I second Farscape being the most awesome SF show ever

The theme is corruption, no doubt. I wouldn't say it's more important, but it's impossible not to draw the lines.

It's basically humans that lack any humanity that work for an ulterior motive. They can easily "spread" their corruption to others. The disease is practicaly impossible to extinguish as it spreads in the physical realm (eat a corrupted sandwich, you're done) as well as the mental realm (listen to corrupted radio, you're done) .

Netflix has a modest range of titles on their streaming service. I found several shows I like, such as Defying Gravity, just poking around their disc library. I don't really do broadcast any more and also count on friends who still watch to tell me about shows like Sanctuary, which I think I might end up liking. 

@Timmaigh: Dollhouse is not like Buffy or Firefly. There are some 'Whedonite' actors in addition to Eliza Dushku, and there's the snappy dialog that Buffy and Firefly have, but it isn't campy kids' stuff and it isn't post-Civil War gunfighters in space. Well, I guess it is like Buffy in that the lead is often involved in serious fights and other physical challenges, and she ends up kind of super-powered. But the tone is very different, and not just Buffy-vs-Faith different. I especially like it because the show tried to dig into hi tech as a social challenge, with the core mind-copy/wipe/replace tech being the Ultimate Disruptive Tech and really messing things up.

1.Babylon 5 was the best SCIFI Show for me.

It had action, philosophy and a powerful driven story with an incredible cast. Oh J;kar and londo-- still makes me laugh thinking about em fighting one another. 

The action and comedy has a powerful feeling to it. It was an awesome show portraying a war between the first races to gain sentient in the milky way and the current younger races. Just epic. 

2. Farscape was second. A marvelous presentation and hilarious yet amazing scifi series because like babylon 5 it felt real.

(i beleive its possible to have two shows at number 2: Battlestar Galactica. Enough said)

3. SG-1 was another amazing scifi show....

My current most recent shows are Fringe which is character driven and i love the show.. its good and creative

I loved stargate atlantis as well, it felt real. I'm also enjoying eureka (bunch of crazy scientist thrown in 1 town causing havoc. funny).

SGU- Full of actors acting there parts. That's what it felt like to me. I'd have to say the best actor of SGU was the Destiny Ship itself cos u believed it was real and it had a back story that went back a million years.  There was too much drama even after Rush cracked the code or they used the ascension machine. By Season 1 i would expected the crew to start to make use of the ancients knowledge and grow on the ship, enhance it, create new technologies and battle all kinds of problems, battle-themselves, battle other races ( it would have been a new more realist version of Andromeda (even this show had a harder punch that SGU).. 

SGU was a character driven star-gate and the truth is it would have done better if it was just called "Universe". It wasn't a stargate series.

V. well im watching.. don't have to like it-its got hot babe lizard diplomats from outer-space with vasari egg colonizing ships.

The show i have missed out on is : Dr. Who  .. don't know how to jump to that show.. its just so.. i don't know.. seems comical or something. 

Ware-house 13 is another 1. Just havent really switched to that.

The show im considering on adding to my list is Amanda Tappings show "Sanctuary." i watched a couple of the episodes and its a very good show. Just didn't connect with it at the time. Its good and i hear season 2 is better.

 (I really want to watch farscape again-- it was an awesome series)

The way Doctor Who is made, it is both serious *and* comical, and it can shift quickly from one to the other.

Best regards,
Steven.

SGU angered a lot of diehard Stargate fans, including me, because it just didn't feel like Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, more like Battlestar Galactica re-imagined with more planets, and with SGU being canceled, what the fans really wanted to see, Stargate: Extinction and Stargate: Revolution, got shelved indefinitely!

Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Sanctuary are the last good Sci-Fi channel shows left, though Alphas does look good.

On a side note, the Fox executives that had the brilliant idea to cancel Firefly need to have an Assassin sent after them, at least Whedon got his revenge with Serenity.

how did whedon get reveng with serenity?

Canceled show, Firefly, gets its own feature length film, Serenity?

I guess the thing I like about Dr. Who is that it doesn't try too hard. That's why some of it seems cheesy , because it is. They don't try to force things like some other SciFi shows. Some shows try so hard to be taken seriously, and it ruins it. Dr. Who has some brilliant writiers (yes Davies not wiriting anymore sucks, but he didnt write every episode anyways). To be appreciated, you have to watch at least an entire season. One Dr Who episode usually doesn't do enough to grab you. It's all the little things throughout the season (hell, even between seasons) that all come together at the end. And I have to say, they do it in an unpredictable way. Everytime you think you know what's going to happen, they throw a wrench into things.

Granted, sometimes they screw with their own timeline, and there are mistakes here and there, but thats to be expected with a series that has been running for so damn long. But the whole idea is to not take anything too seriously. It's entertainment, and they don't try to pretend to be anything other than that. I really can't think of any other program that I enjoy watching as much as children do. In my opinion, they do a good job of making it fun for kids, while still having some thought provoking situations for the adults to enjoy.

