an egregious omission

I first read about Boston.com's list of Top 50 SciFi TV shows this morning while reading over on Cathy Young's new blog. It bothered me (the list, not Cathy's blog, which is great). Then this evening, I saw that over on the M.A.W.B. Squad, Sandy blogged about it as well. Even though I left comments in both places, that just doesn't seem like enough of a response. The seriousness of the error that is propagated by this list is too grave to let it pass with just a few comments on other people's blogs. So, here we go.

First off, you should know that this list is presented in the most awkward manner imaginable. You have to click through every. single. show. Granted, each show has its own page with a good-size photo and a blurb-ish description of why the show made the list, so they are nice to look at. You still have to click forty-nine times to make it through the whole list -- and that's not the worst of it.

No, the worst thing is that Farscape isn't even mentioned in passing. Deep Space Nine was snubbed, but at least the list's creators acknowledged its existence in the Voyager blurb. Matt Roush of TV Guide said back in 2003 that Farscape "set the bar for this kind of series," but it didn't even merit a fly-by on Boston.com's list.

**sigh**

So, what did make the list? Since I'm in the mood, I'll do the click-work for you. Here ya go:

50. Earth - Final Conflict
49. The Wild, Wild West
48. 3rd Rock from the Sun
47. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
46. That Was Then
45. Greatest American Hero
44. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
43. Nowhere Man
42. Science Fiction Theatre (1955-57)
41. Futurama
40. The Thunderbirds
39. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
38. Batman
37. Space 1999
36. The Bionic Woman
35. Battlestar Galactica (Original)
34. The Avengers
33. Lost in Space
32. My Favorite Martian
31. Alien Nation
30. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
29. The Six Million Dollar Man
28. Adventures of Superman
27. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
26. Stargate Atlantis
25. The Jetsons
24. Wonder Woman
23. Tales from the Crypt
22. Andromeda
21. Quantum Leap
20. The Hitchhiker
19. Dark Angel
18. V
17. Firefly
16. Flash Gordon
15. Logan's Run
14. Star Trek Voyager
13. The Outer Limits
12. Xena: Warrior Princess
11. Lost
10. Sliders
9. Mystery Science Theater 3000
8. Dr. Who
7. The Twilight Zone
6. Stargate SG-1
5. Bablyon 5
4. The X-Files
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. Battlestar Galactica (New)
1. Star Trek (original)

While this list contains some happy surprises -- The Wild, Wild West being one of them, it also contains a lot of outright crap, and a few shows that have rightly fallen into the memory hole and shouldn't be retrieved. Nowhere Man? Earth - Final Conflict? Some choices are just plain odd: Voyager, but not Deep Space Nine? I don't get it. And short-lived costume idiocies like Logan's Run, which had one plot they recycled for every episode? Buffy at number 27, but Xena at number 12?

Who made this list, and what have they been smoking?

I found it very interesting that Firefly made the list, when Farscape did not, especially as Firefly was perceived as derivative of Farscape when it hit the scene -- although the similarities were certainly coincidental. But the fact that Farscape had four full seasons and then a very successful mini-series to wrap up the major story arc was apparently not enough for it to get a mention here. Then again, Farscape wasn't directed by Joss Whedon and doesn't have a pending major motion picture. (Hello, Serenity.)

When I watch the new Battlestar Galactica, I find it evocative of Farscape in many ways: the pacing, the immediacy, the grime. Trek existed in a genteel, leisurely universe by comparison (although Deep Space 9 approached gritty from time to time). But all the things that make the new BSG so great came first in Farscape.

Farscape had it flaws, and many of them ("trying too hard" came up often). But its omission from this list is nothing short of egregious.

If you've never heard of Farscape before and would like a fairly detailed, one-page intro to the program, here's one I wrote way back in May 2000: Where No Series Has Gone Before, originally published in Bob Furnell's Jigsaw Magazine, by and for fans of science fiction television.

In case you were wondering: the best thing about this list? That Farscape's legacy continues, even if it is uncredited, in shows like Battlestar Galactica.