What's your favorite SciFi/Fantasy Movie or Series?

General Discussion
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And, since I’m asking for recs, where is it available for streaming?

For me, it’s Battlestar Galactica - the reboot. I may or may not have named my dog after one of the characters! It’s hard to believe that the series is turning 21 this year. It still holds up pretty well, and it’s action and mystery packed, with this raw energy that’s difficult to quantify. If you like a cliffhanger every episode (which, I assume you all do), it’s downright addictive. The show falls apart in later seasons, but the miniseries is where you should start, and then you should move on to the actual show.

My second favorite might be Firefly, but I think everyone has watched it at this point!

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Oof. There are so many good ones!

Babylon 5 is a favorite. The character interactions are outstanding, the exploration of morality and the way different characters are doing good and evil in turns, and the worldbuilding overall.

While i do like Dresden, i think the Codex Alera books are more interesting. I’ve probably read them more times than the Dresden Files, and for a book series apparently written on a bet, it’s also an amazing world.

Treasure Planet is a guilty pleasure. For me, this one and Muppet Treasure Island are the definitive adaptations of the book.

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Tough one. Babylon 5, Firefly, and Farscape are all favorites. Even though it was only one season, the Dresden Files was right up there too.

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Firefly, which had a single season; Lockwood and Co., which had a single season; Sandman, which (currently) has a single season. There’s a theme. Also the Magicians, in which I consider Elliot the second or third best character in all of fantasy (after Kvothe the Arcane and Siobhan Naught), so even thought the plot is eh, it’s worth it just for him.

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I’m bad at picking favorites, but up there for me are: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The 4400 (original), Good Omens, The Lost Room, Lockwood and Co., Lovecraft Country, and Colony.

The Murderbot Diaries are one of my favorite books series, and I was excited that there is a TV series coming, but I’m still a bit skeptical of the Alexander Skarsgård casting.

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I saw Arrival in theatres, and have watched it a couple of times after that, and loved it.

Had lots of arguments about the nature of time travel, predetermination, etc about it. It had what I consider to be one unexplainable plot hole.

If you watch it, you need to experience the sound. Play it loud or use headphones for the proper experience.

Also, the soundtrack’s music titles inspired the way in which I do PGTS’s chapter titles.

It’s based on “The Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, but the theme, (or “moral”) of the story is almost completely opposite between the two.

I also had a ton of arguments about the movie Tenet. Again, plot holes where core premise is contradicted, but the concept of the time travel was fascinating, and again makes one consider predetermination.

I’ll also recommend Code Geass to anyone who hasn’t watched it. It’s getting pretty old now, but it in many ways was the start of my interest in revolutionary characters.

I also really enjoyed The Magicians (the TV show, not the book, they are considerably different.) I particularly enjoyed how the characters are in over their heads, try desperately to solve one problem, and end up almost directly causing an even worse problem. Also the handling of trauma was pretty…impactful. Look up the trigger warnings before watching, if you haven’t seen it.

AND MY BIGGEST RECOMMENDATION:

The OA, on Netflix. It’s really hard to talk about what this story is without giving it away. It’s also in many ways so different than the kinds of story I generally write or read, but I would love to write something like it (similar theme, with my own spin and, of course, magical rules) some day.

It captivated me in a way no other television show ever has.

And was cancelled and it ends in a cliffhanger. Fair warning. It’s worth it anyway.

If you get through Season 1 Episode 5 and haven’t had your mind completely blown and your soul captivated, then this show just isn’t for you. But if you start off unsure, if you can make it that far you might have a change of heart.

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I fell in love with battlefield earth for the complexity of the politics and math and just the second half of the book.

I never really understood why the foreword of that book stressed so hard that it was written to be pure science fiction and nothing to do with religion until a handful of scientology videos hit my YouTube and I’m like oooo… Still like the book.

I like a lot of the Ender series because the complexity of the fake politics and character arks.

