I’ll start: my personally favorite sci fi that that I wish more people knew about is Orphan Black. It features Tatiana Maslany really showing off her acting prowess. Basically, she plays a street rat who encounters an identical but well off version of herself who jumps in front of a train. In discovering this apparent twin’s life, she realizes there’s yet more of her and that they’re being killed off.
The cast, both Tatiana and not-Tatiana, are really good at embodying their characters and the world is neat at showing something that could actually be happening under our noses this second.
Oh, so Star Trek. Not everybody thinks of Voyager when they think about top episodes but for me ‘Living Witness’ is not just the best Voyager episode, but the best Trek episode.
It’s amazingly well acted both with the Doctor in the dramatic lead, and the snippets of the evil Voyager crew being fun. That all supports an episode that has a message that really speaks to me about not turning history into a narrative, especially an agenda pushing narrative. Letting history be learned as honestly as possible rather than using it to gain some cynical personal gain.
Its probably a common answer, but “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It makes me hope for a future like that, where people can settle their problems by talking it out and debating, and even change their minds. Whenever I think about what Star Trek is really about, I think about Measure of a Man. Its such a shame Paramount’s Picard show disrespected it so badly.
- First episode of Battlestar Galactica after the mini series.
That was groundbreaking for a sci fi television show. People were, tired, angry, scared and drunk. So much different than anything than anything that had come before it.
Also, seeing real physics and sounds in a space battle was rad.
I am such a sucker for stressed out people in some kind of command center who are seeing overly simplified representations of what’s happening. Seeing scanning screening with little simple dots representing some massive space battle and the unease of not actually seeing it. It creates such a claustrophobic atmosphere.
The Expanse was consistently amazing. Some of the episodes were so good they left me speechless.
Strongly agree, The Expanse is a top tier show for so many reasons. For newcomers, the first episode is a bit overwhelming because it’s introducing worlds of information on how humanity has progressed on Earth, Mars, and the stations in between on the asteroid belt (The Belt). But the end of the first episode will really grab you and at least send you into the second one, where it becomes a non-stop thrill ride until the end.
There aren’t many sci-fi shows working to be realistic representations of physics, and none are perfect, but no epic works harder at being realistic than The Expanse. It takes its science seriously enough to be incredibly satisfying in that regard.
What I absolutely love is that the authors of the books are actual writers for the show, so it is very close to the source material in a lot of ways, deviates in other ways that make it work better for TV, and stays true to its original ideas even when it does.
For those that haven’t seen it, check out a few episodes and see if it intrigues you! I found myself along for the ride and simply enjoying that thrill a lot early on, but really felt like I understood the story universe and was invested in the characters themselves by the end of the first season. For those that have seen it, oy Beltalowda, sa sa ke?
