The 411 Movies Top 5 2.05.10: Week 203 - Top 5 Science Fiction Series of All Time

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 02.05.2010

From The X-Files and Dr. Who to The Twilight Zone and the original Star Trek, the 411 crew takes a look at the best science fiction series in television history!




With this week's season premiere of Lost plunging the show further into the sci-fi genre, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at the history of the genre, with our takes on:

THE TOP 5 SCIENCE FICTION SERIES OF ALL TIME

TREVOR SNYDER

Honorable Mentions: Futurama, Mystery Science Theater 3000 & Lost

5. The X-Files

I had gone quite a while without thinking about this show when X-Files: I Want to Believe came out a couple years ago. And, based on the near-unanimous bad reviews I heard of that film, I didn't bother seeing it, preferring to leave whatever good memories I did have of the series untainted. But around the time the movie was released, a pretty cool hardcover history/episode guide was released. As I took a look at that, I was struck with not only memories of how much I used to love this show, but also how much it used to deserve that love. For its first five or so years, The X-Files was about as good as it gets when it comes to sci-fi television, growing from a small cult hit to a full-blown cultural phenomenon based on its excellent writing and two unforgettable characters. It would probably rank even higher on my list if it hadn't gone slightly off the rails in its later seasons – a by-product of creator Chris Carter not really having any sort of endpoint in mind when he started the show. Still, compared to the horde of lame imitators that followed, even those last couple seasons that people like to rip on weren't really that bad. Certainly not bad enough to erase the important legacy the show left behind. Perhaps The X-Files deserves its own sort of Next Generation reboot somewhere down the line. And speaking of that…

4. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Yes, the original series paved the way, and of course deserves tons of credit itself. But in terms of actual quality, I have to give the edge to The Next Generation. Although it got off to a rocky start, this second Star Trek series eventually found its footing and began to really capitalize on the potential of the world that Gene Rodenberry had created so many years before. Once the Borg were introduced, in particular, the show was really able to come into its own and begin forming a new mythology every bit as worthy as what had come before. While its special effects were never mind-blowing, the show's strength was in its storytelling and the awesome cast of characters that made up the new Enterprise crew. The Next Generation proved that the obsessive love for the original series was no fluke, that this was a franchise that could live on forever.

3. Battlestar Galactica (2003)

C'mon, who predicted this? A remake of a ‘70s Stars Wars wanna-be series that was mostly remembered only for its pure camp value, the new Battlestar Galactica probably didn't seem like much of a sure bet. But an excellent pilot mini-series left fans wanting more, and the Sci-Fi Channel (pre-SyFy) delivered. They could have gone the easy way, and just made the new Galactica nothing more than harmless space opera fun, like the original. But instead, this new version took a chance and used its sci-fi premise to take a look at thought-provoking takes on real life issues such as terrorism, over-reliance on technology, and separation of church and state (just to name a few). It could have seemed pretentious, but it was anything but. In fact, it was probably the most intelligent space show ever created, and although it was always unfairly looked over at the Emmys, many important critics have hailed it as one of the best shows of the past decade. Not just best sci-fi shows, mind you, but best shows, period. Not bad for a remake of a Dirk Benedict show.

2. The Twilight Zone

There's certainly something to be said for longevity, and The Twilight Zone has clearly got it. Go turn on the TV now and flip it to SyFy…chances are good they're showing an episode of this classic anthology series. Its most famous episodes feature some of the most iconic moments in pop-culture, and even its weakest episodes still have their devoted fans. The amazing thing is how few of the episodes could be considered the weak ones – I love anthology series, but the problem with them is always the inherent mixture of great stories with crappy ones. Rod Serling's show had a pretty amazing track record in this regard, as nearly every episode is worth watching, and most are worth watching over and over. This is still the show that any other anthology series must be measured by. It's just doubtful any new series will ever stack up.

