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You have to hit till the blood runs clear: Sci-fi television.
Bloods End
Blade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered User regular
Blade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered User regular
I was contemplating today how despite my large collection of sci-fi movies and books I really don't have really have any sci-fi tv shows other than Battlestar Galactica, which doesn't really count. So I went to library to see what they have in the way of sci-fi tv. And was overwhelmed with everything they had. Star Trek (All series), Farscape, Buffy and Angel, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Earth 2, Space Above and Beyond, V the series, and so many more.
Now I don't know much about these series. I don't know if they are good or bad or so bad they are good. What needs to be watched if only for it's classic value and what should be avoided like the plague.
So lets talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of sci-fi shows.
Now I don't know much about these series. I don't know if they are good or bad or so bad they are good. What needs to be watched if only for it's classic value and what should be avoided like the plague.
So lets talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of sci-fi shows.
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Try "Heroes," the new "Journeyman" series, "Bionic Woman." Also, I'm not sure if this is technically sci-fi, but the premise sounds like it to me: "Chuck."
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Whenever I go to my parent's house my father is watching the Sci-Fi Channel, and it's usually Stargate or some terrible Sci-Fi original movie. My mother hates it. Once I tried to engage him in a conversation on how great Battlestar Galactica was. Guess what, he doesn't watch it. Says it's "too dramatic." I was baffled. The only excellent show on Sci-Fi and he doesn't like it. I guess he really has no taste.
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Battlestar Razor was pretty OK.
I wonder though if the reason it is held so highly is that it was killed before it had a chance to start sucking. If it had stayed on the air for multiple seasons would it have gotten steadily worse?
Personally, I enjoyed Babylon 5 and Farscape. Both long running shows (for SciFi). One that managed to stay on the air for it's entire planned run, the other cancelled at the end of it's fourth season and given a miniseries to tie up loose ends. Granted, they both had their weak episodes but the good episodes where awesome.
So, you really need to watch the whole thing, twice in order to fully appreciate it.
That's a lot of bad acting, dated cgi, and crap episodes(like, most of season 5 for instance, IIRC) but it is an ok pay off.
Farscape, really isn't bad if you can get past the muppets. Strong plots, decent writing, interesting and fairly dynamic characters. Not a bad setting either. The big thing is the puppets, and that it doesn't take itself totally seriously
From the list, I wouldn't recommenced Earth 2, it was pretty weak. Space Above and Beyond is basically BSG light, that doesn't make it bad, per se, but your not missing much not having watched it.
My wife and I got absolutely hooked on Buffy (which isn't REALLY sci-fi, but still). I fully expected to hate it, and the first season was a bit lame, but once it caught its stride the show was tremendous. Plus, if you don't develop a crush on Allison Hannigan, you have no soul.
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a fair number of the episodes are character driven, so if you picked it up in the middle they wouldn't work. It's mostly episodic, so there are a pretty wide variety of stories. I can't really think of any boring arcs, but you may need to be emotionally invented in the show for some of them to work, I guess.
Personally, I classify buffy as an american made, live action, magic girl anime, but I'm weird like that. At the very least it is fantasy and not sci-fi, but whatever. Still is pretty great.
Firefly is pure gold, but only lasted a handful of episodes. So it's also good if you just want to watch a short series to see if you get into sci-fi.
Babylon 5 has a huge story-arc that spans the entire series. So if you start watching it, be sure you watch everything in order and that you're ready to sit through five seasons of stuff.
Farscape is really a love-it-or-hate-it show. Some people (like me) love it for the humour and the character development, but some people hate it because of the alien puppets. I don't know why - they are really well done and animated, and in fact there were some pretty good scenes that were just puppets interacting with each other. But some people just can't take a show seriously unless all the actors are human, I guess. Well anyway, my point is, give it a try if you can stand puppets.
Also, I love watching Crichton get his ass kicked in every way imaginable in every episode.
Moving on: I love The 4400. It starts a bit slow, but once they move away from the X-Files "freak of the week" style episodes it picks up.
I could never really get into BSG though. All the OMG RELIGIOUS UNDERTONES gets on my nerves.
This. So good in fact, that I'm just waiting for the axe to drop because of this writer's strike.
4400 is pretty watchable, though I still haven't gotten around to watching the fourth season.
If we're talking old-school, since it sounds like you're new to sci-fi, Quantum Leap is always good.
Seven Days was some good cheesy 90's sci-fi too.
Jericho... oh man Jericho. If you give this a shot, hang around at least until the recap episode, because it doesn't get good until after that, but man does it really get good.
Oh, and the new Doctor Who is absolutely top notch. It's kind of a silly show made for families though, so it doesn't take itself too seriously and there are plot holes all over the damn place. As long as you accept that though, it's one of the best shows on TV right now (except BSG).
Stargate gets shit on a lot around here, but the first four seasons at least are really fun.
Space:Above and Beyond however is crap! Accept it, embrace it and move on. It had potential to be a kick-ass series, but fucked it up. The main character is a moron(Nathan West), forever mooning over his lost girlfriend. The CGI was bad back in 1995 and has not gotten better with age The writing was attrocious(try watching the UN secretary generals speech in the pilot without wincing). Pass it by in silence. IMO only one episode passes muster enough to be worth seeing(episode 22).
Other than that, the best series are really:
The Prisoner-fairly short, it's not in space, but pretty great.
Bab5-First 4 seasons are brilliant. The first 'arc' show I'm aware of, with great space battles and spaceship designs. Last season can be ignored
Farscape-Single best villain of any TV show I've seen, and better than most movie villains. The struggle between Crichton and Scorpius carries the show.
BSG-Started great, 3rd season tailed off badly, we'll see how it ends.
Red Dwarf-Best comedy show ever, and it's in space
I've never understood this. "OMG, people in a Sci-Fi series might have a religion! God, now I hate it".
It's not that, it's the fact that this gritty, scientific, rational show seems like it has collapsed into the same mysticism/fate/destiny/prophecy bullshit that consumes about 90% of other sci fi and fantasy.
Also Journeyman. It starts out terrible but by the third episode it is fantastic. I really hope they don't cancel it, it just started to pick up steam
I would have recommended Heroes last season. but all the wonders it promised early on have petered out into the most incomprehensibly terrible bullshit ever. It's probably for the best that this season is getting gutted early.
Anyone planning on catching Tin Man tonight, or did it already air? I heard an ad on the radio saying it was today at 9 EST and I am intrigued.
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B5 is an absolute amazing storyline with, in my opinion, some bad acting here and there and unfortunately looking at it today you'd think the production values are incredibly low. There are two kind of episodes: Monster of the week, and overall storyline. I can't stomach MANY of the former and I absolutely love most of the latter. If you insist your TV to be polished, you won't like it. If you're ready to stomach what i said above for some very, very good story, you should stick with it. Last time I watched it I had a kind of fairy-tale approach to it and it let me get through a lot of the cheesy lines and bad acting really well. I'd say you should stick with it.
Also, whoever said Eureka...seriously. That's beyond worst.
Finally, I've recently picked up Millennium. I have never watched it before and I'm just a few episodes in but that's looking surprisingly good so far, even if not in the sci-fi category.
I can deal with the lack of polish but the bad acting and lousy dialogue are hard to stomach. Still if there is a great story I can forgive almost anything. So far I haven't seen much of a story but it is early times. The thing that bugs me at this point is that they haven't created a character I really give a damn about. The only interesting possibility to this point (episode 5) is the super advanced alien. The captain is incredibly cheesy and annoying. I can stand the security officer. Everyone else bugs me.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck