LOTNA's Greatest SF/Fantasy Episodes

In 2014/2015 we voted for our favourite Sci-Fi and Fantasy episodes, the results were announced at the Anniversary Party on the 28th March. Presentation Videos: Trailer, Opening

1. Doctor Who - Blink (85 points / 14 votes)
Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good luck.

2. Doctor Who - The Day of the Doctor (83 points / 12 votes)
Three Doctors (No sir, all thirteen!) combine to defeat the Zygons and absolve the Doctor's guilt over his actions in the time war. An anniversary has never been so well-celebrated.

3. Firefly - Out of Gas (61 points / 9 votes)
The one with the flashbacks, horny Kaylee, mercenary negotiations, and that moustache.

4. Sherlock - The Reichenbach Fall (59 points / 12 votes)
Sherlock has grown too big, and Moriarty sets a trap not only to discredit him but to ensure his death as well.

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling (53 points / 12 votes)
I've got a feeling, some kid is dreaming, and we're all trapped inside his wacky Broadway nightmare.

6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (43 points / 9 votes)
The classic adaptation of the radio series and book, with excellent animated effects for the book entries, and totally unconvincing papier-mache head for Zaphod Beeblebrox (that still looked better than the film).

7. Stargate SG-1 - Wormhole X-Treme (43 points / 6 votes)
The 100th episode of SG-1 sees Jack become technical advisor to a SF TV show based on the adventures of SG-1.

8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Body (42 points / 7 votes)
An unexpected death leads to one of the most emotionally brutal and affecting episodes of any television series.

=9. Battlestar Galactica - 33 (35 points / 7 votes)
Forced to jump every 33 minutes by the relentless Cylon pursuit, the fleets suffers from sleep deprivation. Apollo makes a terrible choice when one of the ships appears to go rogue.

=9. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Trials and Tribbleations (35 points / 7 votes)
The ultimate anniversary episode, as past and present Star Trek collide in hilarious, enjoyable fashion.

11. Battlestar Galactica - Miniseries (35 points / 6 votes)
The Cylons return, attacking and nearly obliterating humanity. The survivors band together, protected by the Galactica, and start to search for Earth.

12. Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife (34 points / 6 votes)
A disembodied evil inhabits the TARDIS, placing its 'personality' in a human body. For the first time, the Doctor is able to meet his oldest companion.

13. Batman the Animated Series - Heart of Ice (34 points / 4 votes)
Mr Freeze makes his debut in the best superhero cartoon series, with his origin rewritten for maximum poignancy.

14. Doctor Who - The Girl in the Fireplace (33 points / 6 votes)
Clockword robots and portals between the far future and 18th century Paris lead the Tenth Doctor to meet Madame de Pompadour.

15. Firefly - Serenity (32 points / 5 votes)
The intended introduction to the 'verse, this extended pilot takes us from Serenity Valley to the edges of reaver space, and introduces us to the most fondly-missed crew in science-fiction.

16. Firefly - Janestown (31 points / 6 votes)
Jayne Cobb discovers that a job gone sour has resulted in him becoming a hero to a town of mud-miners

17. V - Miniseries (30 points / 6 votes)
The classic SF miniseries about visitors from another planet, seemingly here to share technology in exchange for servitude, but with nefarious, rodent-eating motives.

18. Star Trek: The Next Generation - Yesterday's Enterprise (29 points / 6 votes)
The Enterprise-C travels forward in time, creating a darker Federation, at war with the Klingons, and returning Tasha Yar to the bridge of the Enterprise-D.

19. Babylon 5 - Severed Dreams (29 points / 4 votes)
A Hugo Award-winning episode bringing the problems of President Clark's militaristic Presidency to Babylon 5.

20. Babylon 5 - War Without End (26 points / 6 votes)
Prophecy, destiny and Zathras collide in the time-bending episode set in the past, present, and far future.

=21. Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds (25 points / 6 votes)
The Borg assimilate Jean-Luc Picard, creating Locutus of Borg, as the Enterprise crew fight to save both the Earth and their Captain.

=21. Star Trek - Mirror Mirror (25 points / 6 votes)
The birth of the evil-duplicate-wears-a-goatee meme, as Kirk visits an evil, twisted version of his own Enterprise.

23. Game of Thrones - Rains of Castamere (24 points / 6 votes)
The Red Wedding. 'Nuff said.

24. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Hush (24 points / 4 votes)
A magical box robs Sunnydale of its voices and unleashes the terrifying Gentlemen.

25. Star Trek - City on the Edge of Forever (24 points / 3 votes)
Harlan Ellison scripts Trek's most successful time-travel story, as Kirk is forced to save the future by sacrificing his love, played by Joan Collins.

