thing tying the shows together was this "Oh Noes, We're A Bazillion Light Years From Home" thing, while five minutes before the end of every episode they pushed the Magic Reset Button to solve their problem and restore the plot to the way it was when the episode started.

These days, every episode of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica (some of the most popular current sci-fi) is based on the entire series up until that point (in fact, the first line in most episodes of SG-1 these days is Chris Judge saying, "Previously, on Stargate SG-1...").

Besides, the soap operatic plot of most sci-fi shows holds up to scrutiny a lot better than most actual soap operas: "I love you, but.... I have amnesia!"

Re:Full Listing

[Aphrika]

Top 10 missing ones:

Red Dwarf
Blake's 7
Battle of the Planets (C'mon, Futurama's in there!)
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
DS9
Lexx
The Prisoner
Seaquest DSV
Stingray
Captain Scarlett

Seems someone's got selective-memoryitis...

Re:No Max Headroom?

[sTalking_Goat]

Max Headroom would have defenitely gotten my vote. But this list is shit anyway. Voyager is 12 but Firefly is 17? Blasphemey.

Re:No Max Headroom?

[LWATCDR]

Yea That is a crime. They also left out.
Red Dwarf.
Blake's Seven.
Star Cops. I really liked that one from the BBC.
Both series called Probe. Probe from the 80s was written by Asimov no less. I didn't remember Probe from the 70s until I looked up the one from the 80s. It could be redone today.
You also had Time Tunnel from the 60s
I dream of Jeanne! Think about it. It had fantasy, the guy was an Astronaut. It was as much science fiction as say Buffy, or Third Rock. It was also very popular.
And the almost forgotten Planet of the Apes TV series.
And of course a HUGE Hit show that seems to be totaly forgotten from the list... Mork and Mindy!