LAND OF THE LOST, (from left): Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Spencer Milligan, 1974-77.
There might not be a more passionate fan than the one that loves science fiction TV series.
When it comes to science fiction, there are a lot of areas to mine — from alien invasions to fear of technology to space travel and time travel. However, what is most important is that the TV shows remember to keep the science realistic and keep the characters interesting.
Over the years, there have been a lot of great science fiction series hit TV, from the cult favorites to the epic critical darlings, and there have been successes and failures — all while maintaining the quality that keeps sci-fi so interesting.
With that in mind, here is a look at 36 of the best science fiction TV series of all-time.
36. Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost is not the best sci-fi TV show of all-time but it has developed a very loyal and passionate fan base over the years. The actors from the show still hit fan conventions all over the United States and have people turning out in mass quantities for autographs, photo sessions and some even dressing up as their favorite aliens — the Sleestaks — or the primate Cha-Ka..
The show featured a ranger named Rick Marshall and his kids Will and Holly, who went canoeing in a river when they were swept over a waterfall. They lived and ended up in the Land of the Lost — a world where there were still dinosaurs as well as the monstrous Sleestaks.
Land of the Lost — as a show that aired from 1974 to 1976 — was very low budget and the green screen work was evident. However, part of the allure of the show was the low budget affair, something that helped people fall in love with the characters and made the show much more fun than today’s more CGI work.
Rick was replaced in season 2 by his brother Jack (Spencer Milligan left the show after a merchandising dispute), but the show continued on without missing a beat. It ended up so popular that it got a movie remake in 2005 starring Will Ferrell (who also happened to play a character named Marshal Willenholly in the Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
That movie never came close to matching what made the Land of the Lost TV show great. However, despite its low-budget deficiencies, Land of the Lost remains one of the most beloved classic sci-fi TV shows of all-time.
Image: Warner Bros. Television
35. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
One of the best sci-fi action movie franchises of all time is James Cameron’s Terminator. The first movie is a great horror sci-fi flick and the second is one of the best pure sci-fi action movies of all-time. While things went downhill with the third movie, the fifth is still underrated.
With that said, Josh Friedman brought the story to the small screen in 2008 with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Obviously, the action moved to the character of Sarah Connor and started the action after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This sci-fi TV series skipped the third movie by including more time travel (a go-to in the franchise) and moving the action to 2007.
Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) starred as Sarah Connor and sci-fi superstar Summer Glau (Firefly) came aboard as a Terminator named Cameron. Now set years after Judgment Day, Sarah Connor takes the battle directly against Skynet.
The show was great. However, what holds Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles down is the problem with a lot of popular TV shows — it ended on a cliffhanger and the network canceled it without a fitting conclusion. Also appearing on the show with great performances was Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) and Brian Austin Green (Beverly Hills 90210).
The ending was a huge moment and we will never be able to see what happened after that moment that John Connor was sent into the future — a future where people had no idea who he was. Despite that, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a great addition to the franchise and provided two seasons of great sci-fi TV entertainment.
Image: ABC
34. The Bionic Woman
The original Bionic Woman television series aired from 1976 to 1978 and was a spinoff series from The Six Million Dollar Man. That original series (which appears later in this list) was about a NASA astronaut involved in an accident who had his right arm, both legs and left eye replaced by bionic implants — basically making him a government employed superhero.
In The Bionic Woman, the show has a professional tennis player Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) who is injured in a skydiving accident and — much like The Six Million Dollar Man — is saved by Oscar Goldman, giving her bionic implants, giving her superpowers as well. For Sommers, it includes a bionic ear (super hearing), right arm (super strength) and both legs (super speed).
The series lasted for three years and 58 episodes and it was also the first sci-fi TV series to hit No. 1 in the ratings in the U.K. in the 20th Century. The show was so popular that three spinoff movies aired in 1987, 1989 and 1994 — all three as crossover movies with The Six Million Dollar Man.
A lesser-respected remake of The Bionic Woman came in 2007 when a reimagined contemporary version of the show aired. However, due to the writer’s strike and low ratings, it died from the start. With Michelle Ryan starring as Jaime Sommers and Miguel Ferrer as her handler (renamed Jonas Bledsoe), the new series lasted only eight episodes before being canceled.
SyFy
33. Dark Matter
Released in 2015 and based on a Dark Horse comic book of the same name, Dark Matter started its life on the Space channel before moving to SyFy. This sci-fi TV show had a solid creative team behind it in Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie — two men who worked on the Stargate franchise.
The series was great sci-fi with a huge bit of mystery. Six people wake up from hyper-sleep on a spacecraft. None of them know who they are or why they are there — their minds erased — and no one knows what is going on. It is a perfect setup with people not just figuring out if they can trust each other, but if they can trust themselves.
There is even an android that is also unaware of what is going on and the six people set out to learn who they are and what they are doing on the Raza. What really made this show great was that it wasn’t really about fighting different aliens each week but was more about self-discovery and the memories of each member of the crew as it slowly comes back.
Dark Matter lasted for three seasons and 39 episodes before SyFy pulled the plug and canceled the show. As with way too many sci-fi TV shows, SyFy canceled it before it had a chance for a proper resolution — although, Mallozi said that he might consider showing the end in a comic book format, bringing the series back to where it started.
Image: UPN
32. Star Trek: Voyager
When it comes to Star Trek, there might not be a better representation of sci-fi TV than this Gene Roddenberry franchise. With that said, the lowest ranked series on this list is Voyager, and while it ranks below some of the other Star Trek series, there are things to like about this chapter in the franchise history.
