1.
"Batman: The Animated Series" - The only show I loved during childhood that I love just as much (and maybe a little more) as an adult. It has its fair share of awful, horribly corny episodes, but the best episodes are transcendent...right up there with the best live action movies and TV series I've seen.
2.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - It seems every generation has a show that carries them through adolescence as they relate to its teenage characters (
"Dawson's Creek,
"Beverley Hills 90210", etc.) and this is mine. Most of all I love how insightfully its characters and their lives reflect the high school and university experience (with a few major exceptions, like a lecturer yelling at and kicking a student out of a university class for talking. Ridiculous! They simply wouldn't care that much!)
3.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" - Something I liked as a kid that I like exponentially better as an adult. Contrary to the beliefs of many, I believe it has aged beautifully, like a fine wine.
4.
"The X-Files" - It went on too long, but I can forgive its mediocre seasons and episodes because the best episodes and seasons were more mind blowingly atmospheric, suspenseful, and captivating than most shows I've ever seen. Like
"Batman: The Animated Series", its finest episodes were beautifully cinematic...superior in their significantly shorter running times to many science fiction films I've seen.
5.
"Xena: Warrior Princess" - Perhaps the most frustratingly inconsistent show I like, with its constant shifting between painfully melodramatic serious shows, painfully broad slapstick comedies, genuinely moving and subtle dramatic episodes, and heartwarming, uplifting, sweet, and clever comedies.
6.
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" - I have only been watching this show for two years and I already love it as much as shows I've loved for my whole life. Unfortunately, its legacy is severely tainted by a few unbelievably terrible episodes, characterizations, and story arcs that the writers should been smart enough not to include.
7.
"X-Men" - I just revisited this for the first time since childhood and I'm surprised by how well it holds up. It is surprisingly sophisticated for a Saturday morning cartoon show, with its serialized storytelling and top notch voice acting. There are some cheesy story lines, performances, and episodes (as one would expect with this kind of show), but the high points are truly magnificent. John Colicos as Apocalypse is the ultimate scenery DEVOURING villain. His epically over-the-top deliciously, gloriously, majestically evil dialogue cracks me up so hard.
8.
"Futurama" - I find a lot of the episodes in this serious middling, but the greatest episodes are at levels of originality and cleverness that are unparalleled and even though it's animated, its sentimental moments are some of the most moving I've ever experienced in any media (and no, I'm not thinking of the overrated and terrible maudlin trash that is
"Jurassic Bark").
9.
"Star Trek" - It's still pretty new to me as I've only been watching since 2008 and haven't seen all the episodes yet. It will likely move up on my list.
10.
"Batman" (1966) - More comedy than science fiction, but someone else listed it, so I will too. I've been re watching this for the first time since childhood and am really impressed by how much smarter and wittier it is than I remembered. I especially appreciate how cool the sets are, the creativity of The Riddler's riddles (as well as the brilliance of Frank Gorshin's performance), the ingenuity of Catwoman's schemes, and Julie Newmar's absolutely mesmerizing mugging and meowing.
I like the new
"Battlestar Galactica" a lot and
"FireFly" too, but certain episodes of
"Firefly" were so boring to me that watching them was suffering, and I've only watched all of BSG once. I have never seen a single episode of
"Dr. Who" or
"Babylon 5". What channels were these shows on anyway?
