Rank your favorite Series of all time

[label]

With Lost ending and Heroes ending, and shows like Nu-BSG ending recently, and a whole new crop of Sci-Fi shows that are still out there like SG : Universe, V and Fringe I thought this might be an interesting time to see where everyone rates their Top 10 series of all time. This poll can and definitely includes shows like Lost or Flash Forward, Buffy/Angel/Firefly or even shows like Quantum Leap or Sliders, not just the more traditional ones like Farscape, Star Trek and Bab 5. Also, if you've got a few extra minutes (which judging by the fact that you're reading this, you probably do. ) I'd be interested in some brief thoughts on why you made the choices you did.

My Top 10 :

1. Babylon 5 - Probably just edges out others based on the incredibly strong writing from Seasons 2-4.........

2. Lost - hasn't been as consistent in quality as I'd like during the second half of the series and may go up or way down based on the finale this Sunday, but for now it's near the top.

3. Farscape - this is just a brilliant series that reaches heights that few do despite being cut short and despite taking some risks and occasionally failing.

4. Deep Space 9 - took some time to find it's groove (like Bab 5) but towards Season 3 started to really take shape and by Seasons 4-5 was really hitting on all cylinders. Some brilliant writing.

5. Angel - outstanding Series....on a different day might pass up DS9 and maybe Farscape

6. Buffy - neck and neck with Angel, but doesn't quite have the same appeal to me as Angel ended up having.

7. Nu-BSG - It never got better than Season 1 but it still had some frakking incredible stories and did drama better than any Sci-Fi show before it.

8. ST - TNG : Seasons 1-2 and elements of the show are a bit dated now, but still one of the classic shows responsible for the abundance of Sci-fi we have now.

9. Firefly - Yes, it was short but it was outstanding. If Fox hadn't screwed this show over, I think it would have passed up Angel and Buffy to be my favorite Whedonverse show.

10. Fringe - This is probably because the show is on right now and hitting on all cylinders but this show has gotten really, really good this season. I really didn't think this show had what it took to get this good. (Now this show may go up or down depending on where it goes as well)

Honorable mentions (really close to being in the top 10) :
11a. SG1 - Stargate had a really rough first season or two and never got too far from the formula, but ended up being a really solid show

11.b SG : Atlantis - much like it's predecessor, pretty much followed the same formula as SG1 but was still pretty enjoyable TV.

Others that might make it in the top 10 depending on my mood. X-Files, Quantum Leap, Highlander

Are there shows I didn't list that you think should have made the top 10 and I should watch? I'd love to hear about them as I'm always looking for good Sci-Fi.

 

[DeadmeatDiggory]

I gotta put DS9 as my top pick. No other showcan I remember watching advanced the growth of secondary characters like DS9 (take Nog for one, robbing the station's vault in the first episode, to becoming the first Ferengi in Starfleet, and ended up the Chief of the Station the final episode - while Harry Kim on Voyager was pretty much the same character in the first and last episodes). What a wonderful group of charcters and storylines they gave us in its seven year run.

And of course Farscape, Firefly, Battlestar, etc bringing up the rear.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

1. Star Trek - It was the first sci-fi for television that I got into and it's still the best. The comradery between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the beauty of the glorious Enterprise and the adrenaline packed excitement of the episodes keep me coming back again and again and again. 33 years and still a fan. Glorious series!

2. Batman: The Animated Series - A work of art. To take the best of all possible incarnations of Batman and squash them together into a new form that feels fresh, original and alive is no mean feat. The fact that they did it with dignity, respect and heart rather than as a platform to sell toys is nothing less than miraculous. The finest version of Batman and that's taking the comics into account.

3. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Funny. Hearbreaking. Pulse poundingly exciting. Those are but a few words I could use to define Buffy. I can't come up with enough good things to say about this show so I'll just say one more: Bunnies. 'nuff said.

4. The Adventures of Superman: Dark. Campy. Serious. Funny. Adult. Kiddy. George Reeves. AoS had it all. Television from a more innocent era but with enough adult themes to please even the most depraved of today's modern era viewers. I go through AoS episodes like an addict goes through crack cocaine. A miracle of television! It never fails to cure my blues and reds and yellows!

5. The Twilight Zone: Perfection. The only reason I couldn't rate it higher was that the fact that it had some stiff competition and I had to make some sacrifices. Sorry TZ. You rule!

