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Worst sci-fi TV series finale?

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View Poll Results: Worst science fiction TV series finale?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
6
7.59%
Dark Angel
4
5.06%
Farscape
1
1.27%
The Prisoner
3
3.80%
Quantum Leap
7
8.86%
Sliders
6
7.59%
Star Trek: Voyager
17
21.52%
X-Files
26
32.91%
Xena: Warrior Princess
0
0%
Other...
9
11.39%
Voters: 79. You may not vote on this poll

Worst sci-fi TV series finale?

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Old 05-08-04, 04:35 PM
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Worst sci-fi TV series finale?

It's so hard to choose, but you must.
Old 05-08-04, 06:05 PM
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Voted Voyager. I wanted to see Janeway snap from the stress and go Year of Hell/Evil Janeway from Living Witness on everyone.

I never got to see the X-files, what happened?

And Buffy's might have been anti-climactic, but I think it was something that had to happen.


Non-poll answer - Star Trek: The Original Series.

Turnabout Intruder?


I'm glad you mentioned this because I've had a TOS theory rolling about in my head and no reason to post it. It solves two problems with one idea.

Consider Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the series finale*. It fits both stylisticly and is only 2 1/2 years after the end of the five year mission. You have Turnabout, then the animated, then you jump forward to In Thy Image (the story's original name, which is what I was fervently praying to the Great Bird of the Galaxy that they would retitle TMP to when they did the big redux a few years back.) The crew goes out in one last grand mission, then has a new ship to continue the adventures.

A little time, then Wrath of Kahn...


As for the second issue, the yellowish cover is closer to the orange TOS DVDs, so if you separate TV from movies on your shelf, you could move TMP to the TV shelf and it wouldn't stick out too bad
Any takers?



*The Undiscovered Country would still be the cast's finale, with Generations being a coda.
Old 05-08-04, 06:26 PM
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Home Boys in Outer Space
Old 05-08-04, 07:40 PM
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• milo bloom •

Voted Voyager. I wanted to see Janeway snap from the stress and go Year of Hell/Evil Janeway from Living Witness on everyone.
Something's fishy. I too voted Voyager, but there's only 1 registered vote.

Anyway, the last few seasons of The X-Files were terrible, and the finale was a joke, but I've written too much on how unethical the Voyager finale was and how it pissed on 35 years of Trek to not award it this title. When ****ing up the timeline for individual personal gain is celebrated and mass genocide is applauded, there can be no other option.

das
Old 05-08-04, 08:31 PM
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had to vote voyager, although the reset button feel to it was par for the course. but what janeway did would have caused such a huge ripple in the timeline that I don't see how the temporal police from the 29th century could have not shown up to stop her considering they showed up at least twice in the past for relatively minor things
Old 05-08-04, 09:26 PM
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Although most of them were pretty bad (I actually liked the Quantum Leap finale and didn't mind Buffy's), I voted for The Prisoner. The season finale to that show was like waking up in the middle of the night after a particularly vivid dream and jotting the details down in a half-conscious daze before going back to sleep, then waking up in the morning, deciphering the barely-readable scrawl, and saying to yourself, "What the f-ck?"

A summary for those who don't recall or have never seen it:

Spoiler:
Having killed Number 2, Number 6 is lead by the Supervisor and the Butler into a chamber to meet Number 1. 6 is in a courtroom with a presiding judge and a panel of black-and-white masked on-lookers. In front of each is a title, such as "Passivity" or "Activity." He is now called "Sir." He is enthroned and becomes a spectator as two men are tried for revolt. The first is Number 48. After using a variety of '50s and '60s lingo, he sings "Dry Bones" as the charges are read and hops around the cavern.

Number 2 has been brought back from the dead and also tried. They both refuse to be contrite. The judge then makes a speech thanking "Sir" for being with them and pleads for him to accept their offer to become leader of the Village. 6 goes to see Number 1 who is inside of clear tube at the top of winding stairs. The hooded figure gives him a crystal ball, which he drops. Then he rips off Number 1's hood and there is an ape mask beneath it. Under that, it appears to be his own face. They fight. Number 6 manipulates a panel inside of the structure and flees.

Freeing the two just-tried revolutionaries, he grabs a weapon and the three of them machine-gun their way out of the room while The Beatle's "All You Need is Love" drowns out the noise. Number 1's chamber is revealed, in fact, to be a missile and as the countdown ends, the three rebels run. The missile is fired. The three escape in a large van to freedom.

