Red Dwarf!
We interrupt this programme of politics and current affairs to tell you that Red Dwarf has been voted the best Sci-Fi show ever by Radio Times readers. I can’t believe John Plunkett (the Guardian blogger) thinks Doctor Who was better! Is he out of his mind? The books were good, sure, but nothing ever came near Red Dwarf. And he reckons Star Trek was better. The man is clearly a Smeg-head…
| Post to del.icio.us |
Filed in: Humour, Media
Result! Red Dwarf was pure class (I’ll even forgive the rather naff seventh season)!
Is this just telly? Because the radio version of Hitchhiker’s should be way higher.
Star Trek; Stargate SG-1; Firefly; Buck Rogers; Hitchhiker’s Guide- All far superior to Red Dwarf, the moist overrated science fiction show ever.
Red Dwarf – one season of meh, three seasons of good, three seasons of meh.
Nowhere near as good as Firefly. Or Battlestar Galactica. And don’t even get me started comparing it to Cowboy Bebop.
/shakes with rage.
Firefly was rubbish! I tried watching it and gave up on the 5th espisode or something. I’ve never seen an epidode of Red Dwarf and had a good chuckle.
Behead all those who insult Red Dwarf!
Further evidence that the public can’t be trusted with anything. I’ll bet that most of the voters haven’t watched a Red Dwarf episode in years. If they did, they’d discover it’s aged terribly, the jokes really really quite poor, and Craig Charles is more nauseating than you remember.
Next thing you know, they’ll be saying Northern Exposure is the best American import…
What? Are you sure you were watching the same show? Have you seen ‘Serenity’? I am off to get my effergy of you, and some matches.
I am off to get my effergy of you, and some matches.
My effigy of you is already ready! hah!
*starts burning effigy of Rumbold with care so as not to set his keyboard and monitor on fire too*
I didn’t see Serenity, no. If it was as lame as Firefly, I think I saved some precious hours of my life.
Blasphemy!
*Marches out into street. Finds British Asians already burning effigies of someone else. Asks to join in.*
Now I have my own mob.
Hell yeah! And those that say Babylon 5 is a big pile of shite!*
(*spot the reference)
Now I have my own mob.
Balls. Time to do a Salman Rushdie me thinks.
Too late. We have reached the Islington Vegetarian supermarket.
The Path of the Dwarf is indeed the Shining One.
“You’ve lost me arm!”
“I’ve lost yer watch, too”
Star Trek, the original and the best!
*Places head on Sunny’s desk*
Where’s Quatermass?
Battlestar Galactica FTW!
Good call!
Life on Mars fourth!!!!!!!!
It’s a shame a Firefly wasn’t comissioned by the BBC because no matter how crap some people thought it was at least the first series would have been completed. Evidence: My Hero has just finished season 5.
A more reputable sci-fi journal SFX voted Serenity the best sci-fi film of all time so for journalistic integrity Sunny watch the film!
I am supremely qualified to pass judgement on Sci-Fi as I am classed as an ultra-geek.
Red Dwarf was immense and I have watched an episode recently – I own loads of them. I love it. Sure some duff episodes and FUCK OFF KOCHANSKI but it was truly superb.
However, if the category is BEST SCI FI SHOW OF ALL TIME, then my vote has to go to Star Trek: TNG. I worship it in a way that is unnatural.
Shit I read the Radio Times, I didn’t notice this poll. Why did they disallow Dr Who? Every other issue of Radio Times is mostly about Dr Who, they’re obsessed with it. Daft poll.
The Red Dwarf books were pretty awesome too, especially Better Than Life.
Yeah – but book-wise it’s Hitchhiker’s all the way. My mate (who visited The Promenade, a Klingon drinking den, Gene Roddenberry’s star and a Borg hive with me in the US) has just written this on my Facebook wall:
Quark yoghurt? awesome. i bet that cost you several bars of gold pressed latinum. i’d love to get it on with a dabo girl
Geek power!
Personally I think Star Trek:DS9 was much better, especially the later seasons, but whatever floats your boat.
Stargate SG-1 is growing on me (the O’Neill era — yes, I’ve been watching the repeats during the weekends, I’m a late arrival to the show), not because of the storylines, but because of the banter, characterisations, and knowing in-jokes (it almost borders on Boston Legal-esque sometimes). In this aspect, I think it’s quite close in tone to the original Star Trek series (Kirk & co). Much more than the later Trek spin-offs.
However, I do think that the all-time best sci-fi show is the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. Very complex, sophisticated stuff, a hell of a lot of psychological insight, and obviously not for kids (they wouldn’t understand a lot of the behaviour depicted anyway). And not an alien in sight.
****************
So who’s become a fan of “Heroes” recently ?
DOH. Blakes 7.
Overall, TNG was better than DS9, but once the Dominion War started, DS9 was superior (TNG had some pretty boring episodes).
Rohin, what do you think of Firefly?
Jai: SG-1 starts to detoriate after O’Neill leaves- they should have just stopped it then.
Best episode of TNG; The Inner Light.
Star fucking Trek??? And you people think you know science fiction?!?!
Jesus wept…
Best TNG: ‘The Measure of a Man’.
