Continuing yesterday's post, here are positions seven thru five on my Top Ten Sci Fi Shows of All Time, in response to the Newsarama list and the Fusion Patrol Podcast.
7: Land of the Giants -
It doesn't seem right not to acknowledge Irwin Allen's contribution to the genre in tne 1960's. If for no other reason, he gets a tip of the hat for being (and someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong on this - I could very well be missing someone from overseas) the only producer other than Gene Roddenberry and Gerry Anderson to produce three Sci Fi programs that lasted two or more seasons. Of the three main Irwin Allen sci-fi series (excluding one season wonder "Time Tunnel," which I have never seen) this was the one that tried to be at least somewhat serious (which "Lost in Space" did not even attempt), but didn't take itself way MORE seriously than was earned by the storytelling, like "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." The special effects were ambitious for the day and quite effective overall. This is my selection from the genre I call "60's camp."6: Space: Above and Beyond -
Top Ten spoiler alert: X-files is not in my top ten for much the same reason that Twilight Zone is not here. I consider X-Files more of an anthology type show than Sci Fi. Individual episodes were clearly Sci Fi, but the majority seemed to me to be much more fantasy or "magical realism." But Space: Above and Beyond can be thought of as what X-Files might have been as pure Sci Fi.Produced by X-Files producers Glen Morgan and James Wong, "Space" has the conspiracy/mystery aspects that made the "mythology" episodes of X-files so captivating, but is firmly in the realm of Sci Fi with its future/space setting and cool space vehicles, aliens and 'splosions. Two major events in "history" were introduced in this show and very slowly drawn out and explored. There was the A.I. war, where human-built android slaves rebelled on their masters (hmmm. . .sounds familiar. . .), and in-vitros, artificially gestated humans who emerge from the tank ("womb") as physical adults with the minds of children destined to be grunt soldiers in the A.I. war. (Not surprisingly, they also rebelled.)
These two instances of human hubris are followed by colonization of another planet in the belief that we are alone in the universe. The massacre of this colony by a mysterious alien race is the start of the war that provides the show's backdrop. But are the aliens really so mysterious? Those corporate guys from Aerotech and certain individuals in the Earth government seem to know more than they are letting on. . .
Now the downtrodden in-vitroes refuse to fight for their human creators, and the A.I.'s, now exiled to space after losing the war (hmmm. . .sounds even more familiar. . .), are making common cause with the aliens. A gritty gung-ho marine war drama with well-drawn characters, there was a stunning cliff-hanger set up in the final episode of season one, a cliff-hanger that, unfortunately remains unresolved to this day.
Special effects early in the C.G. era don't hold up quite so well by today's standards, but the producers made the smart choice to keep the lighting dark on the space scenes, which is in keeping with the show's mood and mitigates the limitations of C.G. at the time.
5: Babylon 5 -
There was at times a predictable sameness to the writing on this show, which is not surprising since the same guy wrote 90% of the episodes solo and shared credit on all the rest. Mr Straczynski should have relinquished the reigns from time to time to allow his own batteries to recharge and to let a different voice be heard from time to time. But Babylon 5, more than any other show I can think of, often captured the feel of the "golden age" of Sci Fi literature. I could see parallels to Asimov's Foundation series or the Rama books by Arthur C. Clarke.
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