Good sci-fi series?

[Kdar]

Can anyone recommend me some good sci-fi series? (I am usually not big watcher of series, but kind of want to try something).

besides x-files, star-trek

[Naiki Muliaina]

Babylon 5 was good. Best viewed in series order as it had a running story line.

My fave sci fi stuff is Twighlight Zone and Outer Limits. Awesome shows!

[earthpigg]

firefly.

AK-47's that shoot lazers!!!!

[earthpigg]

(ie: they didn't have the budget for pyrotechnics, so they point the AK-47s at each other, shake them like rattles to simulate gunfire, and megaultralazers are added afterwards.)

[Grenage]

Battlestar Galactica.

Farscape.

[standingwave]

Babylon 5

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (it was a BBC series (first radio, then TV) long before it was a film.)

The Prisoner

Futurama

Red Dwarf

Farscape

[Grenage]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (it was a BBC series (first radio, then TV) long before it was a film.)

And shockingly, a book. ;)

I think most people would have a hard time watching the original BBC series now.

[TNT1]

firefly.

AK-47's that shoot lazers!!!!

firefly is awesome... Not only cause we got to see summer glau;)

[mips]

Babylon 5 was good. Best viewed in series order as it had a running story line.


+1 My all time favourite.

Babylon 5 has a 5yr story time line (year 2258 to 2262) which they translated into 5 seasons on screen so you have to watch it in sequence as Naiku said.

It has also been released as a DVD box set ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5

[aeiah]

Battlestar Galactica.


Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica.


i think that covers it.

[standingwave]

And shockingly, a book. ;)But originally a radio series. ):P


I think most people would have a hard time watching the original BBC series now.Not us geezers!

[lisati]

I even had a version of HHGTTG on LP (vinyl). I saw somewhere once that the radio show had been released on CD but I don't know if it's still available.

[Grenage]

But originally a radio series. ):P

Not us geezers!

Indeed! :)

It came out on TV on the year of my birth; I remember watching the BBC series when I was about 12, but I couldn't take it seriously!

[Naiki Muliaina]

Blake 7 was a good one too if we are going to oldies. The ending was unexpected to say the least!

[ve4cib]

A few of my favourites (or at least shows I have watched and enjoyed) that most people have heard of:

- Star Trek (as a franchise)
- Firefly
- Doctor Who
- The X-Files
- Fringe
- Babylon 5 (including the movies and the spin-off Crusade)
- Torchwood
- Battlestar Galactica


And a few more obscure shows that you may not have heard of:

Charlie Jade: A Canadian/South African co-production, the premise is that there are three parallel universes (dubbed Alphaverse -- a Blade Runner-esque corporate dystopia, Betaverse -- our universe, and Gammaverse -- a more environmentally-conscious, but still socially troubled universe). A corporation from Alphaverse discovers a way of bridging the gap between universes, with the intention of siphoning resources from Gammaverse to their own world. The catch? They have to go through Betaverse to do it. A massive explosion in all three universes destroys the link, and pulls people across universes, stranding them in universes where they don't belong.

It's a pretty slow-moving series, and best-treated as a 20-hour miniseries (in that you really do need to see every single episode in the proper order to follow all of the nuances). It's very character-driven, with a great visual style. It's available on Region-2 DVD off Amazon, with no news about a Region-1 release yet. You can also find it online.


Dark Skies: Made when The X-Files was *the* show on TV, Dark Skies is another UFO/conspiracy show. It's set during the 1960s and pulls the assassination of JFK, Project Blue Book, Majestic 12, and Roswell all together. It only ran for one season of 20 episodes before it was canceled. It's not a spectacular show, but if you liked the X-Files you might enjoy it too.


Defying Gravity: Yes, the show that was billed as "Gray's Anatomy in Space" (a tagline the producers later regretted using). The science is dubious, the plots questionable, but hiding somewhere in all that there were a few grains of "That's kind of a neat idea." The gist is that this team of astronauts is sent out on a several-month tour of the solar system with stops on several planets and moons, ostensibly for scientific research, but it's (very) slowly revealed that their mission has a different purpose entirely. I am not going to say that this is the best show ever, but I found it interesting enough to watch it all the way through. It does get better after the first few episodes, if you're willing to give it a chance.


Paradox: A British series about a team of London police officers who are sent to investigate crimes that haven't happened yet. An astrophysicist is sent seemingly random crime-scene photos from his satellite in orbit with timestamps indicating that they are from several hours in the future. Each of the 5 episodes follows the same format of the team trying to decipher what these images mean, and trying to prevent the crime/accident before it happens.


