The best sci-fi movies/series/anime

[Shant]

Being kinda new to computer gaming in general, I was like a kid in a candy store at first because there were so many space sims I'd never got to play. Well it's kinda the same way with films/tv/anime. I watched all the stuff that was on TV, growing up. Star Trek, Dr. Who, Galactica...but there's a whole lot I've missed. Somebody in another thread said something about Macross, so I downloaded some episodes and I'm enjoying the bloody hell out of it. Geraldine posted a video of Star Trek vs. B5...A Dark Star one film was mentioned, I didn't realize there was a movie too. So what are some of the best sci-fi videos in your book? I've got lots of ground to make up. Tell me what I need to see.

[Bullwinkle]

Farscape. Without question, Farscape!I'm a big fan of the Star Trek and Star Wars series, but Farscape is the most creative, unique, out-there show of the bunch. You kind of have to watch the episodes in order, beginning with Episode 1, in order to "get" what is going on. Even then, it may take a few episodes, so don't be hasty about turning it off the first time you see some goofy-looking bizarre alien. The aliens, by the way, were the work of Jim Henson -- the Muppets guy from Sesame Street. Dark Star. You might find a copy of "Dark Star" in the Cult section at your video store. It is an ancient, low-budget, B-movie spoof on sci-fi. When I say, "low-budget", I mean like on the order of the Blair Witch Trials... a couple of hundred bucks, a video camera, and a bored acting class. Dark Star isn't really what I would call "good", but it is noteworthy because they make fun of the things that most space shows take for granted, such as the problem with exploring space without finding a way to go faster than the speed of light.Babylon 5 (and sequels).I missed many episodes of Babylon 5 the first time around -- entire seasons, actually. I never really got into it, anyway. The first season was pretty rough.So, when I got the chance to watch the entire series in order, I was surprised to see how much depth developed along the way, including the movies and sequels. It's a ton of video, so it should keep you busy for a very long time!The Vorlons were misunderstood -- they tried to speak in simple, short, sentences so that others could understand them. But it didn't really help -- their thoughts were so far beyond most folks that they wound up being mysterious and, mostly, misunderstood. I have been in conversations when I felt that way...:)B

[Shant]

Great! Downloading Farscape season 1 as we speak. Yeah Babylon 5 was on TV but for some reason I found a way not to watch it for some reason. I think I'd seen a few episodes when the first season came out and not enjoying it, so I wrote it off. But I can't remember specifically. Should I skip the 1st season on that one or do I need to start at the beginning?

[CaptainKal]

Babylon 5 & Farscape.And Deep Space 9, was IMHO the best of the Star Trek franchises. And you might want to check Blake's 7, an old BBC serial. Farscape was very influenced by it.

[Bullwinkle]

Shant wrote:
Yeah Babylon 5 ... Should I skip the 1st season on that one or do I need to start at the beginning?
Um... well, since TV is a huge waste of time, and B5 is one of the longer-running series... if you are going to waste your time watching it, then you might as well waste more time watching the first season, right?:)Also, they loop around in time. If you don't watch the first season then you will wonder who that guy is that everybody seems to know when he shows up again in later seasons.BPS: I'm half-kidding above about wasting time. I actually think that some of the better sci-fi is an important part of the "literature" of modern times. But there are a lot of hours of B5.

[Shant]

Wow Farscape sure is fun, just watched first episode. Relieved the aliens don't look like muppets...not all of them anyway. I just hope it's more than a never ending quest to get home. I watched Giligan's island half my childhood just to see them make it back one time.BTW -why have I never even heard of this show> Was it on regular TV, or was it a cable show??

[Bullwinkle]

Shant wrote:
Wow Farscape sure is fun, just watched first episode. Relieved the aliens don't look like muppets...not all of them anyway. I just hope it's more than a never ending quest to get home. I watched Giligan's island half my childhood just to see them make it back one time.BTW -why have I never even heard of this show> Was it on regular TV, or was it a cable show??
Glad you like it. I heard about Farscape from a girl who follows People Magazine. She mentioned it to me because it won a lot of awards. Yes, it was a cable show on SciFi (now SyFy for the "hooked on phonics" a.k.a. "never learned to spell" generation). It had a small but intensely loyal following. And, yes, the characters are a little deeper than Thurston Howell the Third and Ginger.The people behind Farscape were pretty talented. Producer Rockne S. O'Bannon did Alien Nation and SeaQuest and is now producing Warehouse 13. Jim Henson's company needs no introduction... did you know that Jabba The Hutt was a muppet, too? Anthony Simcoe (Ka D'Argo, the squid guy) teaches acting in Australia. Apparently he is quite versatile... from the clips on his web site (http://www.anthonysimcoe.com.au/) you would never guess that he is the same guy who plays such a convincing Luxan warrior on Farscape. Stars Ben Browder (Chrichton) and Claudia Black (Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun) moved over to Stargate for its last couple of seasons, but they had much better roles in Farscape (and better chemistry, as well).B

[Bullwinkle]

Speaking of famous O'Bannons in sci-fi, I cannot figure out whether Farscape's Rockne S. O'Bannon is related to Dan O'Bannon, but Dan passed away a couple of days ago. Dan O'Bannon wrote Alien and Total Recall, and was involved in other great sci-fi, including Star Wars.Dan went to film school with John Carpenter (Starman, Escape from L.A., Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween) where, together, they made Dark Star! Dan played Sgt Pinback, which explains why it was SSC's Pinback who put the picture of the Dark Star on the ships thread:http://www.spacesimcentral.com/general-chat-f2/you-could-have-any-space-ship-what-would-t165-15.html#p1507

[Geraldine]

Yes, lots of good sci-fi mentioned there, others I can think of were Space, Above & Beyond. I found some of the episodes to be very well written, others were very gung ho, but fine, if you like that sort of thing. For out and out weirdness there is Lexx. A Canadian Sci-fi series. Lexx or "The Lexx" was an organic planet killer crewed by a bunch of misfits (one of them, Kai, was a reanimated corpse who was formally an assassin, and he was one of the more normal characters!) who stole the Lexx from His Divine Shadow, who was the leader of an evil empire.

