Sci-Fi recommendations

[sdp]

I've always liked Sci-Fi but I really don't watch that many Sci-Fi, at least live action shows. I realized this while nostalgicly watching Space Casesj and finding it a good show for kids. Anyways I'm already a fan of Firefly so don't recommend me that. I'll also post some series I've read about and might be interested in checking them out but also looking for other suggestions.

Andromeda - I always liked Kevin Sorbo in Hercules, is this show any good?

Stargate - I hear a lot about Stargate Atlantis being good are all the shows worth checking out? I'm big on continuity so even if some shows are subpar I'd still watch them.

Battlestar Galactica I remember the first series having cool stormtrooper ripoffs, is the original or reboot any good?

Star Trek As a kid Star Trek always seemed boring though 3 years or so ago I remember liking somewhat one episode of TNG. I used to bash it as a kid without knowing what it was just because it looked bad but it has fans for a reason and for quite a while now I've been wanting to check it out and maybe become a treky. I was thinking maybe the new ST movie coming out might be a good way to start.

Any other recommendations are welcome of course, I guess movies as well though its more likely that I've seen them.

 

[Bloody Marquis]

While it is really dark in tone compared to the original, the re-imagining of BSG is great. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a good plot and interesting characters.

And if you don't mind a show being silly, Doctor Who's also a pretty good show.

 

[GregX]

Battlestar Galactica is great. Babylon 5 is great. Firefly is great.

But, if you're looking for books, stay away from the Star Wars novels. They're the science fiction equivalent romance novels.

I recommend anything by the following:

Harlan Ellison
Issac Asimov
Alfred Bester
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Heilein

If it says "Hugo Award Winner" on the cover, you're most likely in for a good book.

 

[GWOtaku]

You should see Star Trek TNG and Babylon 5. I think they're as good as it gets, personally. TNG is entertaining and explores a host of issues, whereas B5 was written as a "novel for television" and it shows with very well planned story arcs that persist throughout the series.

New Galactica is good--well, was. The first two seasons were without a doubt great television. As for seasons three and four, well, ask me when the whole thing is finally over. But in my opinion it's not the show that it was at the beginning, and I'm very worried that it's become Sci-Fi's version of Lost. The writing seems too obsessed with its mysteries and with screwing with our minds, and I'm worried that they'll end up not ending it well.

So yeah, I suggest Trek or B5. I'll have to second your questions on Andromeda and Stargate, I don't know much about them.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

Andromeda starts out promising, "Hercules jokes aside," but it falls apart very quickly after the first season. There was a writing direction change that was heavily apparent. I recommend avoiding this simply because even if you like one season, you'll not like the others, the premise of the show changes that much that fast.

Stargate SG-1 is a fun romp that's a nice change of pace from spaceship based scifi shows, but this begins to tail off as the show progresses (and ships added. Ship design sucks). I'd recommend Seasons 1-8 of this show and only SG1, none of the spin-offs. Season 8 has a nice series conclusion that was overridden so they could keep making episodes and it shows. Season 9 and 10 don't sell well for good reason. Atlantis had a good beginning but the same tired staff from SG1 work on Atlantis and several times it was noted Atlantis seemed to rip off storylines from SG1, only changing the names.

BSG, original and remake are both good and different enough that you don't feel like you're watching the same show twice.


EDIT:

Oh gee, I feel bad about forgetting Babylon 5, considering it's on my shelf and all. You might be able to find deals on the sets, considering how long they've been out. I saw some nice holiday deals but they're probably expired already. While I have problems with season 5, even the parts of Babylon 5 I don't like I tend to watch just for the writing, to see howwhatwhenwhere.

 

[Temple Fugate]

Star Trek: TNG or the latter seasons of Star Trek: DS9 are excellent contemporary sci-fi.

Farscape is a great off-beat show with a diverse cast of characters, but may be too quirky for some viewers.

The first two seasons of Sliders are excellent. The third is all right. The fourth is dodgy, and if you actually get that far, DO NOT watch the fifth.

While only sci-fi in a basic premise kind of way (and the fact that 80% of the movies they watch are sci-fi), Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worth checking out.

Lost is kinda/sorta/maybe a show you might be interested in, although the sci-fi elements are only a part of the overall plot and at times the show can be infuriatingly slow or uninteresting.

If you're looking for movies, try these:
Forbidden Planet
2001: A Space Odyssey
Dune
Pitch Black
The Fifth Element
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Stargate

 

[Michael24]

But, if you're looking for books, stay away from the Star Wars novels. They're the science fiction equivalent romance novels.