Eleventh Hour: Originally a four-episode British series starring Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek TNG, Dune, X-Men, etc...), the Americans remade it starring Rufus Sewell (of Dark City). The main character is some kind of generic "science consultant" for the UK/US government who gets sent in to explain the seemingly unexplainable. The original UK version of the series is vasty superior to the American one. (The American one falls into the CSI trap of explaining everything with pseudo-science, whereas the UK one is more content to have either more mundane, actually-explicable problems, or to leave some questions unanswered for the audience to ponder.)


Starhunter: Rebranded as Starhunter 2300 for the second season, Starhunter is a Canadian sci-fi series about the crew of a bounty-hunting ship who, well do bounty-hunter stuff. Unlike most sci-fi, Starhunter is entirely contained within our solar system. There's no FTL travel, no realtime communication over vast distances, and few of the typical hallmarks of most sci-fi. It's much more character-oriented and less action-packed than you might expect (partly due to the low budget I'd surmise). The show is definitely not as glossy as something like Battlestar Galactica, but it does have a certain degree of charm.


Warehouse 13: Currently in its second season, Warehouse 13 is sort of an X-Files-meets-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark premise. A team of government agents scours the world looking for seemingly mundane artefacts that have supernatural powers, locking them away in the giant titular warehouse. It's a pretty lighthearted show with quirky characters and a fun style of writing.


The Lost Room: This was a three-part miniseries from a few years ago. Similar to Warehouse 13, there is a collection of seemingly mundane items with extraordinary powers. The catch is that all of these items came from a single motel room that no longer exists. At some point in the 60s "the event" occurred, and removed the room and all its contents from existence. The artifacts gradually find their way back into the world, where different groups try to collect them for their own purposes. The main plot involves a man who finds the key to the motel room -- which, when inserted into a door and turned will open a portal to the room; the catch is that every time you re-open the room everything in it vanishes. The man's daughter is inside the room when it "resets," and he spends the rest of the series trying to figure out how to get her back.


Sliders: The quintessential Gary Stu sci-fi. Boy-genius invents a gizmo to travel between parallel universes. Boy-genius, skeptical university physics prof, girlfirend, and random singer who gets accidentally sucked along for the ride get lost in the universes and spend the series trying to find their home universe again.


Earth: Final Conflict: Another Gene Roddenberry creation, E:FC is set in a more-or-less modern Earth after first contact is made with an alien race known as the Taelons. The Taelons share their technology, ostensibly for the betterment of all sentient beings, but clearly have some sort of ulterior motive. The first season was really good, the second-fourth seasons went through a bit of a steady decline, and the fifth season simply should not be watched. Ever.


Total Recall 2070: A sort of Blade Runner/Total Recall mashup is probably the best way of describing this series. It's a cop show, with the usual pairing of the streetwise, rule-breaking detective with the eager, by-the-book partner. The twist? The partner is actually an android. Nothing in the show leaps out as being really original, but if you're a fan of Philip K ****'s stories "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" you'll probably find something enjoyable in this series.


Space: Above and Beyond: Before they remade Battlestar Galactica there was this show. It's your typical sci-fi/military show, following a unit of "space marines" (for lack of a better term) on the futuristic equivalent of an aircraft carrier, fighting aliens. Nothing more than that really needs to be said; the show is pretty much exactly what you'd expect based on that description.


FlashForward: This show was canceled before its time IMO. Granted, that was only a year ago. Like Paradox, FlashForward deals with trying to solve a crime before it happens. The general premise is: entire world blacks out simultaneously, during which time everyone sees themselves going about their lives in 6 months. A team of FBI agents heads up the investigation to determine who or what is responsible for the blackout, and trying to prevent another one from occurring. The series is based on the book of the same name by Robert J Sawyer, has a pretty good cast, decent writing, but didn't have the good luck to get renewed for a second season.


Dollhouse: Brought to you by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Firefly fame, among others). The show follows the titular organization who rents out what basically amounts to programmable people. For stupendously-high amounts of money you can rent your perfect lover, the perfect assassin, or whatever else you might desire. The dollhouse imprints false memories into their "dolls" and sends them out into the world to do whatever they've been paid to have them due. The main character, Echo (Eliza Dushku), is a doll who gradually starts remembering all of her assignments, despite having her memories wiped after each mission. The premise is a little awkward to describe nicely, but I really enjoyed the show and was ecstatic when it got renewed for a second season.

[GregBrannon]

Stargate Universe returns at the end of the month. In typical SyFy channel fashion, they're having a marathon the day of the premiere. While the episodes are good individually, there is a running story line, so starting at the beginning would help new viewers understand the characters and the story.

