The Geek Quotient v1.5

Have you ever been watching a show and realized "Hey, this is a pretty geeky show. I wonder how it stacks up to other geeky shows?" Have you then said "If only there was a formula I could follow that would tell me exactly how geeky a show is!" Even if you haven't, you should have, and now you need look no further than the Geek Quotient Worksheet v1.5!

It's simple. You take your show, and you assign it points based on the criteria that follow, add up all the points, and then compare it to all your other geeky shows. Add up all your numbers to get an overall rating of how awesome a show is to the geek culture.

Let's see how some fan favorites add up.

The Criteria:

Positive:

+5 for each cast member of a really awesome, undisputed icon show (for instance, Firefly will start with a +35 just from here; Star Trek: The Next Generation will start with a +35 also, +40 if you forgive Wil Wheaton for his teen years) (if a show of unknowns becomes an icon, they are all awarded their +5 to take with them to their next project)

+5 for each proven writer, producer or creator (Joss and JJ, of course, but also Rodenberry, Rockne S O'Bannon, Steven Moffatt, Jane Espenson, Kurtz and Orci and so on)

+3 for awesomeness outside of television that guest stars or writes, to be applied to that season / +1 to the show's overall rating (so the recent "The Doctor's Wife" written by Neil Gaiman gets +3 for season 6 and +1 for the show as a whole)

+2 for a reboot, sequel or adaptation, with another +1 in reserve in case it lasts more than one season

+1 for each classic scifi trope: spaceships, aliens with weird foreheads, other worlds, time travel, unexplained phenomena (as a major plot device, not just one episode), wormholes, weird science, neat gadgets, super powers, etc

+1 for clever references to other big geek-culture elements, up to a total of 3 a season (otherwise Big Bang Theory and the like will just blow everyone away), with a reserved +1 for consistent use

+1 for each of the elements of good writing that consistently appear, to reward real, honest, quality (things like consistency, snappy dialog, good plotting, complex storylines, good character arcs)

+1 for getting a defined and planned ending

+1 for each spin-off, another +1 if they last more than a season

Negative:

-1 for too much studio involvement that waters down the show

-1 for poor writing that doesn't turn out to be "so bad it's good"

-1 for 'mainstreaming' to the point of sucking the life out of SF/F tropes (see: No Ordinary Family, Heroes by the end, Defying Gravity, etc)

-1 for a character everyone agrees is terrible (the JarJar Clause)

So, by these criteria, we get the following numbers:

Firefly - at least 55

ST:TNG - at least 92

Doctor Who (reboot) - at least 50 (if you count most actors as geek-unknown until this show, more by far when the series is over and they all get their +5 bonus)

Big Bang Theory - about 20

Castle - about 19

V - 30

As you can see, it shows how even non-SF/F shows like Castle can get their geek on because of carry-over geekiness. And it helps define whether a new show is geeky enough to pick up when the new season starts: How many known geek icons does it have? How many tropes? How many creators and writers with a proven track record? Everything you need to know!

How do your shows line up?