6. Babylon 5: A novel for television and beautifully told.

7. nu-BSG: Tense. Poignant. Tough. Human. I love it.

8. Deep Space Nine: Derivative of B5 but still very good.

9. War of the Worlds: The Series - A gem from my childhood. Possibly a prototype for Chris Carter's X-Files. What a moody, gory and funny little series. Yes it pisses some of the HG Welles and George Pal fans off but goddammit I don't give a fuck! I love this show!

10. Friday the 13th: The Series: It's the TNG of the horror genre!

 

[RAMA]

Here's a list I have maintained and updated for over a decade.

Best live-action SF TV shows of all time(no fantasy!):

1. STNG- Still the best combination of all the elements that make ST great. It maintained the much of the topicality of TOS while adding more sophisticated drama and technical superiority.

2. TOS- Possibly packed more allegory into it's stories than any other SF show in history. This show is a classic because of stories that can be watched repeatedly with the viewer coming away with something each time. The best paced, most adventurous ST show of all. Only the third season keeps this one from ranking first. Re-mastered edition helps this show keep pace with other SF that has followed the original, and made it even better!

3. Twilight Zone- ST's greatest competition as a show with deeper meaning, though it was not strictly SF. The acting is terrific, atmosphere eerie, and stories top notch. Serling is one of the greatest teleplay writers that ever lived, and the dialogue is dense and satisfying for multiple viewings.

4. Outer Limits- The purest SF show in history. Explored scientific extrapolation in a very mature way for it's time and medium, and it always showed the advancement as it related to humanity. Actually more mature in it's scientific view than the new OL.

5. STDS9- The black sheep of the ST family, but also the most complex dramatically and politically. Only scattershot comedies, a mediocre 2nd season, and a somewhat disappointing final season keep this one from ranking higher. Best seasons: 4-6...as good a 3 year span as ANY show.

6. Lost-While not as spellbinding as early seasons, this maddening show has become even more SF themed in later seasons, and I really still want to know what's going on!

7. Fringe- Enjoying this immensely as it becomes more ore detailed in its own mythos. Humorous, scary, and clever.

8. Doctor Who(2005+)- I fun romp punctuated with some dark moments that continues the best traditions of the original, imperfect series and melds it with 21st century sensibilities.

9. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- While not nearly as good as the book, this still has enough satirical laughs for a dozen regular TV shows. Everyone should see this at least once.

10. Twilight Zone(1980s)- This show lacked the same consistent human commentary of the first, but contained so many excellent episodes I have to rank it here. Won numerous industry and genre creative awards.

11. New Outer Limits(1990s)- More paranoiac cautionary tales than the first show, but also great acting, clever episodes about contemporary scientific advances, and episodes with a lot of emotional impact. The 2nd best SF show that began life in the 90s.

12. Heroes-Engrossing first season and I probably would have ranked it ahead of Lost at that point. Still a decent show.

13. Babylon 5- Instant mythology and good intentions but imperfect execution. Still one of the better attempts at space opera ever.

14. Battlestar Galactica (2003+)-Mainly on the strength of its first 2 seasons and its contribution to the genre on TV the last few years.

15. Flash Forward- Loved this show very quickly! Sadly, cancelled before its time!

16. Enterprise-A show that improved almost every year! Excellent production values and stellar 3rd and 4th seasons makes this one a winner and no doubt would have ranked higher with a another season of momentum.

17. Star Cops- A mature, intelligent look at early 21st century policing of the newly emerging space race. Complex drama, and good FX for an 80s BBC show.

18. Blake's 7- More than meets the eye. It is an adventure show but with a decidedly un-Treklike bent--the heroes are criminals. Took the anti-hero to new heights in SF TV in the 70s.

19. Max Headroom- Short-lived, and ahead of its time. It never quite fulfilled it's promise, but no show on American TV has ever been so unconventional. Some nice commentary on the media and it's impact on society.

20. Defying Gravity- We need more shows like this...near-future SF grounded in reality. Enjoyed the large group of characters.

 

[label]

12. Heroes-Engrossing first season and I probably would have ranked it ahead of Lost at that point. Still a decent show.

I'm totally with you on this one. If Heroes had maintained the quality they had throughout Season 1 (barring the disappointing finale) for 4-5 seasons, that would have been mind-blowing TV.

It's really a shame that it took a downturn in Season 2 and just repeated Season 1's themes for the most part and then really took a nose dive in Season 3-4.

Nice list, BTW, I enjoyed reading your commentary on each series.

