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Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 31st Jul 2013 at 1:02 AM
Default Favourite sci-fi / geek shows?
As a companion to the "favourite books" topic-- and because this subject was enough fun to well and truly hijack an unrelated forum -- I would like to pose it here:

Have you any favourites among science-fiction TV shows? Which, & what about them?
(Read "science fiction" broadly, if you like.)

My own confession follows, quoted from the TS3/Scumthorpes forum:

Quote:
Geek until my dying day, yep. And there is so much stuff backlogged, I shall never run out. It may have started when my parents showed me some Star Trek and I proceeded to binge-watch TNG and DS9. As you might suppose, I especially loved the episodes that play with questions of whether holodeck characters can be conscious, how you know if the world you perceive is the real one, whether an android deserves human rights, etc. -- such issues as might weigh upon the mind of a Sim.

Also I like Babylon 5, Dr. Who, The Prisoner, Nowhere Man ... one of the fun things about sci-fi is that no matter what place or historical age the story might be set in, it is so immersed in the styles and assumptions of the time it's written. Watching it can be like a dream within a dream.

Garak Elim, Ro Laren, Susan Ivanova... I've had approximately one severe Celebrity Crush per series.

p.s. Oh! I must put in a plug for Alien Nation. It is about its own time and ours too. Also, since the newcomers were faster, smarter, and still viewed by humans as inferior, it hints at the times yet to come, when our descendents shall live together with the descendents of Sims. (I'm referring to the TV series and subsequent movies, not so much to the original movie. That movie is OK, but properly in the "police buddy movie" genre rather than sci-fi.)
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 31st Jul 2013 at 1:33 AM
Doctor Who. I love the sciency feeling, while at the same time it's a fun show with lots of geeky humor and the like. I also like Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures (the first mostly because of Jack and Gwen, the second because... well, Sarah Jane is/was a great companion when she got over the "damsel in distress" era). I like series with "intelligent life". I'm not so interested in series or movies where the alien lifeforms are on a constant "destroy all other life" missions. Doctor who and the spinoffs are a pleasant mix of history, aliens, interesting storylines, in addition to humor. I like the newer seasons best, although some of the old are a bit fun too (but dreary at times).

I also love Big Bang Theory (it's more than geeky enough, and with plenty of sci-fi references, so to me that counts). I love geeky/nerdy humor...

I did watch Star Trek: Voyager a lot, but not so much now (it doesn't run on any TV channels for the moment). I also loved Roswell when I was younger. There are not a lot of other sci-fi shows that has captured my interest other than that. Futurama works if I'm bored (and if it actually runs), Falling skies was somewhat alright, I guess, but not wow.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 31st Jul 2013 at 3:06 AM
Among the top: Star Trek, Star Trek the Next Generation, Enterprise, Early Edition, Quantum Leap, Firefly, The X-Files,

Less interesting, but fun just the same: Dr. Who (I know I'll take flack for this one, but too often the plots seem rather shallow for sci-fi), The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I've enjoyed the few episodes of Eurkeka, 24, and Sliders that I've seen. I'm getting into Firefly right now.

Big Bang is a hoot, but most of the humor is not actually all that geeky. They throw in geeky stuff, but mostly to contrast the geeks from the others. Mostly it's about people who lack social skills and enjoying their quirkiness. I've met too many of these types in real life. I suspect that's the success of the show - that the characters are somewhat recognizable. I'd like to place Buffy into the somewhat sci-fi drama because of all that stuff with the Initiative and Warren with his robots, but mostly it was not a sci-fi show. Come to think of it, I remember when General Hospital got into the realm of science fiction with their story about a character that built a machine that put a freeze on Port Charles. It's fun when shows go beyond their normal genre. Given the amount of technology, it might be possible to classify Get Smart, Go-Go Gadget, and The Avengers (the old 60s TV show) as sci-fi, too. I loved all of them. My Favorite Martian, Mork and Mindy, and Third Planet From The Sun were also very enjoyable comic science-fiction shows. I never really cared for Alf.

I'd love to check out some of the other shows you've both mentioned.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 31st Jul 2013 at 5:30 AM
All the various Star Trek series', minus Enterprise, which I just couldn't get in to.

Babylon 5 (a bit dated now, but had such great characters!)

Fringe! A few "meh" episodes, but I loved it. Only just got around to watching the last season a few weeks ago. Awesome!

I loved the original V that aired when I was a kid, even though I imagine it would be laughable today. (The more recent remake had some good elements, but was a bit of a stinker overall.)

Loved Alien Nation, the series!

Did anyone here see The 4400?

The series Eureka was rather fun. I saw that all on NetFlix just last year.

Firefly! FIREFLY! One of THE BEST, EVAR! I didn't get into it much when it originally aired, but became a die-hard fan after-the-fact. So sad and angry that stupid Fox cancelled it!

Also love Dollhouse, which I think qualifies as "sci fi", of sorts. In general, we're big on Joss Whedon in my immediate family.

If The Walking Dead qualifies, that's my current favorite show!

My daughter is a huge Big Bang Theory fan, and I can see why, but I can't get past the annoyance of the typical sit-com format of obvious lay-up lines and cheesy laugh track. so, not a fan of that one.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 31st Jul 2013 at 10:56 AM
All the Star Trek series', even Enterprise.

Firefly. I hope Fox bring it back

Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
Steam ID: PadukSteam
Mad Poster
#6 Old 2nd Aug 2013 at 5:07 AM Last edited by RoseCity : 2nd Aug 2013 at 5:34 AM.
My favorite sci-fi show is LEXX. If you haven't seen it, it's about the travels and adventures of 3 characters: Kai, the last of the Brunnen-G, dead and a former Divine Assassin; Zev/Xev Bellringer of B3K, raised in a cell, intended for wife material but sentenced to be a love slave, now part cluster lizard and Stanley Tweedle, arch-traitor and security guard, the accidental captain of the LEXX, a gigantic insect-like space ship and the most powerful weapon in the two universes, originally built for His Divine Shadow. (Also 790, a robot head, who got the love slave programming intended for Zev.)
I love the show's humor and its extremely low opinion of humanity
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