Space.com Asking Which Scifi Story is the Most Important

If you like taking polls and sharing your anonymous opinion about science fiction, then Space.com has a poll for you. They are asking visitors to choose between “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, and “Doctor Who” (or “None of the Above”) for “What is the most important sci-fi story ever told?”.

It’s an interesting topic though a much less interesting field of choices. While all three franchises are long-running there are certainly other good franchises that have had huge impacts on science fiction. But maybe these three were selected also because of the impact they have had on society.

For example, would we have the mega conventions we have today if these franchises had each failed early in their cycles? Hard to say.

Star Trek inspired other TV shows as well as movies.

Star Wars proved that good space opera and science fiction/fantasy movies can be made.

Doctor Who proved that British Sci Fi television is good for more than just filling up odd schedule slots in PBS stations’ rosters. More importantly, Doctor Who proved that multiple actors can pull off the same character (albeit through a “cheat” like the Time Lords’ rebirthing processing) and that audiences have a taste for long-running shows outside the Western and Crime Drama genres.

We could certainly toss out a few ideas for other important franchises but these are the three we have to choose from in the Space.com poll. So think about it and then maybe head over to Space.com and share your opinion.