Favorite Sci-Fi television or movie?

[Dropout]

My vote: Farscape! I haven't bought a movie in 6 years, but I just bought all 4 seasons of Farscape a couple months ago. It's the best.

 

[BobG]

My vote: Farscape! I haven't bought a movie in 6 years, but I just bought all 4 seasons of Farscape a couple months ago. It's the best.

They just canceled the SciFi channel where I live. It's been replaced with the SyFy channel. After much research, or at least a quick search of the urban dictionary, I'm not sure I want to watch that channel.

 

[jtbell]

Strictly speaking, it's the same channel, just with a new name and an expanded variety of programming. I don't have cable TV myself, so I'm just going by what I've read about the changeover. It seems to be part of a general trend of niche channels "re-branding" themselves as general-interest channels in order to gain more viewers and more advertising revenue.

Getting back to the original question, I'm dating myself by saying that my favorite science fiction movie is still "2001" and TV series is still the original "Star Trek." They both appeared during my formative years, and imprinted on me indelibly.

One of my not-so-local TV stations has been running "Star Trek: The Next Generation" five nights a week, and I've been watching that as much as I can, subject to the vagaries of long-distance digital TV reception via antenna. I never watched TNG when it first appeared (1987-94), so it's all new to me.

I haven't seen "Avatar" yet, but I'll probably pick up a copy when it comes out on Blu-ray later this week.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I always liked "Stargate SG-1", because it is set here and now (well, roughly), because it comes up with nice exploitation of myths and legends, and because of the sense of humour.

The follow-up series (Atlantis and Universe) have much less connection with here and now, and are much less compelling, especially as Universe is now much darker and nastier, like Battlestar Galactica, which I eventually found quite repulsive but felt compelled to watch to the end.

I think of Stargate Atlantis as being the Stargate version of Star Trek's DS-9 and Universe being the Stargate equivalent of Voyager.

I used to like Star Trek: TNG, and I've seen every episode at least twice. It had some amazing episodes, such as "The Inner Light" and "The Best of Both Worlds". However, it also had some appalling ones, such as "Genesis" where nearly everyone "devolves".

I like the Star Trek IV film (trying to get hold of whales in San Francisco) for similar reasons of being set in the present and having a good sense of humour.

If "Lost" counts as Sci-Fi, I also like that, although it is incredibly confusing.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

My favourite sci fi movie is probably still Bladerunner. As far as TV series go I have no idea. I have been acquiring full seasons of shows I never watched lately and I have enjoyed most of them. I used to love Babylon 5 but rewatched the whole series on Hulu and found that the acting and general writing is probably worse than a lot of TNG. The actual story line is still quite good though and, as cheesy as it is, I enjoy that pulp noir space detective style that they gave Geribaldi. I grew up watching TNG and DS9 so, like JT, those have probably stuck with me the most though they are certainly not the best.

Over all best I would have to say the new Battlestar Galactica. Firefly and Quantum Leap tied for second. A personal favourite that was certainly never all that great, was canceled after one season, and most people have probably never heard of is Legend; a steampunk genre series with Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie, how can you go wrong with that?

If "Lost" counts as Sci-Fi, I also like that, although it is incredibly confusing.

I am currently playing a video game called Just Cause 2. Its a 'sandbox' style game. I saw an island on the map with seemingly nothing on it so I decided to go check it out. As I approached in my plane I saw some sort of glowing tower in the distance and suddenly I was hit by lightning and had to bail out. As I explored the area I found these odd watch towers, or so I guess they were, with patterns of large circular objects mounted on one side of them. Towards the center of the island I found large well built bridges and mounted guns. As I reached the center I found a network of towers leading to a very large central tower all seemingly capturing electricity from the perpetual storm overhead (or maybe creating the storm?). On the towers I found men in military uniforms of an old looking style that were all grey and had some weird red glow about them. They were not happy to see me. Off in a corner of the island away from everything there is a mysterious hatch way. Apparently this is all from Lost and I have no idea what any of it is about.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Star Trek TNG is right up there, but I really enjoy some of the new Whos. Tough call.

Like jtbell, I was strongly impacted by 2001. I would have to include The Man From Earth, Primer, and Solaris, as a few of my top picks. However, at this point I'm inclined to say that my favorite sci-fi movie of all time may be Metropolis - the rerelease by Giorgio Moroder.

I was recently quite enamored with a really cheesy PBS release of The Lathe of Heaven - a made-for-tv movie. It is a fantastic story and can be watched online.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6032236535078716306#

 

[pallidin]

The original Star Trek series was my fav.
For movie, a toss up between Men in Black and Independence day.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I always enjoyed Sliders

 

[Lacy33]

Lost In Space
The Outer Limits

 

[theneedtoknow]

To me, 2001 is miles beyond any other sci-fi film created - I've watched it at least 20 times and I can't seem to get enough of the set design. It is my favourite film of all time! Contact is another one which I love (both the book and the film...). Twelve Monkeys is another great one (so is the short "La Jetee" it is based on). Gattaca is another great mention. Other than that, there unfortunately haven't been too many good sci-fi films...the recent Moon was pretty good, but I wasn't quite as enthused about it as most other people seem to be. Another film, Sunshine, has quite an awful plot, but it has beautiful cinematography and score so it is still worth watching for those reasons alone. I thought "The Man from Earth" had a decent premise but I found the acting and (especially) the script to be way too cheesy and killed my enjoyment of the film. Primer was a great indie time travel film that took great care in interweaving it's various timelines as best as possible to avoid plotholes, so I give it kudos. Another good one is Cube (obviously the first one, the sequels are pathetic), it is a very fun watch and it is one of the few movies that knows exactly how far to go with its plot.
In terms of the more "fantasy" side of sci-fi, I love Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, and I even like his follow-up Southland Tales (it is so stupid but so entertaining).

Worst sci fi movies? Well...I don't know if it's the worst of all time, but Mission to Mars is so damn bad it warrants a mention...highlight of the movie being people just walking around on friggin MARS with no space-suit helmets on...all because there are 10 or so small plants they brought with them, which somehow are producing enough oxygen to fill the entire atmosphere of the planet to a comfortable "Earth" level. Gotta love Hollywood :)
There are also some great anime sci-fi films. I absolutely LOVE one called Metropolis, it has a fantastic score and great animation. There's also Akira, of course, which is probably the most famous anime sci-fi, and the animation still looks great to this day. I also watched a pretty good one recently called Memories, which is 3 separate short movies. The first one is my favourite - some people traveling in space come across an abandoned spaceship and go into explore it, only to be haunted by the memories of an opera singer contained within.

If you also count "Dystopian" films as sci-fi, then I recommend Equilibrium and Brazil. They are quite fantastic!

 

[Borek]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=290242&

 

[apeiron]

2001 for sure is tops. Then Brazil, American Astronaut and Stalker for me.

Alien is up there with Blade Runner, and surprised no plugs for Star Wars yet.

Dr Who, Lost in Space and Star Trek, in that order, as a 60s kid.