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I started this blog with a list of the 10 Best Sit-coms since 1980, but in light of last week's season finale of Battlestar Galactica, it's time to unleash my inner geek and look at the best sci-fi TV series of all-time:
10. Mystery Science Theater 3000
Certainly the funniest sci-fi show of all time (apologies to both Futurama and Red Dwarf), MST3K was as good as the movies it parodied were bad—meaning it was very, very good. The movie theater on the Satellite of Love was more ruthless than a cage of Klingons when it came to savaging B-movies.
10. Mystery Science Theater 3000
Certainly the funniest sci-fi show of all time (apologies to both Futurama and Red Dwarf), MST3K was as good as the movies it parodied were bad—meaning it was very, very good. The movie theater on the Satellite of Love was more ruthless than a cage of Klingons when it came to savaging B-movies.
9. Dr. Who
Originally launched in 1963, The Doctor has once-again returned to the TV screen, traveling through time and space in the TARDIS, an antiquated and surprisingly spacious blue police box. The special effects may have gotten marginally better, but the camp has stayed the same. Two spin-offs are currently running, including the highly addictive (though strangely both campy and serious) Torchwood.
8. Stargate SG-1
Based on a mediocre movie with a good premise—that all of our mythology was the result of alien contact with our ancestors—the 10 seasons of SG-1 brought back good clean star trekking fun, complete with its own Spock (Teal'c) and a team leader played by MacGyver. Stargate:Atlantis has kept the spirit of its predecessor alive and well.
7. Farscape
"My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Now I'm lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen, please. Is anybody out there who can hear me? I'm being hunted... by an insane military commander. I'm doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home." So begins the adventures of a modern man from earth, where some of the creatures look a lot like muppets (it's a Jim Henson production, after all). Like Lexx without all the sexual innuendo, a group of refugees are forced to coexist aboard a living ship. It's dark without being dreary.
6. Firefly
Leave it to Joss Whedon to dream up a space show without aliens. The smart writing he brought to Buffy turned the universe into one big frontier, where those who didn't conform to authoritarian rule were forced to eke out their livings among outlying planets where the long arm of the law can't follow. Watch the way-too-short lived series in full before finishing with Serenity.
5. The X-Files
Pairing Scully the skeptic and Mulder the believer as they investigated the paranormal, The X-Files at its best was as good as any other TV show in history. Its greatness waned in the later years, but the early seasons did more than investigate the implausible; it accomplished it by taking aliens and conspiracy theories to the mainstream.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Based on a terrible movie with a mediocre premise—that a high school was built on the hellmouth where vampires, demons and other various devil-spawn would creep into California—Buffy became a surprising hit, even among academia ("Buffy studies" classes became popular after the series concluded). The show tackled teen issue as well as My So Called Life, metaphysical questions as well as The X-Files, all while a female protagonist fought like Bruce Lee.
3. Lost
J.J. Abrams convinced viewers to watch his sci-fi show by taking his sweet time to reveal that it was a sci-fi show. Filled with exceptional characters (man, I miss Mr. Eko), clever structures (flash forwards?), moral conundrums and more plot twists and hidden clues than 1200 websites can keep straight, it's kept the water cooler interesting the last four years.
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation
The original series was pioneering. Deep Space Nine and Voyager had their moments. But TNG was head-and-shoulders the greatest Star Trek franchise. Jean Luc Picard. Data. Worf. The holodeck. The Borg. Gene Roddenbury must not have had a cynical bone in his body, and watching his characters explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before, I didn't either.
1. Battlestar Galactica
Based on a mediocre TV show with a great premise—robots annihilate most of humanity; the remnant search for earth—Ronald D. Moore's reimagined version has become the greatest sci-fi show in history. With gritty realism, the last remaining military ship feels like it's in a constant state of repair, like humanity is being held together with duct tape. The show explores major themes—politics, religion, terror, marriage, humanity, sacrifice, pragmatism, personal failure, free press, free speech, loyalty—while keeping the plot moving forward with every episode. Long live Commander Adama.
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Where is Babylon 5?
This is a grave mistake on your part, love the inclusion of Stargate SG:1, it belongs, but so does Babylon 5.
Babylon 5 should be near the top in any such list.
I was a pretty regular watcher of Babylon 5, but I don't remember it with the same fondness as these others.
No Blakes 7 and Dr Who at No 9, hell you know us Brits own Sci-Fi: Quatermass, Captain Scarlet, Timewatch, Hitch-hikers guide etc....
All the best Jules
The omission of Babylon V is huge!
Babylon 5 not on the list, c'mon!
Babylon 5 didn't bring anything new to the table like this list has. Babylon 5 just took everything from every other show and spat it out anew. I can't find one original plot.
Top 10 Sci-Fi series ever?
Lost? - No
Buffy? - No
MST3K? - No
Thank God you included FireFly.
Bablyon 5? Ummmm... I think we should keep it out of all sci-fi best list just to keep making those people mad! ha. They're always complaining about how it's constantly left out.
Josh, I'm getting this close to sending you the new Futurama DVD. I think you need a refresher in how great that show really is.
Sean, I like Futurama. When Eli was born (in the days before TIVO), I'd be up in the middle of the night giving him a bottle and watching reruns of Futurama and Family Guy and the rest of the Adult Swim line-up on The Cartoon Network. But I honestly have been surprised to hear how much people love it. Of course, that was you who complained it wasn't on my list of Best Sit-Coms too.