I would like to see a more "adult" Dr Who. By that I don't mean Dr Who does Earth, I mean I want to see the Dr at his darkest. Perhaps during the time wars, or better yet, right after. Of course, for all I know, they could have done this already, as I havent watched the older Dr Who. I saw a few episodes as a kid, but it never drew me in like the revamped series has.

I agree with most people that David Tennant was the best so far (at least from what I've seen). However, I have to say, Christopher Eccleston was pretty damn good too. At first I didn't like him, but after watching those first two seasons, I think he did a great job. He was probably the darkest of the 3 newest Doctors. Also, I think Matt Smith has done a good job. I immediately didnt like him because he was replacing, in my mind, the best Doctor. But, it only took an episode or two, and I was convinced. He does a great job of being "The Doctor", but infusing a slightly different personality into it. Which is kind of the whole point, as when the doctor regenerates, it's like he's a new person...only with all the memories of the previous.

It's kind of depressing...supposedly Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times. That means there will be 13 different Doctors. Matt Smith is the 11th. And at the rate they've been swapping out the Doctor, that's coming up pretty fast!

I can't wait for Alcatraz and terra nova towards the end of this year 

I think the sci-fi show Earth: Final Conflict is great, because it has many interesting episodes and a good story.

I loved Firefly, it was like a western set in space. "Jayne" had some funny dialogue.

I don't care if this puts me on the outs with the Scifi extremists... I also really liked the new Battlestar Gallactica. With the exception of a few later episodes, I thought the show was awesome, beginning to end. 

Joss Whedon agrees FYI.

OK, guys...

so additionally to shows i wrote about in my OP - Surface, Threshold, Flash Forward, Event, Odyssey 5 and Firefly i saw recently Invasion and now i am in the process of watching Space above and beyond (which i already saw though, 10-15 years ago), Falling Skies and FarScape (which is my first time and so far, 2 epidoses before the 1st season finale, i am really enjoying it). Anyway i have to plan ahead, so what do you suggest next to keep me entertained?

Obviously i saw all the modern Treks (but not the TOS, is it worth watching it? I know for many people its the best Trek, but i suppose this has a lot to do with nostalgy and what you actually saw first, in my case TNG and DS9 and these are my most fav  - although i like VOY as well and do not consider ENT such failure as many - i mean it had its moments...so what do you think?

i saw all the Babylon 5 stuff and all the StarGate, Earth Final Conflict (bar 5th season) and Andromeda (bar 5th season), the BSG and "V" - both reimagined, but not originals..., noz Caprica, only pilot of it

 never saw Doctor Who, Dollhouse and 4400, i bought recently some Eureka DVDs, but did not like the pilot that much...and then there are 2-4 season of both Fringe and Heroes, which i quite liked, but until now i was waiting for them to show up on local TV screens, where i saw their first seasons....

tough choices... is there actually a show in mould of Surface, Event, Invasion or Flash Forward, which i have not listed, its quite good and its at least from the 90s? I kinda avoid older shows or the ones with bad reputation or lack of strong sc-fi theme or background mystery - and i definitely despise shows like Smallville or Supernatural....it seems to me, the 4400 fits that bill, but i was reading bit about it on wiki and i do not know... funnily in this case the fact, its not one-season show like those i mentioned is keeping me from give it a try, because i suppose i fear, after promising first season, it will start losing steam,it will muddle up and concentrate too much on various side stories and interpersonal relations instead on the main sci-fi story arc, which will adittionally unveil only very slowly, only to be hastily explained in the last 2 episodes, ignoring lot of things, leaving me with a sour taste... not that i ask for some shallow story, with no character developments and such, but i like the balance between this and the original sci-fi aspect to be kept, but it seems the movie-makers these days tend too much concentrate on the "relations" stuff, to make it look more realistic, dramatic or what, at the expense of the scifi stuff, which is the main reason i watch the show.

BTW i think the Invasion or Flash Forward was show like that, too much about those family things, i was not very impressed with those wannabe dramatic dialogues. how they love/hate each other. Surface on other hand, was imho exact opposite, it concentrated on the main story arc, leaving the characters bit underdeveloped, i think thats why lot of people consider it bad. The Threshold and possibly Event probably had the best balance between the 2.

EDIT: That Alcatraz show, when can i expect it to show up? 

Check out "Charlie Jade" on Hulu.  It's a South African produced TV series about a reality where corporations are more powerful than governments and one of them finds a way to open a portal to alternate realities.  Their world is polluted and resource depleted with chronic unemployment for the average citizen so they open a portal to an idyllic "garden of paradise" version of earth and another to our present day earth--slowly infiltrating agents in to allow their company to develop there and essentially take over.

It's nicely done and a different style from the big network shows.

Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about Space Above and Beyond.  I loved that show. 

Alcatraz starts in January sometime. 

Space Above and Beyond was a good one.  Did anyone watch the two seasons of War of the Worlds (1988)?  I really liked the first season, then they totally changed it for season two, for the worse.  I remember it scaring the crap out of me as a kid though.

Utter junk.

Just about the biggest waste of a DVD/Box purchase ever.