top 20 essential sci fi shows

we did the movies, now let's do the shows...

http://io9.com/5622910/the-top-20-essential-science-fiction-tv-shows

Ok let's see now
Blake's 7 I watched avidly as a kid.
Farscape held me for one season then got weird.
V the original series was great!
Stargate SG1 definitely in my top 5.
Battlestar:Galactica the remake sucked big time! Starbuck a girl??? No way!
Fringe - awesome.
Babylon 5, another in my top 5.
X-files started okay then got too conspiracy theoried for me.
Doctor Who, in my top 5.
Star Trek and the spinoff, I enjoyed also.

The others I either never heard of or did not watch/enjoy.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - I've not seen this program/series but I'd like to do so.

Blake's 7 - I've never seen it.

Cowboy Bebop - One of my rules stipulates I'll never watch any film or program with "cowboy" in the title or any promotional allusion to country music. Granted, this particular production only manifests one of The Two Forbidden Characteristics. So, I'm undoubtedly being quite unfair.

Farscape - I've not seen it.

V - I've never seen this one, either.

Stargate SG-1 - I've seen a few episodes and remain unimpressed.

The Tick (animated) - I've never seen it.

Futurama - I've not seen this.

Battlestar Galactica (remake) - The original was corny enough; and now there's a re-make? Spare me.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine- It was a very good series and then, suddenly, it was gone.

Fringe - I've not seen this.

Babylon 5 - The best inner-space/outer-space science fiction series ever made. Stupidly, it was moved to cable (a.k.a. "rich folks' television") and thus forever vanished from my radar screen.

The Twilight Zone - What can be said? Superlatives abound; and I second all of them. It's the father/mother of thinking-persons' science fiction television in the U.S., a genre which has long since died.

The Prisoner - If I've ever seen any episodes of this, I've forgotten them. I should give it another try, somehow.

Max Headroom - I urinate with pleasure on this horrible contrivance.

The X-Files - It was great stuff. It sucked me in and I enjoyed my stay.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - This was a good way to bring the Star Trek franchise back. It's a pity its creators ran out of ideas.

Firefly - Joss Whedon is a creative genius but he has a penchant for doing business with flaky networks, such as Fox Broadcasting Company and (the late) United Paramount Network. This proved fatal in the case of Firefly - a great idea which was well done on Whedon's end then butchered and canceled by the network.

Doctor Who - This is the still-living ancestor of all television science-fiction series. What an idea! My favorite Doctor Who memory remains the four-episode "Paradise Towers" scenario, directed by Nicholas Mallett and broadcast in October of 1987. In short, gangs of young women rule a dilapidated tower block in a ruined dystopia. I loved Julie Brennon as the character "Fire Escape" and Annabel Yuresha as "Bin Liner":

Fire Escape : "Red Kang eye-spy says we can't go through usual carrydor. Blue Kangs out and lurking."

Bin Liner : "And the yellow?"

Fire Escape : "No yellows. All unalive now."

I'm a pushover for dystopian scenarios featuring fit young women, obviously! Oh, before I forget, Sylvester McCoy portrayed "The Doctor" and Bonnie Langford was "Melanie" his companion.


Star Trek - I love watching Star Trek episodes (what you can see of them in between endless local-yokel advertisements) because I'm reminded of an era during which I was on something of a trek myself: off to war. Anyway, Stark Trek remains the flagship of U.S. science-fiction television via its easily-understood metaphorical scenarios and sterling cast. Unlike The Twilight Zone, which required some thought to comprehend, Star Trek is perhaps The Comfort Zone.

I actually like the old Dr Who episodes! don't like the new ones they have out now...