1. Doctor Who

Doctor Who is recognized as both the longest-running and most popular sci-fi show in TV history by no less an authority than the Guinness Book of World Records, so it's clearly doing something right. Despite a few gaps of time where no new Who was being produced, it has essentially been going since 1963. Its strength is that its concept – being about a Time Lord who travels through space and time – allows it to be both an anthology series and yet not quite an anthology series. It can plop its characters down into any sort of stories it wants (which often don't require the viewer to have seen all of the previous episodes or arcs), and yet because it does have a main character and other recurring side characters, it gives the show a sense of continuity that obsessive fans can follow. And, of course, there its brilliant conceit of The Doctor's "regenerations," which allows a new actor to take over the main role whenever necessary – one of the keys to the show's long life. For a long time, the show was good campy fun. The stories were often intriguing, but also often overshadowed by the laughable production value. With its 2005 relaunch, the show's budget finally caught up to the storytelling, and Doctor Who finally came together as the complete sci-fi package.

BRYAN KRISTOPOWITZ

Honorable Mentions: Jericho (2006-2008), Fringe (2008-), Super Force (1990)

5. Knight Rider (1982-1986)

Knight Rider is a show about a man named Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) and his talking super car KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand, as voiced by the great William Daniels) and how they travel the country having adventures and helping people. It's probably more of an adventure show than a straight up science fiction show, but at its heart it's a classic human and robot working together story. It isn't dystopian sci-fi where technology is seen as a bad thing; technology is instead something that exists to help people. And if the technology in question isn't being used for the good of the world it has to be isolated or destroyed (think of what happens to the evil KARR). It's really a very hopeful show. "One man can make a difference." Well, yes, one man and his good guy machine can make a difference.

4. Dark Angel (2000-2002)

This, of course, is James Cameron's first TV effort and it'll probably be remembered forever as the vehicle that got the uber hot Jessica Alba noticed within the broader pop culture zeitgeist. Alba's Max, along with the great Michael Weatherly as Logan Cale, made the show watchable episode to episode because they had hot chemistry together. She was a genetically engineered super soldier trying to stay away from the government agents constantly looking for her and he was a crippled millionaire by day, muckraking radical at night as the shady broadcast pirate "Eyes Only." And in the first season that's pretty much what the show was about, Max helping Logan fight the bad guys while constantly looking over her shoulder for the evil Lydecker (John Savage). The second season saw Max and her fellow engineered warriors (a bunch of them looked like human animal hybrids) on the run but also looking to eventually fight back against the government. That's the way the show ended, with a big stand off between the escaped super soldiers and hybrids and the government. I really wanted to see what the show had in store for a season three. The world this all existed was all pretty well thought out. America still hasn't recovered from the electromagnetic pulse that shut everything down but it's slowly rebuilding. That matters in a great sci-fi show. Very few come up with something half as extensive.

3. Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979)

The original show, which lasted just one season of twenty one episodes, was a blast of goofy sci-fi fun. It was a big space opera with Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, and Richard Hatch battling weird beard killer robots called Cylons. There were space battles galore. There was an eventual sequel (Galactica 1980) and a much heralded remake (the Edward James Olmos starring Sci-Fi Channel show that ran for four seasons, a show that I've never seen but will hopefully watch at some point in my life), but the original will always be be the best of the bunch, even if it's, in retrospect, kind of cheesy (it was TV in the late 1970's. Cheese was going to happen). We're still talking about it thirty years later. That's got to count for something.

2. The X-Files (1993-2002)

This is probably the best sci-fi show of the last twenty years hands down. It was a show about two FBI agents on a quest for the truth about the existence of extraterrestrials and the massive government conspiracy that's been covering up that truth since the 1950's. The two leads had great chemistry (Fox Mulder, as played by David Duchovny, and Dana Scully, as played by Gillian Anderson) as they butted heads over what it was they were really investigating (Mulder always believed in the outlandish alien stories and Scully always needed proof before believing). The show eventually got bogged down in its own weird beard alien mythology, but even at its low points it was still a million times better than other similar sci-fi shows (rival networks tried to get on the X-Files bandwagon twice and each time those new shows failed miserably). And it's still better than most, seven years after its last episode. And it will live on into the future. The truth is still out there.

