Best Sci-Fi universe/story (new poll)
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  Best Sci-Fi universe/story (new poll)
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Poll
Question: Best Sci-Fi universe/story (NOT necessarily your favorite)
#1
Star Wars (movies and EU)
 
#2
Star Trek
 
#3
Asimov's Robot/Foundation series
 
#4
Doctor Who
 
#5
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 
#6
Dune
 
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Total Voters: 39

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Author Topic: Best Sci-Fi universe/story (new poll)  (Read 2796 times)
Blue3
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« on: April 18, 2017, 03:01:37 PM »

The old all-inclusive poll reached a good number of votes, so now it's time to narrow it down again, and get rid of the "other" option.

Remember it's not about favorites... why is it the best story? Why is it the best universe? The sci-fi equivalent of Lord of the Rings or better?




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Tetro Kornbluth
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« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2017, 11:17:30 PM »

The Stars My Destination for best story

As for best Universe/World, most Jack Vance novels have a claim
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2017, 01:29:56 AM »

Star Wars isn't Sci-Fi!

So with that out of the way, the proper four are:

Dune
Star Trek
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Asimov's Foundation.
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Meclazine for Israel
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« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2017, 05:11:20 AM »

I would still say Star Wars.

I tried reading Foundation, but found it way too slow.
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Blue3
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« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2017, 09:47:59 AM »

Well, as I repeated:


But the most widely-known and popular sci-fi franchises are probably Star Trek and Star Wars... and I personally argue that Star Wars isn't even science fiction, it's fantasy in a space/futuristic setting, though sometimes others argue back that that's the same for other classic sci-fi books and series as well, so I'll let you guys decide. (But if Star Wars does qualify, I think it's miles and miles ahead of Trek.)


And to be fair... Dune is even more fantasy-like than Star Wars, that taking drugs can replace hypderdrives and droids.  Doctor Who and Hitchhiker also contain some very absurd fantasy elements. Even Trek contains some.
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Tetro Kornbluth
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« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2017, 01:34:47 PM »

By some criteria nothing listed in the poll is 'science fiction'
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MasterJedi
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« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2017, 02:48:36 PM »

Star Wars w/ old EU, and yes, it is Sci-Fi, can't argue that.
Doctor Who
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Blue3
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« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2017, 03:28:30 PM »

Why so many votes for Hitchhiker's Guide?
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Tetro Kornbluth
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« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2017, 10:29:10 PM »

Why so many votes for Hitchhiker's Guide?

Because it's not rubbish unlike at least three of the other poll options.
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« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2017, 10:31:20 PM »
« Edited: May 10, 2017, 10:40:39 PM by modern maverick »

Why so many votes for Hitchhiker's Guide?

A lot of Adams's concepts are pretty much impervious to becoming dated, plus(/because) it's funny.

I voted for the four that aren't monuments to the preachiest impulses of mid-century liberalism, although Star Trek at its best is really good too and I wouldn't vote for Doctor Who if I weren't taking its distant past into account.

My actual answer is still the Hainish Cycle, even though the more I know about Le Guin's creative process the less I want to know. A Canticle for Leibowitz would stand as a near-perfect self-contained gem if Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman hadn't been so badly bungled (although I'll maintain as long as I live that Wild Horse Woman had good ideas that it just didn't execute well).
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KingSweden
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« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2017, 11:10:15 PM »

Mass Effect is some good stuff, and I'll shamelessly plug the universe I created for my own sci fi series Tongue
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« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2017, 11:43:24 PM »

(1) The appeal of Doctor Who is baffling. It's like Pinky and the Brain meets Back to the Future except all of the characters are British and it looks like it was filmed on a camcorder on a budget of a few hundred dollars per episode and left in someone's basement for years until later it looks as like something filmed under the direction of a person who specializes in creating television for toddlers.

The appeal of Doctor Who to me is camp for the sake of camp.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2017, 12:06:39 AM »

Anyway:

(1) The appeal of Doctor Who is baffling. It's like Pinky and the Brain meets Back to the Future except all of the characters are British and it looks like it was filmed on a camcorder on a budget of a few hundred dollars per episode and left in someone's basement for years until later it looks as like something filmed under the direction of a person who specializes in creating television for toddlers.

(2) Star Wars is series of amusing adventure stories set in a fun and imaginative yet generic fantasy universe that is about as worthy of this poll's designation as the Indiana Jones franchise is.

(3) Star Trek opens strong (say what you want about the original series, it has the virtue of discussing adult themes without taking itself seriously in the wrong ways). In its next iteration it suffers the indignity of becoming The West Wing In Space. Later, it becomes a generic action movie seasoned with a few pointless franchise references for cross-market appeal to Pavlovian nerds.

