Friday, September 14, 2012

Sci-Fi Tv Through the Years

Not sure what prompted the retrospect, but found this in our local media.

Sci-Fi TV through the years

Some fine shows appear in this slide show but several excellent ones have gone missing! Firefly for one! Also Space: 1999, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, original Battlestar Galactica, Star trek Next Gen, and The Avengers (If they include the Prisoner, I feel Emma Peel and John Steed deserve a place).

So what are your favorites that have been omitted from this? There are so many excellent (and not so excellent) sci fi show out there.

This also brings up a common debate amongst geeks. What constitutes sci fi? If they include Superman, why not X-men or Batman? Are they true sci fi or comic book heros?  Does fantasy fall into this category?  I would put the Prisoner and Avengers in more a fantsasty genre but the zone is definitely grey.

So what elements does a show have to have for you to consider it sci fi?

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buck Rodgers. Gil Gerard. Erin Grey. Tweaky. Two out of three ain't bad.


jjv

Beastybunny said...

Ah how could I have forgotten Buck Rogers... um and Tweaky. Not sure what they were thinking when they came up with him. /shudder

One other I thought of (okay it was on TV) is Quantum Leap. Excellent show.

CRH said...

Most of the science fiction on TV seems to spend a lot of time in the fantasy realm, so I guess I have to be lenient. The super hero shows, however, are not science fiction in any way.

Most of the others I can think of may be science fiction in conception and setup, but not particularly scifi in execution. Special commendation, then, to the shows that actually tried to air science fiction from time to time: ST:TOS; ST:TNG; ST:DS9; Battlestar Galactica (god help me); and a few others.

The sort-of-scifi series that I'd like to see on the list (most of them cheesy):

UFO
Dark Angel
Eureka
Alphas

CRH

Beastybunny said...

I think super heroes can be sci fi depending on how they get their super powers. Superman is from space. He's an alien. That's sci fi. Spiderman get's his powers through a scientifically zapped spider. Does that qualify? Alphas and Xmen get them through evolution. Science in a way.

I'm not saying I don't agree with you.I think of super heroes in a whole different category but can see how the argument can be made to include them.

Anonymous said...

Ok. Nightrider and the bionic man. Let the games begin! I think anything on the scifi channel has to count. Thus eureka and warehouse 13. And for comedy Quark. My work here is done.

JJV