The Spearhawk series has wonderful world building. Also, the prologues that explains the previous books in 4-6 make me smile. The scholars scoffing about of course they didn’t fly cross country, they simply have longer weeks (no, the little goddess played with time)

I like Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson world because the way Dom/Sub/omega structure makes so much sense, brother wolf’s view about naming people is something I firmly agree with

Anne mccrafry pern the arc of watching how everything changes. How in the future people can get the facts wrong, now some stuff can over lap, but just about everything can stand alone. How some facts are deliberately told wrong…

Wheel of time… Raven feathers, I love just about everything except the chapters told in persons point of view. It’s the most complex world building I have ever seen, yeah, he leaves out religion for the most part, and the women tucking their arms under their boobs is an over done meme that I have sadly seen elsewhere… But when people spoke, you could almost tell where they were from cause of the written accent, or how they justified stuff. I also liked how some of the bad guys didn’t honestly believe they were, some felt trapped, and a hand few absolutely relished in the bad stuff. The governments in almost all the lands where different, who ran the house or shop was different, how people dressed, what they wore, all very different. A person making notice of the chain in someone’s nose, you knew it was the sea people. Short person in dark clothes, with stripes, carthethin noble.

And the magic, there’s two main forms that can be accessed, mostly based off of your gender, but that’s not always the case. and the females mostly have to learn to submit and hide the weaves into place, where the guys force it into control. If they try to do it the other sides way very bad things can happen, and while you don’t see it much in the series, the underlying message of finding a way to work together let’s you do amazing unthinkably powerful things…

Some of the char archs are also amazing. Rand doesn’t want to be the dragon, he wants to live a simple life. Egewen bullies her way into joining the party and goes through so much stuff, a lot horrible, and grows. Matt, who I unfortunately relate to, just wants to be happy and carefree, grudgingly does the right thing without asking for anything in return, he’s just gonna complain the whole time. Perrin isn’t so bad, he’s just very slow to mentally accept stuff, wanting to do right… But he gets this absolute single mindset at one point and it’s just very annoying. With 109 points of views, and several are repeated, though plenty are just NPCs that you have to watch to get their whole story… One problem j have is where the he k, outside of the letter morine gave tom that he reads obessively, is there any hint of the two of them being interested in each other? Bah.

I have others that I like, but my favorites? That

Oh movie. While it’s hard to pick a favorite

I will die on the hill that Stardust the movie was better than the book…

It’s only like one of maybe 4 movies I’m willing to say that about

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Farscape is one of my absolute favorites. It’s so ridiculously low budget, but that didn’t stop it from being original and well-written.

It’s so campy, but I can’t help wanting my own sentient starship.

This is added to my watch list. I need to watch more good scifi!

I started watching this a while ago, and wow. (Why does the main character look exactly like I picture Sebastien - but as a woman and with lighter eyes?)

Thank you all for the great recommendations! More are always welcome. :wink:

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For a fascinating look at what it means to be moral in a world with predestination, I highly recommend The Licanius Trilogy. One warning, I had to do a lot of rereading after it flipped my view of motivations, just to verify that all the clues were there - I had just missed them.

It is insanely carefully plotted.

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I already have the first book! It’s been on my TBR pile for quite a while now. I just don’t seem to have enough time to keep up with everything I want to do.

This is why my secret goal every time I manage to save $20 is to build up enough savings/investments that I can pay for rejuvenation therapy whenever they come up with such medical technology. I need to live to be at least 300 years old.

And if somehow, for some reason, that doesn’t work out, maybe by the time I’m 40 I’ll be able to buy a house. (Ah, the economy…)

Thanks for the rec. :slight_smile:

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Okay,

So for sci-fi, if you like the story, style, and hints of dark humor of the fallout games

You might like the Amazon TV series.

Word of warnings, you know how the fallout game series has lines they weren’t allowed to cross for several reasons.

Yeah, the TV show just boldly walks past it, turns around waves, and keeps going.

A lot of the taboo stuff that is hinted at in the series? Verbally addressed and or shown on screen.

Also the freaking little Easter eggs all over the place, they say this was them wanting to do the next installment of the series, and for these 8 episodes, it really does feel like they made fallout 5, I just dont get to control anybody

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