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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.
Slashdot is not a place for a reasonable discussion of Sci-Fi shows. This might hurt someone's karma...
I have freaks! I did something right...
Dr Who was relegated to number 8 while Stargate got number 6?! Something is very wrong with this list.
Wah??
Moore's better baby did pretty damn well.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
There are better sci fi shows than Farscape, but there aren't 50 sci fi shows better than Farscape. What a horrible omission from that list.
Come on, they put the Thunderbirds in front of Futurama... That's just wrong.
It only lasted a single season but I really liked Space, Above and Beyond.
They have a pretty weird definition of science fiction. I mean, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? Mystery Science Theater 3000? Tales from the Crypt? Avengers? Batman? Buffy? Why not Friends while you're at it? I mean, a New York without any colored people?
Je ne parle pas francais.
Buffy the vampire (s)layer a sci-fi-show? I suspect they pulled this list out of their ass..
I'm sorry, and I'm sure this is beating a dead horse, but Superman, Batman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, et als. are not SCIENCE FICTION. Granted, there may be a correlation between the viewership of said shows, but these shows don't even pretend to be futuristic, or contain a science element at all. Batman, maybe, but I hate it when people lump these things all under the "sci fi" umbrella. This is why we have all this horror shlock on the Sci-Fi channel and things like Farscape get cancelled.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
But have you seen the list?
A lot of those shows aren't Science Fiction.
The top ten of this list I can agree with. Lost isn't even close to sci-fi, but man, how do you leave off Lexx from this list? Nothing grabbed my attention(and made me cover myself with a pillow) more than that show did.
I really hate Dan Patrick.
I watched it once, it was too alien to me.
Synapsis: This head alien interrogates others like it regarding its numerous abuses by Man. Freaky episodes about the aliens' fashion, body morphing in their latter life stage, even discussions about how they can get their alien race to win the Presidency.
Eerie.
Um, they ranked the new BSG #2.
Greatest 50, my arse! Where's The Prisoner?
Hands down, Farscape. Well-thought-out, well-scripted, believable aliens, and an interesting ship. 'S a crying shame that the SciFi channel pulled the plug. I really miss it. It made cable tv worth the money - that, and F1 racing.
:( #6 just refused to cave in, and he won... or did he?
Next best is an oldie: The Prisoner. If you're under 40, you likely missed it.
Lemon curry?
I can't believe no one seems to have mentioned this yet, slashdot is not normally short of firefly fanboys. Not that it actually deserves top spot, that should belong to Babylon 5, with Blake's 7 in second, but IMO firefly should still have made top 10
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!"
Xena, though a fine show, is hardly a science fiction. It has none of the technology, exploration of current social problems, or even exploration of various cultures. Pretty much it just a medeival cop show.
Sliders was not ahead of it's time. It was just another huckleberry finn, star trek, docotor who knockoff with none of the redeeming factors. It is quite suitable for the adolecent maile, with a good role model, a pretty girl into geeks, and trivial story line. However, there are no layers that might make it interesting to an adult. The writing was woodden, even by scifi standards.
One contemporary scifi show that is seldom mentioned is 'The Cape'. Based on reality, good exploration life, and how we might move forward. Much more interesting than anything I saw on that list, though the show only works if you ignore current reality, as is true for most scifi.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
From scovetta.blogspot.com:
50. 'Earth - Final Conflict'
49. 'The Wild Wild West'
48. '3rd Rock From The Sun'
47. 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'
46. 'That Was Then'
45. 'The Greatest American Hero'
44. 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'
43. 'Nowhere Man'
42. 'Science Fiction Theatre'
41. 'Futurama'
40. 'The Thunderbirds'
39. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'
38. 'Batman'
37. 'Space 1999'
36. 'The Bionic Woman'
35. 'Battlestar Galactica' (Original)
34. 'The Avengers'
33. 'Lost In Space'
32. 'My Favorite Martian'
31. 'Alien Nation'
30. 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'
29. 'The Six Million Dollar Man'
28. 'Adventures of Superman'
27. 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
26. 'Stargate Atlantis'
25. 'The Jetsons'
24. 'Wonder Woman'
23. 'Tales from the Crypt'
22. 'Andromeda'
21. 'Quantum Leap'
20. 'The Hitchhiker'
19. 'Dark Angel'
18. 'V'
17. 'Firefly'
16. 'Flash Gordon'
15. 'Logan's Run'
14. 'Star Trek Voyager'
13. 'The Outer Limits'
12. 'Xena: Warrior Princess'
11. 'Lost'
10. 'Sliders'
9. 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'
8. 'Dr. Who'
7. 'The Twilight Zone'
6. 'Stargate SG-1'
5. 'Babylon 5'
4. 'The X-Files'
3. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
2. 'Battlestar Galactica' (New)
1. 'Star Trek' (Original)
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
"I like SF. I love intelligent SF," Rhys-Davies says in his deep basso voice. "When you come across good writing, and I think 'Scorpion' was finely written, it's a wonderful thing. I had just come through a period where the contractual nature of my job obliged me to take scripts that frankly wouldn't get past Writing 101. We had the most wonderful series concept with Sliders, but we did everything that had been done before and we did it every damned episode. We did Species. We did Tremors. We did Twister. We did War of the Worlds. We did The Island of Dr. Moreau. It was out of control, just out of control.
