Its probably a common answer, but “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It makes me hope for a future like that, where people can settle their problems by talking it out and debating, and even change their minds. Whenever I think about what Star Trek is really about, I think about Measure of a Man. Its such a shame Paramount’s Picard show disrespected it so badly.
Oh, so Star Trek. Not everybody thinks of Voyager when they think about top episodes but for me ‘Living Witness’ is not just the best Voyager episode, but the best Trek episode.
It’s amazingly well acted both with the Doctor in the dramatic lead, and the snippets of the evil Voyager crew being fun. That all supports an episode that has a message that really speaks to me about not turning history into a narrative, especially an agenda pushing narrative. Letting history be learned as honestly as possible rather than using it to gain some cynical personal gain.
That is a good episode.
Stargate SG-1 when O’Neill and Teal’c are stuck in a groundhogs day loop. Seriously fun episode.
Also throwing a shout out to Stargate Atlantis, the episode where McKay is stranded at the bottom of an ocean in a puddle jumper and starts hallucinating. Some of the best acting I’ve seen in a while in that one.
I’ll start: my personally favorite sci fi that that I wish more people knew about is Orphan Black. It features Tatiana Maslany really showing off her acting prowess. Basically, she plays a street rat who encounters an identical but well off version of herself who jumps in front of a train. In discovering this apparent twin’s life, she realizes there’s yet more of her and that they’re being killed off.
The cast, both Tatiana and not-Tatiana, are really good at embodying their characters and the world is neat at showing something that could actually be happening under our noses this second.
Can i suggest a British classic? No not that one, the other one!
Red dwarf isn’t even thought of as Sci fi to a lot of people in the UK, but it served as my introduction to comedy sci fi and even just a lot of Sci fi concepts in general.
Hilarious, clever, thoughtful, interesting are some words I’d use to describe Red Dwarf and I’ll recommend it to anyone who wants to watch the classic British comedy Sci fi
“No not that one, the other one!” - ha!
I grew up on Tom Baker era Doctor Who. It wasn’t until decades later that I discovered that the best British sci-fi from that period was actually Blake’s 7.
The Expanse was consistently amazing. Some of the episodes were so good they left me speechless.
I miss Miller.
Doors and corners kid.