 

[label]

I gotta put DS9 as my top pick. No other showcan I remember watching advanced the growth of secondary characters like DS9

I definitely agree with you here. Garak is one of my top 10 characters from any Sci-Fi show ever. Odo is up there as well as Kira. They really did a nice job developing the ancillary characters on that show!

 

[ngc7293]

1. Babylon 5
2. Crusade
3. Farscape
4. Space 1999
5. LEXX
6. X-Files
7. Hercules and Xena
8. STNG
9. Earth: Final Conflict
10. Voyager

 

[I am not Spock]

1. Star Trek- A hands down classic. There is no substitute for Kirk, Spock, and co.

2. DS9- Seven seasons of wonderful, wonderful TV, with only a few stinkers in the bunch.

3. Buffy- This was more than a show to me when it was on. It was a way of life. A wonderful, character rich, funny, sad, dramatic, action-packed, phillosophical, and entertaining series from start to finish, IMO

4. Angel- Another superb series from Joss Whedon, with some of the best arcs, characters, and just plain darkness that I've ever seen on TV.

5. Dr Who- The 2005 relaunch has been one of my favourite sci fi shows in yonks. I was a particularly big fan of Tennant in the role, but I look forward to what is to come in the Matt Smith/Steven Moffat era.

6. Firefly- What more can be said? A sadly short-lived, but amazing series, which had tremendous potential. FOX are morons. This could have equalled or even bettered BtVS and Angel.

7. TNG- The most 'hard sci fi' of the Treks, IMO. It combined TOS' topical storytelling with more defined characters, intelligent sci fi scripts, and thought provoking pieces.

8. Red Dwarf- The best sci fi comedy, bar none.

9. Voyager- I actually liked it for what is was, so there. No, it wasn't TOS, TNG, or DS9, but it was usually an entertaining adventure series.

10. Enterprise- It was a great show in its third and fourth seasons. The first two weren't quite so great, but its a shame that it got axed just as it was finding itself.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

13. Babylon 5- Instant mythology and good intentions but imperfect execution. Still one of the better attempts at space opera ever.

16. Enterprise-A show that improved almost every year! Excellent production values and stellar 3rd and 4th seasons makes this one a winner and no doubt would have ranked higher with a another season of momentum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh9-DnyHqW4&feature=related

 

[Kirkman1987]

No order, but here are my favorites. I watch more Sci-fi movies than series, but love a good television show as well.

TOS - This is THE perfect show of the episodic format. Engaging characters and new and creative situations every week. Compound that with bright colors and an impressive look for it's day and you have one of the best shows ever.

TNG - This loses some of the fun and sense of adventure TOS has, but retains most of the formula. any drop off is made up for with a greatly expanded universe and often more complex stories.

DS9 - The return of a perfect Star Trek series, this time in a more serialized format.

Firefly - Firefly is good, really good, and I say this as someone who can't stand most of Joss Whedon's work.with only 14 episodes, it creates a cast and cool mood that many longer running series would envy.

Twin Peaks - Was light years ahead of it's competition and would still be considered pretty damn strange if aired today next to Lost and other shows it's helped inspire. Twin Peaks is Quirky, Funny, and along the road bombards you with some of the darkest moments in television history. This was also one of the first shows I can think of that felt like it had movie level production values. This series also had a great cast of characters, including Agent Cooper, Who is one of the top five television characters ever.

The Prisoner (UK) - A great British show that creates a very interesting and unique environment. Instead of creating a apocalyse-like 1984, it creates that world as a hotel resort, as a depiction of our own struggle for individuality.

Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes (UK) This entire saga is ending in a few days, and it's been a hell of a great ride. Gene Hunt is Legendary at this point, and the stories have been consistently good. Looking back, There hasn't been a single weak episode of either series.

Quantum Leap- I love Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell's chemistry, and the stories were uplifting and thrilling. I thought it was a bit too sensitive at times, but overall it was a fun show.

Batman (60's) - Adam West is great and the show is hilarious. I can't believe we still don't have dvds.

MST3K- I love movies, even bad ones. It's fun to watch these guys rip the film apart with love, with quips that only a true geek could comprehend. Joel, Mike, and the Bots seem like close friends after all these years.

 

[spinnerlys]

1. Farscape - just for the relationships between all the characters and the added bonus of Aeryn and John. And all those quirky stories they had to tell made this series just more special. And having a finale (Bad Timing) with two of the main protagonists getting blown to bits is just downright crazy. Just like that show.

