Greatest modern Sci Fi Series ever poll!

[CvilleFencer]

My Fiancée and me were talking about this the other day. We have recently watched all the Angel, Buffy, B5 and Farscape sets on DVD and we were debating what the best modern Sci Fi show ever was! You will notice the conspicuous absence of Star Trek on the poll. Since many folks have a near religious devotion to Trek I thought I would simplify things by taking it out of the discussion. Also a few of the choices like Angel, Buffy and Highlander are not "hard" Sci Fi but it is not like we have a lot to chose from these days!

Anyway I thought it might make a fun poll. If you are just completely unable to decide about one of the other please feel free to discuss your choices in the thread below! I know that there are a few I was not able to list do to space restrictions but if you feel that I missed a great one please list it in the thread. Also please wait for the poll to come up before saying this poll is flawed. Which it is. But lets use it anyway!

[swordwench]

I see a conspicuous absence of a poll of any kind.

[CvilleFencer]

Originally Posted by swordwench

I see a conspicuous absence of a poll of any kind.

Dammit women I said wait for the poll! It takes a while to make them you know!

[swordwench]

Originally Posted by CvilleFencer

Dammit women I said wait for the poll! It takes a while to make them you know!

I never said it was flawed. Just that it was consicuously absent. Patience is not one of my (many and interesting) virtues.

[swordwench]

I voted for Buffy, but it was a hard choice. From what I've seen of the others listed, they're all very good, but I really wavered between Buffy and X-Files/Milennium. I was addicted to all 3 of these series (not so much Angel, who whined incessantly), never missed an episode. However, the humor and weirdness that pervaded the X-Files/Milennium sagas sort of caved in on itself in the later seasons, and devolved into a morass of paranoia and uninspiring plot lines. I don't think that Buffy suffered as much from that, as the writers really made an effort to adjust to flagging story lines and stale relationships. Plus, the characters got more interesting and complex over time, and it was easy to care about them. I was in such mourning when it went off the air! By the end of the X-Files, it was more like relief that the dog had finally been put down.

I was also tempted to vote for Firefly, but let's face it - such a dark, well-crafted, edgy show was doomed. It had such potential, and such inspired writing and acting, no wonder it failed. Old Joss, casting pearls before swine again, I suppose. I heard a rumor that they're thinking of doing a movie of it - I'd see it!

[CvilleFencer]

I voted for Farscape, but it was a tough choice for me between that, B5 and Buffy. I actually think those three are pretty much the cream of the crop of recent Sci Fi.

Part of the great thing about Buffy I think is Joss' ability to take Sci Fi mainstream to a much wider audience. This was a show watched and enjoyed not just by old trekkers in the underwear drooling over DD of 9, this was a show that was appreciated by mainstream high school and college kids as well as diehard Sci Fi fans. The fact that it was appealing to both is a testament to the writers and directors.

For hard epic Sci Fi I love Babylon 5. A great sweeping multi-year plot made it hard to follow week to week but if you watch it unfold on the DVD set you have more of a chance to see just how well woven the story was and I at least gained a whole new appreciation for the story. The new ground they broke with TV CGI was very impressive as well, and all with a much smaller budget than the more recent Trek shows.

Farscape is a bit unique. I have heard some people say that the intro and basic premise is a bit to close to Buck Rodgers but I think those folks never bothered to watch the show. Hensen's puppets are amazing, the concept of a living ship is great and the cast of characters is like none ever assembled on a space ship. I mean we have a good ol' boy astronaut, a space nazi, a corrupt, selfish and somewhat vile deposed monarch, a violent warrior and a murderess that rediscovered her religion in prison. The amount of growth that these characters go through over the course of the show and the fact that it does a great job of pointing out that life is rarely easy or black and white without coming off like a preachy morality tale (ala some Trek) is a rare thing to me. Also the fact that the aliens tend to actually move/behave like aliens and not like humans (think Chianna, the grey girl) with weird makeup really added something for me

So for me Farscape wins it, but by a somewhat slim margin.

[CvilleFencer]

Originally Posted by swordwench

I was also tempted to vote for Firefly, but let's face it - such a dark, well-crafted, edgy show was doomed. It had such potential, and such inspired writing and acting, no wonder it failed. Old Joss, casting pearls before swine again, I suppose. I heard a rumor that they're thinking of doing a movie of it - I'd see it!

Ah, a fellow Firefly fan! I knew you were a wise and intelligent person from the fact that you fenced epee, but now I know you to posses excellent taste and depth of vision! Firefly was never given a fair chance on Fox and that is one of the great Sci Fi tragedies of our generation IMHO. But take heart fellow rebel! They are not making a movie they have MADE a movie! Gaze upon its magnificence, granted in trailer form, here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/univer...ity_large.html

I will be one of the first in line, even if I have to trip to NY or NoVA to catch it on its opening night!

[kalivor]

I voted for Buffy, though I'm not sure I would quite consider it 'Sci Fi' ... it's closer to Fantasy or Horror, but it's probably the best (fully realised) TV show in the poll.

I would go for Firefly, but the incomplete story leaves it lacking for now. Maybe I'll want to change my vote in the fall, when I get to see 'Serenity'

[Gav]

I voted for BSG. I was originally sceptical because I loved the original series so much (well the first half before the TV execs ruined it) and was worried that it would be diluted somehow. Instead I find it has very a rich story, interesting characters, a truly convoluted plot (are the Cylons truly Evil or just doing what they believe is right?), good special effects and a very realistic feel. I can't wait for the next series - which we are getting next month I believe.

