When I was a kid, Science fiction TV shows were a great escape for me. I’ll admit my life wasn’t difficult, but I still felt like I needed a mental escape from my life, and the Sci-fi that I watched provided that. There were many different shows back then, but I gravitated towards sci-fi because I found that they had the best stories. There were lots of shows that had decent one-off episodes, but I didn’t feel like there was a continuing story that I could follow. As I’m writing this, I can now see the irony of my making fun of shows like soap operas while then tuning into Star Trek TNG to see if Picard would be able to escape the Borg (he did….). Certainly, there were several good shows, but there were also some that stood out for me. I like to think that there are a lot of good TV shows out there, but I happen to have a list of my top five science fiction ones.
- Babylon 5 – The reason this show is on my list is because I believe it’s the best-written Science fiction show of all time. Possibly in my top five of TV shows, period (but that’s another list). The reason that I love this show so much is because of how it was written. First of all, the entire show (five seasons) was written before they started shooing on Day One. That is a massive effort for a show that may or may not have been greenlit back in the early 1990s when it aired. Full confession: I didn’t watch the show when it was first out, but I have watched it a bunch of times since, and I love it. The character development is top-notch; the good guys and bad guys are SO good and bad; it’s great. The second reason I love its writing is that each episode is done in a unique way. Typically, there will be a big important thing that is being dealt with in the episode, but there is always something off to the side, almost a throwaway thing that happens in the episodes. What’s brilliant about this is that those throwaway moments become major centrepieces a few episodes later.
- Star Trek – I will admit that I mentioned this last week; that being said, it is a series of TV shows and movies that I grew up on, so Star Trek has more than earned its place on my list. I have always loved Gene Rodenberry’s original vision for the future. Science fiction far too easily falls into the Doom and Disaster category where “something is discovered, and the end of the world is up next.” The vision that Star Trek gave us, however, showed something different. They showed us a vision where people from different cultures could come together and work for the common good. Yes, there were problems to solve and enemies to fight, but the crew of the Enterprise(’s) DS9 and Voyager showed us that the future generally is bright.
- Star Wars (The various animated series) – While I will agree that Star Wars started off as a Movie Franchise, it did have a few AMAZING cartoon series’ that describe what happened between Episodes 3 and 4. I’m specifically thinking of “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” here. I believe that there was a general sentiment when we all watched Episode 4, A New Hope, and Obi-Wan was sitting with Luke and chatting about his father, and he said the line, “I fought with your father in the clone wars.” with no follow up at all. I also remember thinking when I was a kid, “I’m sorry….The what now?” The Clone Wars is a fantastic depiction of Anakin’s eventual turn to the Dark side, which ends up happening in Episode Three, The Revenge of the Sith. Some naysayers may have an issue with Adults watching cartoons here, but in reality, the show itself is a fantastic series with really good plotlines and excellent character development.
- Doctor Who – I recognize that I smacked Doctor Who around a little bit last week, but I do like this show. I like the storylines, I like the bad guys, and I like the occasional “Monster of the Week” vibe that it can have, but it also balances that with longer story arcs. The one thing that makes The Doctor unique is that it has been roughly the same character for the past 60 years. Despite the different Actors who have played the last of the time lords, how The Doctor behaves and acts have stayed the same. Better than that, every time there is a new actor put into the Doctor’s shoes, they build on what the last one has built up. If a significant event happens in The Doctor’s life (say, the destruction of his home planet), it takes him a couple of regenerations to get over it.
- Stargate SG-1 – I remember when the Stargate movie came out in 1994. I was, at the tender age of 12, completely obsessed with Science fiction and different ancient myths. I was learning about Greek mythology at the time, but when Stargate came out, it blew me away. I LOVED the take on human cultures across the stars. When they announced a Stargate TV show, I was very curious to see what would happen. Typically, when one form of media is turned into another (typically, we see books to movies), there is something lost in translation, or it’s just not done as well as the original. Not so with SG-1. The TV Show, which picks up a year after the movie, follows the adventures of Jack O’Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson as they fight the Ga’uld. As the series progresses, the plots get bigger, and the universe in which SG-1 lives gets deeper and more complex. It’s a fantastic show that I love.
In my opinion, sci-fi has the best stories, and this is a list of those that I liked the most. I recognize that I may get some heat from people who are big into shows like Battlestar Galactica, but this is my list, and I like these ones the best. That is actually one of the things that makes science fiction so awesome. I like the fact that there is so much that people can have their own opinions of what is excellent or not. I’d love to hear from you about which Science Fiction TV shows you liked the best.
What Science Fiction TV shows do you like?
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