The list is in this week’s print version, and also right here. I’m surprised no one has started this thread already, because there’s much to debate.
I haven’t finished reading it yet, and I haven’t seen several of the items on the list, but I have a few differences where I have.
I think Children of Men (#14), Heroes (#18), and maybe Lost (#11) don’t belong on the list, simply because they’re all too recent. We should get a little historical perspective before including anything in this list, I think.
On the other hand, I think the inclusions of Firefly/Serenity (#15) and Battlestar Galactica (#2) are both spot-on, despite both properties’ newness.
Star Trek: The Next Generation clocks in at #8, and while I don’t quibble with that, look at this line from the justification: “…the writers and producers erected a sci-fi gold standard, tackling subjects as varied as homosexuality, euthanasia, and slavery…”
Sorry, but homosexuality still remains the Undiscovered Country within the Star Trek franchise, and it’s been so significantly absent over the last 41 years that to suggest otherwise for any Trek series is nothing short of laughable.
What sort of a joke is this? Maybe I’m being whooshed, but as I indicated, I think they’re all too recent for inclusion. In the fullness of time maybe they’ll belong there.
Agreed. As was putting The Matrix in the number one slot. Out of the films they listed, I’d say Blade Runner would be a better choice for the top slot.
I was flipping through the list in the print magazine, not really paying attention to the write-ups, and I remember getting halfway through wondering what the #1 listing was going to be, and then suddenly realizing the numbers were going higher, not lower. I got a little confused because The Matrix was the first entry. “No way,” I thought.
Way.
Aaaaand the list pretty much died for me. Although I did like seeing Doctor Who in there, it was pretty obvious the person who did the write up had never seen any episode from before 2005.
Yes, it’s as appropriate to put Galaxy Quest on this list as it would be to put Blazing Saddles on a list of significant Westerns. It embodies the archetypes even as it lampoons them.
I wouldn’t have put it at #1 either, but I don’t think anyone would deny how important its influence has been over the last eight years.
I haven’t seen Heroes, but does it fit in the superhero subgenre? And if we’re including superhero movies/TV shows among the sci-fi, aren’t there several of these that belong on the list?
My problems with the list, and I’m sure many will disagree:
The Matrix as #1- I fucking hate this movie
E.T. as #7 - I fucking hate this movie
Yeah, we can go on, Starship Troopers, Back to the Future, hate them too. Maybe I’m biased because I don’t really like Sci-Fi. But there are a few I do like:
Alien(s) - Good use of sci fi and horror. Can watch them over and over.
Brazil- Not so much sci fi to me as a satire/cautionary tale. Yeah, I may be nuts.
Quantum Leap- Well, who couldn’t love that show? I miss it.
The Thing (1982)- Scared the piss out of me as a young adult. And I was home alone the weekend I saw it at the theater.
Some I haven’t seen, such as Bladerunner and Children of Men, but mostly you can glean what I like in sci-fi, I think.
Except that for a long time it was also one of the very few places (especially in SF) you ever saw plotlines, few and far between as they were, that even acknowledged the existence of queerness anywhere in the universe. Even leaving aside the contrived token NextGen eps aimed at human sexuality, DS9 was practically draped in a rainbow flag – there was even two wimmins kissin’, and one was a major character (with a lot of interesting gender/body stuff in her storyline, for that matter), not to mention the blatantly lesbian antics of the Intendant. One of the reasons we want the gay character Roddenberry promised is that it makes so much sense for the franchise, not because the very idea of LGBT-friendly Trek is laughable. It’s actually laughable almost everywhere else.
The blatantly lesbian antics of the Intendant were schoolboy pandering, and don’t further your claim that Trek has seriously looked at homosexuality within its universe.