"I think Tracy did a nice job early on. We had our differences and we fought occasionally. In the end, Sliders wasn't the worst experience I ever had. I was just disappointed. Again, I love SF. I'm a passionate believer in Sliders. The series could have been great. The public always understood the of Sliders. The public understood that you could go anywhere in the galaxy. The writers, though, would try to graft a Law and Order story, or something they had done or seen before, onto Sliders and just make the characters work around it."
1. Post list of top 50 things a geek cares about.
/.
..., just straight profit from the geeks clicking through 50 pages of ads.
1a. doesn't matter how accurate or well researched the list is
2. Make list available one item per time on a page heavy with ads
3. Post link to
4. There is no
IANAL, but I play one on
You do realize that arguing about this list makes you sound like the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons, right? I'm serious. Just read some of the threads in his voice, and it sounds like a custom-made script, a soliloquy of unrequited geek passion.
..and they missed the best fantasy show of them all.
It was already going hill and that's why John Rhys Davies left. He wanted Sliders to continue to be good science fiction and venture into more solid, hard science fiction whereas the rest of the powers that be wanted the show to be more light and fluffy and typical crap that qualifies, these days, as scifi. So, he left.
I've always liked him, but after that decision, I gained a lot of respect for him as a professional. And the fact that they couldn't keep a solid cast stringed together afterward just shows how important he actually was to the series. I mean, every week it was a different person out of the cast and another in. Including the two O'Connell brothers.
But at least the show had the super hot military chick. Yum.
Where is The Prisioner? I mean it's not exatly Sci-fi, but neither is this list, and at least it was innovative.
The only good Star Trek was TNG - and that's only in comparison to the other Star Trek spinoffs. Otherwise, comparing Star Trek series is like comparing the color of different shits. Yes, there are slight differences, but they're all still steaming turds.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
Yeah. Don't the writers know that TV is about pure, accurate depictions of science? You'd think they were trying to entertain us or something! Stupid unenlightened TV writers!
That's why I only watch PBS and listen to NPR -- so I can be safe from entertainment and news about regular people.
I kinda enjoyed the old BSG, but I have to agree, I find the new one fairly unwatchable.
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-Vendal Thornheart
Well we (you and me too) are all here on a Saturday afternoon reading (and replying to) Slashdot, ya know. That's already pretty nerdy and kinda implies we don't have too much of a life to begin with.
DS9 was superior to all of the Treks. You can't beat the Dominion War arc that spanned the last 3 seasons. All the characters were great, though I was disappointed they killed off Jadzia and replaced her with Ezri. Though I'll admit maybe they overdid it with Vic's sometimes, the one where they have to put the jack-in-the-box away was pretty good. Ronald Moore writes great storylines.
Voyager was pretty bad, I thought. I can't believe they put that in the top 50 and not DS9. Too many episodes about the doctor or how holograms have taken over their ship. I mean, how many times did Voyager get captured by aliens in the delta quadrant? I remember one episode in particular about how they had an opportunity to return to the alpha quadrant via a wormhole, but a couple of Ferengi in an inferior ship outsmarted the Voyager crew and they ended up not being able to return home themselves. And don't even get me started on that one episode where Paris mutates into a frog and impregnates Janeway...
