And so it all comes down to this: the original Star Trek vs. the British time travel epic Doctor Who in our March TV Madness championship. And really, was there any other way this could end? Voting is now open for our final, deciding poll, so make your choice as to which of these iconic behemoths deserves the title of greatest sci-fi show of them all!


The poll is down below; voting will be open until midnight Pacific time tonight, so it's time for you to decide! This is the final, climactic showdown in our month-long tournament, so let's take one more look at the updated March TV Madness bracket to see how we reached this point. You can click on the bracket to expand, or go here for an even bigger version.


Before we continue, I can also announce that Firefly is the winner of our Whedon Invitational Tournament, defeating Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the final by a score of 64% to 36%. I know there were some tense debates about the shows' relative merits in the comments on Wednesday, but whatever the final score, let's remember that these are all worthy shows; otherwise, we wouldn't be voting on them. Firefly and Buffy arguably represent two extreme ends of Joss Whedon's TV work — one that left us with vast, only partially realized potential, the other that was long-running enough to achieve both dizzying highs and aching lows — and both deserve to be celebrated.



Indeed, that point goes double for our main tournament. If I might be allowed to set the tone for this final day of voting, I would like to suggest that both Star Trek and Doctor Who are eminently deserving of winning this tournament. Both shows have shaped and influenced the science fiction genre — not just TV — for the last five decades, and while the two shows took vastly different routes to immortality, both are still going today in hugely popular 21st century revivals. I know I have my own preference — hell, my preference would have been for Deep Space Nine to defeat Farscape in the championship, which shows you how terrible I was at rigging this thing — but let's focus on what makes each of these shows amazing, not on arbitrary reasons why one show is vastly better than the other. Let's talk about why these shows are special to us. Indeed, let's celebrate all 68 of the sci-fi, fantasy, horror, superhero, and frankly unclassifiable shows that we have spent the last three weeks voting on.

Anyway, enough of my yakking. The poll is below, and it will be open until midnight Pacific time tonight. Time for you to vote on our March TV Madness champion!