Eh. Some are bad, but I've read others that were fun adventures, particularly the two Han Solo trilogies and Timothy Zahn's "Admiral Thrawn Trilogy." Star Wars is more akin to fantasy than sci-fi anyway, so no one should look to SW expecting "hard sci-fi." I don't think there's any harm in reading them, especially for a fan who wants more of that world. I've heard good things about the "New Jedi Order" series, but it seemed a little too un-Star Wars for me to look into. Not to mention just way too many books to have to read in order to follow the entire storyline.

 

[Kitschensyngk]

If you're looking for sci-fi movies, you can't go wrong with the originals. The original War of the Worlds, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the original The Day the Earth Stood Still...

 

[Michael24]

If you're looking for sci-fi movies, you can't go wrong with the originals. The original War of the Worlds, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the original The Day the Earth Stood Still...

That's a good place to start. The seemingly-little known Robinson Crusoe on Mars (while maybe sounding like a kid's movie) is pretty good as well. Co-stars a pre-Batman Adam West, too!

And of course, IMO, the greatest sci-fi movie ever: Blade Runner.

 

[XDogg]

Sci fi needs to start re-airing (Scariest placest on earth).

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

Firefly is great.

What little of it there is, anyway. It's amazing how the show managed to do so much in the small amount of time it was on. I was a bit disappointed with Serenity, but I'm in the minority, and if you want some closure, it's great for Firefly fans.

Star Trek: TNG or the latter seasons of Star Trek: DS9 are excellent contemporary sci-fi.

The original Star Trek told some great stories, but the special effects are very dated for contemporary viewers. There's definitely a lot of cheese to work through sometimes, but some episodes have aged remarkably well. "Balance of Terror" is a great suspense tale and "The Enemy Within," penned by SF legend Richard Mattheson, is a great psychological story about the dual nature of man. And "City on the Edge of Forever" remains one of the most haunting stories ever told, as far as I'm concerned. There was a major drop in quality in the show's third season, but there were still some gems to be found. If you want to get into the original series, I'd actually probably start with the movies. Srar Trek II: Wrath of Khan and The Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country are as good as Star Trek gets, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is tons of fun and a great intro for newcomers.

TNG really wobbled in its first two years, and excepting the brilliant "Q Who," there's not much that's memorabe in the first two seasons. It hit a phenomenal stride in its third year though, and cranked out tons of classic Star Trek episodes. "Yesterday's Enterprise" is one of the most hauting episodes this side of "City on the Edge of Forever."

Farscape is a great off-beat show with a diverse cast of characters, but may be too quirky for some viewers.

FarScape is very offbeat, and has a sort of gonzo visual aestheic and twisting narrative that require you to pay very close attention, but if you're interested, it rewards the effort. Unfortunately, the first season is nearly impossible to find here in the U.S.

The first two seasons of Sliders are excellent. The third is all right. The fourth is dodgy, and if you actually get that far, DO NOT watch the fifth.

There was fifth?

While only sci-fi in a basic premise kind of way (and the fact that 80% of the movies they watch are sci-fi), Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worth checking out.

Prepare to laugh your head off.

I'd recommend reading Dune as well. It's sort of the SF equivalent of Lord of the Rings. Five sequels followed (as well as a bunch of other written by the original author's son that I've literally not heard anything good about, but haven't read), which I must get to some day. But Dune is quite a ride.

And of course, IMO, the greatest sci-fi movie ever: Blade Runner.

Ah, Blade Runner. I'd go on for that one for pages, but I'm tired. But I will say this: see it. Really, if you're the kind of person who uses the Internet, see Blade Runner .

 

[Temple Fugate]

There was fifth?

We like to pretend it never happened.

Here's a sci-fi book I didn't expect to like but really got into: Ender's Game.

 

[HG Revolution]

Here's a sci-fi book I didn't expect to like but really got into: Ender's Game.

Great book. Just make sure to avoid the sequels and spin-offs. Mostly it's just the same thing over and over again in different scenarios or told from a different POV.

And, if you can, rent the book from the library rather than purchasing it, because Orson Scott Card, the writer of the books, has become something of a bigoted jerk whose made some crazy violent threats and thus doesn't really deserve the money IMO.

 

[BonyT]

Star Trek: TNG or the latter seasons of Star Trek: DS9 are excellent contemporary sci-fi.