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Shows like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone were not always sci-fi, but when they were, they were usually the absolute best. Cutting out these shows would be like cutting Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and others from a list of the best rock music, because some of their music wasn't rock.
I have never understood why so many people seem to believe that "sci-fi" must include aliens or space ships to be sci-fi. Sci-fi often becomes confused with fantasy.
If we were to make a list of "best" sci-fi, and strictly adhered to them being actual sci-fi, I do not believe you could get a list of 50 if you limited yourself to television. In order to have a list with any meaning, you would have to seperate the truly great from shows that either failed entirely, or were never able to garner more than a niche audience. And because of the non-linear nature of the best specimens of sci-fi (Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, etc - shows that were not dedicated to sci-fi-only), you would be forced to either include these sometimes-sci-fi shows, or admit that your list just lost it's heaviest hitters.
In such a list, I get the feeling that Farscape MIGHT only stand a chance of getting in. As for Lexx, First Wave, this new BSG, and many of the other shows experiencing a brief period of popularity or who have a dedicated and vocal but small audience... they wouldn't stand a chance.
As for Stargate, I never personally got into the show, but it would most likely make it into such a list intact. It's probably the only currently running show that would.
And dammit Star Trek SHOULD be at the top of the list. No one can say another sci-fi show has had a greater impact. Twilight Zone would be next in line, then probably Lost In Space (another show I never loved, but has stood the test of time).
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
When will these Sci-Fi "critics" finally live up to their lofty edifice and recognize Lost Saucer as one of the greats?
Someday, Ruth Buzzy and Jim Neighbors will get their due.
Great, now I feel old.... (I remember The Invaders first-run) .... The Invaders was one of the very first SF series to achieve mainstream acceptance and commercial success, as it generated an audience among folk who normally only watched soaps and dramas.
I agree with someone above who said that this article was for the purpose of generating traffic, and the list was pretty much pulled out of their ass. That is, it's whatever shows they could remember offhand, with no research whatsoever, and probably by a mainstream TV type rather than a viewer who gravitates toward SF as such.
And mind you, I'm not a purist who says it has to have Science and Social Issues and can't have Fantasy or Whatever -- to me, "Science Fiction" is a broad enough umbrella to cover all these and many more, including a lot of fringe subgenres (yes, folks, The Original Wild Wild West was SF, despite initial appearances. Actually, there have been several SF series set in a Western environment.)
Side thought: one reason some SF series are dull is because they ARE "purist SF" and contain nothing but science and the future, without any concern for who *lives* there.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was SF in the same way that The Wild Wild West was (in fact they were very similar series, just set in different environments) -- in that both frequently had "futuristic" (with respect to the era the show is set in) villains, and futuristic villains' gadgetry.
:)
So yeah, these shows are borderline by any standard, and don't fit the purist definition of SF. But under the broad definition of SF as any sort of non-mundane fiction ("we know it when we see it"), they both fit.
At the time I didn't see this, but in retrospect, I do. Perspective is a wonderful thing.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Holy crap, that's the most pretentious sounding post I've ever read on /. Good job on cramming "Shakespeare", "classic writers", "refined", and "caviar" into a posting about Sci Fi.
The basic concept for Sliders was around before George R. R. Martin. And while it's true that Sliders failed in some basic ways, the unfortunate fact is that most SF shows fail in at least one basic way, a way that leaves most of us thinking on some level that we could have done better. Sliders has its stagnation, DS9 has an overly soap-opera bent to its episodes (and has Sisko doing a faint Captain Kirk impression for every 2 out of 5 episodes). Although it wasn't the audio-visual equivalent of Dune or Ender's Game / Shadow or Song of Ice and Fire, as far as SF TV goes, especially for its day, Sliders was awesome.
Don't get me wrong, Enterprise jumped the shark on occasion (alien Nazis), but at least Enterprise had a little humor, characters with personality, and story arcs about characters you actually cared about. They were just occasionally a little too far-fetched.
DS9, by contrast, when it wasn't devolving into wormhole fantasy and pseudo-spiritual Bajoran mythos crap, could just as easily have happened in 20th century Earth if you substitute the Chunnel for the wormhole and convince the military to fly jets through it. There was nothing futuristic about it. It was just a protracted war with an enemy who was basically evil by design rather than actually a war over something tangible like territory. It's basically the war on terror, only with an even less well-defined objective.