One of the big things to note about it is that this sci-fi series had a female Starship captain in Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Yes, there are problems with the series including the prime directive making it just another Star Trek show and the setup having a brilliant premise (stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 75 years from home) with a slightly lackluster execution.
However, along the way, there is brilliance and some amazingly touching episodes. One character — the Doctor — is mostly around with great one-liners and some quality humor but he was also the center of focus in the season three episode “Real Life,” where he creates a holodeck family to see what having one is like. What was funny at first becomes tragic by the end — one of the most touching episodes of the entire series.
Add in the great Captain Janeway and the always interesting Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) to the Doctor, and you have some great characters to lead fans through what — admittedly — was a never-ending Borg-storyline. It never reaches the levels of the OG or TNG but there is still a lot here to like.
Star Trek: Voyager lasted for seven seasons and 172 episodes. Unlike many shows on this list, Voyager got a proper finale with the crew finally making it back home.
Image: SyFy
31. Farscape
If you want to see a sci-fi TV show that has a fanbase that is passionate enough to make sure a network doesn’t end it before its time, look no further than Farscape. The series lasted four seasons on the Sci-Fi Network but was canceled after that season — leaving fans angry that their show did not get a proper finale.
As a result of the fan anger, Sci-Fi finally relented and gave Farscape a miniseries to end of stories left open and then two of the regulars from the show joined Stargate SG-1. So, what made fans fall in love with Farscape?
In conjunction with the Jim Henson Company, Farscape created a sci-fi show in outer space with — as you might expect from Jim Henson — puppets. The fact that Brian Henson produced the series should tell anyone that the creatures from the series were fantastically done — if you like movies like Dark Crystal.
Farscape is about a group of rebels who form a group in order to battle corrupt authorities called the Peacekeepers, all while living aboard a spacecraft called Moya. As expected by a Henson production — there was only one human character (although Aeryn Sun looked human) and the rest of the cast was spectacular looking aliens.
This was a sci-fi TV series ahead of its time and one that might have been even bigger if it aired a decade later. It is well worth the watch — and thanks to the miniseries — got a fitting conclusion to make it worth your time.
Image: Fox
30. Dollhouse
Joss Whedon built a lot of love thanks to his two fantasy hit television series — Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel — and one of the best science fiction TV shows of all-time in Firefly (which appears later in this countdown).
However, one show that is often overlooked is his science fiction television series Dollhouse.
Dollhouse stars Buffy alumni Eliza Dushku as Echo — a Doll who is an operative for the Los Angeles Dollhouse. The Dolls are created to serve different purposes, from romantic interludes to the criminal enterprises in the area. The Dolls have their minds wiped after each mission and always live in a constant fresh state.
However, Echo is malfunctioning and is keeping different memories from her missions despite the mind-wiping after each mission. Echo was a political activist who wanted to bring down the organization until she was caught and turned into a Doll.
The series then moved into a huge science fiction epic storyline with the mind-wiping used to create Dolls affecting the entire world.
Much like all Joss Whedon’s shows, the networks messed around with Dollhouse. There were concerns it would end up canceled after one season and an unaired final episode of that season increased the fears. It was that episode that teased the apocalyptic future.
Dollhouse did get a second season with 13 episodes before the series ended.
Image: The CW
29. The 100
When it comes to science fiction, The CW might not be the go-to network for smart sci-fi, as it remains best in the realm of fantasy and superhero TV shows. With that said, The CW did have a hit on its hands in 2014 when it premiered the sci-fi series The 100.
Very loosely based on the novel series that shares its name by author Kass Morgan, The 100 is a post-apocalyptic series that follows the survivors of a nuclear holocaust who live on a space habitat called The Ark.
97 years after the Earth was devastated, the 2,400 survivors on the space station want to know if they can return to Earth and start it over again. Knowing the dangers, they choose 100 juvenile prisoners and send them down to see if Earth is safe yet to return to.
What these 100 kids find is that there were also survivors on Earth and they have been living in their own power struggle, with Grounders living in clans and Reapers as scary cannibals. There are also the Mountain Men, who live away from both groups.
So far, there have been 71 episodes over five seasons, and a sixth season was ordered this year to air sometime in 2019. Like most series on The CW, this is squarely aimed at the young adult fans but has been loved by critics, who feel it is a guilty pleasure with great atmosphere and storytelling.
Image: ABC
28. Max Headroom
Max Headroom was much more than just a science fiction TV show. Max Headroom was a cultural icon in the ’80s. He was introduced in 1984 as the “world’s first computer-generated TV host” — but this was before CGI was realistic and actor Matt Frewer used makeup and prosthetics to make it look like he was a computer-generated character.
Max Headroom was originally introduced in a 1985 television film called Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future and that led into The Max Headroom Show, which ran from 1984 to 1987 in the UK and on Cinemax in the United States.
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Finally, Max Headroom made his way to America and got his own ABC television series from 1987 until 1988. That American series was a science fiction dystopian TV series where society is ruled by television networks.
This was an interesting concept, where even the governments of the world are run by television networks and was a strong indictment of the Reagan Era. The only person on the show that was not under the thumb of television was an investigative reporter who tried to pull back the curtain while many wanted him dead.
Max Headroom is the computer reconstruction of this reporter and while his human counterpart is seriously investigating the networks, Max just makes fun of everything. There were six episodes in the first season and eight in the second before the series ended.