[Gav]

I've got to disagree with you Cville. B5 was not "Hard SF" any more then any other SF show is 'hard'. It's just as operatic as every other show out there. Athough it had a decent plot, for a while, it lost it towards the end. I enjoyed Farscape immensely. It is quite quite different from other SF shows, in much the same way that I think that BSG is, however I think that the writers lost control over it towards the end. I was very surprised at the way it was cancelled but then execs are not often consumers of their own output. It was a tough call between Farscape and BSG but in the end BSG got it.

Now that I feel thoroughly geeky I am off to do something 'manly' or 'less-geeky' - make a cup of coffee.

[latenight]

I like BSG........but then again I really liked Starship Troopers so what do I know.


I voted for x files.........yeah there were some clunker episodes, but the good ones were just GOOD.

[scrapinpeg]

Man, I've never seen any of these shows. Haven't even heard of most of them. What am I missing?

[CvilleFencer]

Gav, what I had meant by hard Sci Fi was that it actually takes place in space or at a future time with startships, blasters and other fantastic technologies such as opposed to the X-Files/Buffy/Highlander type of Sci Fi which takes place in the here and now and is as much fantasy as Sci Fi. I know that some folks tend to consider the Buffy/X Files type stuff soft Sci Fi so that is why I used that particular bit of lexicon. I do agree that the last season of B5 was not worthwhile and did somewhat cheapened the story.

I have not checked out the new BSG series although I have heard good things about it. I look forward to checking it out. I also have not had a chance to get into the SG1 series although I liked the movie okay. I only get about 8-12 hours of TV/DVD time a week with my schedule so I am currently trying to decide if my next series will be SG1, BSG or Andromeda.

[Fechter1]

Ok, time to get my geek out...

B5: Love the multi-year plot, great visuals (even some were reused over and over...), some dull episodes (but every show has these, I think). Too bad there were doubts about a fifth season happening at all (that's why season 4 seemed a bit hurried, and why season 5 seemed a bit diluted...).
Some really great quotes: "Next time, my way."
"No boom?" "No boom." "No boom today... Boom tomorrow... There's always boom tomorrow..."

Farscape: Haven't seen it.

SG1: Some great episodes, some bad ones...

Firefly: Interesting concept, characters, but a little haphazard on the release strategy (still not sure in what order the episodes were aired).
"Mercy is the mark of a great man." <stab> "Ok, so I'm a good man." <stab> "I'm OK..."

Buffy: Actual continuous character development, nice mix of serious and humorous episodes. I especially liked the College halloween episode ("I have to make a door." "Can you do that?" <revving chainsaw>). Kinda glad though that they spun off Angel. That relationship was getting a bit overdone.

Dark Angel: Petered out really fast. Kinda forgettable to me...

XFiles: Watched it almost religiously during my college years... Kinda died at the end...

Battlestar: Still forming an opinion. (Still running, so it's not a valid choice in my mind yet) Kinda like it so far.

Andromeda: Interesting concept, but just doesn't quite plant that hook.

My vote: Buffy (even though it's not technically a sci-fi series)
Runners-up: B5, XFiles

[Moonitic]

I have to go with two of the brilliant Joss Wheadon creations...Buffy & Angel. Hot men, adorable girls...vampires. Demons. ::sigh::

Though my very close second choice is Firefly (another Joss creation). Can't wait for Serenity to come out. I'm SO there!

[Gav]

Ugh Andromeda ... I really wanted to like that. I really did. Kevin Sorbo is actually qute good in the first few episoses and there are a tone of great ideas screaming to get let loose! I was quite disapointed in it. BSG is a far more worthwile waste of your time ...

As for the 'Hard SF' monicker that really only applies to properly hard (read: properly scientifically possible/informed with the rules of Physics intact) science fiction a la Clarke, Poul, Bear, Baxter and so on. I wouldn't use it when referring to TV SF because, well, they are just [soap?] operas in space (ok - insert chosen paradigm here). That's why I took exception to using it.

I think of Buffy as Teen-Horror certainly not SF. It's largely well written and when I caught the odd episode I enjoyed it. And I'm very curious about Firefly as my fellow geeks keep demanding that I waste more of my life in front of the TV watching it.

As for X-files .. I liked it, really enjoyed it - at first - then it was like a public transport rail jurney. You really want it to stop somwhere and you hope that the journey was worthwhile yet ... even that won't make up for the British Rail pork pies.*
* I couldn't resist that. Despite what people say the UK rails system isn't that bad.

[Soldier]

I voted for Farscape as the cream of the current sci-fi crop...which really is sad.

Farscape is my "guilty pleasure" - I very much enjoy the show (have only seen the first season; waiting on my roommate to get the second), yet the acting is absolutely horrid, the plot frequently thin and cheesy (sounds like symptoms of a venereal disease). I do like things like the idea of the living ship...but, all the same...it just doesn't make up for the rest.

But I still think Farscape is better than the rest listed.

[vermilionsun]

Firefly! Despite its incomplete state and the shaft given it by Fox network, it's still a bloody brilliant show. Joss Whedon's vision of the future is interesting, the characters are all a compelling combination of archetypal and quirky, and the Space-Western format is really appealing. And it was full of all kinds of rich story arcs that they sadly never got a chance to explore.

Very much worth renting the DVDs and watching them in their proper order.

I'm looking forward to the release of the Serenity comics in July (a 3-issue comic book series written by Joss to bridge the gap between the television series and the upcoming movie), and I'll definitely be there to see Serenity on opening night.

[CvilleFencer]

Originally Posted by Gav

As for the 'Hard SF' monicker that really only applies to properly hard (read: properly scientifically possible/informed with the rules