[bre's dad]

Enterprise: had promise but failed to deliver. Many blame Rick Berman for the collapse of the franchise, which would be supported by the fact he's got nothing to do with the new Star Trek movie coming out this Christmas (A JJ Abrams film for those Lost or Cloverfield fans out there.)

Babylon 5: To date my favorite scifi series, except for the new Galactica. It was orginally designed as a 4 year series with a definite beginning, middle & end. Season 5 was pulled out of the air and wasn't too good, lacked direction. The spin off series Crusade was promising but unfortunately were killed off due to creative disagreements. After Sci-Fi Channel picked up the rights to it, many thought Crusade would be revived as the options for the actors hadn't run out yet. They tried their hand at a new series, Legend of the Rangers which the pilot movie was a bit cheesy on the dialog, but was promising (remember how bad and cheesy the first few seasons of STNG were til it found itself?) but was dropped when ratings were low due to some damn football game. But given how Scifi Channel any more seems to just churn out sub-B level crap its probably a good thing. There was a movie released about a year ago called Babylon 5: The Lost Tales which wasn't bad, but not real great either. What partially made B5 good IMHO was it had a dark alomst hopeless feel to it. Human tech was far more primative than other races, main characters had depth and somoe died along the way. It didn't have that happy go lucky feel that most off the newer Star Trek shows and Stargate SG-1 had to where usually everything would be ok and you knew it. Very good writing for its time, still one of the best shows made.

This is one of those that you almost have to watch from the beginning. If you try to pick up in the middle of season 2 or later, you'll not undestand some of what's going on. Aside from 5 seasons there are also a hand full of excellent movies. The first 5 are available (the 2 hour pilot also) in a box set with the later 2 (Legend of the Rangers & The Lost Tales) available separately. Crusade is also out on dvd, all 13 episodes.

Battlestar: not much needs to be said about this. I think part of its success is from it used alot of the same formulas as B5. My only complaint is how Scifi Channel has been handling it. They've got a highly successful series on their hands and act like they donn't know how to hendle it, showing a half eason here then waiting almost a year to air the rest of it. I've heard many rumors that they will wait til 2009 to air the second half of season 4, trying to stretch it out as much as possible. That was flaoting around BEFORE the writier's strike. Also, Ron Moore has confirmed that SciFi Channel is definitly picking up Caprica, a prequel series leading up to the creation of the Cylons and the first Cylon War.

Other noteable series: Doctor Who, Stargate SG-1 (10 seasons, 2 movies with a 3rd on the way later this year), Stargate Atlantis (season 5 premiers this summer), Star Trek Orginal Series (it has been rereleased with completly redone special effects. very cool), Eureka.