Best Sci Fi Currently On Television?

A few months ago a friend recommended Farscape, and I started watching. The first season was flat, but the current season is absolutely amazing. So I started watching Lexx just because I had hope in TV sci fi. (I blame Voyager) I'll run a poll on this later, but I'd like to just throw this out: what is the best sci fi on TV? What do people like? Why? I like Farscape because the plot this season has been really interesting (and I even dig the device where the split the main char so they could have silly episodes interspersed with serious ones) and Lexx... well Lexx is just seriously bizarre: I love the wacky humor and terrible B effects. (thanks to everyone in Germany that recommended it. Wow! You werent kidding). Are there any other nuggets of joy out there that I'm missing? The scary thing is that the Sci-Fi channel has finally edged out Comedy Central and Cartoon Network on my Tivo for disk space.

Futurama

[floppy ears]

Futurama is the best SF on tv today. Since it's a cartoon, they can do absolutely anything. Plus, aside from The Simpsons, it's probably the funniest show on the air. Sure, it's not pure SF, but they routinely address topics that the lamer SF shows are afraid to touch.

Easy. Babylon 5.

[Goldberg's Pants]

Babylon 5 re-runs have just come to an end in Canada, except for a 5 hour "viewers choice" marathon tomorrow starting at 1pm est.

B5 was by far the best sci-fi on TV for several reasons.

The effects: The budget per episode for B5 was a tenth of what ST:TNG cost, and by the time B5 reached the 5th season the effects were just stunning. Quite possibly the best space battles ever in a sci-fi show.

The story: While you could watch most B5 episodes as a seperate entity, the dedicated viewer was rewarded by one of the best stories I've seen in any medium. I won't even try and encapsulate it here, but it ranged from great comedy (some of the Londo/G'Kar scenes, plus various comments from other characters, particularly Ivanova.) to tragedy (no spoilers here. Suffice to say the show has it's fair share of tragedy.) Unlike shows like Voyager or Next Gen, B5 started a story, and ran it to it's conclusion. There were changes from the creators vision along the way (JMS is a genius!) for various reasons, but the description "a novel for television" was used, and fairly so.

Characters: No annoying robots or cute kids. Every character was believeable. Every character had flaws. The characters evolved. B5 could and should be used as a teaching piece on character development. Another thing I liked was the fact that you never felt any character was indispensible. In TNG, you know damn well Picard, Riker etc... aren't going to snuff it. In B5 I always felt like no character had a free pass. That added immeasurably to the show.

Realism: Unlike the shiny happy universe of Star Trek, B5 had real problems. Homeless people aboard the station for example. JMS (I won't even attempt to spell his surname) made a believable universe by including such elements.

The music: The show was great, but Christopher Franke's (ex of Tangerine Dream) music moved the show up a level. There are scenes which just rip your heart out, the music is so poignant. (Again, no spoilers.)

The alien races: While most were humanoid (not all) I think the aliens designed for B5 were FAR better than the blindingly obvious "human under makeup" aliens of Trek. The Pak'Mara for example looked amazing, and while the main players are the standard "human under makeup", the diversity of the portrayed alien cultures was amazing. Oh, and not all of them breathed oxygen. The station has section for non oxygen breathers.

For all your B5 needs, go check out The Lurkers Guide [midwinter.com].

In closing, Babylon 5 is the best sci-fi there has ever been on TV. I look forward to the new "Legends of the Rangers" but I can't see, in all honesty, how it can possibly live up to Babylon 5 itself.

Besides, you have to love a show that blasts a teddy bear into space:)

Since you didn't specify NEW Sci-Fi

[psykocrime]

I'd have to vote for Doctor Who. Doctor Who is the greatest Sci-Fi series in the history of Sci-Fi.

Just find a PBS station that shows re-runs, or see if BBC America is still airing their early morning episodes, and kick back and enjoy.

Mobile Suit Gundam and 08th MS Team (not M$)

[SSJ_Ramon]

These two series are currently being aired on Cartoon Network. They're great. MS Gundam (the original) is old-school goodness and 08th MS Team is very nicely done. These ain't politically correct. Characters develop, characters even die, and they don't bother with brain-damaged pep talks afterwards. I do understand that anime is not universally appreciated here at /. but these really are legitimate sci-fi stories. Just thought I'd bring 'em up.

Re:Easy. Babylon 5.

[Goldberg's Pants]

Thanks for the compliment. It's nice to be able to praise possibly my favourite TV show (closely followed by Twin Peaks incidentally), particularly given it's re-runs have just ended in Canada.

GROPOS was a great episode. Good example of the poignancy I mentioned I think.

The best episodes IMO are around the middle of the 3rd season. The three episode arc Messages from Earth - Point of No Return - Severed Dreams and the two parter War Without End are some of the finest TV you can see, particularly Severed Dreams. That episode was so good, when I saw it initially, I had taped it due to being out. I watched it. Sat there with jaw on the floor at what I had just seen, rewound the tape, and watched it again.

I didn't like the fifth season much. Due to the cancellation woes that the show faced, the fifth season felt tacked on somehow, but having just watched it all again, I was unfair. It was actually a very good season. For those fans of Neil Gaiman, he scripted the fifth season episode "Day of the Dead". A very good episode, but one, like the others I mentioned, that really need to be seen in the context of the rest of the show to fully enjoy them.

As for Farscape, Space up here in Canada is airing that this fall, and having heard so many good things about it, I will check it out, despite my initial observation that it looks like little more than Muppets in Space:)

Red Dwarf

[D_Gr8_BoB]

In my opinion, the best sci-fi show still in production is Red Dwarf [reddwarf.co.uk]. It's easily one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, and while the recent seasons (7-8) haven't been nearly as good as the show was at its peak (seasons 1-4), it's still very much worth watching.

Those of you in the UK can look forward to a new season soon, and most of us in the US can catch reruns of the first 8 seasons on our local PBS station [pbs.org].

What about Buffy and Friends?

[TheHaas]

I've waxed and waned on the SciFi channel - they have series that start good, but I just can't get into them. I do agree that Farscape is a lot better now than in the first seaon.

And, though it technically isn't SciFi (more horror) what about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it's spin-of "Angel". Though I'm worred what UPN will do to it, Buffy has been the best written and the best acted show on TV, and Angel isn't far behind. The characters in those shows laugh, cry, and hurt. And, though it gets silly once in a while, it knows it's silly and just laughs at itself.

Buffy is definitely the most "junvenile" of the two, though the themes it has discussed (sexuality, loss of a loved one) are biggies and they give it the weight that those themes deserve. Angel is more of an adult-oriented, with more of a Batman: The Animated Serie feel to it.

Try it - you may like it!

West Wing

[DanMcS]

OK, not strictly sci fi, but this is the best-written show, ever. It does occur in an alternate universe where the president is a different person, so that might sneak it in to the very border of SciFi-ness. Ok, probably not, but don't limit yourself to scifi, there is some excellent television floating around. Not much, but it's there.

Re:Space, Above and Beyond, Fuck yeah!

[Anonymous Coward]

SAB was in a murderous timeslot, which is whay I guess no one payed it any attention. It was more Rat Patrol than Star Trek and that's what made it fun to watch because you, lo and behold, actually started to *care* about what was going to happen to the characters (unlike Trek where redshirts get picked off left and right in a predictable manner).

The Chiggy Von Richtofen two parter was some of the best hard SF I've yet seen on TV.

Abandon All Hope