The Sci-Fi Series Thread

[1of6Billion]

Another good show was Hyperdrive - a BBC sci-fi comedy which ran for two series. The HMS Camden Lock, a British warship with a crew of intrepid bunglers who 'solve problems by making them bigger until they go away'. Series 2 was best in my opinion, especially Series 2 Episode 1.

Almost forgot about your nick.... Red Dwarf! Absolutely hilarious!

[RedDwarfIV]

Almost forgot about your nick.... Red Dwarf! Absolutely hilarious!

Hell yeah!

[phoenix_ca]

Babylon 5 was great, though having gone back and watching the special effects now...it's not aged well, not that that is a reason to not watch.

Eh, to be fair, it was about as low-budget as was possible, at a time where cutting-edge PC graphics were in Homeworld. (Actually, Homeworld came quite a bit later than the first season of B5.) That, and due to a complete screw-up in storage, none of the high-quality copies of the composite video (3D graphics and live footage) survived to be released on DVD, so the originally aired versions actually had higher-quality special effects when combined with live-action. (And there's the unfortunate fact that one episode in Season 4 is all low-quality... ).

[Tommygun]

Babylon 5 had a small budget at first, but got better after the first or second season.

It's the first season or so that is hard to watch.

UFO was good. It had interesting plots, and while its science was highly unrealistic, it was still fun to watch. The models for all the aircraft and spacecraft and ground craft and submarines were made by the people who worked on Thunderbirds - so you get stuff like this:

I like the UFO sires too, but it was really hard to find in the US as a kid.

Does anyone have it online like Netflix?

Edited October 4, 2012 by Tommygun

[RedDwarfIV]

I like the UFO sires too, but it was really hard to find in the US as a kid.

Does anyone have it online like Netflix?

http://watchseries.eu/serie/ufo

[PsychoLucario]

Stargate sg1 was great till they defeated all the system lords, the whole ori invasion was good but not nearly as good as the first 3-4 seasons, same with Atlantis, once they established travel between earth and Atlantis things weren't as good, but still the epic space battles were epic, and the last season with woosy in charge of sga was good too,

[Tommygun]

Thanks for that.

[Seanoog]

Watched almost all "In Space" Sci-Fi series's, an loads of other TV Series.

Presently watch Season 2 of Nikita.

To List ALL In Space Series's:

Star Trek (All TV Shows + Movies)

Star Wars

Firefly + Serenity

BattleStar Galactica (Edge of my Seat Drama)

StarGate (SG1 + Atlantise + SGU)

Falling Skies

Futurama?

Red Dwarf

V (2009 Series)

The Walking Dead

Really excited for The Walking Dead, the Drama + Filmography is really good.

Just finished watching StarGate (All Three In Order) = I do hope they make another at some point.

StarTrek is my favourite by far...

With the events of Season 3 Enterprise, an Xindi attact, changing ALL recorded history (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY).

+ After the 2009 Movie with the Time Line change + Two future sequals.

Any Speculations on what route any Future TV series will take? (TV Show Time Line or Movies Trilogy Time Line)?

[KleptoKat]

Just to clarify guys, Sci-Fi stands for Science Fiction, so the limits aren't just shows about space. So long as it's semi-plausible, and has not happened, it's science fiction.

[Tamerlane]

There is a little remembered sci-fi cartoon from the early 90s that holds fond memories for me titled "Exosquad". The premise was that in the far future humanity had created a genetically engineered race of slaves named "Neo-Sapiens" who rose in revolt and made humans the second class citizens. The show follows the story of the following human rebellion.

I haven't watched it since it first aired, but I remember it being pretty good. I think it's available on Netflix.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Tamerlane

[MedwedianPresident]

I'm a super-trekkie, i like star trek even more than Bronies like MLP.

[KleptoKat]

Updated the list. There is a zombie walk in my city which I won't be attending, but it sounds like a lot of fun. What's everyone dressing up as this Halloween?

