I absolutely loved LOST,  a show with such a richness of storylines, interesting characters, absurd happenings, time jumps and you can go on for a while. Still, at first I wasn’t going to put it in my Top 10, why? Because of the awful finale. It’s like I’ve wasted all these hours watching LOST for nothing! And I did a rewatch too! That is my own fault. No, initially my number 10 spot was the very short lived TV show “Threshold” from 2005 with Carla Gugino in the lead role. I simply loved that show and I was gutted by its very early cancellation! Only 9 episodes aired, 13 were produced and released on DVD.

But I realized that I had to put LOST in my top 10 because I really loved it, I remember watching the first 7 episodes on one evening, my wife and I really gulped it up, we couldn’t get enough. Over the course of the six seasons, we never got so excited as with its first season but still, it was just a very enjoyable show. Besides the main characters it also had so many interesting recurring characters, which made show even more richer.

What I can say about LOST is this: Although it made it to my Top 10, at the expense of “Threshold”, I will never ever watch it again! I did one rewatch, about 10 years ago and that’s it, sold my Blu-ray set the day after I finished it. “Threshold” on the other hand, I will rewatch in the years to come.

Warehouse 13 turned 15 this year. Granted, my preference goes out to a different kind of SCI-FI, in space, on space ships and such. Still Warehouse 13 is a very fun show, especially because of the cast, especially Pete Latimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly). They were like Mulder and Scully from The X-Files. That kind of a pairing has been copied many times since and still happens today. They also have that will do, won’t do relationship which you see often in a set-up like this. Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly do this really well, in a fun way. It is obvious that they care about each other.

The other characters are unique to say the least. Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek) who tries to manage it all, Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) is the tech girl but has a lot more other valuable qualities. Leena (Genelle Williams) is the caretaker of the team. Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) joins the team later. I thought he was a good addition to the team, by adding him, Claudia had her own Mulder. Jaime Murray played H.G. Wells, a very important character although not a regular and CCH Pounder played Mrs. Irene Frederic, she was the caretaker of Warehouse 13 itself and She is presumed to have been born around the 1850s or 1860s.

In my opinion it is a better show than its parent show Eureka, there also have been a number of cross-over episodes. Why I think it is better, well, I often felt Eureka had too many mediocre episodes, I really disliked how Sherif Carter was put down by everybody while he usually solved the problems that had arisen. I know it is part of the set-up, but I found it annoying.

Doctor Who had been of the air for about 16 years. A Doctor Who movie was made in 1989 and til 2005 there was no DW on the telly. The original Doctor Who started in 1963 and till 1989 it had 8 Doctors. I have to admit, I only saw one doctor regularly when I was a kid, the 5^th Doc (Peter Davison). So when it was announced that Doctor Who would be back, I was very excited about this and the 9^th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) made quite an impression on me.

It really bumped me out when it was announced that was going to leave after the 1^st series. When David Tennant was announced as the new Doctor, I was not very confident that I would like him but boy was I mistaken. He was yet another perfect doctor, I think for many perhaps the best doctor, or at least the most popular doctor. When Matt Smith came along as the 11^th Doctor I felt the same as when Tennant came, except 5 times worse! But Matt Smith also convinced me, in fact, I think he has become my favorite Doctor! This I really did not see that coming after his first Doctor Who publicity photo’s.

To be honest, when we were at series 7, I already saw a quality dip in the storytelling, this continued with the 12^th Doctor (Peter Capaldi). Although I also liked Peter Capaldi as the 12^th Doctor, I thought the storytelling was going downwards. I think I watched series 8 and parts of series 9 but than I stopped watching Doctor Who altogether. So for me, Doctor Who (2005) ends after series 7 and based on the first 7 series, Doctor Who is number 8 in my top 10 list of the 00’s.

For many of you this most likely would be in your top 3 of the 00’s and perhaps of all time! For me this would as well been the case had seasons 3 and 4 been in the same vain as the first two seasons. I absolutely love the first two seasons and I was very disappointed for the most part of the last two seasons, with the exception of the occupation episodes at the beginning of season 3. I didn’t like that Six was in Baltar’s head for so long. Granted, in the beginning this resulted in funny moments where the Baltar makes a bit of a fool of himself, but this became more and more annoying to me as the series progressed.