Max Headroom ended in mid-season, unable to beat powerhouses Dallas and Miami Vice in the ratings. Despite that, Max Headroom remains a pop culture icon and the series was the first cyberpunk TV series in American history to run in Prime Time.
Image: SyFy
27. Warehouse 13
While some considered Warehouse 13 a low-rent version of The X-Files, this SyFy original series shares much more in common with the Friday the 13th series, as the team here sought out supernatural items to bring back to Warehouse 13 for safe keeping.
The cast was also impressive for a SyFy series, with Saul Rubinek (Unforgiven) as the Special Agent in charge of the Warehouse and C.C.H. Pounder (The Shield) as the director of the program itself — as well as the mysterious Caretaker of Warehouse 13.
However, the main leads of this series are Eddie McClintock as Secret Service Agent Pete Lattimer and Joanne Kelly as Secret Service rising star Myka Bering. They are the team tasked with heading out to recover the artifacts on each episode.
The series had a supernatural slant but kept its science fiction roots as well. For the fantasy aspects, the Warehouse had existed since Alexander the Great used it from 336-323 BC and the Warehouse always existed in the most powerful empire of its era. This was the 13th (hence the name).
The series lasted for five seasons and 64 total episodes on the SyFy Network and was a popular series for genre awards shows, picking up seven nominations in the Portal Awards in 2012 alone.
It was also an interesting series because it crossed over with two other SyFy shows, in Eureka and Alphas.
Image: ABC
26. V
V was one of the most popular and successful science fiction TV miniseries of its era when the original version aired in 1983. Airing on NBC, the original miniseries lasted two episodes and had aliens trying to take control of Earth after showing up and pretending to be friendly and looking for help.
This series was created by Kenneth Johnson, who also created The Bionic Woman and Incredible Hulk television series. He went on to create Alien Nation, using many ideas that he originated in V.
It was so popular that NBC greenlit V: The Final Battle to give the story a conclusion, but Johnson left the project because he disagreed with the network’s demands for the ending. That was followed by a TV series in 1984-85.
In 2009, ABC got the rights to V and brought it back as a new series, keeping the same storyline of an alien race showing up on Earth in peace but then proving to have an ulterior motive as they set out to conquer the planet.
No longer content as a miniseries, this was a full-fledged science fiction TV show and starred Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) and Morena Baccarin (Firefly) with Scott Peters (The 4400) working as the showrunner.
V ran for a total of two seasons and 22 episodes. After a huge showing for the first season’s premiere, the show then dropped in ratings, which led to its cancelation in the second season by ABC.
Image: Amazon
25. The Man in the High Castle
If anyone can lay claim to being a master in the genre of science fiction, it is Philip K. Dick. The man has been responsible for numerous sci-fi movies based on his books, from Total Recall and Minority Report to A Scanner Darkly and Blade Runner.
The Man in the High Castle is based on Dick’s 1962 novel that resided in a world where Japan and Nazi Germany won World War II and the two countries now rule over the United States of America.
The Amazon Prime science fiction TV series shows a 1962 where the Greater Nazi Reich includes more than half of the Eastern half of the former United States and the Japanese Pacific States includes the west — the two sides separated by a neutral zone of the Rocky Mountains.
Much like the United States and Russia had their Cold War, in this world, it was Japan and Germany who were involved in a Cold War of their own.
In 2015, the pilot of The Man in the High Castle was the most watched Amazon original series at that time. Amazon ordered a full first season and at Comic-Con this year, they announced a fourth season was greenlit.
What makes this show interesting is that it is not an alternate world story — or at least, that is not all it is. Instead, this is Philip K. Dick science fiction and there is something under the surface — possibly alternate worlds. In the series, there are propaganda films that show a very different history than the one where the Axis Powers won World War II.
Image: ABC
24. The Six Million Dollar Man
We have already talked about The Bionic Woman (ranked 34th), and now it is time to talk about the series that originated the character before she spun-off onto her own series. The Six Million Dollar Man starred Lee Majors in the role that made him a star.
Majors starred as Colonel Steve Austin, a former astronaut who suffers devastating injuries when an experimental aircraft he is in crashes. He is then saved and re-built by doctors and scientists, with bionic body parts replacing those that were destroyed — a $6 million surgery.
With a bionic right arm that gives him super strength, two bionic legs that give him super speed and leaping skills, and a bionic left eye that gives him zoom lens and infrared technology, he goes to work for Oscar Goldman and the government’s OSI as a secret agent.
This all started with three made for TV movies and then the science fiction TV series that ran for five seasons and 99 episodes from 1974 to 1978. It spawned The Bionic Woman series and a few more TV movies — including crossovers.
While the episodes where Steve Austin was working on government missions were great, seeing him do battle with Big Foot — portrayed by WWE legend Andre the Giant — was more than worth the price of admission.
Years after The Six Million Dollar Man last aired, the science fiction television series maintained a beloved spot in the hearts of fans, and Lee Majors even won the 2003 “Superest Superhero” award at the TV Land Awards.
Image: Fox
23. Futurama
After reaching immense success with his hit animated Fox series The Simpsons, Matt Groening got an idea for a futuristic animated science fiction TV show and in 1999, he unleashed Futurama on the world.
While The Simpsons was a great animated series based on the world of sitcoms, Futurama was something else entirely. In Futurama, a young slacker named Fry ended up accidentally transported to the 31st Century, where he made new friends and enjoyed adventures in a world very different than the one he came from.
