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This is just something fun I found on Reddit and thought you guys would appreciate.

Over on this page is a poll to vote for the best sci-fi show ever. It’s pretty extensive; they have everything from Farscape to Doctor Who and everything in between. Once you’ve voted, come back here and tell everyone what you picked, and why.

Here’s another link to the poll.

To start off, I picked Firefly. I was thinking about Star Trek: the Next Generation at first, but once I saw Firefly on the list, I clicked it without hesitation. It’s just so amazing.

>looks at poll
>no, “Futurama”

I voted for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I have never seen Firefly but judging by that poll, I really should. I don’t think it ever aired in my region though.

I was going to vote for Stargate Universe but then I remembered that it is only the best Sci-fi I watched recently, not the best ever. I felt Star Trek TNG deserves that better for its longevity, it’s inspiration, it’s impressive history, it’s fame and pop culture status

MFW Doctor Who is in second.

Firefly is damn great but it cant compare to the 32 seasons of the show that codified sci fi. Whats wrong with all these plebs?

How fitting that you are the latest poster on the thread.
The links are dead for me.

Same here.

Anyway, I would’ve picked Star Trek. It was the one which codified sci-fi.

How about we compromise and say that sci-fi was codified by both Doctor Who and Star Trek? Doctor Who is the longest running, but I’m sure Star Trek has the larger fanbase overall, though that may be due to the fact Star Trek’s US sci-fi whereas Doctor Who is british. Not implying that you don’t watch it or anything, but you have to admit being US sci-fi would certainly give Star Trek the advantage in terms of popularity.

Anyway, Doctor Who is my favourite (as if you couldn’t tell from my name)

I always feel odd about voting in polls like this because I feel I should be familiar with a majority of the shows listed in order to have my opinion be substantial. The list has 35 unique items (for some reason, Twilight Zone is listed twice) and out of those, there are only six that I’d consider myself to be intimately familiar with, three that I should be familiar with, but watched long enough ago that I don’t remember them well, ten of which I’ve seen fewer than five episodes, leaving the biggest category to be 16 of which I’ve never seen a single episode. Don’t get me wrong; I love sci-fi, I just don’t watch that much television. (Two of the ones I’m more familiar with I’ve actually never seen on broadcast television, but have only seen pre-recorded.)

So, I’m going to give my vote to Twilight Zone, but I still think: I’ve heard people rave about X-Files and Twin Peaks, but I’ve never seen even part of an episode of the former, and the latter I’ve only seen the pilot episode, and wasn’t aware it was considered sci-fi! (Actually, even though I’ve seen most of Lost, I’m not sure I would call it sci-fi either, and TZ is a bit of a mixed bag as well.) I would have given serious consideration to Futurama or Quantum Leap if they’d been options, although QL is also not so much sci-fi as something like Touched by an Angel with less schlock and time travel used mainly as a plot device.

Oh, and 404? I regret to inform you that Doctor Who, which was a very close second for me, is now in third place, having slipped behind The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Wow, Sarah Connor Chronicles in 2nd? The Terminator fan club must have gotten wind of the poll or something. SCC was far towards the bottom last time I checked. It’s made a pretty big leap, especially to get ahead of Dr. Who

I watched the first several seasons of SCC and while it was a pretty well-written and enjoyable series (and probably the only version of the Terminator Universe that makes any logical sense at all) I didn’t think it came anywhere near the legendary status of Dr.Who or Star Trek.

This was the series where Sarah Connor used an ordinary living room chair to block assault rifle bullets. But then again Dr.Who features a screwdriver that literally does everything so maybe I was too critical of SCC’s faults at first.

Star Trek’s far longer running at 22 days, 16 hours, and 21 minutes, not counting the animated series. Even Doctor Who combined with its spinoffs is still only about 2 weeks.

Anyway, I voted for Star Trek: TNG

Firefly’s good, but it’s seriously overrated. It gets most of its popularity for being a good sci-fi that shouldn’t have been cancelled, and that seems to galvanise the hardcore base any time, if it’s good and gets thumped, people will call it best ever. (How about the new V, for that matter?)

To be honest, I had no idea this would turn into the incredibly petty affair it turned into. The object of this thread was to discuss our choices and why we chose them, not to demonize those who don’t share your view and tear down shows you don’t like. I am extremely disappointed.

@Fridge Logic:
Well, we’ve been so congenial on the religion discussions, it has to come out somewhere.

I think one of the things that makes sci-fi difficult to rate for quality is that there’s a lot of different themes that run through sci-fi, and I assume people have their favorites, because I know I do. Some common themes:

1. Robots
1.a. …becoming evil and trying to destroy humans
1.b. …gaining sentience and exploring the philosophical implications.
1.c. …being simply part of the cast and not a driving force of the plot.
2. Aliens
2.a. …being evil and trying to destroy humans.
2.b. …trying to take over the world subtly through some form of mind-control.
2.c. …being good, but misunderstood by fearful humans.
2.d. …being common characters from different backgrounds with different aims.
2.e. …that we come into conflict with when we travel to their region of space.
2.f. …that are so far advanced beyond us we cannot comprehend them.
3. Time travel
3.a. …by intelligent (but perhaps quirky) hero who is usually in control, despite appearances.
3.b. …by clueless scientists, which usually results in a paradox.
3.c. …played for laughs when present-day people meet people from the past.
3.d. …arising as an unforeseen side-effect of FTL space travel.
3.e. …used to alter/fix history.
4.f. …by way of cryogenics (usually accidental).
4. Space travel
4.a. …takes a technological leap, leading to storyline.
4.b. …at FTL speeds without relativistic implications.
4.c. …handled in a realistic fashion with science/tech as we know it today.
4.d. …is a common thing for the advanced society in which the story occurs.
4.e. …as a medium for a story about interstellar warfare.
5. Unusual humans
5.a. …born with unusual powers.
5.b. …given unusual powers by biological science.
5.c. …given unusual powers by technological bionics.
5.d. …having paranormal abilities for no known reason.
5.e. …returning from the dead, usually to eat brains.

When I first became interested in sci-fi, I was pretty much only interested in stories with robots, although a lot of that came from starting out with Asimov. I’m sure everyone has ideas about A) which themes they like to see, and B) the “proper” way to handle a story with those themes. I get the impression that a lot of the people who hate Twilight are actually fans of vampire fiction who feel that Meyer just did it wrong. A long time ago, I remember we had a thread on it, and I (among others) pointed out that pretty much every author who writes vampire or zombie fiction redefines the genre to fit the needs of their story. Anne Rice’s vampires could not fly, did not transform into bats or anything else, and some of them could go outside in the daytime.

Twilight Zone.

Yeah, somebody has gotten to SCC fans (or an SCC fan has figured out how to game the system) because it is now in first place by 800 votes, giving it twice the votes Doctor Who has.