From the get go, I just didn’t care about these Cylons, could not empathize with any of them, didn’t care about their civil war, so you can see that this can become a problem, especially in the last two seasons. I also did not care much for Starbuck, found her annoying most of the time. This happens in other shows too, for instance, think of Master Sgt. Ronald Greer (Jamil Walker Smith) from Stargate Universe. At first I really disliked him, but the writers evolved his character and he became one of my favorite characters. This didn’t happen with Starbuck, she stayed the same annoying character all the way to the end, to me at least.

So yeah, Battlestar Galactica certainly earns a spot in my top 10, if alone because of the first two seasons and of course the Cain episodes. But unfortunately it changed too much over the course of the last two seasons, I didn’t like to road taken. If Battlestar Galactica had been cancelled after the first 2 seasons, I guarantee you, it would be among my all time favorite shows!

Terminator: TSCC is my first TV series I purchased on Blu-ray back in the day! At that time, Blu-ray was not yet made perfect for TV series, there was no menu, which was kind of annoying when you just wanted to watch one out of the four episodes on a disc. Anyway, I loved the show from the get go. The first season consists of 9 episodes only, this has to do with the writers strike back in 2007. Season two does have 22 episodes and, in my opinion, is the strongest of the two, which does not imply season one is weak, I just thought season two was somewhat stronger.

Sarah Connor is played by Lena Headey, her son John Connor is played by Thomas Dekker and the Terminator is played by Summer Glau! Of course, at first it might seem strange, such a tiny woman being the Terminator, but she nailed it, she was fantastic as the Terminator. Apparently Summer Glau got the role because of the fight scenes she had done in the Firefly movie “Serenity”, Josh Friendman wrote the character with Summer Glau in mind. Brian Austin Green plays Derek Reese and he also was a very interesting character and his fate in the series finale was disappointing, although in SCI-FI, death does not always mean you can’t come back! Sadly it was cancelled after only two seasons, or rather 1,5 season. I am sure it wasn’t a ratings hit but still, I believe it had many fans and the show became more and more popular after its cancellation. Really looking forward to another rewatch!

Fringe, one of the few SCI-FI shows which FOX let it run its course. It got 5 seasons of which one short season with 13 episodes. It was able conclude its storylines and it was not because Fringe was such a big ratings hit! Only in its first season it got respectable ratings but from then on it went downwards al the way to the series finale, which till this day I don’t understand because it was a such a rich show! A great cast, multi layered storylines, drama, Time travel, alternate universe, very satisfying story arc and Lennard Nimoy!

Fringe was The X-files of the 00’s and I might angry X-Files fans when I say, that Fringe might have surpassed the X-files even. Still, both shows are quite different, if only because Fringe is one big story while The X-Files, besides the mythological episodes, mostly standalone episodes. Plus also, I think Fringe was more SCI-FI oriented than the X-files which consisted of several genres. Here we also see a woman and a man as the lead characters, they also have that 'will they, won’t they' vibe throughout the series. Fringe did not have weak episodes, at least in my humble opinion, no filler episodes, they all felt like minimovies to me. Lead cast was phenomenal, Anna Torv was Olivia Dunham, the FBI agent, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) assisted her in investigating weird unexplainable cases. The ongoing story arc was mostly centered around the Bishop family, especially Walter Bishop, perfectly played by John Noble. I don’t know if he ever won some kind of award for his performance on Fringe, but he really would have deserved it.

Firefly ultimately became a one season wonder! Fox cancelled it after only 14 episodes when so many people didn’t even know about the show! Firefly got really popular after Fox had pulled the plug! A cast to dream of, I don’t think there has ever been a more perfect ensemble crew than the one from Firefly! Not to say that these characters were perfect, certainly not but they gelled perfectly. Besides that, there is not one weak story among these 14 episodes, every episode is engaging, loads of humor, drama and action. Yes, there is plenty of humor but it is not a comedy, there is a serious background to it all!

Only 14 episodes so you might say it cannot belong in my top 10 because you cannot measure it up against TV shows with a lifespan 3, 4 or 5 seasons. There perhaps is some truth in that, however, this is my favorite Top 10, I realize it is not so sure that if Firefly had 5 ran seasons, all episodes would be as good as the 14 episodes or perhaps even better. But that doesn't mean that Firefly doesn’t belong on this list, the potential alone, and let’s not forget the movie Serenity which spawned from it.

