Best sci-fi since Babylon 5? You won't get any arguments from me. I had no idea you guys at the Reg had such good taste. I have to admit, Firefly came close though; I hope you know what you're doing, mobilising such an army of rabid fanbois on your comments section...

Please can we use the British name on British domains? 'Aluminium' PLEASE!

What's the articulation like? Does it just stand there? I'm sure there's a market for some kind of robot love doll, especially in Japan, where there are so many lonely robots. Given that this is a Cylon, it would be a robot S&M dominatrix, with a laser whip etc.

I don't fancy one of those, but if he can make a 7ft replica of the more fleshy cylons (blonde maybe?), I could be interested................

Must... resist Geek... Urges.... Firefly was better... Noooooooooo.....

I want a life size replicate of Grace Park

A comment is required, in addition to a title.

When will they offer a self delivery option?

Good catch but remember it's a freking yank site they're quoting from.

I want one that moves. Ability to kill would also be impressive.

Someone elses acting ability is as stiff as a robot - guess who ?

No doubt Bab5 was an excellent sci-fi show but BSG is the best show of any kind on TV in the last 20 years. I'm a huge Star Trek fan (no i don't have any paraphenalia, but i do have a purple lightsabre, go figure!) have seen all of NG, DS9, Voyager and the abomination that was Enterprise and i can name precisely 4 episodes of all that Trek (Best of Both Worlds, Way of the Warrior, All Good Things, Sacrifice of Angels) that comes anywhere near the quality oozing from every BSG episode to date.

Mine's the frakking jumpsuit with bits of frakking toaster stuck to it.

"aluminium" copied straight from the screen -- I don't see the 'merkin version.

It has it's moments, but it also has weeks and weeks of just talking. It's as bad as ST:TNG at times. I finally got around to catching up on my backlog, and watched 3 episodes in an hour, skipping all the talking and moping, and still following the story.

"Let's have them all mope around, being really depressed, and it'll make really good TV" - well, I suppose it works for Eastenders

The robot looks cool, but battlestar in it's new incarnation was pants. Is pants. Only problem is I can't think of anything that is better since B5. They have all panned or been cancelled before getting good.

Though you did word it correctly, "...best SINCE B5". So I don't need to remove you from my bookmarks...

Last time I checked, BSG had turned into a legal drama. Why are Americans so obsessed with lawyers? Just give us some shoot-outs with robots, that's what everyone sane wants!

Hmm, for that kind of money, I think I'll wait till AI Robotics (makers of Lisa 'The Perfect Woman') team up with Realdoll to create a 'fully functional and anatomically correct' robot. Now my bisexual tendencies can't decide between a Data from Startrek or a Pris from Bladerunner...

...one thing is for sure, the future of robotics is going to get interesting!

I expect someone on here is going to want a Paris android...

(or used to say) Joss Whedon is my master now

Sci-Fi shows in descending order of quality:

- Firefly

- Stargate SG1/Atlantis

- B5

- Buck Rogers

- the original Battlestar Galactica

- blakes 7

- space 1999

- ufo

- thunderbirds

- Joe 90

- the star wars kid on you-tube

- someone recording someone else playing lego starwars on a console with a camera phone

- something else vaguely sci-fi but really bad that I can't think of

- BSG

it better serve as a security system

death by my command:)

as for good, yeah it is good, no series is perfect, sometimes an episode will hit like a Pangalactic gurgleblaster.

Star trek had that after a fashion some of the earlier NG and DS9 ones were wooden, badly written. NG became great when they started to add depth to the klingons and introduced Q (not the borg), enterprice actually had a decent last season.

Bab 5, ahhh season 2 and 3 had some of the best material around, first show to leave the "all aliens are bipedal" mold, the shadowwar, lorien's speech about time, and who could not feel sorry for sheridan every time that kosh said something so weird that discussions still rage today

These younguns don't know what they're missing. Servalan, Avon, Orac and Servalan! :-D

Yes yes, war on terror, invasions, torture et al I can take no problem.

Just not the abuse of the English language.

Americans, learn to spell correctly, it rightly pisses me off.

Color is another one, or vacation, the list goes on...

Good man Tony for fixing that one :-)

ohhh wow two Icons! cool

Ahh blake and his orac... otherwise known as a box made out of windows....(spooky-wierd!)

(I did like the orac3 on bit tech though nice mod!)

oops my age is showing.

The description doesn't state whether the inhibitor has been removed or not.

If it's higher level cognitive functions are not inhibited it could decide to turn on it's owner!

Never mind articulation, the question is: does it do nice even golden brown toast?

