The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows Ever

Popular Mechanics ^ | March 4, 2013 | Jordan Hoffman

[EveningStar]

From the whiz-bang and cheesy to the far-out and prematurely cancelled, sci-fi and TV have had a nice run. We locked ourselves in the basement with several milk crates of VHS tapes, laser discs, and back issues of Starlog to come up with the top 50 science-fiction television shows.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

For you Netflix users, The 100 is better than 99% of the stuff that is on there as well.

It like Falling Skies is still in production as well.

[PLMerite]

"A Walking Mood Ring (Troi)..."

You blaspheme. :)

[Dr. Sivana]

You blaspheme. :)

Typical scene:

Ferengi: Heh-heh... I think we can make a deal that will benefit BOTH of us Captain ... hee-heh-hehhhhhhh

Troi: I sense deception, Captain.

Now think about what married life would be like with Troi, compared to say, Yeoman Rand, for starters?

[chaosagent]

Re: Men into Space.

I may be thinking of the wrong show, but I seem to remember an episode where they’re exploring an area of the moon, and then get called back to the ship.

The camera pans around to the back of a rock face and there’s an obvious fossil embedded in the rock.

I think I was 11 or 12 at the time.

Another one like this for me was the BSG (1978) episode, “The Hand of God”, where at the very end of the episode you find out that the distorted long-range signal they’ve been hearing is the audio from the Apollo 11 moon landing. But the crew has already left the astronavigation dome and they don’t hear it.

This is the first time we have a real idea of what time period BSG is set in relative to us.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Have been watching the new Sci Fi series Dark Matter, it’s not too bad. Last night the ( Blonde Android) decided she didn’t like the new Pleasure Android. She got all snitty, about her, later she tried to make friends and Sex Bot just Trashed her, I think they were still trying to Fix Blonde at the end of the Episode. Sex Bot got here head whacked off too. Kind of funny! Watch out for bad Droids!

[Dubh_Ghlase]

YEah, Firefly and Serenity are favorites of mine. Really PO’d that it was cancelled before it got half a chance....

[Jeff Chandler]

Firefly and Serenity

I can always predict an array of possible directions a story can go and solutions it can have, but those two never failed to surprise.

[tacticalogic]

Thunderbirds

Does anyone else remember Fireball XL5?

[minnesota_bound]

#123 Troi would ask how you feel after sex along with telling you that you could do better while Yeoman Rand would be up for round 2 and 3 and so on... : )

[StormEye]

“The Invaders” starring Roy Thinness needs to be on this list.

[sparklite2]

Agreed.

[sparklite2]

Agree on LOST. It’s a similar reason I can’t put Battlestar Galactica at number one. The BSG series finale was full of holes. In response to the many complaints about it, the producers said the public should “get over it.” Heh.

[catfish1957]

X-Files should be number 1.

I agree. X-Files was one of the very few shows in my pretty long life that I absolutely looked forward to every week.

[sparklite2]

I suppose my favorite scene in all of TNG was where Picard is held captive (”There are four lights!) requiring another captain to take over the Enterprise. The new captain proceeds to tell Troi to get into some decent military clothing. The shock look on the counselor’s face was priceless.

[Smokin' Joe]

I’m surprised Flash Gordon didn’t make the list. It may have been made as movie theater serials, but it was on television, too.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Battle of the Planets

Talk about a blast from the past.

And where is Jetter Mars?

[sparklite2]

Falling Skies was good. And the morse code you hears during the episode intros is real and decipherable.

[fr_freak]

Lost at no. 12? Does science fiction include sloppy fiction? The show plots reminded me of a campfire tradition of one person starting a story, then the narrative/plot gets passed to the next and so on. It may be fun for the narrators but the product is often boring and ridiculous.

Yup - the writers for that show were just making it up as they went. At least one of them pretty much admitted it. I wouldn't call Lost Sci-Fi so much as just random crap, and I was a big Lost fan right up until the end.

[Bender2]

Gad... zooks! Futurama at 29?

I've so much asskicking to do over at popularmechanics.com... that when I finish they will have to rename it popularbrokenparts.com--

The very least I would accept is a four-way tie between my show... "Star Trek: The Original Series, Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits."

Then the other "Treks, Fringe" and "Firefly" followed by the original "Battlestar Galactica" in the top Ten. Then in no particular order "Space: Above and Beyond, Dollhouse, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Six Million Dollar Man, Alien Nation, The X-Files, Sliders" and number 21 would be "Mystery Science Theater 3000" that would show the also-rans in a continuous loop with appropriate commentary.

[SevenofNine]

I forgot about Mystery science theatre 3000 yeahhh

I do like TZ Star trek original not Next generation

Babylon 5

You are also my cult fav too Futurama