Top 19 SF&F TV Shows by Audience Vote

[tommo]

According to a bunch of people in a room at SwanCon, here are the 19 best SF&F TV shows of all time:

1. Doctor Who
2. Firefly
3. Red Dwarf
4. Battlestar Galactica (new series)
5. Babylon 5
6. Blake's 7
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation (tie)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (tie)
9. Farscape (tie)
Buffy (tie)
Ultraviolet (tie)
Futurama (tie)
13. Stargate: SG1
14. Invader Zim
15. Angel (tie)
Transformers (tie)
Monkey (tie)
18. Torchwood
19. Heroes

Didn't have enough time to run tiebreakers on the ties (which also would've given us our #20), so this will have to do.

I don't suppose anyone has a record of the lists from Top 10 Villains (2008) and Top 10 Movies based on Comics (2007), do they? I forgot to write them down and it'd be nice to have a record of the results. I only really remember the winners...

Comments

Re: Random thought

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

But the Doctor Who panels always have a different angle, don't they?

I attended the Doctor Who panel this year (my first one) and thought it was great. Do you guys always do it as a retrospective on a particular season? It's a good format. I'm wondering if we should copy it with some other shows.

Re: Random thought

[angriest.livejournal.com]

We started doing it two years ago with Season 18 (Tom's last year). Then last year we did Season 1, this year Season 24 and I think next year we're likely to do Season 7 (Pertwee's first).

Re: Random thought

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

I definitely think it's a good approach. When you can section something like that into manageable, easy-to-define portions it becomes easier to view it with a critical eye. I think it also makes it easier for members of the audience who aren't so familiar with the show, as they'll still have a good sense of place and time for everything that's being discussed.

I've actually only watched a handful of Doctor Who episodes. It's one of those things that I'm interested in delving into, but is so immense I'm not quite sure where I'd start. Is it the sort of thing where you can get a good "primer" of 20 or 30 episodes to begin with, or are you better off going from the start (well, as close to the start as is available) and watching it all chronologically?

Re: Random thought

[angriest.livejournal.com]

The show goes through phases, which makes it pretty easy to jump in and enjoy them without bothering with the rest. Good starting points:

- "An Unearthly Child", which is the very first serial from 1963. Black and white, comparatively very slow to modern TV.
- "Spearhead From Space", the first colour serial plus the first for third Doctor Jon Pertwee. This begins the "UNIT" phase of the show, set in 1970s Earth with regular mad scientists and alien invasions.
- "Ark in Space", Tom Baker's second story and really the first one to fully break away from the UNIT phase.

But really it might just be a matter of grabbing random stories on DVD and giving them a watch.

Re: Random thought

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I'll use those as a starting point.

I'm hesitant to just grab random stories. There's so much classic SF television I'm keen to check out, so I'd rather not risk wasting time on stuff that doesn't end up being worth watching.

Re: Random thought

[nevryn.livejournal.com]

Don't randomly grab 'Timelash' then. Or 'Four to Doomsday'. Or 'Time and the Rani', but that's not out on DVD yet.