1. Star Trek (1966-1969)

The original Star Trek is still the best of the whole Star Trek franchise mostly because it was the show and the idea that got the ball rolling for every other sci-fi show of the last fifty years. It was a show about space explorers checking out new planets and races, having a new adventure every episode. It couldn't rely on action and spectacle because the show was done on the cheap (back in the 1960's it was probably expensive but it still came out looking cheap). It had to instead rely on ideas and characters to get to where it wanted to go. It was a positive, progressive look at the future, something hopeful to look forward to. Oh, sure, that new, advanced, progressive world still had problems but then that, too, was part of the fun of the show. Its conflicts were outlandish but you could still understand them as allegory. Over forty years later it's still a show ahead of its time. We're still talking about it, still watching it, and we're going to keep on watching it. It was, and still is, that good. "Live long and prosper" indeed.

SHAWN S. LEALOS

Honorable Mentions: Star Trek (too obvious), Firefly, Millennium

5. Lost

As it enters its final season of life, Lost has been one of hte most consistently entertaining sci-fi shows of the last decade. From the first episode, with the plane crash, to the use of alternate timelines, time travel and wacky scientific experiments, Lost picked up where no show since The X-Files could. It made sci-fi something mainstream audiences wanted to watch.

4. Futurama

Who knew that the creator of The Simpsons could create a cartoon so entrenched in sci-fi that it surpassed his original baby in terms of brilliance. When a cryogenic accident sends pizza delivery guy Fry to the year 3000, he meets a beautiful one-eyed woman, an alcoholic robot and a crazy scientist professor, who happens to be his distant future great nephew. It is the most brilliant cartoon to come along in years.

3. Battlestar Galactica

When people (myself included) bitch about remakes and how they never match up to the originals point them in the direction of this amazing show. The original series was, and I watched it when it was originally on TV (I was 8), cheese. I was enthralled at the show as a kid because of the cool shiny robots that were the bad guys. When I got older, I cared little for the show as it was broadcast in reruns (although I have the original action figures still to this day somewhere in storage). It became the show Face from The A-Team and the dad from Bonanza starred in. However, the sci-fi channel remake was the best show on TV during its run. It was not just a Star Wars rip-off anymore but a sci-fi show with drama, real life situations and an actual heart. This was a show all sci-fi fans fell in love and is easily one of the best sci-fi shows ever.

2. The X-Files

Forget the final seasons where the show puttered out and the movies, which can't hold a candle to the brilliance of the early seasons of this series. The X-Files was what everyone was watching in the nineties. It was must see TV and, despite living on Friday nights, was one of the highest rated shows of its era. If you don't know who Mulder and Scully are, you missed some great television. I preferred the episodes that focused on horror but the entire series was firmly entrenched in the sci-fi genre, with the alien menace always at the forefront of the plot. This series single handedly made sci-fi cool once again.

1. Twilight Zone

This is an easy one. From 1959-1964, 156 episodes were released of this groundbreaking sci-fi series, hosted by Rod Sterling. The show was so popular, it remains in syndication today, fifty years later. It varied on the supernatural, dystopian, fantasy, futuristic, paranormal and odd stories and usually included a twist at the end that turned the entire story on its head. The first season alone earned Sterling and Emmy, a PGA award and the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation. Guest stars included Peter Falk, Leonard Nimoy, Carol Burnett, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Dennis Hopper and more. To top things off is the episode An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which won the Academy Award for best short film and the episode I discovered originally in a film class I took in college. The show is easily the best anthology series ever produced and I consider it the best sci-fi series of all time as well.