2. Battlestar Galactica (2004) - for its depressing mood. And Bear McCreary's music (especially "One Year Later") is one of the best music on TV.

3. Firefly - albeit a short lived series, it had quite good characters one could warm up with. And when I first heard of this series I was quite skeptical, because it was from Joss Whedon (I wasn't that fond of BtVS) and had this western setting. But this forum convinced me otherwise and I gave it a chance, and by the fourth or fifth episode I was hooked and sad, that it only had one short season and a mediocre movie outing.

4. Deep Space Nine - the best outing in the Star Trek franchise, it had complex characters and engaging stories and that Cardassian architecture was kinda beautiful. The Pah Wraiths storyline was stupid though.

5. Lost - up to the fourth or fifth season it could have easily been the number one on this list, but somehow this show made a turn somewhere, that the characters and stories are not that interesting anymore. I'm glad that it is over next week and I finally know what it was all about, even though it is miles apart from the beginning (which is not a bad thing, but in this case I'm really lost).

6. Spaced - because the title of that short series let me think of it as a Sci-Fi series and after I watched it I was glad I did. And again and again. Like Black Books or Coupling. Different animals, but hardcore Sci-Fi it was.

7. Babylon 5 - one of the best thought out TV series I ever came upon, and were it not for the cheesy dialog in some scenes and nowadays bad SFX it would be on-par with Deep Space Nine. But I still like it very much.

8. Star Trek - it introduced me to televised Sci-Fi series, so it has to take a place somewhere, along with The Next Generation.

9. Red Dwarf - showing that comedy in space is doable. I haven't watched all series (up to three or four I think) but what I saw was hilarious.

 

[Python Trek]

1. TOS
2. The Twilight Zone (orig.)
3. DS9
4. Lost
5. The X-Files
6. Firefly
7. The Outer Limits (orig.)
8. TNG
9. nuBSG
10. SG-1

Honorable Mention:
Farscape
Red Dwarf

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

1) Babylon 5
2) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3) Star Trek: The Next Generation
4) Firefly
5) Battlestar Galactica (new series)

What I'm supposed to rank ten series? Oh, boy...

6) Lost
7) Star Trek: Enterprise
8) Space Above and Beyond
9) The Outer Limits (old & new show)
10) Dark Angel

 

[Mr Light]

1-For-All-Time: Babylon 5. 2. LOST. 3. Farscape. 4. Angel. 5. Doctor Who (new and old). Those are the greats. Then, I dunno. 6. Buffy. 7. Deep Space Nine. 8. X-Files. It feels wrong to rank a half hour cartoon or comedy into this list but if I did then Avatar Last Airbender would be very high up there, and the entire DCU pantheon, and I would toss Futurama and Red Dwarf in there as well.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

1. Doctor Who (ALL of it)
2. Farscape
3. Lost
4. Futurama
5. Babylon 5
6. Life on Mars
7. Deep Space Nine
8. The Incredible Hulk
9. Firefly
10. Battlestar Galactica (would be higher but the last season hurts it for me)

 

[intrinsical]

I am ranking based on the degree of love evoked by each series as I think about them.

1) Star Trek Deep Space 9
2) Doctor Who
3) Being Erica
4) nu-Battlestar Galactica
5) Star Trek The Next Generation
6) Eureka
7) The 4400
8) X-Files
9) Firefly
10) Dollhouse

 

[mimic]

Of the genre series I've seen:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Doctor Who
3. Angel
4. Supernatural*
5. Farscape*
6. Battlestar Galactica
7. Firefly
8. Lost
9. True Blood
10. Torchwood
11. Dollhouse
12. Caprica
13. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles*
14. Heroes**

*Haven't watched it all yet
**stopped watching halfway through season 3

 

[label]

10. Torchwood

I haven't seen this series, is Torchwood Sci-Fi?

14. Heroes**

**stopped watching halfway through season 3

I actually made it through Season 3 (barely) but that was all I could take as well. It's a shame after the show started with such promise.

 

[Warp Coil]

1. Lost
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Angel
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation
7. True Blood
8. The X-Files
9. Firefly
10. Caprica
11. Dollhouse
12. Heroes
13. Star Trek: Voyager
14. Star Trek: Enterprise

 

[spinnerlys]

I haven't seen this series, is Torchwood Sci-Fi?

Yep, it's a spin-off and anagram of Doctor Who.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchwood