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Wizard Magazine named The 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever! (click link to read on line)
I have to say that I like the list, but I'm disappointed that Stargate SG-1 didn't make the cut. The magazine cited that it basically went on too long and that two spin offs make Stargate a poor choice.
I can't agree with that logic. X-Files (#8 on the list) went at least one season too long, and two Star Trek shows made the list.
I don't think I would put V over Stargate, and I would have easily taken Night Gallery off the list, which I always saw as more of a horror show, anyways.
Oh well. I'm still a Stargate fan, and it brought my wife into Sci-Fi as well. She just suggested last night that we begin all 10 seasons over again, now that the summer's coming up, it'll give us something to watch.
My top 10:
10) Flash Gordon: Granddaddy of them all, noted because it was the first to show that Sci-fi was a marketable medium.
9)Dark Shadows: Campy, yes, but it was a serial, something previously unheard of in Sci-fi
8) Twilight Zone: Showed how the medium can be used to show multiple short stories, all self contained
7) Buffy- Covering multiple themes .
6) Smallville: showing one can be current and hip but still tell good sci-fi, and that canon isn't the be all end all.
5) DS-9: A spin off that tells a drastically different sign of the bright and shiny. Also showing the men who slit throats so others can sleep at night.
4) Bab-5: Had it's own 5 year mission, showed that you can set up multi-season arcs and have 'em pay off. Also the first to slay 'If it's not Trek, it's doomed'
3) Stargate - Balanced its own themes with exploration, humour, cultural references, military vs. Civilian and the realities of budget.
2) Star Trek: Boldly going where no man has gone... Trek did push a lot of boundaries in the 60's. It also severed as a warning of a designer's dream vs coroporate reality.
1) Doctor Who, for all the reasons listed in the Wizards article.
HM to Blake's Seven and Primeval. The first for its own darkness, it was the first 'anti-trek' and the second because it's too young to judge its lasting impact.
I think that Dr. Who benefitted from four great recent seasons. If not for David Tennet and Christopher Eccleston, the show might only be at #10, knocking V into a lower bracket.
Myself, I wouldn't have included V at all. Of course, this if the mini-series V, not the television series.
I'll think about my own top 10. It would have been easier if I hadn't read that article first. I really like most of those shows, and only a few I've never seen, though heard of.
This is mostly an okay list except for the totally random insertion of JEKYLL. What the heck? A short, critically-indifferent retelling of the Jeckyll and Hyde story? Where is LIFE ON MARS (the UK version)? Or the iconic 1985 mini-series EDGE OF DARKNESS, still regarded as one of the best mini-series, SF or otherwise, ever made?
DEEP SPACE NINE not being on there is sad, but I guess B5, TNG and the original TREK make up the space opera quotient. Did I miss BLAKE'S SEVEN from the list as well? That's a criminal omission.
Not sure if this will pan out, but I've got a growing feeling that the new BSG is not going to be riding high on lists like this a few years from now. I'll think it'll still be on there, but lurking round the bottom, due to the severe critical mauling the last two seasons got. Interesting to see if that's how it goes, or if its brilliant first two-and-a-bit seasons carries it along.
Wizard Magazine named The 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever! (click link to read on line)
Link broken :-(
Quite frankly, I do not hold anything printed in Wizards Magazine in high regards.