Last edited by Breakfast with Girls; 05-08-04 at 09:51 PM.
Old 05-08-04, 10:33 PM
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I voted for Quantum Leap, just because it wasn't a finale at all. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to be a two-parter that would answer a lot of the ongoing series questions, but NBC canned it.

I thought the Buffy finale was possibly the best it could have been, considering how thematically screwed up the show got the last two seasons. The last shot always breaks me up a little.
Old 05-08-04, 10:58 PM
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Huh? Whether you liked it or not, the Quantum Leap finale was most certainly just that. Speaking personally, I thought it was wonderful.

das
Old 05-08-04, 11:13 PM
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The Incredible Hulk had a good series, but then got bogged down by three extremely atrocious TV movies that culminated in the green guy's demise. It was a very poor handling of the character and didn't tie up any loose ends, no thanks to the absence of Kenneth Johnson and Bill Bixby's over involvement from the production end.
Old 05-09-04, 04:32 AM
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Originally posted by das Monkey
Huh? Whether you liked it or not, the Quantum Leap finale was most certainly just that. Speaking personally, I thought it was wonderful.

das
Apparently everyone can discount my taste in the future, if one hasn't already, because Quantum Leap's finale is my idea of how to do a shows, any shows, finale right.
Old 05-09-04, 09:26 AM
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Agreed, I really liked where they went with the QL finale.

But I have also heard that it wasn't supposed to be the finale and had to be re-jiggered in post to look that way. A fortuitous accident it would seem.

otherwise
Old 05-09-04, 09:27 AM
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I think Quantum Leap, Sliders, and Lexx all had season finales that were way better than their regular episodes.

D
Old 05-09-04, 12:13 PM
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If the X-Files episodes "Millennium" and "Jump The Shark" were meant to wrap up the loose threads from the series Millennium and The Lone Gunmen, respectively, then they deserve a spot on this list.
Old 05-09-04, 01:22 PM
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Originally posted by das Monkey
Huh? Whether you liked it or not, the Quantum Leap finale was most certainly just that. Speaking personally, I thought it was wonderful.

das
I agree. Among other things,
Spoiler:
Sam's being allowed to save Al's and Beth's marriage at the end broke me up.
Old 05-09-04, 01:46 PM
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i dont know about you guys but i loved the homeboys in outerspace finale..... it was awesome.
Old 05-09-04, 02:30 PM
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Voyager got my vote,

Spoiler:
Okay them killing a crapload of Borg didn't bother me much, but Janeway's continued stubborness about taking what options she had to get the crew home while she could just finally crossed the line. Worse when they finally make it back to good ol Earth they act like it wasn't a big event at all, no crying, no thanking whatever Gods they worship, just kinda sat there.
Old 05-09-04, 02:53 PM
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Sliders gets my vote simply because it had the worse end couple of years.. Then again so did the x-files, only the x-files actually had it's original cast come back for it.
Old 05-09-04, 02:57 PM
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Originally posted by raven56706
i dont know about you guys but i loved the homeboys in outerspace finale..... it was awesome.
Old 05-09-04, 04:01 PM
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I fogot all about homeboys in outerspace that show was the best, the best!!!!
Old 05-09-04, 04:21 PM
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Originally posted by Breakfast with Girls
Although most of them were pretty bad (I actually liked the Quantum Leap finale and didn't mind Buffy's), I voted for The Prisoner. The season finale to that show was like waking up in the middle of the night after a particularly vivid dream and jotting the details down in a half-conscious daze before going back to sleep, then waking up in the morning, deciphering the barely-readable scrawl, and saying to yourself, "What the f-ck?"


You've got to be kidding me...this is one of the BEST finales to any show. To each, his own I suppose...

The X-Files was the worst "planned" (meaning the producers knew the show wasn't coming back) finales I have seen of a sci-fi show. Star Trek: TNG was one of the best.
Old 05-09-04, 05:44 PM
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Not the best of series but the Prey "finale" was a disappointment.
Old 05-09-04, 05:57 PM
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Originally posted by Shannon Nutt
You've got to be kidding me...this is one of the BEST finales to any show. To each, his own I suppose...
If heavy-handed, pretentious, and hackneyed allegory is your thing, I can see it being good.
Old 05-10-04, 06:19 AM
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I started out loving X-Files. That changed to dislike the year Mulder left, then it got worse the final year. That finale tainted my entire opinion of the series and gets my vote.
Old 05-10-04, 03:23 PM
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So many choices. Of recent vintage, Lexx and Dark Angel really sucked. In a more classic BBC vein, Blake's 7 is at the front of the line.
Old 05-10-04, 05:06 PM
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I liked Star Trek V's final show.

QL was a jumbled mess, I still do not get the final.


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