Being into science fiction and crypto-currencies goes hand in hand right? So I'm going to set some ground rules for this post.
- These shows were between 1995 and 2010. The reason why I did that is because Star Trek Next Generation ended in 1994 and the majority of those episodes I saw as reruns. It would be on the list for sure but I didn't get to see those real time and have the excitement of an episode coming on and being brand new.
- I didn't go post 2010 because for the most part I didn't watch TV since a little before that and I don't want to include something like the Walking Dead which I binge watched 4 seasons all at once on NetFlix
- The post wasn't just stuff that aired on the Syfy channel. I'm simply shortening science fiction.
- The show are in chronological order and I will unveil my most favorite at the end of the post.
- ENJOY!
1) Earth 2
EARTH 2 only ran for one season on NBC. It was a 22 episode season which stretched into 1995 and I do remember being excited that it was coming on. In the distant future, the surface of the Earth has been largely destroyed, and mankind lives in space stations orbiting the planet. In the show a small group left Earth to go an Earth-like planet called G889 in an attempt to find a cure to an illness called "the syndrome".
On the show there were two types of intelligent aliens.
Grendlers
These things were creepy but their saliva could pretty much cure any disease.
Terrians
These aliens were also creepy and always looked like they have been hitting the weight room and training pretty hard. Ultimately they meant well. They were able to sink into the ground where they lived. They could only communicate with the humans through a dreamscape.
I really liked the premise of this show and was surprised it didn't do better in the ratings and continue for additional seasons. It seems like the show sort of gained a cult following and continued to live on. I was able to watch a lot of the episodes years later on the SyFy Channel. I also see people on YouTube talking about how it was on NetFlix. I'm glad I'm doing all this research because I forgot Rebecca Gayheart played on the show somehow. How could I have forgotten. Here is a picture to jog your guy's memories as well.
2) SeaQuest DSV
It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed SeaQuest 2032. I remember Earth 2 and SeaQuest DSV being on back to back. I felt like the premise of this show was really good and had a lot of potential to run a lot longer evidently there were a lot of disputes between the actors and the producers. In the first two seasons Roy Scheider played Captain Nathan Bridger.
They had a dolphin that could talk through a computer named Darwin. That was one of my favorite parts of the show. It seemed like it could realistically work because dolphins are pretty smart.
The submarine was exploring the oceans which seemed like a cool premise because we always hear how unexplored the oceans are. After two season the wheels kind of came off the bus with this show because there were so many disputes that they had to basically figure out a way to change the crew and make that logically fit into the story. Ended up that the SeaQuest was abducted by aliens and taken to another planet and then eventually returned 10 years later. That is why the show changed the name to SeaQuest 2032.
I remember not liking the new captain. Ultimately the show was canceled because ratings didn't improve. I was able to partially relive SeaQuest later on when they did a few marathons on the SyFy channel.
3) Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek Voyager aired between 1995 to 2001 and was the first Star Trek series to feature a female captain. They were stranded in the Delta Quandrant on the other side of the galaxy and were trying to find their way home. One of the things I liked most about this series was there seemed to be a lot of episodes about the Borg which I found interesting. 7 of 9 had been assimilated into the Borg at one time. She looked better in her Starfleet uniform!
She dealt with a lot of issues from being part of the collective. I was sort of surprised that this show aired on the UPN network. It did pretty good there though.
4) Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 was the longest SciFi series to run in North America. It ran from 1997-2007 and there were also two spin-off series after it. Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. What started it all was the movie Stargate which was amazing. That really set the stage for this show and there were so many pieces to this show that made it work.
- You had Richard Dean Anderson who previously played McGuyver. McGuyver is a part of Americana and is as much of a legend as Chuck Norris.
- There was the premise of going through a worm hole to other parts of the galaxy to explore unknown worlds.
- There was the tie in to both Egyptian and Greek Mythology which people have a fascination with. I don't know how accurate the tie ins were but it was close enough to fool your general person if it wasn't technically correct what was being said.
The first 5 seasons aired on Showtime. I saw very little of the show when it was there because we didn't have Showtime. The next 5 seasons aired on Syfy and they replayed the first 5 season when they switched over so I was able to catch up. I really liked the show and I'm not going to lie, I think Amanda Tapping caused some of my MILF fantasies to come to light!
5) Battlestar Galactica
The series was a remake in which I really had no knowledge of the original. The series I'm talking about aired 2004-2009 on Syfy. The sets were amazing and the acting was really good in my opinion. All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of the universe, a human civilization has extended to a group of planets known as the 12 colonies. The machines called the Cylons had taken over and the remaining human civilization was in search of Earth which they weren't really sure existed or not.
There were a lot of things that were brilliant about this show. For one they pretty much slated it to run the 4 Seasons. That way it didn't get scope creep and keep extending out all over the place. I felt that Stargate was able to deal well with additional seasons but the way they did the 4 Seasons for Battlestar was pretty brilliant.
One of the other things that was brilliant about the show was the use of the word "Frack" instead of fuck. They used Frack in place of fuck to get around the television censors which I thought was both funny and ingenious.
Conclusion
So which one was my favorite? Well Earth 2 and SeaQuest were to short lived to really develop. Star Trek Voyager was good and I enjoyed it but to me it seemed more of a spin off of Next Generation. In 1996 Star Trek First Contact came out which I really like so to me that was the "Primary" Star Trek cast. Voyager still made sense and was good.
So that leaves us with Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica which is a tough one for me. I actually didn't like the way Battlestar Galactica ended at all but really loved everything that lead up to the ending. Despite really liking Stargate SG-1 and not really liking the ending of Battlestar Galactica I still have to officially go with Battlestar Galactica as my all time favorite. I just remember how nuts I was about new episodes coming out. It was a must watch for me and it was the acting, the sets, the premise, and all the little things that made it the best.