With some brilliant original characters including the alcoholic robot Bender, the one-eyed and strong Leela, and a supporting cast including Doctor Zoidberg and Professor Farmsworth, the cast alone carried this animated sci-fi series to great heights.
However, the storytelling was top notch. One episode, in particular, showed the time when Fry was sent to the future and showed one of the most heartbreaking scenes in television history when it showed what fate awaited his pet dog, which was waiting for him to return.
Honestly, this one episode alone throws Futurama into the top ranks of all animated television shows — science fiction or not.
Fox actually canceled Futurama after four seasons, but Comedy Central revived it, created some direct-to-video films and Futurama ended up with a seven-year run before it finally signed off — a total of 140 episodes.
Image: Showtime
22. Stargate SG-1
In 1994, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich brought the world one of the best science fiction action movies of its era with Stargate, a film that introduced a portal that took people to a very different world.
Three years later, the world of Stargate came to television with Stargate SG-1, a series that aired on Showtime as one of their most successful original series before moving to the Sci-Fi Channel in 2002.
Instead of the television show reimagining the movie, it was a direct sequel to the film, starting one year after the movie ended. The show’s premise is that the U.S. Government realized that the Stargate from the movie can open up portals to other planets around the galaxy.
SG-1 is an elite military force that is sent out to explore the galaxy and defend Earth against the possibility of alien invasions and attacks. The show took the action of the movie and never relented with the other draw of the film — mythology.
While the movie was most interested in Egyptian mythology, the science fiction TV series branched out into Greek, Norse and Arthurian legends as well.
Stargate SG-1 lasted a full 10 seasons and aired 214 total episodes with two straight-to-DVD films coming out of the world as well. There was also two spin-offs from the show, including Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe.
Image: NBC
21. Quantum Leap
Almost 30 years after it debuted in 1989, Quantum Leap remains a beloved classic science fiction TV series. Scott Bacula stars as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who ends up taking a leap through spacetime using a government-sponsored program and ends up taking over the body of someone to correct “historical mistakes.”
The show was fun because Sam would wake up in someone else’s body at the precise time when he needed to stop the person from making a terrible mistake.
With Bakula as the star, it was him that the audience watched and there was only one part in each episode where viewers would see what the person he was possessing really looked like.
The second star of the show was Dean Stockwell, who played Sam’s best friend Al and could show up as a hologram to give advice and help him figure out what needed to be done to help fix history.
Quantum Leap was a fun show that remains a cult classic. It lasted for five seasons on NBC and a total of 97 episodes from 1989 to 1993.
While the show was a mission-of-the-week format, there was also a pure science fiction storyline overrunning the series with Sam unable to return, continuously leaping into other bodies while trying to eventually find a way to leap back into his own body and return home.
Image: Warner Bros. Television
20. Babylon 5
J. Michael Straczynski created the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 in 1993 — a show that was clearly influenced heavily by Star Trek.
Babylon 5 takes place in a future where Earth is ruled by one unified government and there are also colonies throughout the solar system and beyond that is part of the Earth Alliance. The cast of the portrays aliens of all sorts living and working together.
Babylon 5 is the name of the space center that the main cast resides on and this science fiction television series is about prophecies, social issues and political intrigue in the realm of a space opera.
While very similar to Star Trek: Deepspace Nine, Babylon 5 was the sci-fi series that really helped show what kind of graphics and effects could be used on television at the time and the series revolutionized the science fiction TV genre.
It won two Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic television and took science fiction and made it purely adult in storytelling — something that Battlestar Galactica perfected years later.
Babylon 5 aired for five seasons — which is what Straczynski said was the original plan when developing the series. While five seasons was all that the series planned, they also added six made-for-TV films in the world of the series.
Image: Netflix
19. Sense8
J. Michael Straczynski had a strong footing in science fiction television as the creator of Babylon 5 so when he teamed with the Wachowski siblings, who create the Matrix, the three created something magical.
Sense8 is a Netflix series that aired for two seasons and 24 episodes. The series was critically lauded — especially when it comes to LGBTQ characters and themes, the first season winning the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
The science fiction TV series surrounded the psychic connection between eight strangers from around the world who learn of their connection after a woman commits suicide to avoid being captured by a man called “Whispers.” These eight people are both emotionally and mentally linked.
While the eight people are trying to live their lives and learn why and how their links works, Whispers is trying to hunt them down.
Netflix canceled Sense8 after two seasons despite the storyline not being concluded. The writers tried to get the show back to finish their story and when the fans of the series got involved, their passion convinced Netflix to bring it back — but just for a finale.
Image: Paramount Television
18. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The one thing that made Star Trek: Deep Space Nine great was that it was a show in the franchise that seemed entrenched in reality. Honestly, Deep Space Nine was not a show where the Star Trek crew would head to a planet, face a new threat each week, beat the threat and move on to the next episode.
The show was steeped in much darker plots, including intense social themes, complex plots and religious symbolism. It is also not a surprise, saying all that, that Star Trek chose this series to create their first black captain in Benjamin Sisko, who started out as a Commander and then became the Captain in season 3.
He is a widower and a single father and it is Sisko who leads his crew into political conflicts between the Federation and everyone from the Cardassians and Klingons to Romulans and eventually the big bad for Deep Space Nine — the Dominion.
