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Space

The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever: Your verdict

By Anna Gosline

26 October 2005

Worldwide Top 10

1) Firefly (TV) 884 votes

2) Serenity (movie) 727 votes

3) Farscape (TV) 271 votes

4) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (book) 171 votes

5) Babylon 5 (TV) 157 votes

6) Battlestar Gallactica 145 votes

7) Dune (book) 140 votes

8) Ender’s Game (book) 138 votes

9) The Empire Strikes Back (movie) 126 votes

10) Doctor Who (TV) 107 votes

Your votes are in – all 4260 of them – and the winner is clear: Joss Whedon. Best known as the brains behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Whedon claimed the first and second slots on our poll for his short lived 2002 TV series, Firefly, and its silver-screen extension, Serenity. (Visit our ongoing forum and have your say on your favourite sci-fi works, here)

The Fox network only aired 11 episodes of Firefly, and not in the right order at that. But strong DVD sales of the series (No.5 in amazon.com DVD rankings) helped convince Universal Studios to back the film version. To date, Serenity has pulled in $20 million in US sales and reached the No.2 ranking at the box office. In the UK, it opened as the No.1 film on 7 October.

Following not so close behind in third place was the Aussie-filmed TV show Farscape, produced by the Jim Henson Company. The show ran from 1999 to 2003, collecting a horde of dedicated fans. Many of them seemed dedicated, in particular, to uber-beautiful leads Ben Browder and Claudia Black. According to TV Guide, after the SciFi (US) Channel cancelled the show female fans actually mailed execs their bras to show their “support” for a renewal. It was fan participation like this that eventually led to a new mini-series in 2004 called Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. My only concern? What they will mail in now.

At No.4 on the list was Douglas Adams’ 1979 book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Originally a BBC Radio 4 series, broadcast weekly in the spring of 1978, the Guide’s comic take on space exploration has been produced as a TV show, movie, comic, computer game, several novels, and then back to radio again. They say syndication is the sincerest form of flattery.

TV show Babylon 5 fittingly fills the No.5 slot on our list. The Emmy award-winning space opera ran from 1994 to 1998. The real hook seems to have been creator J Michael Straczynski use of the “story arc”. Unlike some other long running sci-fi shows, Babylon 5 had epic overarching plot lines, which connected each episode and season – a contrast from the 45-minute “challenge/freak of the week” scenario exemplified by many Star Trek series. The story arc, say fans, made it one of the most enjoyably addictive TV experiences ever.

Congratulations to our prize winner! Joseph Vandusen from Tennessee, US, was the first name picked out of our virtual hat and wins all the DVDs and books from the overall Top 10. Joseph – enjoy!

At No.6 sits Battlestar Gallactica. The original TV show, which ran for only a year in 1978, did not have the high production values and super special effects that today’s viewer are used to. Some even called it cheesy. But the lone Battlestar sailed into the hearts of old and new fans alike in a SciFi (US) Channel mini-series in 2003, written by Ronald D Moore, a veteran writer of some superb Star Trek episodes. The new TV series of Battlestar Gallactica began its current run on the SciFi Channel in 2004.

Seventh place goes to Frank Herbert’s epic novel Dune. Originally published in 1965, Dune was the first novel to win a Nebula award, one of Sci-Fi’s top prizes. It also picked up a Hugo award in 1966, the second jewel in modern science fiction writing crowns. Praised for its meticulous depiction of the politics, religion and culture in a far away and troubled universe, Dune has become one of the widest read sci-fi sagas of all time. Herbert went on to write five more novels in the Dune chronicles. And when he died in 1986, Herbert’s son Brian picked up the plot and kept them coming. Sometimes referred to as the Lord of the Rings of science fiction, Dune has been made as a film and TV series.

Orson Scott Card’s 1985 book Ender’s Game claims the No.8 spot. Like Dune, Ender’s Game scooped both a Nebula (1985) and Hugo (1986) award. And, also like Dune, Ender’s Game kicked off a vast series of novels that followed upon the original’s success. A story of alien insect invasion and the super-smart kids bred to lead the army against them, this book is on the reading list for officer training in the military and has been used as a textbook’ on the psychology of leadership.

At No.9 sits the most critically acclaimed of all George Lucas’ Star Wars films, The Empire Strikes Back. Ironically, Lucas neither directed nor wrote the script for this episode, though he wrote the story. It was released in 1980, following the enormous, box-office-record-crushing success of the first movie, then known simply as Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back was a much darker and better acted film and revealed the best-ever Star Wars secret: super bad-guy Darth Vader was good-guy Luke Skywalker’s father.

And at No.10 is the UK’s most famous sci-fi export, Doctor Who. The original series aired on the BBC from 1963 to 1989, and was reborn in 2005. There was also a TV movie in 1996, along with two cinema films in 1965 and 1966. The mysterious time-travelling doctor has been played by 10 different actors so far – the Doctor can handily “regenerate” whenever killed, allowing actor switcheroos without disrupting the plot.

Male and female sci-fi fans share pretty similar taste. The only major differences were a greater love for Doctor Who among women and more of an appreciation for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series of books among men. There were a total of 2199 votes cast from men and 1569 from women.

Asimov’s Foundation Series, first published almost 50 years ago, found a more prominent placing among voters over 50 years old. Older voters had more books in their top 10 list in general, including Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Below are lists of the top ranked books, films and TV shows. Although TV shows dominated the final top 10, books received nearly twice as many votes in total, spread across far more titles. It makes you wonder what medium really is best for science fiction – but that would be another poll.

Top 10 Books

1) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) 171 votes

2) Dune (Herbert) 140 votes

3) Ender’s Game (Card) 138 votes

4) Foundation Series (Asimov) 83 votes

5) Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) 55 votes

6) Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke) 36 votes

7) Contact (Sagan) 32 votes

8) Mars Trilogy (Robinson) 29 votes

9) War of the Worlds (Wells) 27 votes

10) Hyperion (Simmons) 27 votes

Total votes for books: 1748

Top 10 Films

1) Serenity 727 votes

2) The Empire Strikes Back 126 votes

3) Star Wars: A New Hope 104 votes

4) 2001: A Space Odyssey 80 votes

5) Alien 68 votes

6) Dune 33 votes

7) The Day the Earth Stood Still 30 votes

8) The Forbidden Planet 23 votes

9) Return of the Jedi 19 votes

10) Revenge of the Sith 15 votes

Total votes for films: 1225

Top 8 TV Shows

(only 9 made it to the first round)

1) Firefly 884 votes

2) Farscape 271 votes

3) Babylon 5 157 votes

4) Battlestar Gallactica 145 votes

5) Doctor Who 107 votes

6) Star Trek: The Next Generation 94 votes

7) Stargate: SG1 73 votes

8) Star Trek 47 votes

Total votes for TV shows: 894

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