[mips]

Charlie Jade: A Canadian/South African co-production, the premise is that there are three parallel universes (dubbed Alphaverse -- a Blade Runner-esque corporate dystopia, Betaverse -- our universe, and Gammaverse -- a more environmentally-conscious, but still socially troubled universe). A corporation from Alphaverse discovers a way of bridging the gap between universes, with the intention of siphoning resources from Gammaverse to their own world. The catch? They have to go through Betaverse to do it. A massive explosion in all three universes destroys the link, and pulls people across universes, stranding them in universes where they don't belong.

It's a pretty slow-moving series, and best-treated as a 20-hour miniseries (in that you really do need to see every single episode in the proper order to follow all of the nuances). It's very character-driven, with a great visual style. It's available on Region-2 DVD off Amazon, with no news about a Region-1 release yet. You can also find it online.


Defying Gravity: Yes, the show that was billed as "Gray's Anatomy in Space" (a tagline the producers later regretted using). The science is dubious, the plots questionable, but hiding somewhere in all that there were a few grains of "That's kind of a neat idea." The gist is that this team of astronauts is sent out on a several-month tour of the solar system with stops on several planets and moons, ostensibly for scientific research, but it's (very) slowly revealed that their mission has a different purpose entirely. I am not going to say that this is the best show ever, but I found it interesting enough to watch it all the way through. It does get better after the first few episodes, if you're willing to give it a chance.


Eleventh Hour: Originally a four-episode British series starring Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek TNG, Dune, X-Men, etc...), the Americans remade it starring Rufus Sewell (of Dark City). The main character is some kind of generic "science consultant" for the UK/US government who gets sent in to explain the seemingly unexplainable. The original UK version of the series is vasty superior to the American one. (The American one falls into the CSI trap of explaining everything with pseudo-science, whereas the UK one is more content to have either more mundane, actually-explicable problems, or to leave some questions unanswered for the audience to ponder.).


Warehouse 13: Currently in its second season, Warehouse 13 is sort of an X-Files-meets-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark premise. A team of government agents scours the world looking for seemingly mundane artefacts that have supernatural powers, locking them away in the giant titular warehouse. It's a pretty lighthearted show with quirky characters and a fun style of writing.


Earth: Final Conflict: Another Gene Roddenberry creation, E:FC is set in a more-or-less modern Earth after first contact is made with an alien race known as the Taelons. The Taelons share their technology, ostensibly for the betterment of all sentient beings, but clearly have some sort of ulterior motive. The first season was really good, the second-fourth seasons went through a bit of a steady decline, and the fifth season simply should not be watched. Ever.


Enjoyed those.

[bowens44]

Can anyone recommend me some good sci-fi series? (I am usually not big watcher of series, but kind of want to try something).

besides x-files, star-trek

Firefly is without a doubt, the best sci-fi series ever created....
followed closely by Max Headroom.....

[LowSky]

Firefly was/is amazing. It could have been a huge hit if it was treated better by Fox. But as a 13 episode series and a movie its a pretty great story.

Star Trek: The Next Generation. A show I grew up on and would ultimately make me into the geek I am. As I grew up I really found it utterly confusing that the captain of a ship would go on dangerous missions when he no doubtingly had plenty of lower ranking red, blue and yellow shirts to do the military and science work.
Now that I think of it, it would be great if Star Trek had a show based on the lower ranked.

Stargate. the idea that the universe is littered with gateways for interstellar travel and that humans are not just on earth. SGU is the newest version, and it isn't bad but compared to the older shows its much more dramatic.

Sliders. Interdimensional travel at its finest.

Quantum Leap. A guy who travels time by jumping into the lives of people, often of historic significance.

[HappinessNow]

A few of my favourites (or at least shows I have watched and enjoyed) that most people have heard of:

- Star Trek (as a franchise)
- Firefly
- Doctor Who
- The X-Files
- Fringe
- Babylon 5 (including the movies and the spin-off Crusade)
- Torchwood
- Battlestar Galactica


And a few more obscure shows that you may not have heard of:

Charlie Jade: A Canadian/South African co-production, the premise is that there are three parallel universes (dubbed Alphaverse -- a Blade Runner-esque corporate dystopia, Betaverse -- our universe, and Gammaverse -- a more environmentally-conscious, but still socially troubled universe). A corporation from Alphaverse discovers a way of bridging the gap between universes, with the intention of siphoning resources from Gammaverse to their own world. The catch? They have to go through Betaverse to do it. A massive explosion in all three universes destroys the link, and pulls people across universes, stranding them in universes where they don't belong.

It's a pretty slow-moving series, and best-treated as a 20-hour miniseries (in that you really do need to see every single episode in the proper order to follow all of the nuances). It's very character-driven, with a great visual style. It's available on Region-2 DVD off Amazon, with no news about a Region-1 release yet. You can also find it online.


