What are the top sci-fi shows for space adventure lovers?

[jetwaterluffy]

Alphas is OK, but it's a bit of a cheap ripoff of Heroes (which may itself be an X-Men ripoff).

X-men, meanwhile, may be a ripoff of the doom patrol, so that would be a highly nested ripoff.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Yeah, Alphas was not really very good. One would likely have to be into the superheroes genre to get much enjoyment out of it and even then comic book geeks tend to be really picky.

The only recent space oriented show I can think of not mentioned is Defying Gravity. Unfortunately most people don't like the slow pacing and even if you can get along with the pacing the climax of the season is a partial reveal and teaser of what is to come and then... the show was canceled.

A show from the 90's which is space oriented but quite badly written and acted is Space Above and Beyond. Unless you are really really into the idea of spaceship dog fights and interstellar war I would give it a pass.

Lexx is awesome. Very tongue in cheek and very screwy. Its Red Dwarf on crack.

 

[FlexGunship]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! The original BBC television series. You can get it on DVD now and it's also on Netflix.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005YUNJ/?tag=pfamazon01-20

It came after the books and is ripped right form them. The production quality is horrible (think Dorf on Golf meets Red Drawf) but if you know Hitchhiker's you know it's hilarious.

 

[Thetom]

Dr. Who. It can't be abbreivated to Dr. because it is a name, not a title. I'd rather you'd call it DoctorW or DW or Who.
Just me being a pernickety Doctor Who geek.

haha sorry. Didn't mean to disrespect The Doc!

 

[jambaugh]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! The original BBC television series. You can get it on DVD now and it's also on Netflix.

Alll Right! I did not realize that!

In college a guy in my dorm had the radio broadcast on LP. We rolled on the floor laughing so hard. Especially the scene with Marvin vs the frogstar robot. The voices they used were comedic perfection.

EDIT: I've read all the books, seen the crappy movie, played the text base RPG on the ATARI 800 many many moons ago and listened to the BBC Radio broadcast. But I've only seen a couple of the TV episodes.

 

[Danger]

played the text base RPG on the ATARI 800

I still have my 800XL, but never knew of any games available for it. I spent over 7 months teaching that damned thing to play poker, and it still cheated in a manner that I had specifically forbad it to do. (Drawing the same card twice.) Thanks for your signature. I've always loved that line, but have been mistakingly attributing it to Toad.

Anyhow, I both agree and disagree with most of what has been posted here. "Eureka" is one of my absolute favourite shows, but it is not SF. It's a very clever comedy staged in a pseudo-scientific environment. "Haven", likewise, is not SF. It's a Steven King book stretched out to a series. No supernatural crap qualifies as SF. I love the show, but it is Fantasy, not SF. Same for "Merlin", "Xena", "Hercules", "Being Human"... (And by the way, regarding the latter, with no offense to the NA cast and crew, the original British version is far superior.)
"Lost in Space" would deserve its own special place in hell if such a place existed. It's not SF, it's not comedy, it's not entertainment... It's as if a bus full of retarded clowns exploded on a leftover set from the first season of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
I love "Sanctuary", and am a huge "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan. The former can pass for SF; the latter is Fantasy (on more than one level for me ).
Speaking of Sarah... after ignoring it completely for over 95% of my lifespan, I have become very fond of "Scooby Doo" shows, both the live action and the cartoons.
"Firefly" was awesome, and the "Serenity" movie the best of the bunch. That sweet little girl on it reminds me of another favourite that died prematurely—"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".
Someone mentioned "Misfits". I watched a couple of episodes and hated it. I can't help thinking, though, that it's a ripoff of one of my favourite shows from way back—"The Misfits of Science". That was back when Courtney Cox was unbelievably hot, right after her debut on Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" video. Again, though, that show was a comic book brought to life, not SF. Same for the brilliant "Greatest American Hero".
I'm not finished yet, but I'm going to post this now because I'm afraid to lose it in case of a system failure. I'll get back to it.

 

[jambaugh]

[...] I have become very fond of "Scooby Doo" shows, both the live action and the cartoons.[...]

As kids we grew up on the original "Scooby Doo" 'toons. My biggest gripe with the more recent versions is they've taken a children's show about skeptical inquiry (note the ghosts where always fake) and turned it into yet another paranormal series. It's totally antithetical to the original spirit. That started with the (extremely annoying) "Scrappy" cartoons.

