That said, any opportunity to bash Tolkien is welcome, so bring it on :)

It’s a two-sided sword – okay in this case Trek leads it, as Doctor Who is mainly a british phenomenon. I come from germany and love Who, but nearly anyone knows it here – but Trek is as known as in the States.

On other cases it’s sad to see that movies that made fortunes – and I really mean tens of millions are said to be flop – but they ONLY flopped in the US. What would Locutus say: “You studio executives have a narrow vision!” (-:

On a personal note: I like the Who DVDs of the classic series more than the new Trek release. First, they have the better and more funny extras and Second, they have the old and new effects on the discs – while Trek makes those exclusive to the Blu-Ray which sucks.

Just randomly offhand (and BARELY scratching the surface) it could be any possible combination of:

* Years on air.
* Consecutive years on air.
* Duration of original show.
* Combined durations of spinoffs.
* Profile of talent attracted to working on the show or its spinoffs (in terms of celebrated writers, celebrity guest appearances, etc)
* Worldwide Viewership/ratings of original show.
* Worldwide Viewership/ratings of spinoffs.
* Size of worldwide broadcast market.
* Global name recognition of show, character names, etc.
* Genre/Medium accolades (Emmy, Hugo, Nebulas, BAFTA, etc)
* Number and sales of paperback novelizations
* Number and viewership of matinee serials
* Number and listenership of radio or audio dramas
* Number and sales of comic-book tie-ins
* Number and ticket sales of cinema tie-ins
* Number and sales of videogame tie-ins
* Genre/Medium accolades for any of the tie-ins
* Breadth, depth, and duration of toy tie-ins
* Scale of annual conventions devoted entirely to show or spinoffs
* Number, readership, and duration of magazines devoted entirely to show or spinoff
* Number, readership, and durations of fanzines devoted entirely to show or spinoff
* Sheer volume of deeply crappy fan fiction devoted to show
* Theoretical volume of potentially uncrappy fan fiction devoted to show
* Breadth of appeal (comparison of popularity with different age groups, gender groups, ethnic groups, social classes, education levels, etc)
* Impact on other, unrelated shows.
* Number of simultaneous spinoffs supported by audience (Next week on Doctor Who: The Doctor snogs someone again! Next up it’s Doctor Who Confidential, and then a special devoted to forthcoming seasons of Torchwood, Torchwood DeClassified, Sarah Jane Adventures, K-9 Adventures, and Totally Doctor Who!)
* Number of languages show and spinoffs typically translated into.
* Career profiles of actors attributable to participation in show.
* Academic writings devoted to show.
* Non-fiction fan writings devoted to show (articles, essays, etc)
* Whether or not it’s by Joss Whedon.
* Depth of flamewars devoted to show.
* Number of Internet misspellings and mis-namings commonly attributed to show (Doctor Spock, Darlek, etc).
* Number of people who’ve either knitted a giant scarf or had their ears surgically mangled in honor of the show.
* Theme weddings, number of, and typical years before divorce from.
* Pop-culture references (Jokes by talk-show hosts, appearances in political cartoons, offhand references in daytime soap operas)
* Mainstream acceptability (or “Is there a stigma associated with being a fan of the show?” inversely).

And so on. It would be child’s play to rattle off _hundreds_ more, and then the fun is assigning each criteria a weight (and when it comes to that, it’s 100% subjective …) and metrics.

So, adding it all up: I believe the most successful SF TV series in history is “Salvage One,” everybody’s favorite show about Andy Griffith in space.

But I guess it depends how you define success. The article above equates success with lucrative, but obviously that cannot be the test used by Guinness. Clearly the Star Trek franchise has made more money.

Perhaps Guinness restricted the comparison to TOS only, excluding the movies.
This would be a clearer comparison as TNG DS9 VOY and ENT are spin offs. Doctor Who has been one long, albeit not continuous, series.

Doctor Who has only been made by one company; the BBC.
Though Star Trek was produced by Desilu, the Star Trek franchise has been owned/produced by Desilu & Paramount.

You have to compare like for like. It says most succesful sci-fi *series*
Not more successful sci-fi franchise.

If that were the case we would have to start including Star Wars, Terminator, Alien etc.

Hey, Orci, please tell JJ to put the Andorian babe in the next movie, you can call her “Carol Marcus” to really mess with us old timers…