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Nice and easy topic.

Pretty sure we all like our SciFi, and I want to discuss episodes of shows which you feel are the genre at it's very finest - they could be game changers for the genre, or simply stand-out episodes of a given series, maybe something in between.

I'll kick off with a couple of Star Trek episodes.

1. TNG - Chain of Command.

Not far off a two man stage play, and my doesn't Sir Patrick get to show off his full acting chops. The plot is solid. The acting is well above par. The social commentary, and Picard's impressive resistance (especially egg scene) has to put it right up there with the very best SciFi there's ever been.

2. DS9 - In the Pale Moonlight.

The one where the Romulans finally pick a side. It's so ridiculously different in tone to what we expect from Star Trek, yet it fits. All of it. Garak gets yet another chance to shine - and Sisko's complicity in the plot speaks volumes about how desperate things had gotten. Sublime stuff!

Leaving aside the obvious and iconic ones for the moment (a good portion of which probably involved Darth Vader), one that stands out is from the last series of Doctor Who. Specifically, the episode Heaven Sent which is remarkable for featuring a total of one character.

Peter Capaldi as The Doctor gives one of the most fantastic sci-fi TV performances I've ever seen, handling 45 minutes of utterly gripping script in a way very, very few actors could. And the finale, when he realises he's been trapped in the same place, dying and being brought back hundreds, thousands, millions of times, each time figuring out the truth in his last moments, it's just glorious.




Another episode that stands out would be Midnight back in series 4. Made with basically no money, one real set and a cast of about 8, it's a masterclass in how sometimes, a bunch of people in a room talking to each other can be the scariest, tensest thing imaginable.

In no specific order:

SG1 - Window of Opportunity.

A lighter episode with a Groundhog Day vibe.

TOS - City of the Edge of Forever

Joan Collins in a great story with some of the best acting in the series.

Supernatural - Roadkill

A surprisingly sentimental ending with a Tricia Helfer bringing a humanizing touch to the grind of ghost busting.

A couple of my favorites:
Star Trek: The Original Series
Episode: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Great way to parallel the racism that was going on in the 1960's and how utterly stupid racism is. The episode might seem way too preachy to some, but in light of recent events we could probably use its message.

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: Measure of a Man
Great episode in that they deal with the sticky issue of whether or not an artificial sentient machine has rights or not. As our computers get smarter and smarter, we may find ourselves dealing with the same issues from this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8MFp3-ebEQ

Gives me giggles. Worf being the ultimate man.

STOS:
*Squire of Gothos-
*Mirror Mirror-alter ego's galor
*The Trouble with Tribbles-just fun
*Balance of Terror-duty, racism, and Romulans Oh My.
*Doomsday Machine
*Amok Time

BSG:
*Pilot miniseries.

I will think of B5, Firefly, and of course Quark in Space later. but I especially Sky Full of Stars:

Sinclair: We never had a chance. You say we could have won, but you weren't there, you didn't see them! When I looked at those ships, I…I didn't just see my death — I saw the death of the whole damn human race!
Knight Two: Then why did they surrender?!
Sinclair: I don't know! Maybe the universe blinked. Maybe God changed His mind. All I know is that we got a second chance!

Very much agree on the original BSG mini series. I just watched it for the first time this past summer and I was shocked how much of an impression it made on me.

I really enjoyed the Gaeta/Zarek rebellion in the updated BSG.

Space: Above and Beyond. Especially the ending of the first dual part episode. You really can't imagine how revultionary all that now very obviously CGI was when you see it now.

Guardians of the Galaxy. All of it. Soundtrack, comedy, redemption, dickitude, redemption while retaining dickitude, exploration, green chicks, Quill's desire to explore said green chicks, quick reflexes, genius level rodents, and trees that poop lightning bugs.

Did I miss anything?

Farscape: Basically the entire show - seriously, I've watched them all, but Farscape is by far the best Scifi show I've ever seen- but especially awesome are the two-parter Infinite Possibilities and the three-parter We're So Screwed. In one, the main character dies, in the other, they pull off an insane gambit involving a nuke connected to his heartbeat.
Also, Claudia Black.

Stargate was also of surprisingly high quality, and not afraid to poke fun at itself.
"Now, we die heroically having saved the day."
"That's a [i]bad plan[/]"

A few years ago I was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. Half watching it, because I was painting tyranids, but the moment when...



