Welcome back, this week we have a great list of some of the greatest Sci-fi TV shows to ever exist. Sci-fi is my favorite because I am addicted to scientific breakthroughs and research. The possibilities for our society to get better are almost limitless in a world that seems to be crumbling around us as we speak. Science is fascinating and helps provide humans with knowledge and a perspective on their existence. Through knowledge we gain power, sci-fi explores the powers we may gain or loose as time and space are explored. Enjoy.
5. Futurama
From Matt Groening, creator of the simpsons, comes this satirical look at the future. Pizza Delivery boy “Fry” from the year 2000 finds himself cryogenically frozen not to be awakened for 1,000 years, where he finds himself yet again working as a delivery boy.
This show is great and strongly sticks to an adherent sci-fi tradition of looking at the possibilities science may bring us. In genre’s like romcom, drama, and thriller you can always expect to know exactly how the story will use characters or recycled plot-lines to move forward. The great thing about sci-fi is that it takes a look at the possibilities within a story from a scientific perspective. This show totally twists everything upside down and really questions how society might evolve in the future. This isn’t I-robot, with no longer goofy will smith, who obviously is a almost super natural stereotyped character from a Hollywood action movie, with super sleek and strong robots. They play with the comedy of what an average working joe would be like in the future, the robots are rigid and run more like automobiles, christmas turns into a violent holiday, and soda in the future is made out of slug slime. With 5 seasons up, even an old futurama fan could re-watch and find some missed laughs.
4. Doctor Who – The Baker Series
The Doctor being weird.
Most people are more familiar with the current Doctor who series that has been airing for the last few years on BBC. But before this drama- earth based, hardly recognizable as sci-fi reunion series came out there was, Tom Baker. Tom Baker’s run as the Doctor is presented often in mainstream media, Family Guy even makes fun of Tom Baker fans in one of it’s episodes. But for those of you who didn’t watch it when it was first airing, or stay up till midnight as kids to watch re-runs on PBS, you probably don’t even have a clue as to who Tom Baker is.
Tom Baker fans are the true fan cult of the Doctor who series. Tom is an amazingly sarcastic actor, the writing was more creative, and the special effects, while cheesy, are nostalgic. To be among the Baker fans you definitely have to drink the punch, but trust me, it is well worth it.
If you’re into space and time, theoretical physics, and are against violence, then this series is the ultimate watch for you. When these episodes aired, they didn’t release them as season, but as 2-3 miniseries, making it more difficult to watch on netflix. To make up for this I have included links,1 2 3 4 , to a few of my favorite episodes.
3. Battlestar Galactica (2004)
Did I mention there is a lot of religious themes throughout this show.
I would be surprised if you hadn’t heard of this one, this series aired for five years up until 2009, and was well received. Like Doctor Who this series shares an older counterpart from the 70s that is less sci-fi and more drama based. That really seems to be all the rage these days, taking the analystic nature of sci-fi out, and injecting soap opera into space. But with this remake, you have a little less sexism, and better acting.. Although some of the special effects on this one are lacking, such as the Cylon robots, and some other added things.
Battlestar Galactica is set in the future of earth, where the colonies of earth are set in a battle against the Cylons, a cybernetic race that was originally made by the humans (rise of the machines). Eventually the Cylons take over earth and the last remaining humans exist as a nomadic fleet of starships constantly running from the Cylon threat. This show is a lot more of a political drama than a straight up sci-fi show. Often dealing with things currently going on in America. Especially relating to the revocation of citizen rights in times of war, and leading with a I don’t give a damn what my constituents want, I know better because I have cancer and believe in god. But it is still a good show.
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
DS9 used their CGI sparingly, Lucas, take a hint.
If you don’t know about this one, your likely to live under a rock. For me putting ST:DS9 in 2nd was a hard decision. I love this show, and am actually writting this toward the end of a lengthy marathon of DS9.
Many said this really did not do justice to the Star Trek Franchise based on the fact that it’s always been known as an exploration show. But looking back the original was badly acted and fairly boring to watch, and while at the time didn’t seem so, Next Generation was just as badly acted if not more boring. Ds9 goes leaps and bounds in raising the bar for production quality in Star trek. Funny enough at the time DS9 was really just a farm team, as the less popular Star Trek Voyager was intended to be the flag ship star trek at the time. Funny enough Voyager was badly acted too! I think Star Trek should give up on exploration, and stick to an ongoing plot line.
DS9 rarely leaves one space station, so there is not a whole lot of exploration going on here, although there is some. It is basically a futuristic representation of a WWII scenario, where a newly found society known as the dominion employs xenocide (the eradication of entire species) and other brutal tactics (gene warfare to take control of the universe. This show has one of the most gripping plots ever.
1. Farscape
You can see the incredible pilot, background, puppeted by 5 people at once.
If someone asked me to name one sci-fi show that literally embodies the genre, this would be it. About an American astronaut on the first human long range space mission, he gets sucked into a wormhole and shot onto the complete other side of the universe, which is… umm… Who knows, but very very far away. He ends up on a a prisoner transport ship in which the the prisoners have committed mutiny and are trying to run from their brutal captors know as “The Peace Keepers”.
This show is all about exploring the ideas that come into play when your talking about advance science, technology, and societies. Like Futurama, I love that this show will explore viewpoints of a society that make little to no sense in today’s terms, but have a legitimate possibility of being realistic. They really spent a lot of time thinking about the science behind how things work, from the ship being a living bio-mechanical space alien, to how class 3 societies communicate with other species.
This show unlike many sci-fi shows employs little CGI, especially for characters. Battlestar Galactica, starwars episode 1-2-3, and many other sci-fis are employing the us of CGI for their characters. And unfortunately nobody seems to understand CGI, while continually advancing, is nowhere near and acceptable level to be using it as main characters. It just looks cheesy and detracts from the show. With Farscape though, they employ the most incredible puppet manipulation skills known to man, the show is worth watching just for this fact alone.