Dark Skies: Made when The X-Files was *the* show on TV, Dark Skies is another UFO/conspiracy show. It's set during the 1960s and pulls the assassination of JFK, Project Blue Book, Majestic 12, and Roswell all together. It only ran for one season of 20 episodes before it was canceled. It's not a spectacular show, but if you liked the X-Files you might enjoy it too.


Defying Gravity: Yes, the show that was billed as "Gray's Anatomy in Space" (a tagline the producers later regretted using). The science is dubious, the plots questionable, but hiding somewhere in all that there were a few grains of "That's kind of a neat idea." The gist is that this team of astronauts is sent out on a several-month tour of the solar system with stops on several planets and moons, ostensibly for scientific research, but it's (very) slowly revealed that their mission has a different purpose entirely. I am not going to say that this is the best show ever, but I found it interesting enough to watch it all the way through. It does get better after the first few episodes, if you're willing to give it a chance.


Paradox: A British series about a team of London police officers who are sent to investigate crimes that haven't happened yet. An astrophysicist is sent seemingly random crime-scene photos from his satellite in orbit with timestamps indicating that they are from several hours in the future. Each of the 5 episodes follows the same format of the team trying to decipher what these images mean, and trying to prevent the crime/accident before it happens.


Eleventh Hour: Originally a four-episode British series starring Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek TNG, Dune, X-Men, etc...), the Americans remade it starring Rufus Sewell (of Dark City). The main character is some kind of generic "science consultant" for the UK/US government who gets sent in to explain the seemingly unexplainable. The original UK version of the series is vasty superior to the American one. (The American one falls into the CSI trap of explaining everything with pseudo-science, whereas the UK one is more content to have either more mundane, actually-explicable problems, or to leave some questions unanswered for the audience to ponder.)


Starhunter: Rebranded as Starhunter 2300 for the second season, Starhunter is a Canadian sci-fi series about the crew of a bounty-hunting ship who, well do bounty-hunter stuff. Unlike most sci-fi, Starhunter is entirely contained within our solar system. There's no FTL travel, no realtime communication over vast distances, and few of the typical hallmarks of most sci-fi. It's much more character-oriented and less action-packed than you might expect (partly due to the low budget I'd surmise). The show is definitely not as glossy as something like Battlestar Galactica, but it does have a certain degree of charm.


Warehouse 13: Currently in its second season, Warehouse 13 is sort of an X-Files-meets-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark premise. A team of government agents scours the world looking for seemingly mundane artefacts that have supernatural powers, locking them away in the giant titular warehouse. It's a pretty lighthearted show with quirky characters and a fun style of writing.


The Lost Room: This was a three-part miniseries from a few years ago. Similar to Warehouse 13, there is a collection of seemingly mundane items with extraordinary powers. The catch is that all of these items came from a single motel room that no longer exists. At some point in the 60s "the event" occurred, and removed the room and all its contents from existence. The artifacts gradually find their way back into the world, where different groups try to collect them for their own purposes. The main plot involves a man who finds the key to the motel room -- which, when inserted into a door and turned will open a portal to the room; the catch is that every time you re-open the room everything in it vanishes. The man's daughter is inside the room when it "resets," and he spends the rest of the series trying to figure out how to get her back.


Sliders: The quintessential Gary Stu sci-fi. Boy-genius invents a gizmo to travel between parallel universes. Boy-genius, skeptical university physics prof, girlfirend, and random singer who gets accidentally sucked along for the ride get lost in the universes and spend the series trying to find their home universe again.


Earth: Final Conflict: Another Gene Roddenberry creation, E:FC is set in a more-or-less modern Earth after first contact is made with an alien race known as the Taelons. The Taelons share their technology, ostensibly for the betterment of all sentient beings, but clearly have some sort of ulterior motive. The first season was really good, the second-fourth seasons went through a bit of a steady decline, and the fifth season simply should not be watched. Ever.


Total Recall 2070: A sort of Blade Runner/Total Recall mashup is probably the best way of describing this series. It's a cop show, with the usual pairing of the streetwise, rule-breaking detective with the eager, by-the-book partner. The twist? The partner is actually an android. Nothing in the show leaps out as being really original, but if you're a fan of Philip K ****'s stories "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" you'll probably find something enjoyable in this series.


Space: Above and Beyond: Before they remade Battlestar Galactica there was this show. It's your typical sci-fi/military show, following a unit of "space marines" (for lack of a better term) on the futuristic equivalent of an aircraft carrier, fighting aliens. Nothing more than that really needs to be said; the show is pretty much exactly what you'd expect based on that description.


