On the other hand, Firefly is the only series of the ones in the poll that I have much familiarity with.

Well ... since sci-fi so IS my thing, I would be remiss if I didn't weigh in. 8-)

Yes, Firefly greatly deserves its runaway victory. I didn't think Invasion was particularly well-written, but DANG, were the female leads hot or WHAT?? 8-) Farscape was good too of course, but at least it DID have a decent run. A vote for Seaquest as well; it shot itself in the foot in season 2 but was in the process of resuscitating itself ... too little, too late. Didn't care for Threshold. But the show that got screwed the most was SURFACE - the freshest show in a long time ... well-written, well-acted, accessible to a mass audience ... AND a hot female lead too, hehe! Can't BELIEVE it didn't make it.

Enterprise would be my first choice, Firefly my second. On second thought, I want BOTH.

Good gravy, how did I forget Enterprise? Must have missed the forest for the trees ... a front runner for sure. Well worth saving, whatever its faults. And SO much better in seasons 3-4 than the first 2 ... but by then audiences must have written it off. 8-(

Enterprise should be brought back, with the finale episode written off as an hallucination that Archer suffered while trapped in an Orion opium den.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned Odessey 5, a show that screams for closure. Yes, it got a little TOO much into the personal lives of the crew, but the sci-fi parts were great, and the concept rather innovative.

Firefly wins hands-down just for having silence in vacuum, nevermind the clever scripts, interesting characters, and oddly sardonic use of blues/folk. It was a breath of fresh air in a TV genre that had become an unforgiveable wankfest, and mostly still is. If I see one more X-wing ripoff magically barrel-rolling like a biplane, whooshing and banking on turns, against a backdrop of purple nebulae with a studio orchestra playing, I swear I'm going to become Amish.

The Firefly poll has been bumped from the main poll page -- it's here though.

And the unmentioned worthy: Space: Above and Beyond. Dumb name. Great show. Shame it was on Fox.

Oh yeah, "Space: Above and Beyond" was great too.

There are a few shark-jumping temptations that a resurfaced Firefly should avoid. First is having River heal too quickly. Trauma doesn't disappear overnight. She *does* have a "stripped" amygdala, so part of the problem is physiological and (I would think imperfectly) treated by Simon's drugs.

Second bit of advice: not a gorram ounce of romance between Jayne and River. It defies credibility, and the lovers-who-start-out-hating-each-other angle is old. They're like two feuding siblings. I like that - it's different.

Above all, to keep Firefly from asking for way too much suspension of disbelief, it shouldn't make the conspiracy too big. Real conspiracies have to be small to maintain their secrets. Parliament may have set up the institution that experimented on River, but how many legislators knew what was going on behind those doors? Nobody in the military neded to know *why* Miranda was quarantined in order to carry out its interdiction order.

There is one problem with a hypothetical comeback: Summer Glau is in her late 20s and can't get away with playing a much younger character forever. Jumping ahead several years from the end of Serenity would take care of that problem.

Alan: "There are a few shark-jumping temptations that a resurfaced Firefly should avoid."

Is it being restarted?

Alan: "Second bit of advice: not a gorram ounce of romance between Jayne and River."

Yes, and they should keep Jayne mean and sleazy, no slippery slope of likeability a la Sopranos. Also, something between Zoe and River would be quite interesting.

Alan: "Above all, to keep Firefly from asking for way too much suspension of disbelief, it shouldn't make the conspiracy too big."

Whedon's good at artful scenario evolutions, so I think he could scale the story in either direction--explore tangents in some episodes, while in others spell out that the conspiracy is part of a larger but not specifically related set of circumstances. I.e., what we thought was intended to thusandsuch is actually meant to do soandso, because whatchaknowin is about to happen and they need to prevent/guarantee/guide/understand it.

Oops, I meant Kaylee and River.