How could you possibly leave out the Twilight Zone.
The Mother of all science fiction shows.
Babylon 5 didn't bring anything new to the table like this list has.
Arcs. It introduced the concept of multiple-story arcs, multiple-season arcs - and paved the way for Stargate, Lost, etc.
My personal list would also have The Prisoner. Stargate? Pshaw.
Pretty good list except I would replace MST3K (I loved that show, but sci fi?? nah! - with Torchwood. And you and your readers might be interested in a great way to catch up on some sci fi goodies: Fancast has a lot of your list up - full-length and FREE - including Farscape, Firefly, Buffy, Start Trek, BSG (the campy original series with Lorne Greene!!! AND the new incarnation) and also has such classics as Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Outer Limits, Time Tunnel, etc. Check them out here http://www.fancast.com/full_episodes
First of all, Buffy is not scifi. I love Buffy, but it could never possibly be considered scifi. Babylon Five was the first to use story arcs and had an absolutely brilliant cast and writers. I'm a Stargate fan, but it's very much overrated. I would have included Deep Space Nine and Voyager instead-two very underrated scifi shows. MST#K was great, but too uneven to be included here. Firefly should be placed third.
Nice list! I just created my own top 5 scifishows at http://www.hypedworld.com
My top 5:
1. Dune miniseries
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Stargate SG-1
4. The X-files
5. Star Trek
There is a lot of SciFi TV out there of varying flavours - this could be a top 15 or 20 to get everyone in the tent. Space 1999 has to be on here from my point of view!
No Babylon5? No V?
Well, you put Galactica as the best, that explains alot..... Space:Above and Beyond was way better than Galactica.
I believe there are several shows that don't belong on your list, such as Buffy. However, I have to agree with your choice for #1. There is no question that the new Battlestar Galactica is the best sci fi show in history. I recently decided to watch the series and was completely blown away. Also, I think Firefly deserves the #2 spot. In my opinion, that was one of the first shows to truly start taking advantage of zero gravity shots and directing. The western aspect of the show (cowboys in space almost) is so unique to sci fi. Finally, everyone that says Babylon 5 deserves to be on the list...I'm still waiting for a legitimate reason. I've watched many sci fi series, and I just can't get into it. Maybe I'm missing something...
LOST !!!!!!!!!! WTF_ sci-fi ??????
LOST !!!!!!!!!! WTF_ sci-fi ??????
LOST !!!!!!!!!! WTF_ sci-fi ??????
LOST !!!!!!!!!! WTF_ sci-fi ??????
Lost is $hit at best. not even sci-fi !!
Where is the science in lost ?
What about Stargate atlantis ?
crap name but great show.
STAR TREK is crap compaired to SG1 & SGA.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SCI-FI.
YOU TWAT.
O did I mention............
YOUR A TWAT.
The list specified the best Sci-Fi since 1980, which eliminates both Star Trek TOS and Twilight Zone. They'd be on my All-Time best list (head & shoulders above anything else in the 60's, but production values suffer by comparison to today's FX).
Similarly, MST3K relied on pre-1980 B-movies for most of it's material, so we can quibble and call it not "since 1980."
I agree that Buffy (Fantasy) & Lost (Shark-jumping Reality) are not Sci-Fi. That opens up 3 slots on the list.
If you want funny AND social commentary then you have to include Futurama and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Futurama is 2nd only to the Simpsons as best animated TV show ever, and H2G2 (even with its uneven production and too-short series) still has its ROFL hilarity almost 30 years later.
Star Trek TNG was OK, but they tried to do too much, tried to have a character to appease every demographic. As a result there was a huge amount of potential, but not enough time (even in 7 seasons) to develop more than just the bridge crew characters. TNG was lucky it survived the first season's resolve-everything-in-an-hour format. For that reason I rate Deep Space Nine as the better series, since its story arcs took their time and were sufficiently developed. Consider - Sisco as Prophet; the Dominion Coalition; Ferengi Society; the Klingon alliance with the Federation; even Vic Damone's life in the Holodeck - all good story lines in addition to the development of the main "Bridge-Crew" set of characters.
So I've added three to fill up the list's vacancies. Now for the under-rated shows. X-Files looked at everyone's favorite mythology (the alien invasion arc as well as the Monsters of the week) and did them proud. It created more water-cooler discussion than Lost could ever hope to. It should be number 2.
Joss Whedon creates a great solar system, and by avoiding little green aliens (the role filled by the Reavers) he didn't have to waste development time on other cultures. We already knew about heroes, villains, cowboys, the rich, the underworld, prostitutes, monks and G-men and how they interact. So we were free to watch the story develop without any long expositions ("Captain, I've accessed the computer database about planet Beta Thyroid 3 and the inhabitants' sensitivity to the hormones of other species") getting in the way. From the very first scene the weekly story as well as the series arc developed naturally - as if we just happened to start watching as these very believable characters meet each other. And by the way, we got to learn a new (English/Chinese/slang) language too. The series' early demise only served to enhance the overall status of this cult favorite by preventing them from ever making a dog of an episode. Firefly is Number One, no question.
Take out Mystery Theatre, Lost and Buffy. None are foremost science fiction. Firefly was really too short to rate. Who knows if it could have sustained a good story line for more than a couple seasons. As for what to use for replacements, I'm undecided, but Babylon 5 would certainly make it.
Finally, to call BattleStar as the best before it was even over is crazy. You need to give it time to see if it will last and gain the nostalgia of other shows.