Nerds have the best things to make flame-worthy lists about. Seriously, our sweaty stamp on pop-culture especially in the science fiction realm can spark some serious "Amok Time"-like battles, as we gather to debate things like the "Best Sci-Fi Movie" ever or the "Best Sci-Fi TV" ever. IGN has already unleashed the former, and now, we release the latter onto the Internets.

50 Space: Above and Beyond

IGN had multiple DRADIS contacts in our search for the best television in the genre, and we filtered it down to 50 shows for your rabid analysis. We used impact on the genre, overall story and creative content, critical and fan reaction, legacy and Editor's Choice. (Buffy and Angel were sidelined for this list, as we're saving them for an eventual rank of Best Fantasy TV.)So set your phasers to "stunningly impressed" or "violently hate-fueled" and engage. (See what we did thar?) Fire off a few opinionated blasts in the comments below. The X-Files writing team of Glen Morgan and James Wong, was a memorable one; yet another sci-fi show that went before its time much like many of its main characters, in fact, who also went before their time in the gut punch of a series finale.Set in the late 21st century, Space is about the Wildcards space-faring Marine cadets who are thrown into interstellar war when an alien race known as the Chigs attacks humankind just as we take our first tentative steps into well, space. Sort of an early predecessor to Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica , the show was uncompromising and smart. Never a good combination if you're on a network.

49 Caprica

48 Star Trek: The Animated Series

47 Amazing Stories

46 The Invaders

45 The Wild Wild West

44 Roswell

43 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

42 Lost in Space

41 Voltron: Defender of the Universe

This Battlestar Galactica prequel series had some trouble initially, coming off a bit too ponderous and slow-paced. But as its first (and only) season continued, it began to feel more assured and exciting as we watched key events unfold that helped create the Cylons and would eventually lead to the events of BSG. The final episodes were great, culminating in a terrific finale that had a lot of cool elements for Battlestar fans. At this point, it was clear Season 2 was going to be awesome! But whoops, Syfy cancelled the show. Frak. Voyager and Enterprise . Why? The animated adventures of TOS crew are consistently closer in tone and execution to Roddenberry's original version, and we don't want to incur the wrath of Comic-Con ninjas by praising the misfires in Trek's canon. The Animated Series isn't perfect; Filmnation's budget allowed for a bigger sci-fi canvas, but not all of the stories were able to properly take advantage of it. Highlights include "Yesteryear"'s look back at a coming-of-age moment in Spock's childhood, and "More Tribbles, More Troubles." The Twilight Zone , Spielberg aimed to tell similar tales of fantasy, mystery and wonder."The Beard" brought in a veritable who's-who of major talent to serve as directors and guest actors: Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Zemeckis, Harvey Keitel, Tim Robbins, Joe Pantoliano, and many more (including a young Seth Green). Spielberg received story credit on a whopping number of first season episodes, and also directed the series' standout episode "The Mission," starring Kevin Costner, Kiefer Sutherland and Casey Siemaszko.The Invaders, which followed the perilous exploits of architect David Vincent as he tried to warn just about anyone who would listen that there was a giant alien "take-over-the-world" plot in full-swing, was a scintillating show that dealt with themes like the infiltration of society, subversive behavior and Cold War-era paranoia. The aliens themselves were never named or seen in their true form, appearing only as humans who walked among us undetected. Sure, they didn't have a pulse, couldn't bleed and their pinky fingers couldn't bend the right way, but for the most part they were just us. Also, killing one would only make its body disintegrate, so it was hard to deliver hard evidence of their existence.And without evidence, poor David was just another nutjob with a conspiracy theory. But to be fair, he was one of the first nutjobs with a conspiracy theory.This show basically sent Bond (Robert Conrad's "James West") out into the field with Q (Ross Martin's "Artemus Gordon") to thwart evil geniuses with designs to overthrow the government and assassinate President Ulysses S. Grant. Skip the Will Smith flick and check out the original series which can probably be said for any movies, past or present, starring Will Smith that are based on an original series.The hokey series followed Buck as he tried to adjust to life after being thawed out some 500 years later. Along with his allies the sexy Col. Wilma Deering (Erin Gray), Dr. Huer, robot sidekicks Dr. Theopolis and Twiki (best remembered for his catchphrase "beedee-beedee-beedee"), and later the doddering Dr. Goodfellow Buck fought cosmic menaces such as Princess Ardala and her dad, Emperor Draco of the Draconians.It followed Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, their teenage daughters Judy and Penny, and young son Will who are selected to be the first family to colonize outer space. Along with pilot Major West and the trusty Robot, the Robinsons become stranded in space after a stowaway, the fiendish Dr. Zachary Smith, throws their ship off course. They spent the next few seasons trying to find their way home, encountering numerous cosmic threats along the way. The 1990s saw a horrible feature film adaptation of the seriesLike Robotech, this Americanized series was adapted from several pre-existing anime projects. Season 1 of Voltron was based on Beast King GoLion, while Season 2 and its new cast and setting were based on Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. A third season of episodes was created specifically for America that brought back the classic Lion Voltron.Voltron has maintained a healthy and enduring popularity beyond its original 124-episode run. An CG-animated sequel debuted on TV in 1998, and a rebooted series called Voltron Force is set to premiere on Nicktoons this spring. We may even see a live-action film one of these days. Clearly there's something endlessly appealing about watching giant robot lions pound the stuffing out of space aliens.