Admiral_Snackbar
Veni, vidi, Lionel Richie
Just a friendly little survey of Dimensions Forum people to get an idea of what sort of episodic sci-fi you enjoy and why. I know I would be leaving some shows out and I apologize. I'm just curious overall. Classifications do not need to be absolute; they can be distributed across genres based on personal interest. So, to wit:
1) Star Trek - Distinctly Utopian future, more dystopian in the later A.R. (After Roddenberry) years. You can be a wagontrain in space fan (original Kirk series), the kinder, gentler diplomatic fan (Picard and Next Generation), the "outpost on the edge of space" fan, with lots of war and political intrigue (DS9) or the "where the hell are we" Voyager fan with their ever-regenerating cadre of shuttlecraft. Enterprise is also a candidate, but any series that did less than 5 seasons in my opinon doesn't count, plus the Vulcan chick was too damn skinny.
2) Star Wars - Long ago, galaxy far away. Classic good vs. evil archetypes, a mixture of the chivalrous (Jedi) and technological (Empire) peoples, sprinkled with various other races. Heavy focus on non-humans and mystical energies conflicting with technology. You can be an Old (Episodes I-III) or New (IV-VI and forward) fan, or just enjoy the genre as a whole.
3) Firefly/Serenity - Not really that long-lived of a show, but really took off for its fan base. In this series, everything is all about us, baby, humans leaving a shattered earth for a local star system with many moons. An overarching ruling class (Alliance) and the unlucky confederates (browncoats) resulting from a fusion of American and Chinese cultures. One man and his crew on a tough little ship working as mercenaries for hire, hauling a strange living cargo that the Powers are on a quest to hunt down and control.
4) Babylon 5 - Another outpost in space series, dealing heavily with alien races, political intrigue, order vs. chaos, and odd in a science fiction show, an underlying religious tone.
5) Battlestar Galactica (New) - Considered one of the better series ever produced, the tale of a lone band of surviving humans on a quest to find earth, all the while pursued by their own Frankenstein curse: A race of sentient machines that evolved from a working class created by humans, now also on a quest to discover the meaning behind their origins, the existence of God and their future as a people. Human and Cylon locked in a war over who deserves to live, who has the greatest potential, and how a colony of politicians, soldiers and civilians attempt to work together on the dangerous passage to home in a never-ending war zone.
6) Doctor Who - In the various incarnations, the story of a lone, nearly immortal alien time traveler and his companions through a series of madcap adventures. Encountering old enemies, making new ones, trying to preserve true history and try to have as much fun doing it as possible. One of the few shows whose initial storyline survived 4 decades of changes
7) Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis): A movie-made-tv series about an arm of the U.S. military using ancient alien technology to explore the universe, all the while battling attacks from the Goa'uld, an ancient alien race that advanced many of the early human cultures on Earth (following human enslavement). Overall an adventure story, peppered with many myth vs. technology allegories, introduction of human vs. near godlike being encounters and the general Pandora's Box warning of people trampling where angels fear to tread.
I know I've forgotten many others (I know I totally left out animation series - Transformers, Voltron, Japanime, etc.), but these are a general example of what I consider the best that TV has had to offer in terms of good science fiction episodic stories. Looking forward to hearing some feedback!
1) Star Trek - Distinctly Utopian future, more dystopian in the later A.R. (After Roddenberry) years. You can be a wagontrain in space fan (original Kirk series), the kinder, gentler diplomatic fan (Picard and Next Generation), the "outpost on the edge of space" fan, with lots of war and political intrigue (DS9) or the "where the hell are we" Voyager fan with their ever-regenerating cadre of shuttlecraft. Enterprise is also a candidate, but any series that did less than 5 seasons in my opinon doesn't count, plus the Vulcan chick was too damn skinny.
2) Star Wars - Long ago, galaxy far away. Classic good vs. evil archetypes, a mixture of the chivalrous (Jedi) and technological (Empire) peoples, sprinkled with various other races. Heavy focus on non-humans and mystical energies conflicting with technology. You can be an Old (Episodes I-III) or New (IV-VI and forward) fan, or just enjoy the genre as a whole.
3) Firefly/Serenity - Not really that long-lived of a show, but really took off for its fan base. In this series, everything is all about us, baby, humans leaving a shattered earth for a local star system with many moons. An overarching ruling class (Alliance) and the unlucky confederates (browncoats) resulting from a fusion of American and Chinese cultures. One man and his crew on a tough little ship working as mercenaries for hire, hauling a strange living cargo that the Powers are on a quest to hunt down and control.
4) Babylon 5 - Another outpost in space series, dealing heavily with alien races, political intrigue, order vs. chaos, and odd in a science fiction show, an underlying religious tone.
5) Battlestar Galactica (New) - Considered one of the better series ever produced, the tale of a lone band of surviving humans on a quest to find earth, all the while pursued by their own Frankenstein curse: A race of sentient machines that evolved from a working class created by humans, now also on a quest to discover the meaning behind their origins, the existence of God and their future as a people. Human and Cylon locked in a war over who deserves to live, who has the greatest potential, and how a colony of politicians, soldiers and civilians attempt to work together on the dangerous passage to home in a never-ending war zone.
6) Doctor Who - In the various incarnations, the story of a lone, nearly immortal alien time traveler and his companions through a series of madcap adventures. Encountering old enemies, making new ones, trying to preserve true history and try to have as much fun doing it as possible. One of the few shows whose initial storyline survived 4 decades of changes
7) Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis): A movie-made-tv series about an arm of the U.S. military using ancient alien technology to explore the universe, all the while battling attacks from the Goa'uld, an ancient alien race that advanced many of the early human cultures on Earth (following human enslavement). Overall an adventure story, peppered with many myth vs. technology allegories, introduction of human vs. near godlike being encounters and the general Pandora's Box warning of people trampling where angels fear to tread.
I know I've forgotten many others (I know I totally left out animation series - Transformers, Voltron, Japanime, etc.), but these are a general example of what I consider the best that TV has had to offer in terms of good science fiction episodic stories. Looking forward to hearing some feedback!
