What do people think is the worst season of a sci-fi or fantasy show ever? There are many mediocre seasons and many individual episodes that are horrible, but very rarely does a show manage to string together so many subpar episodes, be filled with many worst episodes, or use such repugnant plot elements to make a whole season considered among the worst ever for the genre on television.
Here are some of the contenders, just the ones I know of, to refresh people's memories. Obviously other posters can add any I forget:
* X-Files Season 9 (Doggett/Reyes, the show was last good in the last century, many horrible episodes and ratings below Season 1, which X-Files was a sleeper hit)
* Earth: Final Conflict Season 5 (the season with the infamous "revamp", going so far beyond left field, it ended up trying to play baseball in a hockey rink. Only 1 original cast member left and his character has been reduced down to 1 dimension, co-lead promoted up to be Renee the Atavus slayer, and we get Taelons replaced with the Avatus and 'fine' characters like Howlyn, who acts just like his name looks. Definately one of the biggest WTFs out there)
* Andromeda Season 5 (barely got made due to the disintegration of the syndication market/producers, considered totally separate from the rest of the series, even to the few fans Andromeda has. If it's held in lower regard than the rest of the series, that's saying something)
* Andromeda Season 3 or 4 (these seasons are considered pretty bad for horrid writing, horrid inconsistency, like the presence of an entire crew or not!)
* SeaQuest Season 2 or 3 might count (it's been a while, but I remember this show having very jarring transitions between seasons. Each season was like an entirely different show with the same cast & sub, but a totally different world its set in)
* Sliders Season 3 (Fox makes Sliders imitate movies badly and passes it off as sci-fi. Not every episode is horrible ("The Exodus" for example) but Fox does its best to make Sliders look like a show people would write in to a network *to cancel it* because it's so repulsive. BTW, Adventures of Sinbad Season 2 was forced to write episodes ripping off movies the head of Tribune or Atlantis liked, I forget which. As others noted, Season 4 was such a gigantic leap up in terms of quality of writing)
* Conan Season 1 (The 1997-98 syndicated show, not the 1992-94 syndicated cartoon, Conan the Adventurer, which was a great, albeit forgotten cartoon. Stars some German guy who can barely be understood [which might be a good thing considering the original Conan], the bearded midget friend of Kramer from Seinfeld, and a few other forgettables. Had very low ratings. Even hardcore fantasy fans, like those of Xena/Hercules/Sinbad ignored this one)
* The Battlestar Galactica "Galactica '80" season?
* And any others I've forgotten about.
I;ve heard bad things about Highlander Season 6 too.
I don't think any season of Star Trek (TOS to ENT) or Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis probably belongs on this list because while some may be packed with episodes people hate (e.g. "Genesis", "Masks", "Sub Rosa"), they don't have the strong revulsion effect some of the examples I listed had. They may be bad, but they've never been abysmal. ENT Season 2 kind of came close, with such overpowering mediocrity, a single 7 episode stretch caused, what was it, 1/3 or 1/2 the audience to leave? Even with that, it didn't really seem to make the cut with this elite club. No seasons of Hercules or Xena seem to be *this* bad (anyone remember The Adventures of Sinbad Season 2?), nor The Outer Limits (90s) or even Poltergeist: The Legacy or Lost in Space Season 3. I'm looking for the season that had the greatest recoil from being so repugnant, so destestable that it can be argued it was the worst season of sci-fi on television, with no redeeming value beyond being a cautionary tale of what can go wrong in a series (no camp value, this is so bad it's bad).
Here are some of the contenders, just the ones I know of, to refresh people's memories. Obviously other posters can add any I forget:
* X-Files Season 9 (Doggett/Reyes, the show was last good in the last century, many horrible episodes and ratings below Season 1, which X-Files was a sleeper hit)
* Earth: Final Conflict Season 5 (the season with the infamous "revamp", going so far beyond left field, it ended up trying to play baseball in a hockey rink. Only 1 original cast member left and his character has been reduced down to 1 dimension, co-lead promoted up to be Renee the Atavus slayer, and we get Taelons replaced with the Avatus and 'fine' characters like Howlyn, who acts just like his name looks. Definately one of the biggest WTFs out there)
* Andromeda Season 5 (barely got made due to the disintegration of the syndication market/producers, considered totally separate from the rest of the series, even to the few fans Andromeda has. If it's held in lower regard than the rest of the series, that's saying something)
* Andromeda Season 3 or 4 (these seasons are considered pretty bad for horrid writing, horrid inconsistency, like the presence of an entire crew or not!)
* SeaQuest Season 2 or 3 might count (it's been a while, but I remember this show having very jarring transitions between seasons. Each season was like an entirely different show with the same cast & sub, but a totally different world its set in)
* Sliders Season 3 (Fox makes Sliders imitate movies badly and passes it off as sci-fi. Not every episode is horrible ("The Exodus" for example) but Fox does its best to make Sliders look like a show people would write in to a network *to cancel it* because it's so repulsive. BTW, Adventures of Sinbad Season 2 was forced to write episodes ripping off movies the head of Tribune or Atlantis liked, I forget which. As others noted, Season 4 was such a gigantic leap up in terms of quality of writing)
* Conan Season 1 (The 1997-98 syndicated show, not the 1992-94 syndicated cartoon, Conan the Adventurer, which was a great, albeit forgotten cartoon. Stars some German guy who can barely be understood [which might be a good thing considering the original Conan], the bearded midget friend of Kramer from Seinfeld, and a few other forgettables. Had very low ratings. Even hardcore fantasy fans, like those of Xena/Hercules/Sinbad ignored this one)
* The Battlestar Galactica "Galactica '80" season?
* And any others I've forgotten about.
I;ve heard bad things about Highlander Season 6 too.
I don't think any season of Star Trek (TOS to ENT) or Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis probably belongs on this list because while some may be packed with episodes people hate (e.g. "Genesis", "Masks", "Sub Rosa"), they don't have the strong revulsion effect some of the examples I listed had. They may be bad, but they've never been abysmal. ENT Season 2 kind of came close, with such overpowering mediocrity, a single 7 episode stretch caused, what was it, 1/3 or 1/2 the audience to leave? Even with that, it didn't really seem to make the cut with this elite club. No seasons of Hercules or Xena seem to be *this* bad (anyone remember The Adventures of Sinbad Season 2?), nor The Outer Limits (90s) or even Poltergeist: The Legacy or Lost in Space Season 3. I'm looking for the season that had the greatest recoil from being so repugnant, so destestable that it can be argued it was the worst season of sci-fi on television, with no redeeming value beyond being a cautionary tale of what can go wrong in a series (no camp value, this is so bad it's bad).
