I got hooked on Sci-Fi in the 4th grade and still enjoy all the classics from the 40-50's. I wish I had a dollar for every Ace double novel I read in back then

Some of my favorite authors are A.E. Van Vogt, Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton, Fredric Brown, Pohl Anderson, Fredrick Pohl & his wife C. M. Kornbluth, Robert Sheckley, Alfred Bester and many more that CRS wont let me recall

Most fun, Dr. Who.

I much prefer seeing this stuff on dvd-- no commercials.

What I'd like to see in this thread is some fresh meat:
things I haven't encountered.

All that said, I have never waivered from saying that
Forbidden Planet is the best science film ever made.
I probably had a crush on Ann Fancis when she played Honey
West too.

Forbidden Planet is in the 'seen more than once or twice'
category. Also in that category is Dark City.

I have a particular fascination with the Steam Punk
subgenre of SF: Victorian settings with fantastic machinery
ala' Jules Vern and Mary Shelly. There's a variety of film
included in this category. I like the remake of the
Time Machine better than the George Pal one. The Leaugue
of Extraordinary Gentlemen was ruined by the cartoonish
ending.

As to The Prisoner-- it's simply in a class by itself.

Alfred Bester's The Stars my Destination is the best SF book written in my opinion. His Demolished Man isn't bad either. Next would be the Weapon Shop series by A.E. Van Vogt (Weapon Shops of Isher and Weapon Makers of Ishar) Also his Slan is a classic. These are are old books. Some written in the 30's, 40's & some in the 50's.

I watched Babylon 5 because of the funny characters in it. The best movies I've seen were The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet and Invaders from Mars. Both Invaders & Invasion of the body Snatchers (original version) scared the tar out of me as I was around 10 or so when they came out.

I don't read much of the new stuff since it's pretty poor IMHO.

Rod Serling's Twilight Zone was usually heavy on irony and always had a message for those who saw it.

In new stuff try out David Brin's Uplift Wars, the first 2 or 3 books, Greg Baer's Darwin's Radio, and Orson Scott Card's Ender Wiggins Books. Enders Game is brilliant, as is Speaker for the Dead.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is the best. The best science fiction is where the science is merely a vehicle to hang a good story on. That movie embodies that.

Sterling and Gibson wrote it separately online and used a special
dictionary/search and replace to use Victorian phrases in the
place of modern English.

For all things Steam Punk, check out the Wiki.

And for reading, if you don't know Michael Moorcock's
Captain Bastable stories, those are good as well.