[Cthulufaic]

I can't believe no-one said anything about the book Dune!

It is a pioneer of the genre and practically defines a good Science Fiction book. The author, Frank Herbert, also wrote a separate

quadrilogy with the first book being titled: Destination:Void, and the sequels in order: The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor.

The backstory of the first novel is that 7 ships of clones are sent out to colonize other solar systems, each with an organic brain to pilot the highly complex ships. The first 6 ships all fail and explode. It takes place in the 7th ship where 4 of the clones on the ship try to build an Artificial Conciousness to pilot the ship through it's 200+ year voyage.

The rest of the books take place on a planet dubbed Pandora, where there is an intense struggle between the natural humans and the clones and the previously mentioned Artificial Conciousness acts as God and commands the people to WorShip him. There is also a sentient

all-encompassing plant on the planet.

The movie Avatar is heavily influence by the novels that take place on Pandora.

[RedDwarfIV]

If we're talking about books now, I highly recommend the Worldwar and Colonisation series by Harry Turtledove. The premise of an alien invasion interrupting WW2 sounds like something from a B-Movie, right?

Well, you'll be pleasently surprised. The Race, reptilian alians who the Humans call 'Lizards', are trying to lay the foundation for the colonisation fleet which will arrive in twenty years time. Their own culture only implements changes over centuries, to ensure such changes will not do harm to their society as a whole. After recieving images from their probe on Tosev 3 [Earth] which show Arabs with scimitars, Aborigenes with spears and a knight on horseback in rusty armour holding a shield and sword, they expect an easy conquest - as Fleetlord Atvar says "How much can a species change in only a few centuries?"

And oh, how are they dissapointed. Radio, handheld guns, RADAR, tanks, aircraft... Two of their starships get destroyed on the ground by a German supercannon - their antimissiles don't do jack to one of Dora's massive, brass armoured shells. The Russians use nuclear material gathered from the wreckage of one of those ships [which had been carrying most of the Conquest Fleet's nuclear weapons] to build a gun-type nuke, and prevent the Lizards from taking Moscow with it. Half a year later, America is able to build its own 'explosive-metal bombs'.

When they try to invade Great Britain [having previously ignored it as an insignificant island until it proved just too annoying to them,] hooboy do they get a kick in the snout, with 'weapons the Race has never before faced, but which are definitely not explosive-metal bombs.' Lizards don't have gas masks. I think you'll see where that's going.

The books do have a number of adult scenes and swearing, so I'd rate it as PG-15.

What's most amusing of all is how Lizards have a mating season. They enjoy looking down their snouts at us Tosevites for being receptive all year round. Turns out, the spice ginger causes female Lizards to go into heat. Cue much Tosevite laughter at the Race's expense.

[Accelerando]

Yes, it's all about looking down at those idiot aliens who dared to attack us, and how great it is to take risks and advance our technology  laughing at those aliens who thought they could make fun of us and play it safe, while all the while we never really looked to solve our own problems. In Turtledove's alternate history, fascism and/or nationalism still rule Germany and Imperial Japan, Russia remains in Soviet control, and colonial Britain remains colonial while the Americans of the 2030s regard their own fellow 1970s countrymen and diplomats as obsolete. The FTL drive in Homeward Bound is at best a temporary solution to the world's problems, as it could allow everybody to expand across other worlds as they liked, but what happens if and when the empires finally overstretch themselves?

[RedDwarfIV]

I'm on S2 book 3 right now, so I haven't read all of it. I'm reading it because I like the story, not neccesarily because it's the most likely alternate history ever. Still, at least it's not one of those many alternate histories that feel they must put zeppelins in.

As for looking down our noses at aliens who dared attack us, does that not happen in practically every alien invasion story? Independence Day, for instance.

Edited October 7, 2012 by RedDwarfIV

[Tamerlane]

Since this is getting opened up to books, there are lot of other deserving mentions.

The Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy of book by Kim Stanley Robinson was pretty good. It chronicles the colonization and gradual terraforming of mars over the 21st and 22nd centuries. In terms of hard-scifi, there is none harder. Every bit of technology described is at least physically possible. KSR read "The Case for Mars" by Zubrin and decided to dramatize it - and he did so very well. My only criticism is that as the trilogy progresses the author more and more possess the characters and stands on the proverbial soap-box to preach his personal political/social ideas.

The Ender's Game series deserves at least a mention. I picked up "Ender's Game" over a decade ago and it has been one of my favorite books ever since. The premise is that Earth has (barely) repelled two alien invasions. In preparation for an inevitable 3rd attack, children with the right personality traits are selected for military training, in the hopes of producing a leader able to protect humanity when the 3rd invasion arrives. The book covers the time immediately before, during, and after the main character Andrew "Ender" Wiggin goes to this battle school. Social themes include the legitimate and preemptive use of force and war. Personal themes include the ethics of deliberate isolation and molding of someone else for a greater good.

There's a reason it's recommended reading in the U.S. military.

Unfortunately, the rest of the series rapidly declined in quality. The first sequel, "Speaker for the Dead", was at least decently written, but went in an entirely different direction from what I expected. As for the next 2 sequels "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind".....the less said the better. The companion series that begins with "Ender's Shadow" actually is a much better continuation of the story that began in "Ender's Game". It also stayed much stronger over the course of the series, with Books 1-3 being high quality. Book 4 however was entirely unecessary, and just aggravating in most points.

[Nooblet68]

Surprised about how few people have actually mentioned Red Dwarf - especially seeing as Series X is currently going on. Fully advise anyone here who lives in Britain to catch Dave at 9pm on Thursday or Dave Ja Vu at 10pm, and watch it.

[mustwinfull]

Surprised about how few people have actually mentioned Red Dwarf - especially seeing as Series X is currently going on. Fully advise anyone here who lives in Britain to catch Dave at 9pm on Thursday or Dave Ja Vu at 10pm, and watch it.

I watch it and find it great, can't wait until the next episode a few days from now.

It's insanely funny and is amazing to watch, you should try it.

[Accelerando]

As for looking down our noses at aliens who dared attack us, does that not happen in practically every alien invasion story? Independence Day, for instance.

Regardless of how many times such things happen... A, say, mugger beating up a burglar who's broken into their home isn't automatically any more justified in looking down their nose at the burglar, especially if the mugger does little to shape up afterwards... Most modern nations with the potential capability to repulse an alien invasion are not guiltless of similar imperial attitudes and barbarisms.

Since it doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet, one of the sci-fi series I more or less grew up with was the Revelation Space collection of books and shorts by Alastair Reynolds... spanning several centuries (and, to a far smaller extent, millenia) of a future history wherein humans have developed extremely capable nanotechnology, medicine, and interstellar spacecraft that can comfortably accelerate to just under c without need of restocking its main drives with propellant or fuel in the traditional way, yet life for many humans remains far from harmonious for various reasons.

I also liked the Books of Virga by Karl Schroeder, a "steam/dieselpunk" series about humans living in a giant artificial planet-size balloon filled with air, water, and asteroids. They build ring-cities and farms out of wood and/or metal and spin them for a semblance of gravity, travel about by jet engine, and build artificial fusion suns to light their homes. Fish live in many of the water-laden clouds. The stories of the books follow the journeys of several women and men in their attempts to solve their own problems at the same time that they try to stop an alien intelligence from entering their world. Really quite an interesting read, although I would need to go over it again to give my opinion on how thought-provoking it might be...