The characters were wooden, the story lines boring, and the whole Dax changeover ranks right up there with the whole baby switching thing. The whole series read like gratuitous verbal masturbation by Berman and Friends. If DS9 is the best Trek has to offer, the franchise should just die now and for all time.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I won't complain about the possibility of a Sci Fi being a soap opera.
Babylon 5 was not a soap opera. Babylon 5 was a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Towards the end of B5 you can definitely see all of the pieces being moved off of the board one by one.
A soap opera is not going anywhere. Things just keep happening. You can keep it up for as long as you want. Characters can come and go. The basic direction can change. This is very different than a novel, or Babylon 5.
DS 9 might be a soap opera. (I quit watching after 2nd season due to liking B5 better and had insufficient time for both DS9 and B5.) I don't know if DS9 was a soap opera. Was the story working its way towards any overall conclusion?
This brings me to the new Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if it is like B5 in that there is a distinct conclusion that they are heading towards? Maybe so, but maybe they don't have a plan for getting there? Will they drive off into the ditch along the way and never get to the conclusion. I sure hope not. I would be very disappointed in investing time to watch it.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Now I've tried it(Battlestar Galactica). Thanks to some of these people, I've watched MANY episodes of it, and I understand it less each time. How can even average-smart people put up with such terrible writing? Such stupid plots and stupider plot holes? Such transparent and flacid attempts to be edgy and gritty? Such... lack of immagination?
(edit mine)
In contrast to the origional series aka Wagon Train in Space staring Lorne Greene? A boy and his mechanical dog? And evil inverse video goat man? Making it a point to create perfectly reflective robots without regard to lighting resulting in having to use colored filters so you couldn't see the crew? Recycled special effects from the movie which employed recycled special effects. Not to speak of Galactica 1980 who had a group of kids farm with their super strength or play baseball and win to avoid detection from the goverment. Or worse yet "You're pregnant? How is this possible? Must have been devine intervention!" Can you say a transparent attempt to prevent kids from finding out where babies come from?
I know there are fans of the old series who might be offended, but let's face it BSG 1979 had some awful moments and the new series in many regards is an improvement. I agree it shouldn't get a #2 spot. It's too new and hasn't had long enough to prove itself.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
It's MUCH better than Xena which ranked 12.
Us Brits were just lucky I guess. Blake's 7 was the ultimate anti-Star Trek. Here Blake and his dubious crew of criminals and freedom fighters/terrorists took on the all-powerful Big-Brother-esque Federation.
In the first episode our hero is set up as a post mind-wipe former rabble rouser that witnesses the mass murder of a secret meeting of dissidents. The authorities have him set up as a child molester, destroy him and his reputation and then ship him off to a penal colony (after having his lawyer and the lawyer's wife killed off because they were getting in the way).
Dark enough for you? That's just the first episode. Written by Terry Nation, mind behind the better Doctor Who stories amongst many other things, this series has all the depth and tension that you could possibly hope for. Of course the special effects look very dated and they seemed to find every last disused quarrry and scrap of wasteland left in England to film in.
Even if you're not much of a sci-fi fan, I highly recommend it.
Absoultely. DS-9 started off weak, but once the long plot lines were developed (more than one) the show became a great ones. Not only that, the magic reset button can totally ruin a show (mucking about with time for example to reset for example. SG-1, for example, has done this at least twice, and both times they did not fit well with the rest of the plot.
In a book, that's what can make a great book, is a well-defined plot line that goes from start to end. We should expect that of a series (any, not just sci-fi), not just the individual shows that make up a series.
Sliders was a show that had a magic reset button (the slide at the end) but tried to develop a long plot line (besides the slide home) , but didn't quite succeed. I have heard that network executives also got involved to be able to switch the order of the shows, which is why after the first couple shows you never saw the lead-in to the next show. You instead, possibly got a tease starter or ender: hints about what happened on the previous planet, but wasn't an episode or hints about the next planet, also not an episode. That plus the main characters leaving were a sure demise.
Stargate and Stargate Atlantis don't focus on that underlying plot line, but it is there. Not necessarily linking every show, but it does provide some development of the characters. Case in point, the 'two hour season finales' for both the past two weeks. Two one-hour shows, the second of which was a finale. Little linking, between them.
