Rusted Sky

I was getting a nice long post ready, with the characteristics of memorable SF series, and I lost it all.

Man, I hate it when that happens.

So, quick recap -

Memorable SF that made it long-term (2 seasons or more) in the last 25 years or so:

ST:NG
Babylon 5
Deep Space 9
Voyager
Sliders
Andromeda (Never seen the series, so I'll be guessing here...)
V(4 seasons, if not contiguous)
Farscape

Series that didn't make it (that I remember, anyway)

Battlestar Galactica (Two, then there was that Battlestar Galactica 1979 - urg)
Buck Rogers
Space: Above and Beyond
Firefly

A sucessful contemporary (post 1980) SF series needs (IMHO):

1. Characters you care about, who learn and grow and change with the story arc. (Babylon 5, ST:DS9, ST:V, Sliders, Farscape)
When the character resets after each episode, it's like watching a video game. That's the most common problem with TV SF - when a character comes up against stimulus X, he reacts in fashion Y - every damn time. It's very frustrating to watch, especially when Y will consistently cause problems, which the character never seems to learn from.

2. At least one hot babe. (Come on, it's TV with maybe movie spinoffs. You gotta have the eye candy.)
I mean, come on. You're going for the fanboy (and fangirl) demographic here - the women have to good looking/exotic, the men handsome and studly. Guys didn't watch Xena for the forest sequences, after all. Neither did the women.

3. A story arc - with the episodes advancing the story line.
If there's no continuing story, you can do some pretty good things with episodic fare - but it's a lot harder to keep a purpose going. For example, in Sliders the overall plot was "How in the hell do we get home?" Simplistic, but effective, especially if you've ever been lost and tried to find your way somewhere.

4. A sense of humor.

Without all 4 of those - along with a network that understands that story arcs need to be presented in order (at least at first, which is what killed off Firefly) - it's hard for any SF show to make it in today's competitive market.

I'll be adding links to this as I search them out again. Or maybe you've got examples...

J.