Now I think of it sci-fi movies tend to have great moments and it would take forever to reel them all off. Maybe just because it's my favourite movie genre. Blade Runner, Ex-Machina, Alien, Moon, The Thing, Interstellar, Star Wars, The Martian... so much to choose from. I'll leave my original pick for now though

 Paradigm wrote:
Leaving aside the obvious and iconic ones for the moment (a good portion of which probably involved Darth Vader), one that stands out is from the last series of Doctor Who. Specifically, the episode Heaven Sent which is remarkable for featuring a total of one character.

Peter Capaldi as The Doctor gives one of the most fantastic sci-fi TV performances I've ever seen, handling 45 minutes of utterly gripping script in a way very, very few actors could. And the finale, when he realises he's been trapped in the same place, dying and being brought back hundreds, thousands, millions of times, each time figuring out the truth in his last moments, it's just glorious.

Another episode that stands out would be Midnight back in series 4. Made with basically no money, one real set and a cast of about 8, it's a masterclass in how sometimes, a bunch of people in a room talking to each other can be the scariest, tensest thing imaginable.

Hmm... good picks. I haven't watched Doctor Who for a few series now but the one episode I randomly watched was the Capaldi one you're talking about. It was pretty good!

I liked Midnight too.

 Frazzled wrote:


BSG:
*Pilot miniseries.

You forgot 33 (it sets the tone for the series) and Exodus (part 2) (the atmospheric entry part was the cherry on top of a really good episode).

Mario wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:


BSG:
*Pilot miniseries.

You forgot 33 (it sets the tone for the series) and Exodus (part 2) (the atmospheric entry part was the cherry on top of a really good episode).

Yeah, that moment is Exodus is awesome. The miniseries I thought was actually weaker than most of what came after it. I was almost ready to give up on the series after watching that, but fortunately 33 was next and that convinced me to stick with it though.

From BSG though, I think the final episode of series 3 deserves a mention... 'there's too much confusion'. Fantastic series finale only slightly let down by not using the 'proper' version of All Along The Watchtower.

Doctor Who?

Genesis of the Daleks. Whole serial is simply superb. And the juxtaposition of these two scenes?







It's typically the latter that gets the recognition - but that earlier scene really sets the whole question up.

For me, these scenes stand out:

Babylon5: Delenn's "Be somewhere else" speech.
https://youtu.be/AwrmZAS-u4Y

Galactica re-entry scene (combat hotzone drop)
https://youtu.be/JdkCpnGMyGw
SG-1: Golf through stargate. "Window of opportunity".
https://youtu.be/ZKzdQq0qOQs
Farscape: Avenging angel, animated looney tunes style farscape (although the turnabout on SG-1 where they made SG-1 into the moya crew also rates highly).
https://youtu.be/AwrmZAS-u4Y

Farscape was too campy for me to consider any of it to be good science fiction, although there were a few episodes with the duplicate Crichton storyline that got somewhat deep and interesting.

Fringe, on the other hand, had an amazing episode called White Tulip that is easily my favorite of the series. Sigh... the feels.

Although they're not truly science fiction, the Marvel super-hero shows on Netflix have not disappointed, the first season of Daredevil still being the best written show I've seen in a very long time.

 Breotan wrote:
Farscape was too campy for me to consider any of it to be good science fiction, although there were a few episodes with the duplicate Crichton storyline that got somewhat deep and interesting.

Loved me some Farscape, Scorpius was the real interesting "deep" character on the show, not Chrichton or Aeryn. Wayne Pygram as Scorpius was sublime. He was an amazing character.

Was just rewatching some Babylon 5, and there are just too many moments in that show. Given the paltry budget it had, they had some amazing actors and stories in there (G'kar and Londo, Garibaldi's arc, etc), and the continuity was...beautifully perfect. Almost every little action or event was referenced later, everything flowing smoothly into the seamless whole of the story. "In the Beginning" though, covering the Earth Minbari war, and the first few episodes where they gradually introduce the Shadows and fit them ever so gently into everyone's existing storyline, were particularly excellent moments.

 Breotan wrote:
Farscape was too campy for me to consider any of it to be good science fiction, although there were a few episodes with the duplicate Crichton storyline that got somewhat deep and interesting.

I am biased, I spent some time on that show as one of the unrecognised peons in the 'shop. Still have a lot of friends from those days, who've gone on to greater things. One of them has the doormat from the studio ("Wipe your frelling feet") at his house.

