Your Top Science-Fiction Shows of All Time

[stargazer01]

What are your Top 5 or 7 Sci-Fi shows of all time?


Remember, this is a personal list. Everybody's list could be different and that's ok. You can include animation if you think it's good Sci-Fi.


I actually haven't seen all Sci-Fi shows out there (especially in the last decade), so it will be interesting to see what the consensus is here.

I definitely love:

-Star Trek. TOS, TNG, DS9, VOYAGER. Never got into Enterprise. Still haven't seen Discovery, but plan to. Trek is still my #1 Sci-Fi series. Adore the concept.

-Doctor Who. Not a fan of all eras, but I really loved the Eccleston/Tennant years and some of Tom Baker. Haven't seen much of Classic Who (recommend stories if you want). Not a fan of Capaldi or the female Doctor.

-Stargate SG1. Really enjoyed this show. Some cool mythology based on ancient Egypt myth and history. Never finished Stargate Stlantis, was it really good as a whole? I liked it at first (it was intriguing) but got a bit bored in the second or third years.

-Babylon 5. I loved it, but haven't seen it in many years. Does it hold up? How many movies were there, and worth watching?

-The Outer Limits. Just loved most of the episodes that aired in the late 90s-00s. I miss it. Is Black Mirror like it? Heard it was good.

-The Twilight Zone. It's a classic. Many episodes still feel relevant today, imo.

-The Orville. Almost forgot this. Seasons 1 and 2 were so good. Fun, visually stunning, and thought-provoking stories. Some of the best Sci-Fi on par with Trek. So far at least. I love this show.

[AndrewCrossett]

In alphabetical order:

Agents of SHIELD
Firefly
Lost
Star Trek (TOS)
The Twilight Zone (original)
The Venture Bros.
The X-Files

Honorable mentions: Agent Carter, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Futurama, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Orville, Star Trek: TNG, Westworld

[Jim Kelly]

Not naming more recent shows--and I only came to Doctor Who in the last ten years--but the top all time series for me were Star Trek, Lost in Space, the Time Tunnel, the Invaders, Planet of the Apes, the Fantastic Journey, Battlestar Galactica and Quantum Leap.

[Scott Taylor]

Babylon 5
Star Trek TOS
Land of the Lost
Stranger Things
War of the Worlds
V (Original one, the new one fell short)
Lost in Space
The Incredible Hulk
Star Wars the Clone Wars
Superfriends
Lexx

[TheBlackTerror]

Not naming more recent shows--and I only came to Doctor Who in the last ten years--but the top all time series for me were Star Trek, Lost in Space, the Time Tunnel, the Invaders, Planet of the Apes, the Fantastic Journey, Battlestar Galactica and Quantum Leap.

Yup a lot of these would be on my list too

I'd add
Space:1999
The Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman
The Dead Zone TV series
The Greatest American Hero
Jason of Star Command/Space Academy
Land of the Giants
The Man in the High Castle
The Night Gallery
The Prisoner
Red Dwarf

[stargazer01]

Not naming more recent shows--and I only came to Doctor Who in the last ten years--but the top all time series for me were Star Trek, Lost in Space, the Time Tunnel, the Invaders, Planet of the Apes, the Fantastic Journey, Battlestar Galactica and Quantum Leap.

you don't love any Sci-Fi show from the 90s and after?


I forgot about The X-Files. Some really great standalone episodes. I didn't like how it ended in the last season. Not a big fan of the mythology episodes. Big fan of the main 2 characters and their friendship and ideology clashes.

Recently read about the Red Dwarf show and it sounded quite intriguing.

Was a big fan of The Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman shows as a child but I haven't seen them in a long time, so can't remember much.

[Jim Kelly]

you don't love any Sci-Fi show from the 90s and after?

Well I did include QUANTUM LEAP. But to say a show is my favourite of all time seems like a lot of weight to put on the shows that I've seen more recently. Who knows if I'm just infatuated now and, in twenty years, I'll feel completely different. The shows I listed are those that I remember loving at the time and the love has stayed with me all these years--even if I know they were kind of stupid shows and maybe can't hold up as great science fiction, I still hold them in my heart.

I like DOCTOR WHO now, but maybe I won't always feel that way. Also, I find it hard to think of DW as science fiction--it's more like a great British soap opera anthology series. Likewise with OUTER LIMITS and TWILIGHT ZONE--which I saw as a little boy--those weren't science fiction, those were documentaries. Even QUANTUM LEAP is less of a science fiction and more of a Scott Bakula actor's workshop.

[Sandmans_Raven]

Oh boy, I need to think about this one a little bit but the ones that come to mind immediately are:

Fringe
MST3K
Twilight Zone
WestWorld
X-Files
Futurama
Cowboy Bebop

[stargazer01]

Well I did include QUANTUM LEAP. But to say a show is my favourite of all time seems like a lot of weight to put on the shows that I've seen more recently. Who knows if I'm just infatuated now and, in twenty years, I'll feel completely different. The shows I listed are those that I remember loving at the time and the love has stayed with me all these years--even if I know they were kind of stupid shows and maybe can't hold up as great science fiction, I still hold them in my heart.