=26. Quantum Leap - Mirror Image (22 points / 4 votes)
The final episode of Quantum Leap sees Sam leap into his own body. A mysterious bartender who may or may not be God offers him the chance to correct a wrong in Al's past at the cost of his return home.

=26. Red Dwarf - Quarantine (22 points / 4 votes )
A holovirus grants Rimmer super-powers and clinical insanity. Whatever you do, don't make Mr Flibble upset!

28. Red Dwarf - Backwards (22 points / 3 votes)
The crew find themselves on an alternate Earth where time runs in reverse.

29. Star Trek - The Trouble With Tribbles (21 points / 3 votes)
Klingons, spies, poisoned grain, and an infestation of rapidly-reproducing balls of fluff threaten a Federation food-storage station.

30. Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks (20 points / 3 votes)
The Fourth Doctor is sent to Skaro's distant past to avert the creation of the Daleks by the crippled scientist Davros.

=31. Angel - Not Fade Away (20 points / 3 votes)
The series finale of Angel sees the team take on the Order of the Black Circle. Lorne leaves, Wesley dies, and Los Angeles itself falls into hell.

=31. Doctor Who - Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (20 points / 3 votes)
The Vashta Narada have taken over the galaxy's largest library, Donna Noble has been saved, River Song has arrived, and... spoilers...

33. Doctor Who - The Eleventh Hour (19 points / 3 votes)
Matt Smith debuts as the 11th Doctor, defending Earth against the Atraxi, eating fish fingers and custard, and making bow ties cool once again.

34. Torchwood - Children of Earth (18 points / 4 votes)
The worst 5 days in Torchwood's history, as a threat to the children of the world reveals dark secrets from Jack's past, and victory comes at a terrible cost.

35. Red Dwarf - Polymorph (18 points / 3 votes)
An emotion-sucking, shape-changing, genetic mutant infiltrates the Dwarf, looking for a meal of strong emotions.

36. Doctor Who - Dalek (18 points / 2 votes)
The Time War isn't over, as the Ninth Doctor confronts the other survivor and confronts some harsh truths about himself.

37. Angel - Smile Time (17 points / 6 votes)
Angel is transformed into a puppet. With a removable nose. And the ability to kick the crap out of Spike.

38. Doctor Who - Vincent and the Doctor (17 points / 4 votes)
The Eleventh Doctor and Amy meet Vincent van Gogh, and show him a legacy beyond his days of madness.

=39. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Zeppo (17 points / 3 votes)
Whilst the rest of the Scoobies try to prevent the Hellmouth from opening, Xander finds himself running with a gang who have planeted a bomb at the school.

=39. Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Inner Light (17 points / 3 votes)
An entire life flashes before Picard's eyes in this touching, Hugo Award-winning episode.

41. Farscape - Liars, Guns & Money (17 points / 2 votes)
Stark's space-heist goes horribly wrong, and Harvey manages to take control of Crichton in season two's epic conclusion.

42. Life On Mars - Series 1, Episode 1 (16 points / 5 votes)
Following the death of his partner in a botched police raid, DCI Sam Tyler is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973.

=43. Battlestar Galactica (Classic) - Saga of a Star World (16 points / 3 votes)
The opening miniseries for Battlestar Galactica sees Count Baltar betray humanity to the Cylons, who destroy the Twelve Colonies.

=43. Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang (16 points / 3 votes)
A warlord from the 50th century escapes to the 19th, terrorising London with giant rats and a gruesome ventriloquist's dummy.

=43. Doctor Who - The War Games (16 points / 3 votes)
Patrick Troughton's swansong, a ten-part epic that introduced the Time Lords and sent the Doctor into exile on Earth.

=43. Firefly - Shindig (16 points / 3 votes)
There ain't no party like a proper shindig. Kaylee wears a dress, and Mal discovers just how good a man he is.

47. Stargate SG-1 - Nemesis (16 points / 2 votes)
SG-1 encounters the Replicators for the first time.

48. Beast Wars - Code of Hero (15 points / 3 votes)
Dinobot finds himself facing off against the massed Predacons as he valiantly battles to prevent them from annhialating a colony of prehistoric humans.

49. The Walking Dead - Days Gone Bye (14 points / 5 votes)
The opening episode of the series, following Rick from his shooting to his awakening in a zombie-filled hospital, to that final moment where he takes refuge in a tank.

50. Sapphire and Steel - Serial 2 (14 points / 4 votes)
A ghost hunter explores an abandoned railway station, encountering a ghost of a World War 1 pilot, and the interdimensional operatives known as Sapphire and Steel.

51-100 | 101-200 | 201+

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