It is also a unique version of Star Trek, as it mostly took place on a space station instead of a starship. To boost the ratings, the show even brought in The Next Generation’s Michael Dorn to reprise his role as Worf.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine lasted for seven seasons and a total of 176 episodes from 1993 through 1999. It was not overly loved by fans but it was adored by critics, picking up an Emmy nomination every year it aired.
The one thing that soured many long-time Star Trek fans was the moral ambiguity of the series — but at the end of the day, that is what made Deep Space Nine as great as it was.
Image: CBS All-Access
17. Star Trek: Discovery
CBS All Access put a lot of faith into the Star Trek franchise as one of their first major original projects for the streaming service was Star Trek: Discovery.
The cast was impressive. Walking Dead veteran Sonequa Martin-Green is the lead character as science specialist Michael Bumham on the USS Discovery. Doug Jones, who is a master of practical effects roles (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), is First Officer Saru, and Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter franchise) is Captain Gabriel Lorca.
Star Trek: Discovery isn’t finished yet either as Spock will be joining the team in season 2.
The show is set one decade before the original Star Trek series started and is in the television universe and not the universe that has been set up in the new movies. This show takes place during the Klingon war with the United Federation of Planets.
Star Trek: Discovery received solid critical acclaim, the premiere of the series was the catalyst for record subscriptions to the CBS All Access app, and it picked up a ton of awards nominations, including winning the Best New Media Television Series at the Saturn Awards.
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery had 15 episodes and the second season will feature 13 episodes, launching in January 2019. The second season will also bring in some new cast members in Anson Mount (Inhumans) and Wilson Cruz (My So-Called Life)
Image: SyFy Network
16. 12 Monkeys
In 1995, Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) created one of the best science fiction movies of all-time in 12 Monkeys. The movie had an apocalyptic future where a prisoner (Bruce Willis) was sent back in time to learn what the 12 Monkeys were and see if they were the cause of the world’s destruction.
That movie itself was actually inspired by an experimental 1962 film titled La Jetée, a movie that was created almost entirely using still photographs and told the story of a pos-nuclear war and time travel.
It was a great story and the 1995 movie was brilliant. That gave the SyFy Network television series a lot to live up to. What worked so great for the TV show is that it took the same basic idea and expanded it into a massive world-building experience that fleshed everything out.
Aaron Stanford (Pyro in the X-Men movies) took on the Bruce Willis role of James Cole. However, when it comes to the 12 Monkeys television show, it is Cassie (Amanda Schull) that was the more important character, while she was the main supporting role in the movie.
12 Monkeys lasted four seasons and ended this year. It was a strange ride, as season 3 was released completely in one weekend and season 4 had 11 episodes rushed out in four weekends. it seemed like SyFy was just trying to wash their hands of the show, which made no sense.
The time travel seemed a bit convoluted at times, but the acting was first-rate and the story really expanded into a tale of predestination and free will when it comes to changing the past and creating a better future.
The TV show even created a possibility of hope in a future that still looks doomed. This was a show that not enough people watched when it was on and more need to find as it hits streaming services and DVD.
Image: CBS
15. Lost in Space
Before Star Trek changed everything people knew about science fiction television, Lost in Space was the biggest sci-fi hit that TV had ever seen. Premiering in 1965 — one year before Kirk and Spock set off in the Starship Enterprise — Lost in Space took the Robinson family and stranded them in outer space, where they had to survive.
The show took place in the future (1997) where space travel exists and colonization of space is in the works. A family unit set out to live in space for five years. However, a competing nation sabotaged the flight and stranded John Robinson, his wife and their three kids (along with a pilot, doctor and a robot) on a planet that could maintain human life.
Fans who hate how science fiction TV series ends without a resolution have to realize this is nothing new. CBS canceled Lost in Space after three seasons with the family still trapped in outer space.
Over the years, Lost in Space was a hugely popular classic science fiction TV series, getting syndicated decades after its cancelation. It was also made into a movie in 1998 and this year became a new Netflix series.
The Netflix Lost in Space series had a similar storyline, gender-swapped Dr. Smith (Parker Posey in this version) and had a very distinct and less friendly looking robot as the companion. It also focused much more attention on the young son Will Robinson, while delving into more serious sci-fi and less of the camp of the original groundbreaking series.
Image: HBO
14. Westworld
Westworld was a groundbreaking science fiction movie from 1973, directed by Michael Crichton. The story is about an amusement park that has androids playing out scenes of the Wild West for visitors — their prime directive to play out the same storylines but never hurt the paying customers.
However, they malfunction and start killing the patrons.
In 2016, a Westworld science fiction TV series hit HBO and the same storyline took place — in the start. However, the TV show had much higher aspirations and really dealt with the idea of what it meant to be alive.
On the TV show, high paying clients paid to visit Westworld and interact with the androids with no fear of danger — until the “hosts” as they are called decided they had enough and an uprising began.
A second season was not as beloved by many fans but went even deeper into the philosophical meanings of what it meant to be alive and the entire focus on free will. At the end of the day, there might not be a more thought-provoking sci-fi TV show on today.
Westworld has an amazing cast that included Anthony Hopkins in the first season and standout performers like Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden and Ed Harris.
The third season will premiere in 2019, with 20 episodes spread out through the first two seasons to date.
Photo Credit: NBC
13. Timeless
Timeless has a similar storyline as Quantum Leap but is a much smarter and exciting television series — or at least it was. Despite the great acting, intriguing storylines and hugely passionate fanbase, NBC canceled the series after one season.
