What is your top 5 Science Fiction TV Series of all time?

I'm not sure if this has been done yet. I don't think so but with all the Dr. Who I figure I'd kick this off.

For me:

1. Dr. Who - Moved ahead of BSG and Star Trek after watching the 2006-2007 season.
2. BSG - The last couple of seasonings kind of sucked but season 1-2 got were great.
3. Star Trek Original Series - Love Kirk, Spoke and Bones
4. TBD - I've got to think about this one X-Files and Twilight Zone come to mind. Firefly had potential but it was too short.
5. TBD

You have two open slots and no mention of Wild Wild West in your entire post?

1. Doctor Who, and I'm talking the whole series.
2. Wild Wild West. Looks like a Western, really Sci Fi.
3. X-Files. This show did more with less than any other Sci Fi show in TV history.
4. Firefly. Looks like Sci Fi, really a Western
5. Flash Forward. Another show that had some really interesting stuff going on before it was canceled.

S.

Hmm.

1) Doctor Who
2) Red Dwarf
3) Original Star Trek
4) Futurama
5) X Files

I'm a little iffy about the order, but here we go.

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Don't be silly. Of course it's better than TOS. Yes, there were many truly awful episodes (hell, seasons), but it's not like TOS didn't have plenty of them, too. "The Way to Eden", anyone?

2. Firefly. In my heart, this is #1. But it didn't even get a full season, so I don't feel like I can put it there. Shame, shame, shame.

3. Star Trek: The Original Series. Even though it had "The Way to Eden".

4. The X-Files. Sure, it turned into an embarrassing clusterfuck. But those early seasons--before it became clear that Chris Carter actually had no plan for what he was doing--were amazing.

5. Battlestar Galactica. The new version, obviously. I'm not as keen on it as others seem to be, and I haven't seen the last season yet. But it probably deserves this spot.

I haven't yet seen a lot of the ones others usually choose: Babylon 5, Farscape, or even Doctor Who (although I'm going to start watching Season 1 this very week). If I'd made this list two years ago, I'd have included Nowhere Man, but I saw it recently, and it just doesn't hold up. And if there were six spots, I'd have included Stargate. I'm still debating whether it deserves spot number 5. Yes. Fuck you.

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. The Outer Limits
3. V (original)
4. Battlestar Galactica (original)
5. Max Headroom

honourable mention to Buck Rogers

1. Futurama - Some of the most insightful, light-fingered science fiction I've ever seen on television, and it's also really really funny. There's such a solid core of science and math, and yet the characters are consistently excellent. Definitely my favorite science-fiction show.

2. Battlestar Galactica - This changed the way that I think about television, and really about who we are as a people. The first two seasons are, to me, some of the best TV I've ever seen. My opinion calmed down a little starting in season three, but the show still had the ability to wow me.

3. Star Trek: TNG - The first two seasons are pretty awful overall, but when this was humming, it really showed how good sci-fi on TV could be. It's more of an ensemble cast than the original, and when it figured out how to use that to its advantage, the show got a lot better.

4. Doctor Who - I'm referring more to the new show, which I am much more familiar with. As a concept, the idea of the Doctor is just about unlimited. There's almost nothing you can't tackle, nor any kind of plot device you can't dabble in. When Doctor Who takes a risk, it often pays off handsomely. I've never found the show as consistently awesome as others have, but the whole is very cool.

5. Lost - I'm calling this a sci-fi show, if only because that's just one genre it encompassed. I really was fascinated by the time-travel that Lost played with, and with the idea of whether we are really in control of our destinies. It's not nearly "hard" enough to be considered true sci-fi, which is why it's at number five (it's actually one of my favorite shows). But when it did dive in, it usually impressed me.

I also really like Firefly and the Twilight Zone. I just started watching DS9, and I feel like it might ultimately surpass TNG for me, but we'll see.

San Il Defanso wrote: I just started watching DS9, and I feel like it might ultimately surpass TNG for me, but we'll see.

DS9 is about to fall off a cliff.

S.

Bullwinkle wrote: I'm a little iffy about the order, but here we go.

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Don't be silly. Of course it's better than TOS. Yes, there were many truly awful episodes (hell, seasons), but it's not like TOS didn't have plenty of them, too. "The Way to Eden", anyone?

2. Firefly. In my heart, this is #1. But it didn't even get a full season, so I don't feel like I can put it there. Shame, shame, shame.

3. Star Trek: The Original Series. Even though it had "The Way to Eden".

4. The X-Files. Sure, it turned into an embarrassing clusterfuck. But those early seasons--before it became clear that Chris Carter actually had no plan for what he was doing--were amazing.

5. Battlestar Galactica. The new version, obviously. I'm not as keen on it as others seem to be, and I haven't seen the last season yet. But it probably deserves this spot.

I haven't yet seen a lot of the ones others usually choose: Babylon 5, Farscape, or even Doctor Who (although I'm going to start watching Season 1 this very week). If I'd made this list two years ago, I'd have included Nowhere Man, but I saw it recently, and it just doesn't hold up. And if there were six spots, I'd have included Stargate. I'm still debating whether it deserves spot number 5. Yes. Fuck you.