I know it's somewhat preposterous of me to make a deep philosophical issue about a Hannah Barbara cartoon but...this is a trend I'm seeing across the board in popular programming, devolution in our popular culture from respect for science to fascination with mysticism.

Granted everyone likes a good ghost story. I too was a dedicated fan of the Buffy series (and loved the original movie too...hilarious!) As long as people take it as cultural fantasy all well and good. But the ghost hunter reality shows grate on my sensibilities at a very very deep level. That we're encouraging such superstitious beliefs raises my hackles far more than any bump in the night could.

 

[jambaugh]

I still have my 800XL, but never knew of any games available for it.

Yea! It came with a button with the words "Don't Panic" and a pair of The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses (black cardboard cut like cheap 3-D glasses but of course completely opaque). I'll have to see if I can locate the button in my packed up boxes. I should still have it somewhere. I wonder if it's worth anything to a collector?

... just did some googleing and guess what! Here it is online!

http://douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html"

 

[dlgoff]

Can't help but chime in that Lost in Space and Quantum Leap were two of the very rare sci fi shows that made me ill to watch.

Quantum Leap was funny, it wasn't meant to be serious.

Lost in Space was a victim of the time, but "Warning, Warning, Will Robinson!" will always be hysterical. I mean the robot waving his arms and shouting is a classic.

I taped a note to my TV to make sure I wouldn't forget to watch "Lost In Space". One of my childhood memories.

 

[Danger]

Ho-a-ly sheepgarbage! I have actually played that game, but it was on a buddy's Apple II, before I got my first 800. I didn't know that there was an Atari version. Yeah... everyone else ran Basic, so the programmes were interchangeable. My stuff, of course, used AtariBasic. Subtle but devastating differences.
I'm probably still in the incredibly old rerun phase of Scooby, because so far all of the monsters have been dweebs in drag. My only exposure to that "Scrappy" ******* was yesterday when he turned out to be the mastermind behind some plot in a supposedly haunted castle which he had taken over and impersonated the real owner (Rowen Atkinson in one of his more verbal roles). If they ever get to "unexplained", I'll quite watching.
Crap! That brings another old one to mind. Anyone remember "Project Bluebook"? It started out well, with proper debunking, but then they got into idiotic **** like "Blinky" on "UFO Hunters" does.

 

[turbo]

I thought the Babylon 5 series was pretty entertaining. Michael O'Hare's performances were wooden at best, so it was no loss to see him replaced by Bruce Boxleitner. It was a nice touch to have Melissa Gilbert (Boxleitner's real-life wife) do a couple of episodes as Anna Sheridan. Walter Koenig made one hell of a bad-guy, too.

The DVD boxed set is a little under $160, but that's not a bad price, considering the series ran for 5 years. It's also highly recommended that the TV movies be purchased as a set and viewed in the order that they aired interspersed with the regular shows, so as not to run into "spoiler" problems.

 

[dlgoff]

"The Invisible Man" 1933 on "Turner Classic Movies" now showing. Talking about child hood memories.

 

[DaveC426913]

Looove TCM.

 

[DoggerDan]

"The Invisible Man" 1933 on "Turner Classic Movies" now showing. Talking about child hood memories.

I've got that saved on Netflix. :)

Along with 500 other movies I don't have time to watch...

 

[Kinase]

Futurama!

 

[dlgoff]

I just watched an episode of "The Outer Limits". I was in high school when this came out.

Production and Decay of Strange Particles

"Production and Decay of Strange Particles" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 20 April 1964, during the first season. The episode was likely the first dramatic film production to incorporate the concept of quasi-stellar objects (abbreviated as quasars or QSOs). These strange objects eject extraordinary amounts of energy, such as x-rays and gamma rays, as well as matter at relativistic speeds.

What's funny is that I just put together 4 DVDs of Robert Feynmans QED lectures for my Daughter to watch while she is home for Christmas; where in his fourth lecture he describes the known particles of his time.

It's a particle Christmas.

 

[chhitiz]

firefly

 

[skeptic2]

One of my favorites was Science Fiction Theater, popular in the '50s.

