What are some of your favorite Sci-Fi tv series and franchises? Here are some of mine.
After MST3K, I have to say Star Trek. I was a kid when the original series aired, but I never got into it. I really enjoyed TNG, though, and Iā'm enjoying Strange New Worlds a lot.
The first V miniseries was of good quality, but the weekly series was terrible while still being a lot of fun.
For me, āterribleā seems extreme. I left the two miniseries wanting to see more face-peeling and gerbil eating and cool ships that were clearly meant to be toys and pew pew guns, and it delivered! I mean, Knight Rider wasnāt really much better. I would put every single episode of V: the Series (*) up against Spockās Brain any day. It was definitely not a classic of the genre, Iād rank it close to the 80s War of the Worlds series. That show had potential, but back when nearly all prime-time shows were limited to mostly one-episode story arcs it would have been hard to realize it. V had a somewhat more serialized plot, I think, but Iām not sure Hollywood was ready to tell that story the way it could be told.
And there you nailed it on the head my friend! And Iāll agree it was certainly āterribleā in the fun way.
I feel like someone should throw in X Files hereā¦ speaking of semi-serialized shows.
* My apologies to anyone who cares about proper italicization of titles.
Aw, jeez, this is going to be hard, I love sci-fi. Commenting now so I can find this later easily and bring some list.
ā¦had the NMOES movies badguy actor guy playing a simpleton good guy bad guy.
I left the two miniseries wanting to see more WWII allegories. The weekly series started out that way, with Diana being on trial for war crimes and L.A. eventually turning into an āopen cityā, but apparently that wasnāt drawing enough eyeballs and they went full camp, which was a lot of fun once I adjusted my expectations.
Agent Carter
Agents of SHIELD
Alias (early seasons)
Babylon 5
Dexterās Laboratory
Doctor Who
Firefly
Futurama
Mystery Science Theater 3000
The Orville
Quantum Leap
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Twilight Zone
The Venture Brothers
Westworld
The X-Files
This one sounds interesting. Whatās it about?
Some hipsters keep talking over a movie, I think.
Sounds dumb. Iām never watching it.
I only watched it cause it came on and I was too stoned to get up and change the channel.
Iāll stump for a few lesser-known sci-fi series:
I really need to see more of those cool low-budget British sci-fi shows from days of yore. Space 1999, The Avengers and Doctor Who are the only ones Iām at all familiar with. Sapphire & Steel is another one that sounds interesting.
Sapphire and Steel has one of the lowest budgets for a sci-fi show Iāve ever seen. One of the seasons prominently features an āeffectā which is basically a narrow spotlight thrown onto a wall. But it works really well anyway, partly because the writing and acting are terrific (hard to beat David McCallum and Joanna Lumley).
Blakeās 7 is definitely worth seeing if youāre a British sci-fi fan. It was created by Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks, and is pretty dark for sci-fi of the era. Farscape owes a lot to Blakeās 7. Itās sort of a spiritual successor.
Survivors, which I mentioned above, might be my favorite. Itās a 1970s post-apocalyptic series about life after a disease wipes out almost all of humanity and they strive for realism so itās bleak, but terrific.
Does Twin Peaks count as science-fiction?
A few not-yet-mentioned ones:
Space: Above & Beyond
Dark
The original Battlestar Galactica
Some other good British sci-fi TV:
I remember liking Space: Above and Beyond but, IIRC, it ended on a cliffhanger.
Some shows like Twin Peaks straddle the line of sci-fi and fantasy/horror/weird. Buffy and Lost are also in that category.
Also Northern Exposure, which could definitely veer into fantasy.
If Iām remembering rightly the ending was āeveryone is probably dead but weāre leaving just enough ambiguity to write ourselves out of it if we get a second seasonā.
Really good miniseries which deserved to go to full series-