FlashForward: This show was canceled before its time IMO. Granted, that was only a year ago. Like Paradox, FlashForward deals with trying to solve a crime before it happens. The general premise is: entire world blacks out simultaneously, during which time everyone sees themselves going about their lives in 6 months. A team of FBI agents heads up the investigation to determine who or what is responsible for the blackout, and trying to prevent another one from occurring. The series is based on the book of the same name by Robert J Sawyer, has a pretty good cast, decent writing, but didn't have the good luck to get renewed for a second season.


Dollhouse: Brought to you by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Firefly fame, among others). The show follows the titular organization who rents out what basically amounts to programmable people. For stupendously-high amounts of money you can rent your perfect lover, the perfect assassin, or whatever else you might desire. The dollhouse imprints false memories into their "dolls" and sends them out into the world to do whatever they've been paid to have them due. The main character, Echo (Eliza Dushku), is a doll who gradually starts remembering all of her assignments, despite having her memories wiped after each mission. The premise is a little awkward to describe nicely, but I really enjoyed the show and was ecstatic when it got renewed for a second season.
Thanks for posting these it is fun to read about the less heard of series.

I find most Sci-fi is better read in books then watched on TV...I also enjoy the old radio shows, "Dimension-X" is an awesome series that aired on radio.

http://www.archive.org/details/Dimension-X

[krimzonstarr]

Glad someone finally piped up for Stargate! I seriously recommend SG: Atlantis and SG: Universe.

+1 as well for Fringe.

[buddyd16]

I really enjoyed the stargate series, all 10 seasons are on Hulu, was skeptical about stargate universe but in the end I enjoyed the first season.

+1 for firefly, fringe, the lost room, and sliders

Another older series which I really enjoyed at the the time was
Seaquest the first season is by far the best the 2nd and 3rd almost seem like a different show especially the third.

Eureka is a good techy show which I am watching now to get my Sci-fi fix.

[Khakilang]

This is what I can think of.

1. 4004
2. V
3. Fringe
4. Doll house
5. Hero

Enjoy!

[armageddon08]

+1 for The X-Files, Fringe and Firefly

[andymorton]

Doctor Who, Torchwood and Quantum Leap are all brilliant. I usually really dislike sci-fi series but even I love those ones. My personal favourite though has to be the The X-Files.

andy :)

[andras artois]

Stargateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[pinguy]

No Heroics - is a six-part series that sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day-to-day life - which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal, as they just can’t be arsed. Instead, this group of B-listers would rather get drunk and commiserate their lack of superiority in their local superheroes-only pub, The Fortress, reading New Power Express and bitching about everyone who’s more successful than them.

No Heroics Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3zpMTKvvgk) http://tinyurl.com/2ed62re

Dead Like Me - Georgia Lass is aloof and emotionally distant from her family and shies away from her life. After dropping out of college, she takes a temp job through Happy Time Temporary Services. On her lunch break of her first day, she is hit and killed by a toilet seat from the de-orbiting of the Mir space station. She is informed shortly after her death that, rather than moving on to the "great beyond", she will become "a grim reaper" in the "External Influence" division, responsible for reaping souls of people who die in accidents (many of which are of a Rube Goldberg-style in their complexity), suicides and homicides.

Through the first season, George has trouble adjusting to her circumstances: collecting souls, while holding a day job at Happy Time. By the second season, she has mostly adjusted to her new role, though still has unresolved issues with her life and her afterlife.

George's family is struggling to deal with her death. Her mother, Joy, is depressed, and visibly repressing it, while Clancy, her father, is having an affair. George's sister, Reggie, acts out — stealing toilet seats from neighbors and school, and hanging them on a tree — before being sent to therapy by Joy. She clings to the belief that George visits her, but is starting to lie to cover this up. At the start of the second season, the family begins to break apart as Joy and Clancy divorce.

All of the main characters have issues with their life after death, but they cope with it in different ways: Mason resorts to alcohol and drugs; Daisy puts on a veneer of perkiness; and Roxy is physically and verbally aggressive. Rube and George are more straightforward about their sadness.

Dead Like Me- Season 1 Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM3BTBuevmw)

Taken - Taken spans five decades and four generations, and centers on three families: the Keys, the Crawfords, and the Clarkes. Nightmares of abduction by extraterrestrials during World War II haunt Russell Keys; the Roswell incident transforms Owen Crawford from ambitious Air Force captain to amoral shadow government conspirator; and an alien visitor impregnates an unhappily-married Sally Clarke. As the decades go by, the heirs of each are affected by the machinations of the aliens, culminating with the birth of Allie Keys, the final product of the aliens' experimentation and the key to their future.

