Okay, I’m sorry to join the top 10 craze, but I thought it’d be fun…and yet challeageing. Top 10 scifi shwos of all time…okay…here it goes…
Well, 5-7 are the only English shows on my list and there all ranked right after another.
NONE of the Star Trek incarnations made your list?
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT???
No Star Trek? Not even TNG or the glorious DS9?
And, pardon me, but Heroes is NOT scifi. Heroes I would put in the same category as Buffy (fantasy or a fantasy sub-genre)
wow. that was like literally 5 seconds before my post 
Going crazy with you, Emily.
Here are my top 10, yet I’m gonna place them chronologically since I can’t bear to rank 'em:
Star Trek: The Original Series
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Babylon 5
Farscape
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Lost
Heroes
Gotta disagree there. The changes happening to the characters of Heroes are a result of genetic mutation, that be sci-fi my friend. But you may have me with Lost.
Yes, genetic mutation would seem to be a Sci-Fi theme (or trope). But Heroes (and I’ve only seen the 1st season, so correct me if I’m wrong) deals primarily with the characters and not with the science of the mutation --> they show us the characters doing fantasy stuff rather than hanging around in a lab all the time, trying to figure out what caused the mutation.
we already had a similar discussion with ghostbusters. I think we need to introduce more specific terms like “hard scifi,” “soft scifi,” “military scifi” etc. and we’d also (me, especially) should stop generalizing so much (is it scifi or is it not?), because straight SciFi seems to be pretty rare these days (or maybe it’s just that I tend to think of “straight” or “mainstream” SciFi to be the same as “hard Scifi”) - and I think we should acknowledge that most shows/movies are a blend of two or three different genres/sub-genres. Heroes, I would say, is a fantasy show with some SciFi elements. Lost - I’ve never seen a single episode - could then be an adventure show with SciFi elements?
Okayl…sigh…star trek I deserve to die a slow painful death, but being 18, I was not around much when Deep space nine was on. When I was, I was wacthing Babylon 5. I’ve seen a bit of Next Generation, but not enough for me to judge it. I’ve seen alot of the roginal series but…I don’t know.
I guess the one I have seen most, is unforutnitlyl, the bastard stepchild of Star Trek, The Enterprise lol
Yes, I give you permission to kill me
Heroes is soft scifi, i’ll be the first to admit it. Lost is “soft scifi”, but it does deal with time travel, smoke monsters, sonic fences, and a island soemwhere where no one can see.
Don’t despair, Emily. You’ve got plenty of time left to re-watch TNG and DS9 (they’re both more than worth it).
On the other hand, though, it seems to me that the heyday of great space operas is kind of over. I’ve written a quite rambling post about that in the Sunshine thread:
http://forum.galacticwatercooler.com/showthread.php?p=10908&highlight=sunshine#post10908
So, being 24, I’m kind of glad that I was old enough to enjoy TNG and DS9 when they first aired.
The new BSG seems to be something like the last incarnation of the “really great space opera” genre. And to me, it has this kind of melancholic quality about it, like it’s the last remnant of a bygone age, BSG is already so dark, so sinister at times, it doesn’t have that kind of innocence that TNG had in the late 80s/early 90s.
And honestly, once BSG is gone, there’ll be no great space opera to pass to the torch to…
Awe, thanks man lol
Well, to tell you the truth, for a long time the onl scifi I liked was firefly and babylon 5. Two summers ago I started to get back into it and started to sit down to the 4400. I saw the BSG miniseries when it first aired, and loved it, but for some reason just fell away untill the start of season three…yes I was very confused but then I baught the dvds and I understood it (I was in the middle of the second season when I started to listen to Galactica Watercooler…I started listening once the hiatus started). Then I got a little too obsessed with British stuff like Red Dwarf,and then when I ran out of those eisodes, I caught up wih the New Doctor who, and I’m going through the classic ones from 1963. Then, doctor who fans who I meant online, told me if I liked Firefly, I’d like Blake’s 7.
Okay…why did I just tell my whole life story? lol
Emily, you’ve told us everything, but you haven’t said where your from?
(wow, if only I was actually as amusing as I thot I was.)
Just want to give you kudos for including Blake’s 7 on your list. I’m in the middle of my own personal rewatch of it right now, and I’m on episode 8 of the 1st season. Great stuff. Avon is my favorite character.
As for Star Trek, I might suggest that if us GWCers gave you a list of say, 5 or 6 of the best-of-the-best Star Trek episodes and you watched them, you might start to dig it.
you’re welcome
Because I listen. It’s what I do.
Hmm…let’s see…I will need to throw down my personal definition of Scifi to help my thinking from the Ghostbuster thread:
Paranormal activity = Not Scifi (ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc)
Paranormal activity hunters who use nuclear (how do you pronounce that?) accelerators strapped to their backs to trap ghosts? = Science Fiction
I had to remind myself of that to determine where Heroes falls. I will stick to my personal guns that Heroes is closer to fantasy than scifi.
Interestingly I have never seen Red Dwarf, Farscape, Dr. Who or Babylon 5.
I ordered the first season for 10 bucks off Amazon today. Plus the second half of the first season of SEAQUEST DSV.
I haven’t seen Seaquest since the 90s and I’ve never seen Quantum Leap before… I’m looking forward to it, though.
I really liked Seaquest through the entire run, even when they flipped the crew and made everyone more aggresive. Submarine movie or show? I am there.
This is especially funny considering that I re-watched (for the umpteenth time) The Hunt for Red October over dinner today.
It’s the best shubmarine (:)) movie I can think of. With Crimson Tide being a very close second. Incidentally, the scene in “The Captain’s Hand” where Lee tries to relieve Garner of his command is pretty much a rip-off of the scene between Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide.
My personal favorites:
Solai, sell me on Stargate and I’ll sell you on B5.
Babylon 5 is the not penultimate but ultimate sci-fi space opera for TV. The show is epic in story and execution. The characters are full and real. When it first came out, I’ll admit I panned it. I was like cheesy graphics, even cheesier acting, check please. I’ll watch DS9. Not to mention the schedule hell it went through for a soap opera structure. Syndication is fine for something like episodic TNG. But when you have a 5 year storyline that builds off previous episodes, you can get lost and frustrated when the show is on Wednesday at 7pm one week and Sunday at 5pm the next. B5 is a commitment, though so thank Eros for DVD. Once you’re in it, you don’t want to get off. The first episode that got me begging for more was Chrysalis. It’s the season one finale and one helluva ride.
BTW, as a youngling I loved Voyagers! But on a re-visit, Meeno’s whining is annoying. I loved the babe-a-week concept they employed. I also liked that they jumped around time within episodes.
You had me at Activate interlock!
Don’t forget Battle of the Planets.
How are you watching Blake’s 7? The DVD’s are only for region 2, but I did put my name down to beg for a region 1 release.
My top ten:
Someone should compile these lists and get a general top ten list for the community.
So, instead of nitpicking everybody else’s list, I decided to be constructive and make my own:
1. DS9
2. BSG 2003
3. TNG
4. Space: Above and Beyond (Space 2063)
5. ALF (he’s an Alien, isn’t that SciFi?)
6. Seaquest DSV
7. Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs
8. Star Trek TOS
9. Raumpatrouille Orion (Space Patrol Orion, “our Star Trek TOS” :))
10. Space 1999