Top 10 geek TV shows

For every 10 shows on the standard TV schedule there's about half of one aimed at the geek fraternity. In this list we honour the few, the proud, the geeky.

There were a number of shows that just didn't make the list. Personally, the Great Egg Race would have been nice to include and I've still got a soft spot for such BBC classics as Tomorrow's World and Tripods. But they never really made it over in the US, or indeed much beyond the shores of the UK.

For Shaun, this list in particular had some pretty painful cuts. Favourites like The X-Files, Bill Nye the Science Guy and MacGyver all ended up getting omitted, and readers will no doubt have more than a few of their own choices that didn't make the list.

The first and second place choices were the toughest of the lot. Shaun wanted one choice (as did I) but the other was so large it seemed impudent not to put it in first. But being cheeky is part of what these lists are about.

My suggestion of a first equal spot was dismissed by Shaun as a "pussy move" , a richly ironic phrase (and much more vulgar than his usual comments) considering that outside the office he's a slave to two furry masters who have him firmly under their paws.

So here it is: like it or loath it.

Honourable Mention: Blake's 7
Iain Thomson: Those who grew up in the US may be scratching their heads at this one, but trust me: mention Blake's 7 to a British geek and the eyes will light up.

The series was built around Roj Blake, a political prisoner framed for a crime he did not commit (sound familiar?), who hijacks a spaceship and goes out for revenge against his tormentors.

The series was one of those quintessentially British shows that made up for a lack of funds spent on sets with a genuinely innovative plot sequence, although it did go a bit pear-shaped towards the end.

OK, so occasionally the walls of impenetrable holding cells were seen to wobble when touched, and the hi-tech weaponry looked like it had been cobbled together with kitchen implements and a smoke generator, but if you were willing to look beyond these flaws it was a cracker of a series.

One reason I wanted the show on the list was the innovative use of computers. The ship Blake steals is equipped with an advanced artificial intelligence called Zen, who was written with such personality that it became a character in its own right.

There was also a smartarse portable computer called ORAC and, as the series slipped into its death spiral, an obsequious machine dubbed Slave.

When I told Shaun to check out the show online I suspect he sat there for a few minutes asking himself whether this was really worth the money we pay him. Stick with it, Shaun: the early few episodes are gems.

Shaun Nichols: Association Football, Marmite and Blake's 7: three things the English love and Americans can't quite figure out.

I'm still trying to figure out why the entire crew are dressed like extras from a stage production of Robin Hood. British science fiction shows might be the only thing actually made better by the growth of CGI graphics.

OK, enough jabs. While such programmes as Blake's 7 may not have flashy special effects (even by early 1980s standards) they possess a solid dialogue and great storytelling that most of the 'modern' movies and television shows with multi-million dollar production budgets can't touch.

There's a lot to be said for getting the story right. Viewers were able to overlook production values because the story was so strong and the actors were so solid that they captured the imagination. People didn't much care that the walls swayed and the props looked like repurposed household appliances.

Honourable Mention: The Big Bang Theory
Shaun Nichols: Very few geek TV hits are actually about geeks. People prefer the fantasy that comes with being an ace space pilot or a courageous leader who lays out hulking villains with a single punch.

The Big Bang Theory succeeds in that its characters, while incredibly smart, are also deeply flawed in many ways. For many fans who can relate to the characters, the show is as much about laughing at yourself as it is the jokes on the screen.

And unlike many of the shows on our list, The Big Bang Theory actually does well with the broader mainstream audience.

Iain Thomson: It's that very feature that gets on my nerves; it gets mainstream appeal by making the characters stereotypes.

The Big Bang Theory always struck me as a typical formula sitcom and I'm still not convinced it isn't. But after an impassioned argument in its favour from a fellow tech journalist I looked again, and a lot of the science in the show is accurate and portrayed in a surprisingly logical way.

I still can't forgive it for pandering to so many easy targets, but the show does have merit.