Taken 2002 Series Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktB0iYvPfqI)

The X-Files - This show spawned a meme ("The truth is out there") and created a whole cult following around the duo of FBI agents investigating the weird and the outright extraterrestrial in America. But over time, its paranoia became transcendant, suggesting a much weirder and more sinister world than you'd ever suspected was also out there.

The X-Files Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPwMWA6Rtk)

Heroes - Even with the proliferation of superhero narratives on our screens these days, few shows have grappled with the joys and drawbacks of super-powers as much as Heroes has — for both good and ill. What would it really be like to hear other people's thoughts? Should people with powers be allowed to roam free, using them to cause havoc for everyone else? When Heroes managed to have relatable characters asking these questions, it was the most watchable show on TV. When its characters became incomprehensible, well...

Heroes Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlTnibQD-5I)

The Prisoner - Patrick McGoohan's paranoid spy series about individuality and society was smart, funny, creepy and the kind of thing that people are still trying to catch up to decades later.

The Prisoner - Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFX6M-t1NTI)

Max Headroom - A fictional US drama starring the equally fictional host of a real-life UK variety show? This short-lived 1987 spin-off from 20 Minutes In The Future did more than just vault over the fourth wall with glee; it also brought cyberpunk into mainstream living rooms, and created our lifelong crush on Amanda Pays.

Max Headroom: The Complete Series - DVD Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S96FZ_uNuLk)

Ultraviolet - Before there was True Blood, there was this grown-up, sophisticated look at vampires — a secret paramilitary force uses high-tech methods to track down vampires hiding in Britain. Tense, taut and relentlessly weird, this show brings an X-Files vibe to the vampire's lair.

Ultraviolet Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwk3KeTC7HI)

Sliders - Physics student Quinn Mallory develops a device that allows him to "slide" between alternate universes, and he and his friends quickly find themselves unable to get back to their own version of Earth. Each episode is an exercise in alternate history, with the team sliding to a new universe in the hope that they'll eventually find their way home.

Sliders DVD Trailer - Version 2 (2004) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfkGIjXcQwg)

Dead Set - How to make zombies seem fresh again? How about a five-part daily mini-series set in the Big Brother house that brought reality TV and horror together in something funnier than 28 Days Later but scarier than Shawn Of The Dead? The only remaining survivors of a zombie apocalypse are the contestants on the closed set of reality show Big Brother. Filmed on the actual Big Brother sets with some of the stars of that show, this is a wonderfully mean-spirited and nerve-fraying miniseries that can't be missed.

Dead Set | Trailer | E4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjq639WPiU)

Surface - This awesome, scary show about giant, electricity-emitting sea beasts had its monstery life cut tragically short after just a half season. But this riveting tale of crytozoology lives on in fans' hearts. Even though it had very earnest giant monsters, Surface never took itself too seriously. And that's what made it brilliant.

surface trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beg_5-EXOgI)

Pushing Daisies - Call me a sentimental old fool if you must, but I still miss Bryan Fuller's romantic (in every sense of the word), larger-than-life murder mysteries, especially when we think of the whip-smart old-school screwball dialogue, the unfailing sense of fun and, most of all, Chi McBride's cynical private eye, Emerson Cod.

Pushing Daisies - Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRC_zw0q58Q)

Eureka - The spirit of Andy Griffith lives on in Syfy's gentle comedy-drama that never forgets that science fiction is always as much about the characters as it is the unknown. Not that they stint on generous helpings of the unknown when it's necessary... As long as it can all be tied up within the hour, of course.

Eureka TV SPOT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpR5Uvy6Vs8)

Red Dwarf - Originally more a sit-com that happened to take place in space than a real SF show, the longer this British series continued, the more it started investigating the possibilities of the genre in ways that "real" sci-fi hadn't thought of. Worth it for "Better Than Life" and "Back To Reality," if nothing else.

Red Dwarf - Series 1 Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bugSGlLDDs)

Space: Above And Beyond - Before Apollo and Starbuck began frakking and fighting in Battlestar Galactica, the Wildcards of Space: Above and Beyond were dogfighting in their Hammerheads, bar-brawling with in-vitro hating racists, and elbow-deep in martian mud as alien artillery screamed from the sky... [The show featured] twenty-four compelling episodes about relatable, almost ordinary characters overcoming extraordinary challenges through teamwork and sacrifice... S:AB was also one of the first shows to treat high quality visual effects as just another narrative tool.

Space Above and Beyond Trailer for Season 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9LJIyqQFe8)

True Blood - The vampire series True Blood strives to fill every sick fetish you didn't even know you had. In an alternate reality, vampires have come out of the coffin — no longer do they hide from society. And vampire-human assimilation is a very tricky thing, especially when all the characters hate each other, sleep with each other, and have to fight off giant sex-partying demons together. But the show's at its best when it goes whole-hog bananas.