[Bullwinkle]

Geraldine wrote:
For out and out weirdness there is Lexx.
Oh, wow... Lexx! I think about Lexx every time I see CaptainKai's name here on SSC! BKai (holding 790, the talking robot head), Xev, and Stanley

[Shingen]

Farscape is certainly one of the best sci-fi series ever made! Scorpious has to be the kewlest sci-fi villian ever! Chiana... ooo lala! Andromeda is also pretty good for the first couple of seasons.. after season 3 though it kinda goes down hill.Firefly was another extremely excellent sci-fi series. Though it only lasted for one season, it's definitely one of the best. At least they have Firefly on Hulu.com, so it's easy to watch.

[Shant]

FireflySpace: Above & Beyond- Check!

[Bullwinkle]

Shingen wrote:
Firefly was another extremely excellent sci-fi series.
Yeah, Firefly has the best sense of humor! Mal makes more funny quips than James Bond. Sadly, Firefly was canceled just when it started to become most interesting. It's a Joss Whedon series... the guy behind Dollhouse.After Firefly ended there was a movie called Serenity. In a weird kind of time twist, Serenity was filmed as the pilot for Firefly, but was aired as a sequel. I think that the series would have done much better if the pilot had aired first, because it explains a lot of stuff that is kept a little too secret during the season. On the other hand, the pilot would have been a spoiler for some of the other episodes... which is probably why they aired it in the order that they did.Whether you watch Serenity before or after Firefly, I highly recommend watching Serenity at some point during your Firefly experience. Think of it as the best episode of the series.Some people call Firefly "steampunk" rather than sci-fi, and it is a fitting description. Steampunk is time-twisted fantasy like Wild, Wild West or Briscoe County rather than something that has any real likelihood of being science-based. Nevertheless, it was a good series, and Captain Mal Reynolds is a true Freelancer who is just looking for work; "As long as your money is good, I don't much care what it is".BPS: The ship Serenity is a Firefly-class freighter:

[Shingen]

Bullwinkle wrote:
After Firefly ended there was a movie called Serenity. In a weird kind of time twist, Serenity was filmed as the pilot for Firefly, but was aired as a sequel. I think that the series would have done much better if the pilot had aired first, because it explains a lot of stuff that is kept a little too secret during the season. On the other hand, the pilot would have been a spoiler for some of the other episodes... which is probably why they aired it in the order that they did.
Actually there were two "Serenitys". The First was the 2 hour Pilot that was aired by Fox out of order ( I think they aired it as like the third episode). "The Train Job" ( which is technically episode 2) was aired first, but it didn't introduce any of the characters like the pilot did. Then there was the movie Serenity which came out a few years after Firefly was canceled. It was a full length feature "big-screen" movie. It was Whedon's attempt at clearing up some of the more obvious cliff-hangers that were left behind when the series was canceled.There were also a few Graphic Novels that were released between the time Firefly was canceled and the time that Serenity: The Movie was released.It seems they took most of the episodes off of hulu.com. The bastards!However.. you can watch the entire series here. ;)The Serenity: Movie is here!Isn't the internet great!

[Shant]

Shingen wrote:
Isn't the internet great!
Yeah thanks to people like you guys.

[ViolentAJ]

I'll have to check out Firefly. I've been hearing a lot about it lately.My favorite Sci-fi anime happens to be Macross.

[Geraldine]

Shingen wrote:
Isn't the internet great!
Yes it would be if I stayed in the States!

[Shant]

ViolentAJ wrote:
I'll have to check out Firefly. I've been hearing a lot about it lately.My favorite Sci-fi anime happens to be Macross.
Well perhaps you can tell me which to get mate. I've already watched Macross Zero, and Macross plus. Working on Macross Frontier. Zero's been my favorite thus far. BTW - what is it with their fascination with female teeny bopper singers? Every damned episodes has an Asian Britney Spears and it's driving me crazy. Are any of these ever dubbed in English?

[ViolentAJ]

Shant wrote:


ViolentAJ wrote:
I'll have to check out Firefly. I've been hearing a lot about it lately.My favorite Sci-fi anime happens to be Macross.
Well perhaps you can tell me which to get mate. I've already watched Macross Zero, and Macross plus. Working on Macross Frontier. Zero's been my favorite thus far. BTW - what is it with their fascination with female teeny bopper singers? Every damned episodes has an Asian Britney Spears and it's driving me crazy. Are any of these ever dubbed in English?
I know that the original Macross has been dubbed in English ("Super Dimensional Fortress Macross"). As another tidbit of information, the original Macross was modified a bit and made up the first part of Robotech (which was totally in English).The pop-idols do piss me off a tad, but if you watch the original Macross, it might explain some of this (I don't want to give too much of the story away).

[Shant]

So are you recommending the first one then? Any other favorites? Any idea how many different ones they made, and do the characters ever carry over or does every series consist of new characters?