In one episode some astronauts had gone to the moon and while on the moon, one astronaut suffered a heart attack. The doctors on Earth determined he would not survive the G forces encountered during take off and landing. Their solution was to submerge him, in his spacesuit, in the water tank. Though I doubt whether it would really have worked, it was an interesting solution.

In another, a scientist discovered that as lava freezes it can capture sounds. The scientist was able to recover the sounds from a piece of lava and hear the voices of villagers as they fled the approaching lava.

 

[chhitiz]

firefly

 

[johanw]

One show that I have not seen mentiond: Earth Final Conflict. I downloaded all 5 seasons and amused myself for quite some time. Contrary to some posters I like a continuous story arc, like in Babylon 5. And of course there is Blake's 7, terrible special effects but excelent stories.

But I'm running out of good SF shows, they seem not to be made anymore.

 

[chhitiz]

firefly

 

[FlexGunship]

firefly

Or for Skyrim fans... torchbug.

 

[chhitiz]

firefly

 

[FlexGunship]

Big Band Theory and Mythbusters both are very good shows and both have so much for science information in it. Every thing is according to the scientific calculations.

Yeah, Mythbusters is my favorite science fiction show.

 

[chhitiz]

^
































firefly

 

[dodo]

If the OP (QuarkCharmer) is still listening, and if s/he's anything like me, s/he (darn political correctness... can't we invent a neutral article?) will like the first two seasons of Andromeda. Here was a well written show on the good Trek tradition... unfortunately the main writer went away and the series degenerated quickly after the first two years. As a taster, you can give a glance to Angel Dark, Demon Bright and The Knight, Death, and the Devil; if that gets you hooked, go at the series from the beginning.

 

[chhitiz]

firefly

 

[FlexGunship]

firefly

 

[DrClapeyron]

DS9
TNG
Voyager
Farscape
the original Sliders
Quantam Leap

I want to get into Firefly and Babylon 5 but I am not convinced it is worth the cost of buying the dvds.

Everything on Sci-Fi channel since they canceled Farscape is absolute crap. A coworker watches Eureka, had it on at the office, and I just couldn't understand what it was about. Much like SG-1 it featured too much techno-babble talk and a lot of fast pace scenes to advance plot holes.

Good science fiction shows are not always available but I think the 1990's was the best decade in the modern era.

 

[johanw]

DS9
I want to get into Firefly and Babylon 5 but I am not convinced it is worth the cost of buying the dvds.

Well, there are cheaper methods to get them on various p2p networks.

Good science fiction shows are not always available but I think the 1990's was the best decade in the modern era.

I agree.

 

[turbo]

I want to get into Firefly and Babylon 5 but I am not convinced it is worth the cost of buying the dvds.

Everything on Sci-Fi channel since they canceled Farscape is absolute crap. A coworker watches Eureka, had it on at the office, and I just couldn't understand what it was about. Much like SG-1 it featured too much techno-babble talk and a lot of fast pace scenes to advance plot holes.

Good science fiction shows are not always available but I think the 1990's was the best decade in the modern era.

Get the complete B-5 set (including the "movies") and be happy. In the beginning narration, G'kar says "nobody here is what they seem" (or some such) and that is true for the whole series. There are so many wrinkles and back-stories... If you can't afford to buy the series, subscribe to Netflix and rent it little by little. I should warn you that the first year's episodes (with a particularly wooden station commander) are a bit slow, but by the time Bruce Boxleitner shows up, the series really takes off.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

FWIW, I started watching Enterprise after creating this thread. It's actually not half bad. Working on Farscape now, but season one isn't panning out, and there is all sorts of Jim Henson muppetry afoot...

 

[bm0p700f]

BSG the new version is the best Sci fi that has been done for years. I used to like Startrek TNG but got bored of it along with Voyger. Enterprise was O.K.

Sky Altantic are doing a re run of BSG at the moment which is good. Defying Gravity was one show I really liked but it got canceled along with Caprica and Stargate Universe. In fact I was surprised the BSG lasted as long as it did given it was so depressing.

 

[arabianights]

while staying in a ski lodge last week, i tuned the TV to Syfy channel, playing all day low budge horror movies

 

[feathermoon]

Really, Firefly is probably worth the cash. It really great.

I'm surprised this hasn't come up, but AMC's The Walking Dead is really entertaining, as long as you aren't afraid of zombies.