STEVE GUSTAFSON

Honorable Mentions: Sliders, Red Dwarf, and Quantum Leap

5. X-Files

Who picked this Top 5? I've been getting nosebleeds the past couple months having to choose from YEARS of great movies and TV!

X-Files, to me, has gotten better with age. The episodes work as stand alone stories and can be enjoyed all together as a part of a much larger story. The acting, the tone, it all works so well. FBI agent Fox Mulder is played with perfect rhythm by David Duchovny. Likewise, Dana Scully was perfectly cast with Gillian Anderson. Together they are the investigators of X-Files! The unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder is the believer of the group. He believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal, while Scully, is the skeptic, using her scientific analyses to explain away what can't easily be explained away. You can see this series influence today with a number of shows. From Bones and Fringe to Supernatural and Lost. The truth is out there. Still.

4. Battlestar Galactica (NEW)

No matter what your thoughts about the finale, this series revolutionized modern sci-fi. It showed networks a number of things, the most important being: SCI-FI is sexy AND can make money! From a cutting edge style of action and story to characters that people invested themselves into. When it was first announced, people were rolling their eyes and dismissing it off the bat. The miniseries took those expectations and smashed them to pieces. While the original series had its own charm, it never fulfilled its potential. In December 2003, it exceeded that potential. So much, a series was greenlit and a whole new generation of Galactica fans were born. While some point to low points in the series, I've been re-watching it lately and they don't seem as bad as I thought. In fact, knowing the full story now, things fit together well. Plus, Galactica has changed how shows are marketed and looked at. With popular webisodes, spin-offs, and side movies, it's a brand new day. It still doesn't erase Galactica 1980.

3. Star Trek (ORIGINAL)

I admit that I was late to the dance on this one. In the eternal battle of Star Wars VS. Star Trek I sided with the Jedi. But in recent years that has changed. After seeing the latest Star Trek in theaters, I went back and become acquainted with Captain Kirk and his team. And while the acting is a little overdone and the storylines a tad hokey, I can see how this show set the standard for sci-fi for so long. It's a well deserved reputation. Everything we have from Star Trek today, the movies and spinoffs, must give thanks to the original. Sure, today with our snazzy 3D tech and big budgets, it's easy to scoff and say, "That show is crummy, right?" WRONG! Capt. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise pulled us in and made us believe in their mission to explore space and defend the United Federation of Planets! To boldly go where no man had gone before. And they didn't need all the big effects and loud 'splosions! Live long and prosper, punks!

2. Dr. Who

Man, I've been showing Dr. Who some serious love lately. But you know what? He deserves it. The series about the good doctor started in 1963 and over the years several men have given life and character to the time traveling alien. What to know something cool about Dr. Who? I'm going to tell you anyway. Guinness World Records says it's the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and recognizes it as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time, in terms of its overall broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales, iTunes traffic and "illegal downloads." And if you ask me, they are just NOW scratching the surface of where they can take the doctor. I'm happy to see him get the attention he deserves and look forward to many more adventures with the Dr., his companions, and the TARDIS.

1. The Twilight Zone

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone is one of those shows where, if I see it on, I have to stop. And as many episodes as I have seen, I still find I haven't seen them all. And not only is The Twilight Zone my favorite sci-fi shows of all time, you can make an argument that it's one of the best shows...EVER! Each week Rod Serling would greet the audience as the host and each week you were guaranteed a strange and exciting trip; from time travel to aliens, you were going to see something that would make you think, laugh, or cringe in horror. I'm a huge fan of the anthology. From The Outer Limits to Night Gallery, I loved the freedom they had to change up the story each time. Really this show, through its audience popularity and critical success, introduced and paved the way for audiences to accept sci-fi and abstract ideas beaming across their television.

JEREMY THOMAS

Important Note: I have not seen enough Battlestar Galactica to include it on this list. This does not mean that I do not consider it great, but it is one of those shows that I have missed and have not started into yet. It doesn't mean I'm snubbing it so chill, fanboys. Also, since it is "Sci-Fi Shows," I have not included miniseries such as V, only full-fledged shows.