Fans rebelled and NBC gave in and renewed it for a second season, canceling it again after that ended. The good news is that fan dedication has convinced NBC to give Timeless a two-hour movie to conclude the series and wrap up the storylines — something many science fiction TV series never got the chance to do.
Timeless introduces fans to a mysterious organization that wants to use time travel to make changes to American history. the heroes of this sci-fi TV series are a three-person team (a history professor, soldier and engineer) that sets out to travel to various time periods to stop the changes and keep the timeline intact.
The series goes bigger than Quantum Leap, which was mostly concerned with personal stories (with a few big exceptions). In Timeless, the team deals with changes to the Hindenburg disaster, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Benedict Arnold’s surrender, and even stop an attempt on John Kennedy’s life as a younger man.
The two seasons included 26 episodes and the two-hour movie will give fans a chance to see it all come to its logical and planned conclusion.
Image: Adult Swim
12. Rick and Morty
While Futurama might be the gold standard for dramatic science fiction animated television, Rick and Morty is the sci-fi TV for sci-fi nerds and it is possibly one of the most twistedly brilliant animated shows to ever air on Adult Swim — which is saying a lot.
Basically, the two main characters are a young boy named Morty Smith — a good kid who has the worst luck — and his grandfather Rick Sanchez — a mad scientist that was clearly patterned after Doc Brown. As a matter of fact, the show was originated after the two character first appeared in a parody of Back to the Future.
The show splits between Rick and Morty’s domestic life with their hapless family dragged along for their adventures at times, and interdimensional travels where the real sci-fi fun begins.
The entire premise of Rick and Morty is like a mix of Futurama and The Simpsons. There are two stories — the first is domestic family drama (ala The Simpsons) and the second is the bizarre science-fiction adventures (ala Futurama to the maximum extent).
The sci-fi is really out there too, with alternate dimensions and multiple versions of the characters — even with an evil Rick and Morty. There are always philosophical questions making everything that happens more than just weird absurdist humor.
It is also a very hard show for casual viewers to get used to. The jokes and stories carry over and if someone misses episodes, they might end up totally lost. That is ok, though, as Rick and Morty is a show that deserves the closest attention to detail — and it pays it off in spades.
Image: BBC America
11. Orphan Black
Orphan Black debuted in 2013 — a Canadian science fiction TV series that focused on seven individuals that are all clones. The most impressive thing about the show is the performance of Tatiana Maslany, who played all seven clones — all with different personalities.
The series aired on Space in Canada and on BBC America in the United States.
Orphan Black starts off when a con artist sees a woman commit suicide. Realizing that they look identical to each other, the woman — Sarah Manning — takes the other’s place in her job as a police detective. It is then that Sarah realizes that she is a clone — has many sister clones in North American and Europe that were created by an illegal operation, and someone wants all the clones dead.
When the bad guys learn that Sarah has a daughter — the only clone who has given birth to a child — mother and daughter go on the tun to avoid capture and try to figure out a way to stay alive.
As with many science fiction stories — the theme here is what it means to be human and to be alive. It stretches even further when something that some considered an abomination that was not deserving to live has a child naturally. What does that make her child?
The show was popular when it started but gained a lot of critical acclaim in its final two seasons when the story began to race to the climax. Maslany actually won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2016 for her role.
The series played out for five seasons and a total of 50 episodes.
Image by ABC
10. The Outer Limits
While most people look at The Twilight Zone as the high mark of anthology television, no one should ever overlook The Outer Limits. While The Twilight Zone dealt with both fantasy and science fiction, The Outer Limits main focus was solely on science fiction stories.
The Outer Limits aired from 1963 until 1965 on ABC and dealt with storylines including science fiction, gothic, dark fantasy, horror and mystery thriller themes. While The Twilight Zone enjoyed a long life, The Outer Limits only ran for two seasons and 49 episodes on ABC.
Joseph Stefano, who wrote Hitchcock’s Psycho, created the series and wrote most of the episodes. However, there were other big names on board as writers as well, including Robert Towne (Chinatown) and the legendary Harlan Ellison.
The first season mixed a lot of science fiction TV with horror stories, similar to The Twilight Zone, but the second season was almost solely hardcore science fiction — which might explain its cancelation in the ’60s (although moving it to Saturday nights did not help).
It did later have an influence on the most monster-centric episodes of Star Trek, which debuted after this sci-fi anthology series was canceled. William Shatner, who played Captain Kirt in Star Trek, even appeared on an episode of The Outer Limits.
There was also the interesting trivia that Harlan Ellison had his name added to the end credits of The Terminator when he sued for the strong similarity to his Outer Limits episode.
The Outer Limits was brought back in 1995 on Showtime and this version of the series lasted for seven seasons and 154 episodes, and much like the second season of the original series was more science fiction based than dark fantasy based.
Image: CBS
9. Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation did something amazing when it hit the air in 1987. It took a science fiction TV series that premiered two decades earlier and spawned a number of movies and it gave it a new spin that revitalized the entire franchise and basically replaced the original in the hearts of fans for years.
Replacing Captain Kirk is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played magnificently by Patrick Stewart. Joining him is a cast of characters that are as iconic as the originals with Jonathan Frakes as Number One William Riker, LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn as the Klingon Worf, Gates McFadden as Dr. Crusher and Brent Spiner as the android, Data.
The series took place 99 years after the mission of the original series began. While the original Star Trek was never a huge ratings’ success when it originally aired and picked up its army of fans over the years, The Next Generation was an immediate hit.