My list is similar to yours, with almost identical reasoning:

1. Firefly - I won't deny my heart. The stories were tight and this ensemble cast had amazing chemistry together.
2. Star Trek: the Next Generation - I don't know if I could be bothered to watch anything from the first two seasons ever again, but the later seasons were great.
3. Star Trek: the original series - Shatner had this strange combination of great charisma and and bad acting that made this show constantly entertaining, and Nimoy and the rest were also very watchable.
4. Dark Angel - This show got silly partway through the second season, but it was interesting and entertaining, and my non-geek girlfriend was a big fan.
5. Battlestar Galactica - The first two seasons were amazing, but the third season went from mediocre to bad... so bad that I have declined to watch the fourth season so far.

There were two others that I wanted to list but left off:

A. Jonny Quest - It's a cartoon, and possibly more pulp than science-fiction in style. But it originally aired on primetime television, and blew my young mind when I started watching re-runs on Saturday mornings. Action, adventure, weird science, and cackling villains, all set against a background of sleek Cold War technology and exotic locations.

B. Space: 1999 - I remember loving this show when I was young, but I haven't watched it at all as an adult, so I don't trust my memories regarding the quality. And even back then, it seemed a little weird to have two stars from Mission: Impossible together again in a science-fiction setting.

Star Trek OS: So much fun, real sci-fi not action in space. They actually explore idea's to a conclusion and there is no soap opera. It's just an episodic exploration of different idea's.

The Prisoner: Does things no other sci-fi series even attempts to do. Plays out more like an Orwell or Huxley story then most other T.V. shows.

Firefly: Just too much fun, a lot of great humour without sacrificing the pathos or serious side of things.

Star Trek the animated Series: More OS trek is awesome, I wish the show lasted longer.

Samurai Jack: Kind of half fantasy but still clearly sci-fi. Brilliant storyboarded animation, great colours, beautifull posses and some fantastic voice work.

I can't believe Farscape didn't make my list.

I considered The Prisoner when I was making my list. It definitely has some science-fiction elements. However, I can't quite get over the deliberate awfulness of the final episode, which was basically the creators giving the network the finger for the early cancellation.

1. Futurama - Sure, it got savaged by Fox, who wouldn't know what to do with a good show even if it bit them on the ass, but now it's back and still funny as ever.

2. Dr. Who - I got hooked on this show when it showed up on PBS thirty years ago. The production quality was highly sketchy in the 80's, but it's much better now. Except, the New Doctor. Cannot. Watch. Him. Face like a foot.

3. Max Headroom - Another series I wish would have given a chance to breathe and grow. Loved the movie, too.

4. Johnny Quest - Fucking awesome for a HB cartoon. And, get this, PEOPLE. ACTUALLY. DIED... in the show. As opposed to the BS today.

5. Space: Above & Beyond. Yet another terrible decision by Fox.

1. Original Star Trek--Favorite Episode Amok Time. I even created a game based on Star Wars Epic Duels that uses Kirk and Spock battling. I made a custom deck of cards, an oxygen track for Kirk as the atmosphere got thin, and a blood fever track for Spock making his attacks more deadly.

2. Doctor Who: Favorite Doctor Tom Baker, Favorite Episodes Key to Time Series. I also created a Heroscape scenario based on The Power of Kroll, complete with a giant squid.

3. Twilight Zone: Favorite Episode: To Serve Man with Richard "Jaws" Kiel which I met at DragonCon

4. Wild Wild West: Richard Kiel as Voltaire, the assistant to Doctor Lovelace who in my opinion is an underated villian. Loveless is pure evil and if you watch him in the early black and white shows when he freaks out, he will make you shiver!

5. Star Trek Next Gen: This show only makes the list for one espisode and one espisode only. The one where Scotty shows up. In my opinion this is one of Scotty's finest performances.
"You soured the milk!" hahahaha

Shit! Twilight Zone is an awesome choice. No clue why it didn't occur to me to put that on instead of Samurai Jack. It's pretty much a perfect TV show.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE -- People. I am disappoint. Needs to be #1 across the board. Even the reboot was awesome.
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 -- Great show. Yeah, it got bad, but the first few seasons fucking rock.
BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY -- beedee beedee beedee
FUTURAMA -- Funniest by far, and has great in-jokes for science nerds.
ALIEN NATION -- I kind of wish this wasn't just a police procedural. They could really have gone places with this idea.

Don't forget: MISFITS OF SCIENCE, MANIMAL, LAND OF THE LOST, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, THE OUTER LIMITS, THE THUNDERBIRDS, V, SPACE:1999 (hahaha, that's 12 years ago), THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, STARGATE: *, QUANTUM LEAP, &c

1) UFO awesome sexy Brit Sci-Fi from the 60's. (Gabrielle Drake..mmmmmm)

2) Star Trek TOS: Very very influential to my love for Sci-Fi. Provided many childhood nightmares as well (Charlie X no-facing the female officer; ummm, night light please.)

3) Star Trek TNG: "The Inner Light". Those aren't tears I was just cutting some onions.

4) BSG the new series (first 3 seasons only)

5) -