Best Visual SciFi

[Warden]

Sorry if this topic has been covered before, just couldn't find an appropiate thread.

Anyhow for me: B5.

This has got to be the best SciFi series ever invented for TV, the plots, sub-plots and sub-sub-plots are amazing. The characterisation is brilliant. So much so that the Star Trek people tried to counteract with DS9(pah, rubbish). Mind you B5 tried an ST version with Crusade - luckily this got canned after 13 episodes.

Would be glad to see your views about TV SciFi(TV not film, so SW doesn't count)

[Avatar]

Never been much of one for B5. DS9 though, I think was great. Admittedly, it took me a while to get into, (didn't like it at first), but once I did, I realised it was excellent.

--A

[Spiral Jacobs]

I'm completely with you on B5. It's one of the few series I actually followed, and I even bought the whole thing on VHS!
I just loved the fact that it had an arc story, and stuff like the swapping of obvious good guys/bad guys and several layers of intrigue.

Another favourite is Farscape. I recently borrowed the whole series on DVD and I loved it. It has an arc story as well, which is nicely wrapped up in the final miniseries. What attracted me in particular was the combination of action and comedy, some of the episodes where just completely insane. Also, John Crichton's way of talking (with all the names, references etc) was sometimes funny given the alien context.

Third is FireFly. A sort of troubled mix between SF and Bonanza, so it's no surprise it got cancelled. The movie Serenity is quite good, and properly watchable even if you've missed the series. (I found that more of a problem with The Peacekeeper War.) Dialogs also full of witticism and stuff, great character interaction.

[I'm Murrin]

Can't say I've seen everything out there to comment, but the ones I've enjoyed are Stargate: SG1, Firefly, and the new Battlestar Galactica. Never really got into Star Trek in any of its incarnations.

[Cail]

Can't argue with B5, Firefly, or the new BSG. They all look great. B5 has held up astonishingly well.

[Spiral Jacobs]

Damn now I wanna rewatch B5. There goes my free time!





(what free time?!1)

[A Gunslinger]

Is this just for TV? If not, my vote is for Alien. Gieger!

[lucimay]

one of my ALL TIME favorites!!!!!

sad that Andrew C. Katsulas died in February of last year.

[A Gunslinger]

Luci...waht about Blade Runner? There's some great visual Sci-fi!

[lucimay]

welll...i was just kind of agreeing that i think B5 was awesome and i loved G'Kar...

not really addressing movies...good grief...there's too many!!!

yes i LOVED Bladerunner and found it visually stunning in it's depiction of the "beautiful decay" of the society.

and YES i find Giger arresting in the extreme!!!

[matrixman]

Warden's original post stated that this was to be about TV Sci-Fi only. But I'm a little confused myself. Are we talking about the show with the best visuals, as the thread title suggests? Or is this about the best sci-fi TV show overall?

The new Battlestar Galactica has my vote for most visually splendid sci-fi series. Its special effects and cinematography approach the quality of big budget feature films, more so than any other sci-fi series I've seen.

I also love the look of the new Dr. Who series. It's more fantasy than sci-fi. It's not meant to be as "realistic" as something like BSG, but Dr. Who has a whimsical visual appeal all its own.

[iQuestor]

I LOVE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!

Not only are the effects great, but I love how they use camera angles, zoom ins and other effects for reality.

I was on submarines; I also love how they use standard nomenclature, procedure and protocol from the Military ...

[Loredoctor]

The new Battlestar Galactica has my vote for most visually splendid sci-fi series. Its special effects and cinematography approach the quality of big budget feature films, more so than any other sci-fi series I've seen.

Well said.

A shame I never got into Babylon 5.

[Spiral Jacobs]

sad that Andrew C. Katsulas died in February of last year.

What?

[aTOMiC2]

Visuals eh? I can't really argue about B5 though I only followed the show while I was still intrigued with many of the mysteries that were unsatisfying when finally explained. DS9 has some truly spectacular capital ship battles during the Dominion war. Given the time period the old Gerry Anderson shows were remarkable without any digital effects. I'm trying to get into BSG but I think I'm going to need to buy the 1st two seasons and watch them before I can become absorbed. What little I've seen of BSG has transpired almost completely off the ship. Heck I don't know what the New Galactica even looks like. Catching up first is a priority. I've watched every episode of Firefly and the look and feel of that show was impressive. Having said all of that I guess I'm going to have to name Quark starring Richard Benjamin as an interplanetary garbage man as the most impressive sci fi televsion show of all time. Nuff said.

[stonemaybe]

Tomorrow's People.

Can't remember what it was all about, but it impressed the hell out of me, as far as I recall!

[Loredoctor]

Tomorrow's People.

Can't remember what it was all about, but it impressed the hell out of me, as far as I recall!

I remember that series. It was excellent.

[stonemaybe]

So what was it about then?

[Warden]

The new BSG is fast rising up my list of all time favourites, i.e. 2nd. But still has a way to go wrt B5. The only trouble with BSG is its fixed main story line, i.e. the search for Earth, whereas I feel B5 had more flexibility, feel free to severely beat me on this view.

Enough griping, BSG is BRILLIANT.

EDIT: The title of the thread is "Visual sciFi", i.e. not in book format, though I should have made it "Best TV SciFi" - sorry

[Loredoctor]

So what was it about then?

The premise of the show concerns the emergence of the next stage of human evolution, who are classified as Homo superior, the next stage after Homo sapiens. However, these Homo superior prefer to call themselves "the Tomorrow People". Born to Homo sapiens parents, an apparently-normal child might at some point between childhood and late adolescence experience a physically and mentally stressful process calling "breaking out". Surviving this process means becoming a "Tomorrow Person", capable of various psi powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation (called jaunting in the show, presumably after the novel The Stars My Destination). However, they are unable to deliberately physically injure others (though capable of using non-lethal weaponry such as "stun guns".)

The Tomorrow People operate out of a secret laboratory built in an abandoned London Underground station. They watch for new Tomorrow People "breaking out" to help them through the process and sometimes deal with attention from extraterrestrial species, especially from the "Galactic Federation" which oversees the development of telepathic species. In addition to their psi powers, they also use advanced technology such as the biological computer TIM, which is explicitly capable of original thought and can augment their psychic powers. While they reveal their existence to some (especially to parents of the Tomorrow People), they generally operate in secrecy for fear that normal people (whom they term "saps", an abbreviation for Homo sapiens) will either fear and victimise them because of their special powers or try to exploit their powers for military purposes.