Honorable Mention: Dr. Who, Babylon 5, Futurama

5. Lost

This almost falls under the Battlestar Galactica rule because I haven't seen most of it; I've only seen through most of Season Three and got enough of the gist from the one-hour recap episode Tuesday night so I can follow the last season. But I can't deny that even what relatively minor amount I've seen is pretty much brilliant. J.J. Abrams has done here something that few writers can do; plot out a series and keep people guessing all the time, and always be wrong. I imagine this season will be the lynchpin of whether it goes down as one of the greatest shows of all-time or not; this is the season where they have to answer all the questions and if they're not up to snuff—well, look what happened with The Matrix. I have a feeling that they won't disappoint and while I don't go crazy over this series like some people do, it's definitely one of the best sci-fi shows.

4. Heroes

People can complain all they want about the second through fourth seasons of Heroes; lord knows I do. But in reality, I complain only because I love it so much and because the first season was SO good that nothing really could have lived up to it. I think the show's gone in cycles throughout the season and had good at bad moments, but it's always kept me hanging on it and there is no other sci-fi show I have made sure, week to week, that I am absolutely watching. The performances have kept me interested even when writing occasionally fails; the bottom line here is that the only problem with the show is the expectations we've set. (Okay, and the tendency to kill people to pop ratings in Volume Three, but I digress.) The fifth volume has been its strongest since Volume One and if the show doesn't make it to next season, then at least it went out on a strong note.


3. The X-Files

One of the most memorable theme songs of the 1990's was just one reason why this show was so great. Yes, I started off with that. I love the theme song, what can I say? The X-Files has far more than just that though; the supernatural FBI procedural drama has an absorbing metaplot, creepy creatures and star-making performances from David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Things dropped off toward the end of the series when Duchovny and then Anderson left, but that was just a slight damper on an otherwise amazing series. This show gave us pop culture icons galore, from Cigarette-Smoking Man to "The Truth is Out There." Just as memorable were some of the villains, such as Edward Toombs, Alex Kryceck, and so on. The show was engaging enough just by concept, but Chris Carter and company took it to the next level with great storytelling and terrific performances. When you think of great sci-fi, it's hard not to put this one on the list.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

A lot of people might bristle at me putting this above the Original Series, and I acknowledge that the original was more ground-breaking. This was the one I first watched, and as such it's my sentimental favorite. I loved the tales of Picard, Data, Worf and LaForge (okay, Riker and Wesley Crusher were annoying, but outside of them the cast was great). The show was updated for the 80's and 90's and moved from the social issues of the 60's into the ones of the current day. We got some wonderful expansions to the mythology such as the Borg, the Q Continuum and such, as well as some great story arcs that changed the face of the Trek universe. I will take nothing away from TOS, and Ds9 and even Voyager had their moments (I loathed Enterprise though), but TNG was the series that appealed to my internal Trekker.

1. Firefly

Ahh yes, Firefly. I know that some people never saw what the big deal was and it would only appeal to a certain segment of the population; I happen to be part of that certain segment. While Star Trek was originally picthed as "Wagon Train in space," Joss Whedon's sci-fi series really WAS that. Whedon took a cast of relative unknowns and built the perfect story that was, of course, unfairly cancelled by Fox. Really though, perhaps it's so good just because, like so many sci-fi shows before it, it was cancelled early and it never had a chance to hit a sophomore slump the way Heroes and other shows did. Whatever the reason, the show hit a perfect pitch by focusing on characters and building a great story instead of just relying on the gimmick, and the wonderful cast made something for fans to cherish. If you need any further evidence, look at the DVD sales. The niche audience may not have been enough to keep it alive or make the movie a great success, but it still stands as (in my mind, anyway) the greatest sci-fi show of all time.