Best Major Science Fiction

[Mise]

Battlestar Galactica's pretty good, but Star Trek trumps it I think.

I have never enjoyed watching Star Wars, and frankly I don't understand how people could like it...

 

[newfangle]

I love BSG, (dispite season 3 being teh gay), but it's not sci fi. Same goes for Firefly (which had the best debut of any space opera in history as far as quality).

Trek has a special place in my heart, but since it ended with a whimper and not a bang my vote goes to SG.

 

[Mise]

I've always wondered why everything set in space is automatically "Sci Fi"... CSI has more science than Star Wars.

 

[b etor]

No, it was a great glass elevator, if I'm remembering correctly.

chyea

 

[El_Machinae]

How are Firefly and BSG not Sci-Fi?

 

[Truronian]

Farscape was also pretty good.

 

[Jawz II]

Fire Fly is better than all the listed options.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

2001: A Space Odyssey!

Of the choices: Star Trek. In addition to being interesting, it has inspired many a young scientist unlike Star Wars and the others.

 

[Yuri2356]

Telephone booth, not elevator (i think!)

Police Box. Like a phonebooth, but it only calls the police. (Also a very sturdy structure, making it a great place to stuff a Criminal who you'd managed to subdue until the authorities arrived.)

 

[Till]

Police Box. Like a phonebooth, but it only calls the police. (Also a very sturdy structure, making it a great place to stuff a Criminal who you'd managed to subdue until the authorities arrived.)

Ah yes, you are correct! I remember now.
Anyway, chalk up another vote for Futurama.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

We need a definition of science fiction, then.

Star Wars is space opera. Futurama is comedy. Neither focus on science. Can we call them science fiction? I said yes, but what is the consensus?

 

[a space oddity]

2001: A Space Odyssey!

QFT (10-characters, yes, yes)

 

[RubricousMidget]

I would vote Firefly, but it's not there.
BSG:TOS sucked, but the new series rocks. I haven't seen enough of it to vote it the best, however.
I enjoy Star Trek a lot (Which makes me one dork-ey Norwegian), but, when it comes to quality, it too often lacked that flair that would make it the best (Though First Contact still is the best SF movie around ).
Star Wars... I've kinda grown apart from it. It is great, yeah, but I've watched it all so many times.
Babylon 5 was truly solid. It gets my vote.

I also like Red Dwarf a lot, in case you didn't get my nick.

 

[nihilistic]

We need a definition of science fiction, then.

Star Wars is space opera. Futurama is comedy. Neither focus on science. Can we call them science fiction? I said yes, but what is the consensus?

While Star Wars is of course a piece of trash, Futurama actually has a tremendous amount of sci-fi (as well as current science) content.

 

[Serutan]

Since it's completely silly to restrict this to movies/TV, and since they don't
hold a candle to the books...

Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
The Foundation Trilogy - Asimov
Childhoods End - Clarke.
Ringworld - Larry Niven

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Firefly
Futurama
Dr Who

 

[Harbourboy]

Well Star Wars is winning, although clearly its fans know that its awesomeness is so obvious that there is no point engaging in pointless debate about.

The Force will be with you.

Dr Who also rocks. I'm very glad they've done a decent job of the new series. David Tennant is a great successor to the previous Doctors.

 

[CenturionV]

Star Wars. If you include the expanded universe its simply the richest as far as "future mythology" and pure storytelling style goes (which is really what it is)

Seconds would be the "Dune" book series, which is also spectacularly detailed and contained such an interesting universe (without aliens, low-high technology level extremely far in the future, interesting political/religious ideas not considered in a lot of other sci-fi etc).

Third would be Star Trek, since I've actually bother to see every single episode and movie.

 

[Yuri2356]

We need a definition of science fiction, then.

I tend to define it as fiction which incorperates discoveries and/or advances in Science and Technology into its plot or setting, especially so if the series explores the effects of these advances on the lives of the cast. For Star Wars, the hyper-technology is mostly background, while Futurama would be about the out-of-context situations faced by Fry as he is thrown from the world he knew into the far future.

 

[BCLG100]

Star wars probably