I was posting this in another thread and realized opinions will vary pretty dramatically on this. I wanted to get people's opinions. For your money, what is the best space sci-fi show in history? I limit it to space because if I leave it as "sci-fi" it will be open to too wide of a definition and become almost impossible to determine a favorite for a lot of people. Shows like XFiles don't count!
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OK so now that the poll is up... Firefly was insanely fun, but I think it drops a few points for longevity. As Charlie P likes to say "attendance is part of the grade." It just wasn't on long enough in my mind to be the best. For me it really comes down to Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9. I own the full series of B5 on DVD and am currently going through the full series of DS9 on Amazon streaming for free. (that's right folks, Amazon Prime members can watch DS9 episodes for free) The grand scope of both shows is pretty awesome. Both carried a major, slow developing story arch that was resolved with the conclusion of the show, and both spend multiple seasons developing a deep mythology that allowed you to fully understand and love the characters and their motivations. I think the storyline and epicness of B5 was better. If I were to give out an award for best character between the two it would probably by G'Kar from B5. But, in terms of overall cast, I think I like DS9 better. More characters that were awesome.
It's definitely Star Trek: The Next Generation. Nothing comes close, in my opinion. FWIW, I am currently 5 episodes into Firefly. It has been pretty fun so far. More of a lighthearted show.
Its too difficult for me to point to just one..because not one stands out. For instance, I liked TNG much better after the 3rd season. The original show was good and still a classic to me. DS9 was unwatchable for me during its first few seasons, but after the they began getting into the wars it was the best ST series ever. Voyager was just meh..all the way. Never did get in to Babylon 5. I just started watching Battlestar Galactica on Hulu and I'm only 6 episodes in..and so far I love it. Better than the Star Treks, but I don't feel like I've watched enough to make that determination. I loved Firefly, but there were some cheese moments and there weren't enough shows. If it had been allowed to stay on the air, it definitely had a lot of potential to be the greatest Sci Fi show ever. Curious - anyone here watch Grimm? Its not really Sci Fi, but fantasy. I know the ratings aren't that good, but I like the show. Reminds of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - I think it shares a common executive producer (Not Whedon).
Yeah, I'm watching it now starting from the beginning and the first season has been mediocre. I chalk it up to building all of these characters from scratch. I like each character but some of the episodes have been dragging.
You're right, how did I leave Who off? I haven't seen much of it to be honest, but considering how little I think of Voyager I would put anything above it.
I couldn't force myself to watch it early on..but it got better every season and incredibly good by the end of the series.
Even though I know Firefly will win this poll, I'm going to stick with Babylon 5. No series had a better overall story arc than B5 did. Sci-fi or otherwise. If I had a 2nd vote, I'd go with Farscape.
DS9 was the best Star Trek series. The story line between the Dominion and the Federation was very compelling on many levels. I enjoyed it for both its political tone and its action based scenes. Quark's contrast to Odo made for intriguing dialouge that was capped off by Worf's arrival to the ship, when to Worf's surprise (and disapproval of Odo) he found Odo had been spying on Quark's shady bar dealings. Hillarious, in deed! But I am going to be blunt - Farscape and its universe takes the prom date home and scores. Nothing better than seeing a testosterone-driven, egotistical American-redneck physicist being beaten around the farside of the universe and scoring with the alien babe. Honestly, the series would have been astounding had they {SPOILER}killed Zahn off much earlier{SPOILER}...like at the end of the 1st season and never introduced another weak female character...which they did...twice...maybe three if you count the old lady. For Farscape, the whole feminen, hocus-pocus new-age crap really dragged it down during parts of the 3rd and 4th season to where it was absolutely unbearable to watch some episodes. And of course the Peacekeeper War movie did no justice to the series by attempting to wrap up seasons' worth of material into a two-hour headache. Between the two, flip a coin and I think you have a winner for best sci-fi television show ever.
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In the end, this is what I went with as well. I repped you. Babylon 5 managed to be interesting from the jump (the pilot movie is great, the side movie "In the Beginning" was great, etc.) and I fell in love with the plot. Probably skip the first two seasons if you found it boring. Establish who the characters are by watching maybe the first episode or two and then jump ahead to maybe season 3 when the dominion storyline starts.