Ok, the original was kinda cool for its sheer audacity of campness but everything after was crap, utter crap. The best of the newer stuff, DS9, wouldn’t have existed if they hadn’t ripped off Babylon 5.
The non characters, the tedious ‘oh we have to have a character that has to learn what it means to be human’ and the oh look the episode has ended and nothing major has changed in the universe.
Bit crap no one has mentioned Farscape either, or shown love for the excellence that is BattleStar Galactica (now that is Sci-fi with real balls)…
I feel that Star Trek:ds9 should have won, though far be it from me to question the virtue and integrity of Radio Times readers however.
I should also mention Futurama, one of my favourite sci-fi shows.
Actually my favourite Star Trek (apart from the original and best) was Voyager.
But that was because I had a crush on Chakotay.
Well I don’t know whether this counts more as fantasy than Sci Fi but Buffy kicks all your asses
The quirkiest show ever made. But Firefly did suck, Star Wars rip off mixed with some buffy for the cult followers.
best TNG: All good things & tapestry
The new BSG is absolutely amazing..Heroes is pretty good too..Red Dwarf deserves an honourable mention on the list but no #1 ! Sunny you blas-phemer off with his head!!! after you burn his effigy obviously
I think that we are all agreed then; Firefly and Star Trek rule, while Red Dwarf is overrated.
Never! Aint seen Firefly so can’t really comment (although all mates that love BSG and Lost liked it, and I’ve seen Serenity which I liked)…
Serenity is a good film in its own right, but you can only really appreciate it if you have seen Firefly. I prefer the old BSG, simply because it was so funny.
I’ve heard that Serenity isn’t as good as Firefly too. I liked it on it’s own merits (and know a little about the Firefly universe) though…
The only science fiction I like is those that present the future as a dark gloomy dystopia produced as a result of some human accident. So Planet of the Apes (70s versions), Phillip K Dick, Nabokov’s Bend Sinister, Burrough’s Naked Lunch, Ballard’s Super-Cannes, the Matrix etc are more my cup of tea.
The cuddly-fluffy depiction of aliens living and working together in some kind of faux galactic multiculturalism with the white caucasian earthling invariably the “Main Man” as seen in Star Trek NG and others, always has me lunging for the remote control.
You miserable human being.
DS9 for me, hey they have a brother at the helm! Heroes would be up there, last nights finale was great. For 80s camp factor its got to be Buck Rogers in the 25th century.
Sid, I like the directors cut of Bladerunner for the same reason.
Leon, Bladerunner is based on PK Dick’s “Do androids dream of electric sheep”, I believe.
Rumbold, yeah I know.
Bladerunner is the only movie to come close to doing justice to the genius of PK Dick.
Sid, five best dystopian sci-fi movies? I’d include Bladerunner, Metropolis, The Time Machine {1960}
(the time lapse effects alone are outstanding), 1984 and Brazil.
Don, I’m with you on Bladerunner. My others would be A Space Odyssey (Kubrick), Alien (Ridley Scott), Matrix (1) and Howard The Duck (Marvel). The last one is a comic not a film, but is begging for a movie adaptation.
They did the Duck, it sucked.
oh yeah
one of George Lucas’ better forgotten, erm, turkies.
Remake! Remake!
Firefly rules!
I’ve really got to get a copy of that…
Heroes comes to terrestrial tomorrow. Is it worth watching?
Don,
Hell yeah.
One of the central characters is Indian too (he’s important enough to provide the voiceover in the show). And he’s about as far from Apu as you can get*, which is quite a radical change for the US when you consider what a mainstream success “Heroes” has been.
*Well, apart from the fact that both are South Indian and have PhDs, but the Heroes guy is very cool. He also noticeably loses his accent as the show progresses, which may or may not have been a deliberate manouevre on the part of the show’s creators.
Every one, and I mean EVERY one, I know that loves BSG has been banging on about Heroes for months now. I’ve heard its a bit of a slow burner but watched the first ep a few weeks and it looks good (the Japanese guy that can manipulate time is cool!).
Ditto Heroes – i.e. yes, Don, it is very good. The recent trend for complex, multi-main-charactered dramas (sci-fi or whatever else) is much to be welcomed in my opinion. Doesn’t look down on the audience, expects you to keep up with fairly complicated plotting – generally the opposite of “dumbing-down”.
Yep, one started (in recent times at least) by Babylon 5.
Liking Heroes.
Anyone remember the BBC’s ‘Survivors’, post apocalyptic plague drama from the 70s?
After vague recollections of riflemen on horseback from when I was a kid, I’ve been watching it again. And do you know, it’s better than most of the crap they pump out these days? I was expecting it to be rubbish but it’s really rather good.
Available at the usual place.
Yeah, loved ‘The Survivors’. Brian Blessed as a really loud villainous patriarch in railway carriages surrounded by feral dogs.
Brod.
“You keep hold of Hubert – he’s a hunter” *croak*
‘Heroes’ was rather enjoyable. I also liked how they used Madras instead of Chennai.
Yeah Heroes wasn’t too bad, a bit slow but hinted at some good things to come…
I thought that it was a bit too fast actually; there were too many main characters to keep track of, though I am sure that after a few more episodes it will be okay.
Fast? Hmm, I guess but I’m used to multi character shows (lost, bsg etc) so it didn’t seem that way to me….