Even by its fifth season, 12 million viewers tuned in to the series and the finale in its seventh season brought in over 30 million viewers in 1994.
Overall, Star Trek: The Next Generation aired for seven seasons and had 178 total episodes. If it wasn’t for the success of this series, there would have been no Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise or Discovery. The Next Generation was also a critical success, winning 19 Emmy Awards, two Hugos and five Saturn Awards.
Not only was the series extremely successful, but the Next Generation crew replaced the original in the movie series starting with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and even included a meeting of Jean-Luc Pickard and Captain Kirk.
Image: Netflix
8. Black Mirror
While Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were the science fiction anthology series that remains the template for all that followed, the Netflix series Black Mirror took the ideas and updated it for a new generation — and if anyone thought Twilight Zone made people think, Black Mirror chose to scare people outright.
When it comes to Black Mirror, the series chose to take the philosophical questions posed by The Twilight Zone and dedicate the entire series into looking at what happens when technology goes bad — a science fiction topic since the days of Blade Runner and this series is steeped in the kind of questions asked by someone like Philip K. Dick.
The series originally aired in the UK and Netflix purchased the rights and created a third and fourth season. These episodes are all longer than normal anthology show episodes and there are also fewer of them in a season — with 19 total between the four aired seasons so far.
Thanks to Netflix, there is no fear of censorship, which creates thought-provoking and frightening storylines. While this is a Netflix series, Black Mirror is not something anyone wants to binge-watch, because each episode has you questioning the world in which we live and watching too many in repetition is not encouraged.
The one episode that stands above them all is “San Junipero,” from the third season, and that episode won a Primetime Emmy Award. Things got even better in season 4 when the series picked up eight Emmy nominations.
The fifth season of Black Mirror has started filming for possibly a 2019 release.
SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 13: The Cast of Firefly (Standing L-R) Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk Tim Minear. Sean Maher, Nathan Fillion, (Kneeling) Summer Glau and Joss Whedon at the “Firefly” 10 Year Anniversary Reunion Press Conference during Comic-Con International 2012 held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel on July 13, 2012 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
7. Firefly
Ask any fan of science fiction TV which show was canceled before its time and almost everyone will have Firefly somewhere on their list. The show came after Joss Whedon had reached great success with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it aired for the first time in 2002.
There was a huge problem from the start. Fox sabotaged the show and aired the episodes out of order, which confused viewers since they missed out on key information as the show was set up as a continuing journey.
Firefly is a science fiction TV series that mixes the space opera drama with the classic western. Nathan Fillion is Mac Reynolds, the captain of the spacecraft Serenity. Mac is former military and fought for independence. He is now more of a smuggler who takes on jobs for his crew.
The rest of the cast includes his second-in-command Zoe, her husband and the pilot of Serenity Wash, a “Companion” named Inara, a mercenary named Jayne, a mechanic named Kaylee, a Shepherd named Book, a doctor named Simon and his sister — the mysterious River (Summer Glau).
Because of Fox airing the show out of order and giving it no support, they canceled the series after 11 episodes aired, leaving three unaired. In 2003, those final three episodes aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. Whedon planned for a seven-year run but was lucky to barely get one.
However, the show reached critical and fam acclaim after its cancelation and was a huge bestseller on DVD. It even won an Emmy Award, which had to take Fox by surprise. Thanks to the support, it spawned a movie called Serenity in 2005 so that Whedon could tell more of the story.
Image: Fox
6. Fringe
It seems that when a science fiction TV series goes too hard in the realm of sci-fi, it tends to turn off mainstream audiences and ends up canceled. That could have happened to Fringe, one of the best hard sci-fi shows in television history.
Luckily, Fox supported this one even with lower ratings’ numbers — probably due to J.J. Abrams involvement in its creation.
Fringe starred Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek), Ana Torv (Mindhunter) and John Noble (Sleepy Hollow) as members of the FBI’s Fringe Division. This is similar to The X-Files, except instead of hunting a monster of the week and aliens, this team uses fringe science to help solve unexplained cases.
It also deals with a parallel universe.
Imagine if the X-Files merged with Lost, but used hard science fiction rather than fantasy elements — you would be close to what fans received when Fringe was on the air. While the ratings never touched something like The X-Files, the cult following made this one of the most beloved sci-fi TV series in history.
When season 2 opened up the idea of the alternate universe, the show really started to fly and the rest of the series alternated between the worlds, with the heroes of our universe trying to avert disaster.
Fringe lasted for five seasons and 100 episodes and is one of the few science fiction TV series to tell its entire story — from start to conclusion.
Image: Fox
5. The X-Files
Easily, one of the most popular science fiction TV series of all-time is The X-Files. Premiering in 1003, the Chris Carter created series took two FBI agents — one who believed in the supernatural and one who did not — and teamed them up to deal with threats considered paranormal in threat.
The series was successful thanks to the two partners that led the series for most of its existence — David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully. With Fox experiencing an alien abduction of his sister as a child, he knows something else is out there while Scully only believes what she can see with her own eyes.
The X-Files often took the look of two different shows. The first was the Monster of the Week episodes, which saw Scully and Mulder investigate a case and end up having to stop a monster or other supernatural beings.
The other — and the theme that would soon dominate the series — involved aliens and their existence as well as the intent of people in charge to cover up the fact that they have been to Earth.
The X-Files finally met its demise when Duchovny left the show and Robert Patrick took his place as John Doggett while Annabeth Gish (Monica Reyes) showed up as another key new cast member. The show ended after two more seasons.