True Blood Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK1D9vGJePc)

Quantum Leap - Let's hear it for blue unitard time-jumping. When Sam Beckett, played by a young Scott Bakula, gets lost in time after a failed experiment, he winds up body-jumping through the ages. And each body has its own problems and issues that Sam has to help him/her through. But he's not alone — his best friend, Al the hologram, appears from time to time to smoke cigars and drop some wisdom. The best part of this series is its cliffhanger endings, which almost always end up with Sam in a dress.

Quantum Leap DVD Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epV4NM8NUCg)

Jericho - Nuclear bombs devastate 23 American cities, and the small town of Jericho struggles to cope in the absence of supplies or outside help. Like the new Battlestar Galactica, this show examined how our social and political institutions would hold up after a major disaster — but it also transformed into a suspenseful thriller about a post-apocalyptic U.S. falling into corporate-sponsored fascism. By the end, Jericho's fate seemed intertwined with whether the U.S. would survive in any recognizeable form — and the show still sticks in our minds.

Jericho Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDUYDTtAtNk)

Jekyll - Steven Moffatt's quasi-sequel to the classic novel brought a new take to the story, with James Nesbitt compelling as the descendant of the original story's Dr. Jekyll (Or is he...?) and future Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan proving that she really could act, as assistant/enabler Katherine Reimer. Ignore the uneven humor of the first few episodes and become as frustrated as I was that they never made a second season.

Jekyll Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAbprwIhWQQ)

Roswell - Sexy teen aliens with problems is a formula for greatness. Katherine Heigl burst out into our consciousnesses, playing an alien human hybrid stuck on Earth, along with her friends. Trapped in Roswell, NM (What are the odds) these clones of alien royalty discover they have superpowers, and a lot of teen drama ensues. A highlight of the series home town diner waitress Liz Parker played by Shiri Appleby and her alien antennae work attire. It was like Dawson's Creek, but with aliens — so yes, it worked on many levels.

roswell trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KycNsC2Iyw)

Andromeda - The relatively peaceful Commonwealth has fallen at the hands of the Nietzcheans, who see themselves as Nietzsche's ubermenschen. The only one who can save civilization, Dylan Hunt, is frozen for 300 years on the event horizon of a black hole before he finally escapes and leads a rag-tag crew. Sharp, thought-provoking writing from Deep Space Nine veteran Robert Hewitt Wolfe and others helped this show stand out, especially in its first couple of years.

Andromeda Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbhxKrBe0AA)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Creating a TV show based on a couple of old movies about killer robots from the future didn't seem like such a great idea — until the Chronicles showed us just how rich the story of humanity's future savior growing up in a doomed world could be. Everything is colored by the knowledge that the apocalypse is probably inevitable and imminent, and yet you may not even live to see it. Over time, the show also gave us uniquely memorable artificial intelligences, including the super-computer John Henry, grappling with what it means to be alive.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles - trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjLne16FKmQ)

Farscape - Astronaut John Crichton is flung across the universe via wormhole, and finds himself smack dab in the middle of a vast interstellar conflict between several alien races. Adopted by a misfit crew aboard a sentient spaceship, Crichton finds himself sucked into the war even as he tries to find a way home. Cool aliens (created by Jim Henson), intriguing character development, and sexy humor made this show a fan favorite for the ages.

farscape trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWG5e0u6SPQ)

V (Original) - Beautiful alien visitors arrive, promising to help humanity and provide peace and prosperity... but it turns out they're actually evil lizard people, bent on enslaving us. This always-great premise is an excuse for lots of fun paranoia, but also crazy action sequences, like a lone woman standing her ground and shooting at a spaceship with her handgun. This show made alien-fighting fun again.

V The Original Miniseries (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M77HfZu24bw)

Fringe - Created by Nerd Pack JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman, Fringe follows the increasingly weird and transdimensional adventures of a team that investigates "fringe science" events. As the mad scientist, special investigator, and mercenary researcher get closer to understanding the science conspiracy at the heart of the tale, they discover that their own lives are bound up in it. Scary, silly, and head-explodingly gross, Fringe became an instant classic when it debuted last year.

Fringe Season 1 Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvb555rFkd4)

Dollhouse - It's hard to think of a TV show that's created as much controversy in recent years as this one — people see its mind-wiped slaves-for-hire premise as a metaphor for rape, prostitution or just plain slavery. But creator Joss Whedon has been going out of his way to push people's buttons — and now it turns out that the supposedly fun fantasy-fulfillment of being able to hire a programmed human really does destroy the human race in the end.