You know, nothing in this post (focusing on the first three because they're those I'm familiar with) is factually wrong, but the fact that you feel the need to articulate it at such length and with such authority as if you were desperately trying to enlighten the ignorant masses who dare to like these shows suggests that you don't really get why they like them (whether it be despite or *gasp* actually because of those TERRIBLE flaws you mention).
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2017, 12:54:49 AM »

Fair enough. I just don't understand the urge to go on and on about what you don't like about it, and make it sound like some kind of #analysis rather than an expression of your personal taste.
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Tender Branson
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« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2017, 06:12:15 AM »

Star Trek, despite my signature.
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Blue3
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« Reply #15 on: May 21, 2017, 11:42:26 AM »

Remember this is NOT about favorites or what people like... it's about which is the best-written/created universe.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #16 on: May 21, 2017, 06:53:29 PM »
« Edited: May 21, 2017, 06:55:18 PM by Filuwaúrdjan »

(5) The Foundation series are as horrifically dated as any piece of pre-1960s pop culture...

This is actually the reason why I find them an enjoyable read, but then I am a) someone with a 'professional' interest in Modernism in postwar housing policy (!?!) and b) who has a creepily jolly 1940s advert for DDT on his wall as an ironic poster...

But that isn't entirely fair: there's a certain something there even if it isn't great literature and this is one reason why they're still read... in this respect Asimov always makes me think of Agatha Christie, actually.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #17 on: May 21, 2017, 07:00:34 PM »
« Edited: May 21, 2017, 07:02:43 PM by Filuwaúrdjan »

But now I'm going to do what I always do at this junction and wave a little flag for the fantastic and much missed Diana Wynne Jones whose absolutely gigantic oeuvre covered both fantasy and sci-fi and who often took a wicked pleasure - and here's the inevitable shout-out to magnificently bats Hexwood: "And I asked you for hobbits on a Grail quest, and not one hobbit have I seen!" - in creating mashups of the two. The best kind of postmodernist. Of course she would never have confined herself to merely creating one universe...
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2017, 07:05:07 PM »

Most of them read as if they were more obviously created for children than anything else on this list, including the bit about the time-traveling wizard who kidnaps adolescents for company.

Morton Feldman liked to argue that music that seems most radical is often the most conservative and vice versa. A similar situation exists regarding this subject, as it is sometimes the case with fantasy/sci-fi that works officially marketed for children are much more adult than those that are not...
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #19 on: May 21, 2017, 07:06:33 PM »

Most of them read as if they were more obviously created for children than anything else on this list, including the bit about the time-traveling wizard who kidnaps adolescents for company.

Morton Feldman liked to argue that music that seems most radical is often the most conservative and vice versa. A similar situation exists regarding this subject, as it is sometimes the case with fantasy/sci-fi that works officially marketed for children are much more adult than those that are not...

Why hello there Alan Garner.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #20 on: May 21, 2017, 11:38:56 PM »

Remember this is NOT about favorites or what people like... it's about which is the best-written/created universe.

It's impossible to separate the two.
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Blue3
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« Reply #21 on: May 21, 2017, 11:50:55 PM »

Remember this is NOT about favorites or what people like... it's about which is the best-written/created universe.

It's impossible to separate the two.
Not at all. It's separating opinion from objectivity. You can love a book, but admit it's not perfect, and give it an objective book review with a lower rating, explaining why you love it but see it's flaws and see what problems others may have with it.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #22 on: May 22, 2017, 12:12:32 AM »

Remember this is NOT about favorites or what people like... it's about which is the best-written/created universe.

It's impossible to separate the two.
Not at all. It's separating opinion from objectivity. You can love a book, but admit it's not perfect, and give it an objective book review with a lower rating, explaining why you love it but see it's flaws and see what problems others may have with it.

True objectivity is impossible, especially in an area like fiction where there is no shared standard for what being "good" even means. People who claim to be judge a work "objectively" are usually the worst hacks.
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Blue3
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« Reply #23 on: May 22, 2017, 01:19:45 AM »

It goes without saying that no human can ever be 100% purely objective.

But plenty of people can say "I love it, but it's not the best-written story/universe." And alternatively "great story/universe, but I'm not in love with it."

Some personal examples: I totally get the criticism of the Star Wars PT, and agree with it, but I still love the movies. I also really appreciate how well-written the original Dune series is, but it leaves me feeling cold.
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Beet
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« Reply #24 on: May 22, 2017, 03:58:24 PM »

Star Wars and Star Trek are objectively the best. Neither are my favorites.
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