Maybe I'm odd, but I miss Christmas Memorial Day and Scifi Santa. A whole weekend of cheesy, bad, and actually kind of good monster flicks. I don't think they do it anymore.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 chromedog wrote:

SG-1: Golf through stargate. "Window of opportunity".
https://youtu.be/ZKzdQq0qOQs

This is honestly one of my favorite moments from the whole series XD

 LordofHats wrote:
Maybe I'm odd, but I miss Christmas Memorial Day and Scifi Santa. A whole weekend of cheesy, bad, and actually kind of good monster flicks. I don't think they do it anymore.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 chromedog wrote:

SG-1: Golf through stargate. "Window of opportunity".
https://youtu.be/ZKzdQq0qOQs

This is honestly one of my favorite moments from the whole series XD

Mine too! Glad to see there are some Stargate fans around here!

I also loved the episode with Dom DeLuise. So funny!

DS9's In the Pale Moonlight is a really great episode - clever and dark - love it. Many great episodes - Tribbles!! Quark and the Klingons

Babylon 5 - the show has its ups and downs but really enjoyed the politics and some of the races - Shadows and Centauri

Stargate - Excellent Drama AND humour - great villians, brilliant interplay between the cast - joy to watch for the most part - Playing golf through the Stargate and Wormhole Extreme!!

BSG - the new series - building on all the best of previous Sci-if shows to make a adult, thoughtufl show full of great characters

Enterprise - In a Mirror Darkly - stunning two part - right from the get go - oh and Empress Hoshi - hell yeah.

Babylon 5 has some good moments. Everyone mentions "If you value your lives, be somewhere else" or " I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me.", but I like the scene where Londo is finally in charge on Centauri Prime and has Mr Morden brought before him and orders the Shadows off the planet; "what're you going to do, Mollari, huh? Blow up the island?" "Actually, ... now that you mention it ..."

Farscape and Blake's Seven were interesting because they took the Star Trek formula of the utopian future and messed with it; Blake was a dissident, imprisoned by the Federation (and they used the same symbol, too, only inverted!) on framed charges of child abuse, while the crew of Moya were a load of dysfunctional escaped convicts who couldn't stand each other for a season and a half.

The new BSG mini-series was wonderful, but the thing that I really liked was the religiousity of the Cylons; it's unclear (at that point, at least) whether it's something built in by their creators or whether it's something that they developed independently. There's a few things like it in some of Asimov's Robot stories, but not quite the same way as here.

Mine would be the Firefly episode where Capt Renolds got into the sword duel with that highclass jerk. Man that episode just cracked me up

Alien.

Epic in the context of the times and still great.

 KingCracker wrote:
Mine would be the Firefly episode where Capt Renolds got into the sword duel with that highclass jerk. Man that episode just cracked me up

Strangely that's the only episode I never liked. My favorite is still The Train Job, if only for this scene.

I really liked the finale of Stargate Universe, as the ship flew off into the unknown.

My favourite line from Babylon 5 (other than the "no boom today" line) has to be, as always a conversation between Molari and Vir:


Ambassador Londo Mollari: But this - this, this, this is like being nibbled to death by... what are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet... go 'quack'...

Ambassador Vir Cotto: Cats.

Ambassador Londo Mollari: Cats. Being nibbled to death by cats.


But this thread has reminded me that I really need to pick up the Farscape DVDs... so funny...

I'll go for Ariel from Firefly.

AegisGrimm wrote:I really liked the finale of Stargate Universe, as the ship flew off into the unknown.

The show was dropped just at it got its gak together and started becoming something nice (just as the two squabbling scientists found their characters). The ending even provided them with an excuse to pick it up a few years later (they could even explain the ageing of the actors with malfunctioning cryo-beds or something like that).

On the topic of Firefly, Serenity's (the movie) introduction to the world and the characters was handled great. It explained the whole crew in about five minutes while also kickstarting the movie. For those who haven't seen it (it's a tiny bit spoiler-ish if you haven't seen the show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnwEatEZek0

The operative's introduction was fun too.

simonr1978 wrote:
Space: Above and Beyond. Especially the ending of the first dual part episode. You really can't imagine how revultionary all that now very obviously CGI was when you see it now.

Still looks good today, got them on my h/drive. Them and Babylon 5, plus movies. DS9 The magnificent Ferengi, now that was funny.