Battlestar Galactica focuses on it, where nearly every show depends heavily on the previous one. Makes you need to see each episode when it runs.
So true about actual soaps' reset buttons. At least the sci-fi resets are a little more plausible (though I still hate most of the time travel ones).
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
Outer Limits never portrayed technology as evil, it just used technology to show the darker side of humanity.
That's a good indicator of what sci-fi is when at it's best... not stories about cool futuristic technologies, but stories about how technology affects the way we think and interact with eachother.
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
This isn't really a story; its just a bunch of blurbs about show plots with actually no commentary whatsoever. I clicked through fifty pages of that nonsense hoping to find some meat to it, but I hath been led down a path of ad impressions and wasted time. From now on I'm boycotting all thigns Boston, except when the Sox play the Yankees, and then only to root for the Yankees. Thats right Boston.com, I said go Yankees.
On a slightly more relevent note, I just marathoned like seven episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica on my DVR, and I think it might actually be the best show on TV, including those edgy shows on cable where they show boobies. Its that good.
This show, more than anything else, caused me to pursue a career in engineering. The whole idea that science and engineering could restore a man who lost two legs, an arm and an eye to full function convinced me that the way for me to make a difference in the world was to learn how to design electronics and robotics. I'll admit that 30 years later, we still haven't created technology equal to that depicted on the show, but that doesn't change my opinion that the only way to improve the human condition is through intelligent application of engineering.
I am not a crackpot.
A lot of those shows aren't Science Fiction.
Agreed. I can't believe Farscape didn't make the list while shows like Wild Wild West, the Man from UNCLE, and the Avengers did. The Prisoner was far more SciFi than the Avengers, and that didn't make the list either. While I liked the other shows, they were not science fiction. While the original Star Trek probably deserves the top spot, the only other show that had fans actively protesting and trying to reverse its cancellation was Farscape.
The first Star Trek series where the Federation wasn't the only superpower in the galaxy, where there's no black and white and you can't force others to do the "right thing", but instead have to deal and negotiate with others and sometimes accept other cultures and different behaviour that you don't like
;-)
I understand that this isn't very popular in the US
Agreed. Red Dwarf belongs near the top.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
Number 27: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
Number 12: 'Xena: Warrior Princess'
Xena better than Buffy? Both sci-fi?
a list without Farscape and the 4400 where even Xena came in.. forget it.
exit();
Episode 1 introduces the balloon-like Rover, guardian of the Village. No technology like it existed then or now. Later in the episode, #6 is given an "electropass" which, by inferrance, amounts to a low range wireless transmitter, which emits a "key" signal to Rover, telling it to ignore the bearer. This is not dissimilar to current technologies which didn't exist in 1967 (such as bluetooth or WiFi).
Episode 3 (A B & C) features "dream viewing" technology, something far beyond the grasp of even current technology.
Episode 5 (The Schizoid Man) mentions and Episode 6 (The General) features an advanced AI in charge of predicting complex social patterns and forming brainwashing strategies. It is presented as being capable of answering any question, with the exception of one, insoluble by man nor machine.
Episode 6 also features a concept called "speed-learn," a process by which a person can quickly absorb large amounts of information via a television broadcast. It is presented as giving a full 9-week class in the space of 30 seconds.
Episode 12 (A Change of Mind) fatures a non-invasive form of neurosurgery, using highly focused soundwaves. Although the device is not used on #6, its functionality is demonstrated. Technology such as this did not exist in 1967, and likely does not exist now.
Episode 14 (Living in Harmony) features a combination of hallucinogenic drugs and audio stimuli which produces an impossible effect with any known drugs.
Many elements within the series are used frequently, including implied mind-control rays/beams/lights/sounds which induce instant paralysis, the precise location of The Village, and the unknown function of the teeter-totter device.
And if the final episode (Fall Out) takes place in this universe, I want to know how.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
What about "The Time Tunnel"? The list has "Quantum Leap" and QL is simply an updated TTT. Both were pretty much the same thing except QL overlayed a social commentary on the time jumps that TTT didn't.
Uh, try John Koenig. And Andromeda as 22! These guys must be on crack!
Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
The acting is ordinary and the characters two dimensional. The plots are simplistic with only the vaguest linking between shows. And, most importantly, the world isn't internally consistant. It always amazed me that the ship's science/engineering officer was always able to come up with the solution to a age old problem just in the nick of time. Strangly the thousands of scientists not working on ships can't do the same.