I like DOCTOR WHO now, but maybe I won't always feel that way. Also, I find it hard to think of DW as science fiction--it's more like a great British soap opera anthology series. Likewise with OUTER LIMITS and TWILIGHT ZONE--which I saw as a little boy--those weren't science fiction, those were documentaries. Even QUANTUM LEAP is less of a science fiction and more of a Scott Bakula actor's workshop.

OK, thank you for the explanation. Personally, I see Doctor Who more Science-Fantasy than real Sci-Fi, but sometimes really feel very Sci-Fi-ish so I like to include it in lists like this.

The Outer Limits show from the late 90s was very Sci-Fi to me. The 60s Twilight Zone too. Not all the episodes but many.

[Powerboy]

This is tough because there are so many great shows and then I tend to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy. Then there are shows I loved that got canceled after a few episodes.

Star Trek: the original, the Next Generation and DS9 for sure but I'll just count them as Star Trek so I have room for other choices.

Babylon 5.

Doctor Who.

The original Twilight Zone though whether it was science fiction or Fantasy depended on the episode.

Let me say there have been so many sci fi shows I loved (and this is not necessarily my favorites in order) that choosing the fifth and last is almost an impossible task. Depending on how loosely I define science fiction, the possibilities are endless. The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Lost in Space (yes it was made for kids and, as such, was great and I loved the recent remake too). The Outer Limits. The Incredible Hulk. Various shows about Superman. 1960's Batman. Hercules and Xena if we are counting Fantasy. Bewitched for that matter if Fantasy counts. Plus the thousand other shows I'll remember that I forgot right after I post this.

But, if we are going with shows that have at least a pretense of being science fiction and not fantasy, I will say the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, counting them as one show as I did with Star Trek.

I discounted shows that lasted a short time but some of them I would count as favorites. "The Fantastic Journey" was one such show as was the "Logan's Run" television show. "Beast Master" and "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" were up there but I consider them primarily fantasy.

[AndrewCrossett]

This is why I prefer the label "speculative fiction" to cover basically stories about anything that couldn't happen in the real world with the period's level of knowledge or technology. That covers sci-fi, fantasy, horror, superhero, and even alternate history stuff like steampunk.

[stargazer01]

I wanted this thread to be more about Sci-Fi. I agree that Doctor Who has some fantasy elements like Superman, but it really tries to be more science based most of the time I think. Superman is a fantasy dressed as science lol. Even Star Trek has characters like Q who is god-like with his omnipotent powers.

I really see horror and pure fantasy as different genres, but sometimes they collide with Sci-Fi like the Alien movies.

[Ozymandias]

I really see horror and pure fantasy as different genres, but sometimes they collide with Sci-Fi

The lines really blur when you take into consideration Clarke's definition of magic, but as long as you don't get in the story, a direct link to technology, the supernatural should still be considered as its own thing. Otherwise what's the point in labelling, if you later amalgamate several into a bigger category?

[Jim Kelly]

I discounted shows that lasted a short time but some of them I would count as favorites.

When I look at it, I realize that almost all the shows that I listed in my first post were only on for one season. That only leaves Star Trek, Lost in Space and Quantum Leap. But I actually had to look at it, because in my memory these shows were on for several seasons--given time passed much slower back then. It's genuinely surprising to me that Time Tunnel, the Invaders, Planet of the Apes and Battlestar Galactica didn't get a second season. In my mind they did.

Looking up the Time Tunnel on Wikipedia, it says that Timeless was a remake. I watched that series and never thought it had any connection to the Time Tunnel. They are really different in the means of time travel and the effects of time travel. I would really like to see someone tackle the Time Tunnel as a major movie concept. The series wowed me as a kid--although now I recognize they were using film from the 20th Century Fox library for different time periods. An update could have the Time Tunnel being a wormhole in reality into which the travellers enter to get to different places in the past.

[stargazer01]

The lines really blur when you take into consideration Clarke's definition of magic, but as long as you don't get in the story, a direct link to technology, the supernatural should still be considered as its own thing. Otherwise what's the point in labelling, if you later amalgamate several into a bigger category?

I agree, Supernatural should be separate from Sci-Fi. It's about things that are still considered pure myth not realistic.

When I look at it, I realize that almost all the shows that I listed in my first post were only on for one season. That only leaves Star Trek, Lost in Space and Quantum Leap. But I actually had to look at it, because in my memory these shows were on for several seasons--given time passed much slower back then. It's genuinely surprising to me that Time Tunnel, the Invaders, Planet of the Apes and Battlestar Galactica didn't get a second season. In my mind they did.

Looking up the Time Tunnel on Wikipedia, it says that Timeless was a remake. I watched that series and never thought it had any connection to the Time Tunnel. They are really different in the means of time travel and the effects of time travel. I would really like to see someone tackle the Time Tunnel as a major movie concept. The series wowed me as a kid--although now I recognize they were using film from the 20th Century Fox library for different time periods. An update could have the Time Tunnel being a wormhole in reality into which the travellers enter to get to different places in the past.

Interesting, I didn't know some of those old shows only lasted one season. Felt longer. Besides Trek and Doctor Who, the other Sci-Fi franchise I can remember that lasted more than 5 seasons is Stargate SG1. Smallville is another genre show that lasted many years (10 like SG1).