I wanted to see how people felt about just these 3 series head to head---using Eduardo's system of ordering them all instead of just picking one. 

I felt like doing just these three, but if you want to add in Next Gen or OS into your extended answer, feel free.

Babylon 5 had some nice things, but totally bad "directors" for so many episodes, to the point of it giving us several different versions of the same character ... and worse of all, was the horrible misuse of the music that was written by Christopher Franke. For 10 years he put together a magnificent amount of stuff for that show, and it was never really taken advantage of, and I think that it was the American Producers that did not want music to upstage the rest of the show ... to be honest with you, I never thought that Vangelis, or Ryuichi Sakamoto did better with their music than the actual movies they were a part of ... so I, personally, think that the producers of the show were the idiots that didn't think music was important to the show at all, and likely, were paying Christopher Franke a bit more than any jingle idiot out there!

There was one show, and I have no idea what it was called, where the folks had to go back in time 5 years to try and stop something or other from hurting the planet. I remember some parts of that show well,  but don't remember its name, and it seems to have vanished from the stratospheres of the sci-fi world, that has some nice things, but also a lot of junk, even if one of them had a lot of funny stuff .... only for two of their members to be taken to the Stargate series, and it quickly helped kill it faster!

Thanks for the reminder about Crusade. I had forgotten that show.

Voyager over DS9....interesting. Better characters or stories?

Wasn't aware of this. I'll have to pay more attention to the music on my next re-watch. 

For me it really is between Babylon 5 and DS9. I personally prefer Babylon because I feel that it's a bit more self contained, whereas DS9 certainly (though not insistently) benefits from prior familiarization with TNG.

However, DS9 clearly had the better production and more planned narrative direction right from the get-go, whereas Babylon 5 began with an "okayish" first season, and really exploded in scale with the latter ones. Voyager felt to me more like a complementary piece to DS9. A bonus if you want to get more from the franchise after seeing its top entries.

Hrychu wrote: When it comes to 90's sci-fi shows, there are quite a few Japanese Tokusatsus that aren't very well known outside of Japan (especially in the anglosphere) which I think are absolutely worth watching. Eg. Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain. Yes, those shows were mostly targeted to kids and thus might come off as cheesy to a adult Western viewers, but the cheese is part of the charm.

IMO, the Metal Heroes franchise stands very bold due to their designs and comparatively experimental direction. I think they aged a bit better compared to most of the other Toku stuff from those times, which more often than not tended to rely on the cheese factor.

Great comments, guys. Great to have discussion about some of my fave series. A couple thoughts.

Deep Snooze Nine. I think I loved DS9 because it was static and less action. That's where I differ from most Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans. I dislike a lot of "action" and battle scenes and wartime conflicts. I enjoy these shows for a look at life in some futuristic place. So I like the boring nature of DS9 because I want the laid-back, everyday life, ho-hum scenes. I enjoy just seeing "life in the space-ship/station" and the normal human interaction in that futuristic place. I love the backgrounds, the quiet personal politics, and getting away from fighting and battle. My favorite shows are the ones that are highly cerebral with very little action/battle/fights.

Not to go off-topic, but I rather enjoyed The Expanse because, even though it had more fighting than I liked, it did show great looking futuristic imagination.

Seven is a great character, and yes Kes is down there with Wesley (and Deanna for me) for bad characters. On the flip side, I like Captain Janeway much more than Picard.  (I'm not a Next Gen fan) Data is really the only character I really enjoy on that show.

This resonates with me a lot. I completely agree, and it is why my favourite Arthur C Clarke novel was Rendevous With Rama, and why I loved the fourth Dune novel of all the series the best, precisely because of the pace and human interactions. The best sci-fi deals with humans, and how they adapt to situations, just as the finest histories do the same.

I'm a trekker, but DS9 is the worst spin-off ever. I've never seen Babylon 5, so the first in the list is my choice. It deserves at least 7 votes over 9.

Anyway, my favorite Star Trek spin off is Enterprise. The absolute worst  is Strange New Worlds. Please send Pike to a barber.

Big fan of Star Trek TOS.  I admit that after the abysmal first season of TNG I stopped watching any further trek until I decided to catch up with all of them a couple years ago.  I began with Enterprise, and mostly liked it.  I thought the Xindi arc to be very epic.  Now into TNG season 3, which is great.  Haven't seen VOY or DS(.  Saw a couple episodes of DIS, ok.  I actually thought SNW season 1 was excellent, less so season 2.

I haven't checked out Babylon 5

Hi,

Pretty much the same ... though there are times, when the "human interaction" thing is over done and schmaltzy for my tastes. Likewise, some sci-fi stuff is ... over indulgent ... in the science side of things towards the realm of impossible to enjoy and understand.

I was OK with 2001, specially at the time when it came out, and a few years later I got to see it at the Cinerama Dome, which was the equivalent today of the plastic sphere in Las Vegas ... it had pretty much that same effect, though nowadays, very few people realize what a huge experience something like that really is in terms of your appreciation of the arts ... which is something a lot of folks ignore (very visible on PA) by folks that love their favorites and I'm not sure they can see the life of some things in those days ... and then they go about saying that ELP was too much ... like 2001 and SW weren't I suppose ... but what these folks don't see it was a new time, place and they wanted to blow the doors open with very effective materials and shows ... screw that top ten stuff you love! And the majority of those bands have NEVER done an outstanding show of music ... it kinda all died after Pink Floyd and the massive show of trolls at Anaheim Stadium! And now it's about money ... ask Taylor and Mick how much they took home! You and I can't count that far!

SW was fine in its opening, though too much in my book when they put it on in the first three months on theaters with 2001 speakers, and many of them under your butt ... and it really was not an enjoyable film at that point ... it was too much and a lot of it was wasted, and the whole human story/thing was over blown out of the story ... the effects and noise became the movie and it killed it for me. It also fell even further and I have not bothered with any other SW anything when the main character was no longer human and was all wires and this and that ... at that point, I felt disconnected with the story and its quasi-zen bullcrap ... a veritable cliff notes of it all, and an imaginary hero, that was not human. And we're scared of AI ... the idea makes no sense all of a sudden, and how messed up we are in our own ideas ... SW became AI when they fixed the turkeys hand ... it would have been more important (theme wise) if the hand was non-existent and something else done to make the arm/hand efficient ... sort of what GoT did in one case.

Other 90's sc-fi? Anyone remember Earth 2? I liked that a lot , got through about 2 seasons if I remember well. (just checked and it was only one season but had 21 episodes which seems mad!)

Sliders was very successful and that would easily be my favorite from that decade. 

Also good was Lexx (I own all that on DVD) and Stargate SG1. That good a very good spin off in the 00's with Robert Carlyle but was cancelled far too early for my liking. 

I loved SG Atlantis and Universe. The original too, although it may have went a season or two longer than needed.

I thought SG was wise for never really letting Carter and O'Neill get together. They teased it, yes, but the tension around them and their feelings for each other benefited the viewer. We knew they cared for each other, but we didn't have to suffer a full-blown romantic relationship infiltrating the storylines.

Sliders easily. It was better written and had quite an impressive list of cameo performances, the likes of Roger Daltrey, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Corey Feldman, Robert Englund etc popping up. Lexx is very entertaining but also very 'US cable TV' originally on Showtime and we know just how sleazy some of their output can be. It does stand up as decent sci-fi though especially if you want something that is set well in the future and out amongst the stars with fantastical possibilities..

Cool, thanks Richard!

^

That looks interesting too. Thanks!