Oddly the merkins believe it is better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all... consequently an attempt to spell correctly is better than not attempting to use words at all... so bravo well done.. you tried. In the same vain getting it wrong in Iraq was better than not doing anything! Oh and locking up an inocent man is better than not locking up anyone.

and heres some new Merkin corruptions...

Soldering is now pronounced 'sodering'

a bot (as in robot) is pronounced 'bolt'

Space: Above and Beyond.

Halo owes much to that show. Except 'Who Watches the Birds', that was a bad episode.

Move out 5 8.

Series 1: Excellent

Series 2: OK

Series 3: Erm, it's watchable at the end...

I couldn't care less about their legal system, mystical visions and who gets to wear the President's Hat this week. Where did the firefights, nukes and firing solutions go?

B5's FTW.

The "quality oozing from every BSG episode to date"? Every episode... even that god-awful one with the boxing match?

You really want Blake back? I can't imagine the resurrected show's going to be up to much without Paul Darrow as Avon. Still, I'll keep an open mind - even if it is Sky One!

Maybe your chemist friend should have a word with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Yes, it was originally called aluminum, but that was obviously wrong so it was changed - why does Al have to be different from Ga, In and Tl? Then some time in the twenties the American Chemistry Society threw a tantrum and said they wanted to spell it differently.

IUPAC recognises aluminum as an "acceptable variant" which means, "We don't like it, we know you won't change it, so we'll pretend that we're allowing you to do it".

I just don't know why the merkins can't get some consistency in their vowel hatred. Shouldn't they have called it aluminim?

The idea of the courtroom drama was to draw parallels with current(ish) events in the real world ; with Dr. Balthar (probably misspelled, not enough geek-fu, so shoot me) as Saddam (at least according to a recent interview with him (ok, his actor) in The Onion's AV Club).*

That's what good sci-fi does, though - uses it's fantasy setting to give a different perspective to real-world issues (ie. how do you fight an enemy that looks just like you).

* nested parenthesis in a comment? - yeah, I went *there* baby.

Oh dear, you should be banned from the register for total disloyalty in quoting the beeb when it was covered on El Reg...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/24/blakes_seven/

Oh dear oh dear.... Centurion, take him away and throw him out an airlock.

I'd rather have a pair of sixes; and I ain't playin' cards.

Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!

Yes, bring back Blake's 7. Hopefully with Paul Darrow set later, obviously.

Also, Stargate rules. Doctor Who almost does, but it's tainted by the musical theatre crowd (constant stupid background music). And yes, by that I probably do mean wotsisname. Hopefully someone will take over and make it better. Saying that, some of them have been superb.

Cool Cylon, but I'd rather have one of the old ones. Do they still blow up when you switch on a microwave next to them? Never watched much of the new series, I've tried, but as someone said, it's a political soap in space, with loads of post 9/11 bullshit.

***"That's what good sci-fi does, though - uses it's fantasy setting to give a different perspective to real-world issues (ie. how do you fight an enemy that looks just like you)."***

Nooo, that's what lazy writers do. They take real world events and change the names and locations. It saves having to think up a decent story yourself. And that fully sums up BSG.

Good sci-fi writers create entire worlds, physics, biology, belief systems and political systems from scratch and then mould a compelling and original story around that.

Babylon 5 was a bag of shite. Total bag of shite. Shite idea, shite script, shite acting.

"...Last best hope..." Shite.

Shite. Shite. Shite.

I think i will stick to Battle Of The Planets thank you very much

( now who's showing his age lol )

...an honourable mention must go to Farscape, surely?

Yeah, yeah, the whole Buck Rogers thing (which was pants anyway IMHO), but Farscape did it much better, funnier, good scripts, great special effects and with some truly horrifying characters. I mean, Scorpius? C'mon!

Another great Skiffy show killed off by the networks....*sigh*

Ok, if you want to be silly, I see your Battle of the Planets and raise you....Starfleet.

"What is the secret of F-01?"

Best entertainment ever when nursing a stonking student hangover on Saturday morning. We always assumed that we couldn't understand it because the plot was too complicated to follow while wrecked. It never occurred to us that it was aimed at kids and was just blatantly vague and inconsistant.

Sometime later, when the dust had settled and life had assumed a semblance of normality, Brian May and Eddie Van Halen recorded Brian's version of the theme music together. Best guitar battle ever pressed to vinyl IMHO.

There wouldn't have been the new BSG. It borrows heavily from SF storytelling principles which B5 pioneered.

This vulture has been pecked to death by cats.