I think most of us like to read those "Top" this and that lists at least out of curiosity, even if some of us don't give them too much weight. However, it's different if its just a list compiled by the editor/website/magazine staff, which some may disregard as the opinion of that particular team, than a list that's actually created from the votes of the readers and fans. There are more lists like that in recent years, where we see how thousands of fans vote for their favorites. It's basically public's opinion.
But those lists aren't new and had been done back in the 1990s. As you might have guessed, voting wasn't as easy as you would have to actually write a physical letter to vote, or, if you did happen to have an access to the internet and an email already in the late 1990s, you could do it this way too. I'm talking specifically about a "TOP 50 GREATEST MOMENTS IN SCI-FI HISTORY" list published in 1999 by Inquest magazine. Inquest was a magazine for scifi nerds, which focused a lot on physical games and CCG (Customizable Card Games) which were booming at the time. "InQuest was a very popular and influential monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment from 1995 to 2007. It was considered a staple of the 1990s and early 2000s gaming culture. "
The list made it to the May 1999 issue, and was compiled from readers' votes and polls, so it's interesting which moments were chosen by super scifi geeks back in 1999. While the list is heavy in Star Trek and Star Wars, both 'Alien' and 'Aliens' have their moments on the list. 'Aliens' lands pretty high at #19 with the hive ambush
'Alien' however, blows away with a surprising #2 with the chestburster! (for the curious ones, #1 is taken by the twist ending of the original 1968 'Planet of the Apes')
