As Mr. Boling would say, "My butt!"

[sigma7]

Top 50 Science Fiction Television Shows of All Time - Boston.com. A few possible atrocities for you to focus on: no Farscape, Firefly at #17 below Voyager and Xena (?!?), Batman at #38 (...the hell?).... About the only redeeming thing about this list is the new BSG at #2, which sounds about right, but I can't see any consistency of criteria in here. And yet I'm not surprised.

It's a vicious cycle -- self-appointed judges of media create arbitrary lists and people like me get all worked up about 'em. I know, I should show more self-control, and honestly, I've been the very model of self-restraint when it comes to AFI's shit-we-pulled-out-of-a-hat lists. But Sliders ahead of Firefly? Only in number of episodes produced (or actor turnaround), but in no other criterion, sorry.

50. 'Earth - Final Conflict'
49. 'The Wild Wild West'
48. '3rd Rock From The Sun'
47. 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'
46. 'That Was Then'
45. 'The Greatest American Hero'
44. 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'
43. 'Nowhere Man'
42. 'Science Fiction Theatre'
41. 'Futurama'
40. 'The Thunderbirds'
39. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'
38. 'Batman'
37. 'Space 1999'
36. 'The Bionic Woman'
35. 'Battlestar Galactica' (Original)
34. 'The Avengers'
33. 'Lost In Space'
32. 'My Favorite Martian'
31. 'Alien Nation'
30. 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'
29. 'The Six Million Dollar Man'
28. 'Adventures of Superman'
27. 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
26. 'Stargate Atlantis'
25. 'The Jetsons'
24. 'Wonder Woman'
23. 'Tales from the Crypt'
22. 'Andromeda'
21. 'Quantum Leap'
20. 'The Hitchhiker'
19. 'Dark Angel'
18. 'V'
17. 'Firefly'
16. 'Flash Gordon'
15. 'Logan's Run'
14. 'Star Trek Voyager'
13. 'The Outer Limits'
12. 'Xena: Warrior Princess'
11. 'Lost'
10. 'Sliders'
9. 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'
8. 'Dr. Who'
7. 'The Twilight Zone'
6. 'Stargate SG-1'
5. 'Babylon 5'
4. 'The X-Files'
3. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
2. 'Battlestar Galactica' (New)
1. 'Star Trek' (Original)

Comments

[aardy.livejournal.com]

Buffy? Humorous horror/fantasy--that's one of the main points of the show. No SF there, unless one's dain-bramage makes one think the demons are actually aliens. -sigh-

However, by and large, the superhero genre can be considered a subcategory of science fiction.

It typically has a near-future setting (where the technology level is just that one step above where we're at now), and the characters' superpowers are usually either strongly related to science (gadgets, experiment gone awry, etc.) or aliens (heritage, kidnapping, experiment gone awry). Superman's an alien, Batman is all about the gadgets, etc.

Admittedly, the genre tends more towards the side of light, moralizing, adventurous SF than the side of hard, technobabble SF or military SF, so the "science" isn't usually the primary driving force behind the story, but it still qualifies as SF.

And yes, there are plenty exceptions (magic-based supers, for example), but that's the general case.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

No SF there, unless one's dain-bramage makes one think the demons are actually aliens. -sigh-

Only one alien on Buffy, I believe, ever -- the snot monster from outer space that spat goo on a cerebrally-impaired Joyce. That's an odd coincidence.

And yet that said I'd still have to put ST:TNG in the top 5. No, some of its episodes don't stand up well at all and some are outright awful. But it changed the landscape of sci-fi television, cemented the Trek franchise and gave birth to its finest years. Seasons three through five produced some fantastic moments -- I've have falled off my chair at the S3 finale if I'd not been spoiled via an online friend that it was a cliffhanger. And Mark Lenard and Patrick Stewart's commercial-to-commercial scene of awesomeness -- those were the days. DS9's concept diluted the adventurous spirit of the series a bit (but it sure as hell deserved a spot on the list), and Voyager, well...meh. But for TNG to succeed as it did, in syndication no less...no mean feat.