Actually aprone, other than the original film, I've just not watched stargate at all. It's one of these things I'd love to watch, but do not want to buy, and can't really watch on tv due to usually it being a good many episodes through or you needing huge amounts of background to the series to enjoy.

Pluss, I'm a start at the beginning and go through to the end sort of person anyway ;d.

Startrek I enjoy watching, and own several series on dvd, though I wouldn't describe myself as a huge fan, I also own babylon 5.

the scifi series I am! a major fan of is doctor who in various encarnations (both the show and the doctor). I've been to conventions and driven a dalek, and have met some of the cast as well, though I must confess to being rather unimpressed with the current directions things are taking, sinse while I don't dislike mat smith as a doctor, everytime a major episode has been written for him recently it's been dire! full of plotholes, badly done pacing and waaaaay too much trying to pack everything into a small space.

I also don't think much to Amy his current assistant either.

I'm really hoping the writing picks up sinse it really seems to have hit a bad point, and the sad thing is people seem to be blaming Mat smith which is a shame, sinse when he's given something good to work with like the recent single episode written by Neel gayman, he's done a fantastic job.

That being said, the classics are always fun (mostly), and many of the original doctors are stil making audio dramas with their old companions, some of which are amazing!

I'm never sure though how much doctor who has a fan base outside the uk, indeed that's one problem I felt with the first two episodes of the current series, they were trying far too hard to appeal to americans, though I have certainly met some dr. who fans from other countries.

With sg, it's one of those series where i wished you could stil do dvd wrentals of series, sinse that's how I'd like to watch it rather than trying to collect the hole thing. I've heard about a couple of firms that do mail order wrentals, and probably i need to look into those, especially now I'm cancelling my tv license, as the few things currently it actually costs less to buy the few things I do watch on dvd than pay the lisence fee, and so much of the rest of tv is either celebrity rubbish or reality tv rubbish.

As to doctor who, one thing to remember if you do come across any, is that ar more than any other series in science fiction, it's changed heavily over the years.

the basic principle is the doctor is a time lord, an alien from another planet, who wanders round time and space in his tardis, a police telephone box shaped time machine with various companions.

this is one of the first things I love about the series, you can have episodes set literally anywhere and anywhen, from prehistory, thyrough various periods on earth right up until the end of the universe.

As well as some really landmark monsters, it also has a heavy emphasis on time travel, and various recurring plots and villains.

it's also significant that the doctor never solves problems with violence, and usually out foxes or out thinks any opponents he comes across. Though of course being an alien himself (though with an outwardly humanoid appearence), he has various strange skills and forms of knolidge, and is a quirky and weerd character, ----- especially sinse when he dies, instead of being dead he regenerates, and changes his appearence and personality, but keeps his basic moral outlook and mode of travel.

It originally ran as basically a 1960's education drama, in which viewers would follow the doctor going to historical periods and learning about people like marco polo along the way. It also did fall rather badly into the "female characters are useless screaming rescue bate" catagory.

Then, it slowly evolve to actually something with ongoing stories in the 80's, and while each story was itself unique composed of several episodes, elements like the doctor's enemy the master continued.

in 1987, colin baker, the 6th regeneration of the doctor was forced to leave (a fact he's stil irritated about), and the 7th doctor's adventures were very short before a git of a bbc director completely canceled the hole thing in 1989.

there was an absolutely atrocious attempt by fox in 1996  to revive the series, but that was abysmal, and it finally got back in full glory in 2005, with some stylistic changes and christopher ecleston as the 9th doctor, ----- though actually he's probably my single least favourite one, particularly as he involve character traites like irritating anxt which didn't really belong in the series at all.

then it was taken over by david tenant who frankly revitalized everything! but left in 2009, and now we have mat smith, who as I said, is a pretty fun doctor, but with some not great writing.

then in amongst all this there are of course audio dramas produced with past doctors, books, commics and goodness knows what, sinse one adventure advantage of a series set throughout time and space you really can do anything at any time.

it'd be actually impossible to watch through everything! not the least because the bbc have lost many of the episodes of the first two doctors.

however, if you can catch some of the better stories that'd help.

Don't judge by ecleston if you happen to start with new series 1, which would probably be easiest in terms of availability, but less good in terms of style sinse the new series really didn't settle down until the second series when david tenant became the doctor.