Dollhouse Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDcEKo4V7fA)

Futurama - Pizza boy Philip J. Fry is cryogenically frozen in 1999 and wakes up a thousand years later to a world of alcoholic robots, predestination paradoxes, and celebrity heads kept alive in jars. It takes repeated watchings to fully appreciate the hilariously jam-packed send-ups of pop culture in general and science fiction in particular, but you'll need a pause button and a firm understanding of mathematics to get all the jokes lurking in the background.

Futurama Trailer Season 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHug01AgfFI)

Stargate Atlantis - Despite being a spin-off of Stargate SG1, SGA has built up its own unique fan base. The show takes place on amilitary Gate-base in the Ancient-built Lost City of Atlantis. From there, mussy haired John Sheppard leads his team through their own Gate and all across the Pegasus Galaxy, stopping only to fight the evil alien Wraith and to trade quirky banter. Perhaps the real stand out from SGA isn't the planets, that all mysteriously look like the wilderness of Canada, or the city, or Sheppard's Cash posters — but the comic timing of the crew, especially Rodney McKay, played by David Hewlett.

StarGate Atlantis Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcqGGfApjBQ)

Battlestar Galactica (remake) - The BSG reimagining is many things: a theological investigation, a mirror for our current politics, and one of the best space-war dramas of all time. But more than anything, it shows what can happen when you take a great premise — the last surviving humans flee through space after a robot-led genocide, searching for Earth — and take it seriously for a change. Almost everything that's great about this version of the show comes out of treating that premise with respect, and showing how our social institutions fare in that situation.

Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYVR6XXsHA)

Firefly - Buffy may be Joss Whedon's best-known show, but this is his most influential, especially for science-fiction lovers. The saga of a crew of underdogs, survivors of an interplanetary civil war, doing dirty deeds to survive and trying to keep a low profile, managed to spawn some of the genre's most memorable characters in just a dozen weeks on the air. Nobody doing science fiction today — especially space opera — can fail to be influenced by this show.

Firefly Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG9bSBGLtMc)

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The first live-action Star Trek spinoff served up two embarrassing years of warmed-over crap, and then a funny thing happened — the stories started getting really good, and the characters became archetypes in their own right. The Borg and Q are as much a part of science-fiction lore as anything the original series served up. By the time it ended, TNG really was the only Star Trek for an entire generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 1987 Promo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AayLwwvn77s)

[MechaMechanism]

Lexx. A super awesome show. It's totally off the wall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEXX

[Strategist01]

Battlestar Galactica.

+10^googol. That is all.

[wojox]

BSG and it's prequel Caprica which they keep throwing around release dates for season two.

[drawkcab]

If you dont' watch the new Battlestar Galactica, at least the first three seasons, you are really missing out. Folks that normally hate sci fi loved this show.

[finny388]

Supernatural

If you liked the x-files, this is fresh take on paranormal investigators (more like demon hunters). Great balance of nuanced humour, great writing, acting, casting and the story builds and builds to exciting and sophisticated lengths while having a great time along the way.

#7 most popular in all genres on tv.com and scores 9/10 on IMDB.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4121/69299302.jpg

TV Guide:
Two brothers, searching for their missing dad, who chase down evil forces that claimed the life of their mother and the life of the younger brother's girlfriend. They travel the country in a '67 Chevy Impala, encountering paranormal phenomena at every turn.

[ve4cib]

I'd completely forgotten about Quantum Leap. That was a cool show. I've never watched the whole thing through, but several years ago it was on after I got home from school.

Lexx is one of those shows I've always wanted to get into. It looks really cool, but I've just never found the time to actually watch it. The few isolated episodes I've seen were clearly in the middle of a larger arc, and as such didn't make much sense.


A few months back BBC3 aired a pilot for a series called Pulse. It's a medical/horror show that looked like it had some pretty high potential. I'm really hoping it gets picked up for a full series (since to-date it's only been the single episode)*. It's not quite sci-fi, but with all the medical experimentation (resulting in ZOMBIES!) it could fall into the fringes of that category.

The BBC3 website for the show is here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sj8f7). If you're like me and don't live in the UK you can find the pilot via the usual assortment of bittorrent sites.


___________
*EDIT: Sadly, according to this article (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a270457/bbc-passes-on-paul-cornells-pulse.html) it looks like the BBC has decided not to turn it into a full series. Phooey :(

[mamamia88]

Anyone mention Fringe yet?

[finny388]

yes

[drawkcab]

I really wanted to like Fringe but it's kind of silly. Same goes for Firefly and Stargate.

Maybe I will check out space, above and beyond.