My list
Best-
Babylon 5
Star Trek (original)
Firefly
Dr. Who (original)
Blakes’ 7
Worst
Battlestar Galactica (Original)
Star Trek:Enterprise
Star Trek:Voyager
Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.
I could give (dis)honorable mention to such abortions as “Star Rangers” and “Mercy Point”, which were mercifully cancelled after only a few episodes.
Quark.
For both categories.
The Mars trilogyby Kim Stanley Robinson
for best
I think I was limiting myself to TV shows. I apologize if I didn’t make that clear.
On a side note, I forgot to add “Farscape” to my best list.
Best:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The X-Files
Worst:
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Voyager
Jason of Star Command
SeaQuest DSV
Of course there are some exceptionally bad episodes among the best series, and some exceptionally good episodes among the worst series. But those are outliers, the exceptions that prove the rule.
Okay, Andromeda was pretty bad more often than not. Granted. Clunky writing + mediocre acting = nothing spectacular. But there’s no way this show belongs on a “Worst Of” list. For one thing, the ship’s AI was hot enough to singe asbestos. For another, the concept was really pretty great - life after the fall of the Federation (in all but name). At its best, the show did a fine job of contrasting basically-Starfleet ideals with a very, very grim universe.
It wasn’t great television - but it wasn’t irredeemable dreck.
I think the problem was the series was just based on some strange scribbles by Roddenberry and they kept changing direction until it collapsed. I stopped somewhere in the middle of the fifth season where they were trapped in the pocket universe where they didn’t have to spend money on special effects or something.
Another series I’d add to my worst of list would be “Earth:Final Conflict”. At the end, it turned into “Renee the Alien Slayer” because that other show had a kick butt chick who killed vampires or something.
“V” sucked.
No hatred for Lexx?
Best:
ST: DS9
Babylon 5
X-Files
ST: TNG
Worst:
Lexx
ST: Voyager
ST: Enterprise
Best:
ST: DS9 (Best of the Treks)
Firefly
X-Files
Cowboy Beebop (Am I really the first person to name a cartoon. Seems there have been a couple pretty good animated sci-fi series, and its an easy way to get around the need for a special effects budget)
Worst
ST: Enterprise (Voyager was on the whole pretty terrible, but they had some fun episodes, and so were better then Enterprise.)
Dr. Who (Yea, I know people love it, but I’ve tried to watch it like 6 times, its dumb)
Best:
Futurama
Star Trek (original)
Honorable Mention:
Selected episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits
The Space Explorers
Worst:
Land of the Giants
Worst of the 70s:
Space 1999
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
I worked so hard to repress it, and you come and drudge it up once more.
I think Lexx deserves it’s own “so bad it’s good” category. In fact, I think Lexx is so bad it goes around the circle a few times before landing on ‘good’ again. It certainly defies most SF storytelling conventions. The protagonists are amoral and incompetent and keep breaking things (like, say, the entire friggin’ universe). Original and entertainingly weird.
Best:
Firefly
Babylon 5
Stargate: SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek TOS
Worst:
Lost in Space
Star Trek Voyager
Battlestar Galactica (original)
Oh, yeah, I forgot that.
That was terrible!
And I watched every episode, which is even sadder, really.
Beat me, hurt me, make me write bad checks.
TV? Ah, man. I was all keyed up to launch into yet another rant about how much I hated L. Ron Hubbard’s “Mission: Earth” series. I guess I’ll just have to swallow the bile.
Best: Star Trek OS
Firefly
Worse: Lost in Space (is there any even competition?)
Best:
Doctor Who (new series)
Firefly
Worst:
Don’t know, haven’t seen much other sci-fi.
Lost in Space has iconic moments, even though it sucks. You must not have seen Land of the Giants.