Which Sci-Fi Story line do you like best?

[Dark Trainer]

Simple, what Sci-fi line do you like best? No holds barred, all sci-fi's allowed (Star wars, star trek, 40k, don't care!)

[eldargal]

Hm, hard to decide between Star Wars, Mass Effect and Star Trek.

[DarkLink]

Star Wars is a good possibility, in no small part because Jedi are about the single coolest thing in Sci-Fi. Which is ironic, because Star Wars is really a fantasy series set in the past and Jedi use magic, but whatever.

[Dunadan]

Hmmm, so many choices....both Star Wars and 40k offer a wide universe full of gaming potential, but I have a soft spot for the original Battlestar Galactica. I'm also really enjoying E.R. Burrough's Barsoom books.

[Kataklysm]

I know its a small part of the sci fi genre, but I love the whole "Necromonger" idea from "the chronicles of riddick". sci-fi, death worshipping, super humans. = awesomesauce. The vehicle/armour design is rad, and has been an inspiration for alot of my work.

[Danno]

The Dune series by Frank Herbert. Shame no one has made anything as far as tabletop gaming goes, would be neat to have a sandworm rampaging across a battlefield.

Star Wars and Mass Effect are good ones, along with 40k of course.

[DarkLink]

40k actually really is a massive rip-off of the Dune universe, with a handful of unique twists of its own like the Primarchs and Daemons. But the Emperor, death worlds and various super-soldiers, the dark ages, much of the Warp, all comes straight from Dune.

[Brakkart]

I like a lot of sci-fi, in fact there is very little in the genre that I don't like (Farscape I'm looking at you!) to one degree or another. As far as grand storylines go, I'd have to say that my favourites are Star Wars, Babylon5 and Stargate (from the movie through SG-1 to the end of the run of Atlantis, not a fan of Universe). Couldn't get into the books, but I love the tv mini series that the Sci-Fi Channel (back when they actually were a Sci-Fi channel) did of Dune and Children of Dune, which were so much better than the awful movie.

I'm not that big a fan of Star Trek which is too much miss and not enough hit for my liking, but I did like the later series of Deep Space Nine which focused on the Dominion War storyline, much less so the usually tedious filler stories they used to pad each season out with to get them to 26 episodes.

On a less grand scale, I'd say my favourite sci-fi saga is that of Firefly/Serenity.

I do like the background story of Warhammer 40k, but that fact that it lacks an ending, and likely will never have one does diminish the appeal a bit for me. Thankfully that doesn't lessen my enjoyment of the hobby at all, but if when they have finished the Horus Heresy series, they were to do a series set in the future of the 40k universe where the many plot threads and hints of the future that have been dropped over time are handled in an apolcalyptic conclusion (which could serve to spin off even more stories and such to come), then I would be very interested in reading it.

[DarkLink]

I also don't list 40k as a top choice personally because too much of 40k's fiction is very... pulpy, for lack of a better term. When I compare the Black Library books to some of the independent novels I've read, there's simply no contest. I'm sure there are some BL books that are very enjoyable reads, but compared to the stuff I normally read there's no reason to make time for 40k fiction. I'd rather read something like Mistborn or Heroes Die or Name of the Wind or a Song of Ice and Fire or Old Man's War.

[scadugenga]

Top 5 Sci Fi (with a dash of potential cyberpunkish thrown in:

1. Star Wars. It's one of those definitive movies that just explodes with potential. So much has been done to expand the 'verse that it has a certain gravitas about it. Also, hot Twi'lek dancing girls and lightsabres.

2.) Firefly/Serenity. It's dystopian. It's Joss Whedon. Spectacular plotting, scripting and acting. Wild West meets Space ships.

3) Shadowrun (Cyberpunk rears its ugly head!) For a complete smashing of diverse genres (post cyberpunk nihilism meets fantasy races plus magic) it somehow works really well, and has survived as a RPG for over 20 years now.

4) Babylon 5. So well thought out and scripted. And the miniatures games (in their various iterations) were fun too.

5) Star Trek. Almost just an honorable mention. But later DS9 (ripping off Bab 5) and Next Generation had a lot of good things about it.

[bfmusashi]

I really enjoy the works of Orson Scott Card (though the Xenocide trilogy was a bit of a bore). Starship Troopers is a perpetual favorite. Stargate SG-1 and Firefly were fun, and Star Trek is almost always worth a watch (though Voyager was a little rough). One of the things I like about 40k is it is intentionally open. You can tell any story you want in it and it will obey the rules of the setting with a little tweaking. Star Wars is awesome for this reason too, but the current season of Clone Wars is burning me out.
I'm going to give a shout out to Fifth Element, because someone should.

I wish I could 'get' Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica (they seem so neat and there's clearly a lot happening, it just doesn't click for me) and that I could ignore the random exposition dumps and awkward monologues that fill most of my memories of Babylon 5. It's not a bad show by any means, it had actors that made you overlook a lot of the 'cheap' and sold their characters so hard that it seems like a natural interaction (until the monologue or exposition dump knocks you out of it).

[Kaiserdean]

Easily, I'm going to say Star Trek is my favorite. I like how it's an actual futurist's vision of the future and doesn't contain any Jarjars.

In fact, I've got a wild idea to convert an IG army into a Star Fleet theme... Valkeries as small vessels, Chimeras as shuttle craft and Ogres as Klingons. The rest of the army would be all Star Fleet with Next Generation coloring on the uniforms.

I also like the generic 50s sci-fi vision of the future with ray guns, fins on rocket ships and flying saucers.

[DarkLink]

I'd rather have JarJar than this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM) any day.

[Kaiserdean]

I'd rather have JarJar than this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM) any day.

Now, that's pod racing!

[Lord Tothe]

Has anyone else read Dream Thief by Stephen Lawhead?

Isaac Asimov FTW.

C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy was interesting.

Starship Troopers (the book) and Have Space Suit Will Travel by R.E. Heinlein were good.

I grew up in the 90's, so Babylon 5, ST:TNG, DS9, and ST:TOS reruns were my TV scifi experience.

But the best series of all, hands down, without a doubt, is FUTURAMA! (http://youtu.be/BkmRTjfFZ3w)

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I like Hard Science-fiction and Cosmic-Horror.


I am a fan of Arthur C Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Bear, Iain M Banks, Robert W. Chambers, Brian Lumley, HP Lovecraft and Olaf Stapledon.

I think "Star Maker" is the best science fiction book/universe ever, awesome mix of hard sci-fi, PROPER aliens and truly out there conceptual ideas, exactly what I like. The guy invented the concept of the Dyson Sphere and had sentient nebulas. Nuff said. Everything else pales in comparison to this mans mind.

I also like "Mission of Gravity" because it has a non-humanoid alien as one of the protagonists and the oblate planet is a truly fascinating idea! "The Shadow Out Of Time" and "At the Mountains Of Madness" are Lovecraft's finest and have the best and most nightmarish aliens in any fiction imo, nothing compares to polyps or shoggoths! and "Inherit the Stars" by James P. Hogan is just mindblowing.

Not much in the realm of tv or film I like tbh. Most of it is too mundane for my taste, however I enjoyed Sapphire & Steel, Blakes7, Quatermass and Star Cops a lot. 2001, Moon, The Man From Outer Space, ST the motion picture, Bladerunner, Akira and Carpenters The Thing are awesome.

[Kaiserdean]

I forgot to add that I like the 2000 AD/Judge Dreadd future. It kind of seems like a possible future...