Choose…
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Choose…
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I’m going Odo and Garibaldi! And you?
Came across this fan poll of the Best Sci-Fi Shows of All Time. There was a lot of arguing in the comments and I realized that people were debating three different polls: The Most Iconic Sci-Fi Shows of All Time (which, I would argue, should include the likes of Dr. Who and Babylon 5), The Greatest Sci-Fi Shows of All Time, and the much simpler My Top 10 Shows of All Time. I considered the latter, and came up with the following list…
Not surprisingly, many were disappointed that I hadn’t included their favorites – and then were surprised to learn I hadn’t included them because I’d never seen them. Shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, TNG, and DS9. I explained…
I know, I know. As someone who works in sci-fi, I’ve missed out on a lot of legendary sci-fi. True, but it all comes down to opportunity. When I’m in production on a show, I rarely have time to watch anything, and when I’m not in production, I focus on reading (which I consider research) or viewing shows that fall within the genre I’m developing (for a while now, that’s been the crime genre).
With regard to what made my Top 10 list and why…
Star Trek: The Original Series and the original Twilight Zone make the list on the basis of nostalgia. Yes, they are admittedly dated, but I’ll excuse a lot because both of these shows were so iconic and personally influenced my writing.
Dark Matter, Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Universe, in much the same way, bring back overwhelmingly positive memories of my time working on these shows, crafting the creative, overseeing production, and collaborating with a wonderful cast and crew.
As a life long fan of the anthology format, I consider Black Mirror one of the very best – clever, surprising, and intellectually provocative.
Back when I first moved to Vancouver for Stargate, I started building a DVD library covering both anime and television. And since I owned the box sets, I decided to start checking out some of Stargate’s sci-fi peers. I’d heard good things about Babylon 5 and started with that. Although I found the first episode underwhelming (mainly due to the basic video game-level VFX), I stuck with it and was rewarded with wonderful world building, terrific character development, and a satisfying overarching storyline. Farscape, on the other hand, I checked out because it just looked so damn weird. I was continually amazed by its audacious visuals and respected its willingness to creatively swing for the fences. Firefly was a show I’d heard a lot about, but not in a good way. People were dumping on the show which was considered DOA when it aired so, out of curiosity, I decided to check it out and was surprised because I loved it and wondered whether I was crazy or the lunatics had actually taken over the asylum. As it turns out, history has shown it was the latter.
Finally, Star Trek: Voyager is an interesting one. I tried watching TNG and couldn’t get into it. My former writing partner spoke very highly of DS9, especially the Dominion War storyline. But I decided to start watching Voyager as it was airing every night on then UPN. It was a way of staying connected with my now ex who was living in my hometown of Montreal while I was working on the other side of the country. We would both watch the show and then catch each other up on our respective days, and discuss the episode, over the course of a late night call. Given the show’s themes of isolation, separation, exploration and discovery, it was a perfect parallel to my life at the time and so, it holds a special place in my heart.
As for some of the other genre fare…
As a lifelong comic book fan, these Marvel shows should have been right up my alley, but after checking out a few episodes here and there, it dawned on me that they were being written by people who either never read the source material or actively hated comic books – which I found kind of strange. So very quickly, I decided the Marvel t.v. world was not for me and dismissed the entire slate. The DC shows I watched also failed to impress. Now I’ve heard great things about Andor, but I got off the Star Wars train halfway through Return of the Jedi which I felt, at the time, was a betrayal of what had come before. So, to paraphrase a friend: “I don’t have the Star Wars gene.”
Last year, I did something called “Best Of…” where I had fans come up with a list of the Top 32 Sci-Fi Shows, and then had them vote on the best episode of each. I watched them and then hosted an X Space wherein I discussed them with a co-host. The hope was that the single standout episode would captivate and compel me to watch the entire series. In the end, only one show really succeeded in accomplishing that – DS9 (and the episode “In the Pale Moonlight”). If anything, this marathon actually compelled me to rewatch some of my favorites – Farscape, Black Mirror, and Babylon 5.
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So, what are YOUR Top 10 Favorite Sci-Fi Shows of All Time?
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