Compared with the current crop of good sci-fi (Firefly, Farscape, B5 and the new BSG), most of the Star Treks are B grade. Especially the original and TNG.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
Whaaa-waaaa--wwwwaaattt?????
no Salvage, Blue Thunder, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Automan, Max Headroom or The Prisoner????
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
where the hell is Lexx? it makes my top 50 easily so does
Time Tunnel, Land of The Giants and The Invaders
There are a bunch of good SciFi series out there that far outranks some of the ones that made the top 50 -
I love Linda Carter as Wonder Woman, but give me a break as SciFi it does not even rate a number IMHO !
Pity. UFO was pretty cool for its time. Intriguing story line, more or less plausible technology, believable aliens. The special effects were grade "B" and the characters sorta thin, but good entertainment nonetheless.
And some pretty hot babes, too! Sorry, couldn't resist.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
Star Trek TOS did the alien Nazis first. Remember Spock giving McCoy the scientific method of putting on his overtight boots - "point your toe and push"? For that matter,they did 1920's gangsters, the Cooms vs. the Yangs, and Ancient Rome never fallen too. TOS wore that theme out, even using the unlikely "parallel evolution" multiple times.
Nuff said.
1969 was a 'stranded in time, need to get back.'. No reset button.
In 2010, we entered in 2010, and the plot was 'send something back to 'the present' to change history. Arguably that's a reset button, but that was rather the plot.
WoO was a classic 'time loop' episode. You could argue there were a very large number of reset buttons in it, but I think that's rather required in a time loop episode. (And sci-fi shows are required by law to do time loop episodes.)
In the Atlantis episode, we learn that this is the second timeline, and what happened in the first time. No reset button.
In the SG-1 season ender, we have SG-1 go back in time and screw up the timeline so bad that the the Stargate program doesn't even exist, leaving only a video recording of themselves.
So the team members that should have been in SG-1, who get shown the video, go back and screw up the timeline even more, so much that not only does the original timeline come back, but altered in such a way that SG-1 doesn't have to go back in the first place. (Hence the title 'Moebius'.)
So, in eight and a half seasons of SG-1, and one and half seasons of Atlantis, let's see..
If by 'reset button' you mean 'altering the timeline and then altering it back where no one remembers it', we've had...one. Although, technically, the original SG-1 still died in the past, as did later did their replacements. The new SG-1 doesn't remember because they didn't do it, although they do have a tape recording to tell them what happened.
If by 'reset button', you mean 'events got out of control and the solution was to alter the past', the only episode that did that was 2010, and that was rather obviously the solution in the first place, as skipping 10 years of history would be a silly way to continue the show.
I don't really know which reset buttons you are talking about thtat didn't fit with the theme.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
In case you folks haven't I'll Karma-whore the whole list out.
1) Star Trek (TOS)
2) Battlestar Galactica (new)
3) Star Trek (TNG)
4) X-Files
5) Babylon 5
6) Stargate SG-1
7) The Twilight Zone
8) Dr. Who
9) Mystery Science Theater 3000
10) Sliders
11) Lost
12) Xena: Warrior Pincess
13) The Outer Limits
14) Star Trek (VOY)
15) Logan's Run
16) Flash Gordon
17) Firefly
18) V
19) Dark Angel
20) The Hitchhiker
21) Quantum Leap
22) Andromeda
23) Tales from the Crypt
24) Wonder Woman
25) The Jetsons
26) Stargate Atlantis
27) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
28) Adventures of Superman
29) The Six Million Dollar Man
30) Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
31) Alien Nation
32) My Favorite Martian
33) Lost in Space
34) The Avengers
35) Battlestar Galactica (Original)
36) The Bionic Woman
37) Space 1999
38) Batman
39) The man from U.N.C.L.E
40) The Thunderbirds
41) Futurama
42) Science Fiction Theater
43) Nowhere Man
44) Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
45) The Greatest American Hero
46) That Was Then
47) Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
48) 3rd Rock From the Sun
49) Wild Wild West
50) Earth: Final Conflict
DS9, Earth 2, First Wave, Space Above and Beyond, Crusade, Enterprise, Max Headroom, Farscape they missed some major ones, and included some totally non-scifi ones.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.