COMPLETELY agree.

Farscape is a great off-beat show with a diverse cast of characters, but may be too quirky for some viewers.

Another good suggestion -- although you're right, it's a bit of a different animal.

The first two seasons of Sliders are excellent. The third is all right. The fourth is dodgy, and if you actually get that far, DO NOT watch the fifth.

Eww. Really? Honestly, Sliders just struck me as strictly low-rent, right from the start. I would instead recommend an earlier show with a really quite similar dynamic in some ways, namely the very fine Quantum Leap. The dynamic similarity I'm referring to lies in the fact that both shows, by virtue of the fundamental "gimmick" at the heart of their makeup (sliding between parallel universes for Sliders, time traveling for QL) afforded their writers an unusually vast range of possible settings for each episode; but at least for my money, the Sliders writers basically farted away that wealth of potential with silly, uninteresting storylines, whereas the QL writers produced consistently imaginative, emotionally engaging and often quite thought-provoking stories, even including a particularly memorable reimagining of the events of the Kennedy assassination.

One caveat: I only ever got to see a relatively small number of the QL episodes, so I guess it's possible that I was simply lucky enough to see some of the very best of them, and for all I know, maybe the show's not at that level throughout its entire lifespan.

While only sci-fi in a basic premise kind of way (and the fact that 80% of the movies they watch are sci-fi), Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worth checking out.

Yep --- MST3K at its best is hilarious.

EDIT: In a similar vein with MST3K, there was a show some years before that, very short-lived, came on late-night Fridays I think, that featured MST3K-level movies, but with a never-on-camera crew doing full comic voice-overs for the dialogue (rather than just witty commentary) -- a lot like the voice-over game on Whose Line Is It Anyway, if you're familiar with that. I really enjoyed the show, but can't remember what it was called. Anyone else remember that show by chance?

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

We like to pretend it never happened.

Here's a sci-fi book I didn't expect to like but really got into: Ender's Game.

Yeah, everyone but me seems to think so. For some reason, I just never took that particular book. It was so long, and Card's writing style a touch too...juvenile, I guess that you could say, for my taste. Personally, I think that it would have worked far better as a novella.

Great book. Just make sure to avoid the sequels and spin-offs. Mostly it's just the same thing over and over again in different scenarios or told from a different POV.

I've heard good things about Ender's Shadow and Speaker for the Dead. Personally, I thought that while there was an obvious setup for a sequel, I'd had my fill in the first book.

 

[Michael24]

Yeah, everyone but me seems to think so. For some reason, I just never took that particular book. It was so long, and Card's writing style a touch too...juvenile, I guess that you could say, for my taste. Personally, I think that it would have worked far better as a novella.

Funny you should say that, as Ender's Game was first published in Analog as a novelette in 1977. Card later expanded it to novel-length in the mid-80s.

I had a copy I bought back when I was in high school and started reading it, but a combination of distractions and feeling like it was taking too long to get going caused me to never finish it. I don't have any other experiences with Card novels, but I love reading the blog on his website. He's a genuinely funny and pretty smart guy.

 

[GregX]

Funny you should say that, as Ender's Game was first published in Analog as a novelette in 1977. Card later expanded it to novel-length in the mid-80s.

I had a copy I bought back when I was in high school and started reading it, but a combination of distractions and feeling like it was taking too long to get going caused me to never finish it. I don't have any other experiences with Card novels, but I love reading the blog on his website. He's a genuinely funny and pretty smart guy.

He's also a hateful bigot who said my home city deserved 9/11.

 

[Frozen]

As as been mentioned, Farscape is superb. I have yet to have the pleasure of BSG and Firefly just yet, but they're lurking in my DVD collection...

New Doctor Who can be hit and miss, but when it hits, it really is worth it. Try Human Nature/Family of Blood, Blink, and Midnight for starters. You'll thank me.

Books wise, the best ones I've read are 1984, Slaughterhouse 5, or anything by HG Wells.

For a free web-based serial, I'd also suggest Cartoons, Dammit!'s very own The Valentine Chronicles, but I'm biased because I work on it!

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

He's also a hateful bigot who said my home city deserved 9/11.

I've read very little about him, but I understand that he's said a lot of controversial things.

I've got to watch Babylon 5 one of these days.

 

[HG Revolution]

I've read very little about him, but I understand that he's said a lot of controversial things.

He says that legalizing gay marriage is "the death of Democracy" and that he'd actually use force against the government to prevent it from being legalized.