Planetes is by far probably my favorite sci-fi book/comic series, recounting a very many, very human dramas revolving around a team of (at least once-) space garbage collectors and their friends and families. The first major story arc follows collection team member Yuri as he seeks to reconcile his anguish for his wife, who died in a spaceplane collision with debris  which event inspired him to take up garbage collection. The second arc focuses on the journey of Hachirota/Hachimaki Hoshino and to a somewhat smaller but no less engaging extent, Ai Tanabe, as Hachi  outwardly ambitious but inwardly troubled  seeks to be accepted on a mission to Jupiter in hopes it will help him move beyond his garbage collection job and further his ambitions, but finds himself struggling with his humanity in the process; while Tanabe, herself ambitiously hopeful that the problems she and her teammates face can be solved through love, tries to stop Hachimaki as his ambitions draw increasingly near to overshadowing his sense of empathy, and embroil them in a conflict with a group of eco-terrorists. There are a number of other, smaller arcs, each engaging or at least entertaining.

Planetes' world does not extend extremely far beyond the circumstances of its protagonists, but where it is fleshed out, it is done in fine and realistic detail. It is, unfortunately, one of the few hard sci-fi writings I have read that seeks to weave a human narrative among all the orbital mechanics and realistic machinery.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Accelerando

[RedDwarfIV]

Here's a good one off sci-fi book, Perigee.

The science was pretty good, and it also made for an engaging story. It's one many Kerbonauts will be familiar with, I think - a spaceplane get's stuck in orbit. It got there because its MECO failed - but as the pilot mentions, engines don't just refuse to stop running. As Polaris Spacelines works to both bring the Austral Clipper down before it runs out of air, and figure out how it managed to get up there in the first place, they are hindered by the failure of a dedicated SSTO's reaction control system, the obnoxious buisnessman who chartered the Austral Clipper, and the work of a sabateur.

I've read it several times. It's pretty good. It even describes the launch sequence of a NASA Orion rocket, and details it's failure quite graphically.

[Seanoog]

With RedDrawf, have they filmed new episodes, or is it re-runs from ten years ago.

I did watch it, loved it actually but now find it an adquired taste.

Looking forward to the new StarTrek Into Darkness movie.

Apparently Khan is making an appearance.

How its meant to compare to (Rath of Khan) is any ones guess.

Also looking forward to watching Promethious on Blu-Ray soon, an SkyFall in the cinemas.

[RedDwarfIV]

With RedDrawf, have they filmed new episodes, or is it re-runs from ten years ago.

I did watch it, loved it actually but now find it an adquired taste.

The re-runs were counting down to Series X, which is the new series. Episode 1 is already out - the Dwarfers come across a derelict called the Trojan, and Rimmer's brother Howard [now a hologram himself] visits.

[candlesayshi]

I love Babylon 5. That's a series that put me on the edge of my seat. Some of the best overall writing in a series, IMO.

Also, love Star Trek, of course. My opinion of them: TNG > TOS > VOY > DS9 > ENT

Been looking for a good hard sci-fi space series for a while to no avail. People always suggest Lexx to me, but that's very far from hard sci-fi. I also can't really get into it. "Oh, but it's so unique!" They always tell me. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's good. I'm boggled as to how the series lasted as long as it did.

[Seanoog]

I love Babylon 5. That's a series that put me on the edge of my seat. Some of the best overall writing in a series, IMO.

Also, love Star Trek, of course. My opinion of them: TNG > TOS > VOY > DS9 > ENT

Been looking for a good hard sci-fi space series for a while to no avail. People always suggest Lexx to me, but that's very far from hard sci-fi. I also can't really get into it. "Oh, but it's so unique!" They always tell me. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's good. I'm boggled as to how the series lasted as long as it did.

Babylon5 is the one Sci-fi show I have yet too see.

As for others to recommend; If you aint seen them yet.

Battlestar Galactica.

Farscape.

FireFly + Serenity.

As for StarTrek.

Enterprise is my favourite, best CGI, 16:9 Film, an I prefarred the screen play more than the others.

Then TNG > DS9 > VOY > TOS