Even though I already think Firefly is exceptional, imagine how of an impact it could have made had it run for 5, 6 or even 7 seasons. I am confident that Firefly would definitely be one of the most important SCI-FI shows of all time, and that it would be a favorite not only to SCI-FI fans but also to many mainstream viewers.

The 3^rd incarnation of Stargate, criticized by many back in the day, they all blamed SGU for the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis, but this was not correct. Ratings of Atlantis were dropping and a plan was made to make direct to DVD movies of SG-1 as well of SGA. The economic crisis put a stop to that unfortunately. It seems that I was one of the few (dramatically stated of course) that loved Stargate Universe from the very beginning. I don’t want to go too deep into how and what because I have a 15^th anniversary blog coming up in a few weeks (I am writing this on September 10^th, 2024).

But I loved it from the start, yes it was slow in the beginning, it was darker, gritty, totally different from its predecessors but I didn’t mind that. Perhaps in part because at the time when Atlantis ended, we had 15 seasons of 2 shows with the same kind of energy, so I was up for something different under the same umbrella called Stargate. I think nowadays Stargate Universe is much more appreciated, like with Star Trek: Enterprise, because streaming services, people were able to binge these shows and came to the conclusion that they actually are kind of interesting. It is obvious that I love all three shows, but there may come a time when I realize that SGU is my favorite Stargate show because with my last two rewatches, I was consumed by it, couldn’t get enough of it. Currently I am rewatching SG-1, in the middle of season 6, so it won’t take long before I start with Atlantis again and I gather that I will start rewatching SGU early 2025, which I am really looking forward to.

Well, if you follow this website, you’ll probably know that Enterprise is my 2^nd favorite Trek. I absolutely love this show, even with all its flaws, it is definitely one of my all time favorite TV shows. Back when it was released I wasn’t so positive about it, at first, I didn’t want a prequel, 2^nd, I wasn’t a big fan of Scott Bakula and knowing that he would be the captain, did not make me happy. I also had to get used to the crew, more than with any other Star Trek show. But I did get used to the crew, the fact that it was prequel I accepted, although it did cause some inconsistencies, and Scott Bakula became one of my favorite captains, not only counting Trek shows!

Scott Bakula did a fantastic job as captain Jonathan Archer and at the end of the series he definitely is not the same person as the one we start with. Another favorite of mine became Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating). He was a bit of an action hero, he didn’t start out that way but this progressed over the course of the last 3 seasons. The first season is quite okay, 2^nd season is my least favorite, although it has some great episodes, like “Carbon Creek”, “Dead Stop”, “A Night in Sickbay” (yes, I truly love this), “Stigma”, “Future Tense”, “Regeneration”, “First Flight” and “The Expanse”. Seasons 3 is just a great one season story and season 4 definitely is my favorite season with all its two and three part episodes. “Home”, a single episode, is also one of my favorites.

If you are an Enterprise fan, make sure you buy the show on Blu-ray because the extra’s on these discs will prove invaluable over time and aren’t available on the DVD set.

My favorite TV show of this decade definitely is Stargate Atlantis. Atlantis turned 20 earlier this year, see my blog about that. It currently is my favorite Stargate show, although in the future it is possible it could be surpassed by Stargate Universe! But this still isn’t the case. Why do I prefer Atlantis above SG-1 and SGU, well it is in the small things because I absolutely love all three. Atlantis is set in another galaxy, I love the lead characters, Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) and John Sheppard (Joe Flanagan) together is just so much fun. I also find the Wraith 10 times more scary than the Gua’uld, with the exception perhaps of Anubis.

I loved Atlantis from the get go, I did not felt this with SG-1. I loved the characters almost immediately but certainly at first the stories weren’t that great, it really had to find its footing. With Atlantis the stories were better from the get go and there was a great cross-over in the pilot episode of Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson. In my opinion, the creators did make questionable decisions about certain characters. Like why kill off Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion), why remove Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson) as leader of the expedition? These decisions made me angry. Why not make Sam’s character a recurring one, it was so unnecessary to kill of these characters. But yeah, this is something that I never will understand. I think though I understand why the creators did this, to keep its audience on their toes.

Around the time Stargate Atlantis ended, I remember not being disappointed about it, because I thought It was not so fresh anymore and I for one did not mind that we got a new show, because it was the intention of bringing back Atlantis (and SG-1) as direct movies to DVD. But with my last two rewatches, I was sad when I watched the series finale, I now wished we would have gotten another season … or two!