However, if you can get some good episodes with the past doctors that'd give you some idea.

one advantage to doctor who though, is because they ran as episodic stories not single short episodes, and because each one features the doctor and his companions elsewhere, you really don't have to worry about continuity too much with a lot of the classic series, ----- or at least with many episodes.

I in fact got interested when I started watching doctor who on the Uk gold channel on sky when i was about twelve, but they didn't start in order either, and certainly there is a lot of classic doctor who which I haven't seen myself (though I have at one time or another seen a good bit of what's available).

One recent problem though is unlike othr things, the bbc release classic doctor who as individual films of each story, rather than as series box sets, which is really irritating! sinse I just don't have the cash to collect them in that way, though i have a few, mostly presents from friends. Though certainly new series box sets exist.

Quite probably. Though the rather heavy handed first couple of epsidoes of this current series, which in one story featured the moon landing, president nixon, jokes about the founding fathers, the fbi, area 51 and even president nixon was a bit much or my taste.

not that i mind the doctor in America, there have been several stories set there in the old and new series as well as audios and novels (there was one very interesting one I heard recently where some aliens were trying to monkey with the assassination of lincoln), however throwing so much well known americanisms at the viewers in one story was clumsy in the extreme, and their intention was a bit too blatant I think.

Then again as I said, I think the overall writing has gone down sinse steven mophat became chief writer on the project, and while some of the guest writers have done some good episodes, this sort of heavyhandedness seems to be worryingly common.

Stargate universe has a very different feel to it, than the other 2 series.  I run in to quite a few Stargate fans who didn't care for the change, but I believe it is nice to focus on the human side of things.  The crazy science fiction things that happen to the crew of the Destiny (stargate universe) aren't actually meant to be the focus of the story.  It's kind of reversed from what people are used to.  When Rush shot the Lucian alliance guy, I actually cheered in my chair watching the show!  I feel like the people in "Universe" feel more like real people than any of the other shows.  It is easier to identify with them, and I, for one, feel like I identified with Nicholas Rush the most.  Most of the time in shows, the characters don't do what you would do in their place, but when Rush shot that guy, it was exactly what I would have done in his place, and it made me love the show that much more.

I absolutely adored SG Atlantis. I thought the writing was fantastic and the story kept me very focused. I managed to get in to the show right before the canciled it. I felt a bit sad that they decided to pull the plug on it because i thought it was so well done. I read that there was going to be a movie tieing up some of the plot lines of atlantis called Stargate extinction, but, i have yet to see it come out. I also am a huge star trek voyager fan and watch it over and over. I never got in to SG1 but i can watch a few episodes here and there. I never even bothered with Universe for some reason.

Wow, it sure sounds like a depressing situation.

I could see why Eckleston's doctor was more shellshocked than angsty I felt. Having your entire race annihilated will do that to you and I wouldn't have understood if he'd been all singing and smiles. Tenant felt more like a generic identifit doctor rather than a unique doctor in his own right, to me he was more a generic concept of what the doctor was and I didn't feel enough individuality in there. That's combined with my missing the longer stories which give you time to really explore the plot better, plus things have been too earth centric for a long time in my opinion.

I know DS9 tried to be dark and that didn't really work out, I did enjoy the ongoing plot for the change of pace though.

As to Babylon 5, well Crusade was rather weak but they had barely finished half a series when the plug was pulled. I'd have liked to see what came of Legend of the Rangers but that was apparently scheduled opposite one of the "biggest (american) football games of recent years" as I heard it described and while I'd have expected geeks to do better than that there is a certain logic to it, especially with multiple sharing a TV in some cases. The lost tales wasn't bad but Strazinsky is a perfectionist and he got it in his head it wasn't what he wanted to make because he hadn't been allowed the budget, something I'd disagree with. The old Doctor Who's show you can do a lot without a vast budget if you have the writing and if you get the audience behind you.

Dark, next time you're at your parents see if you can catch an ep of Eureka. It used to be on Sky One then moved to sci fi so it could be on any of those or the other Sky Gibberish, Sky tripe etc. It's well worth it. If you only watch one of the new sci fi series from the 2000's, not counting Doctor Who, I would definitely make it Eureka. The new Galactica wasn't bad but it to'd and fro'd too much between an involved long term plot and a simpler plot of the week style, apparently because of the channel bosses interfering.