However, The X-Files was too popular to hold down. There were two movies that came, one a Monster of the Week variety and the other a movie steeped in the alien mythology.
That was isn’t either. In 2016, 14 years after the original season finale, The X-Files was back with the original cast for a 10th season and in 2018, the 11th season aired. Overall, there were 11 seasons and 218 episodes, with two movies.
Image: BBC
4. Doctor Who
Easily, the most successful and longest-running science fiction TV series of all-time is a UK series titled Doctor Who.
Doctor Who originally aired in 1963 on BBC as a children’s educational-styled science fiction TV series. The Doctor is a rogue Time Lord who stole a time-traveling device known as the TARDIS and set off on adventures.
Since the show has aired for 55 years now, it was necessary to change Doctors and the series actually wrote that into the story, with Doctors regenerating and taking on a new body and appearance.
Originally, the purpose of Doctor Who was educational in nature, teaching kids science while using time travel as an entertainment device to catch their interest. The series aired on BBC for 26 seasons before they canceled it in 1989.
There were seven Doctors in that time frame.
Doctor Who finally returned in 2005, and instead of calling it the 27th season, it was renamed as Series, although it kept everything canon and was a direct sequel to the first 26 seasons and the movie.
Since returning, there have been some big names to play the Doctor, including Christopher Eccleston for one season, David Tennant for four seasons, Matt Smith for four seasons, Peter Capaldi for three seasons, and the very first female Doctor coming this year with Jodie Whittaker.
The history is quite amazing, as no other science fiction TV series show has come close to the number of episodes that Doctor Who has reached — sitting at 840 total episodes, with 97 missing episodes out there as well.
Image: CBS
3. The Twilight Zone
As mentioned with The Outer Limits, the difference between it and The Twilight Zone is that Twilight Zone had a lot more fantasy elements mixed in with the hard science fiction storylines. However, when it comes to success, there is nothing that really touches The Twilight Zone for sci-fi anthology TV.
Created by Rod Sterling, Twilight Zone began to air in 1959 on CBS and ran for five seasons. Each episode was a standalone story that dealt with horror, fantasy and the supernatural, but also used science fiction as a plot device as well (such as nuclear war).
They almost always ended with a twist at the end that delivered the episode’s moral lesson of the evening.
Those five seasons resulted in 156 total episodes and no less than horror icon Richard Matheson helped write the episodes with Sterling and Charles Beaumont (the three men wrote 127 of the episodes).
That first season also included actors as famous as Bill Bixby, Carol Burnett, Charles Bronson, Robert Duvall, Peter Falk, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard, Martin Landau, Burt Reynolds, Dean Stockwell, George Takei and Mickey Rooney.
In 1985, The Twilight Zone returned to television after Twilight Zone: The Movie hit theaters. This time, a variety of writers came onboard, but there were big names — Harlan Ellison, George R.R. Martin, Wes Craven and William Friedkin among them, and actors like Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman took on roles in episodes.
It lasted for three seasons and 65 episodes.
Finally, in 2002, UPN brought back The Twilight Zone again, this time with Forest Whitaker hosting the show. It only lasted one season — but with an astonishing 43 episodes, putting the total episodes of this science fiction TV anthology at 264.
Image: NBC
2. Star Trek
While it is not the best of the franchise (that would be Star Trek: The Next Generation) or the most creative (that would be Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Star Trek: The Original Series is the most influential science fiction TV series of all-time.
There isn’t anyone close.
What is amazing is that Star Trek achieved this in just three seasons. The ratings were not great when the series aired from 1966-68. However, as time went on, more and more people discovered the series and the rest is history.
The show tells the story of the USS Enterprise and its crew — Captain James T. Kirk, second-in-command Spock, chief medical officer Bones McCoy, communications officer Uhura, helmsman Sulu, navigator Chekov, and chief engineer Scotty.
No show in science fiction TV history has a crew this iconic and memorable.
There were only 79 episodes and NBC canceled the series, appearing to kill the franchise.
That did not happen.
Instead, Star Trek became a massive hit on syndication and a decade later a movie was made … then another … then another. Eventually, there would be six movies with the original crew of the USS Enterprise, four with the Next Generation crew, and three with the original crew back in a rebooted franchise.
There would also be five sequel television series with a sixth one coming with Jean-Luc Pickard in the lead again. There was also an animated series in 1973, a bunch of games, too many books to list, and even a comic book series.
Star Trek is the template for how to build a science fiction franchise and no one has touched it in the realm of success.
Image: SyFy
1. Battlestar Galactica
In 1978, there was a science fiction TV series called Battlestar Galactica. It was basically a Star Trek ripoff but had enough original ideas to help it stand out on its own. With Dirk Benedict, Richard Hatch and Lorne Greene leading the way, it still only lasted one season, although a spinoff two years later gave it 10 more episodes.
That is not the Battlestar Galactica that sits at number one on the list of best science fiction television shows of all-time.
No, the series that tops this list was the remake that came in 2003. Originally airing as a three-hour movie on the Sci-Fi Channel, Battlestar Galactica took the storyline from the first movie and threw in political intrigue to make it the smartest space opera in television history.
Edward James Olmos was Adama, the commanding officer of the Galactica — the only remaining military ship after the Cylons launched an attack that wiped out almost the entire population of the Twelve Colonies of planets. The goal of the Galactica is to find a mythological planet that might hold hope known as Earth.
Joining him on the ship is the President and only survivor of the Colonial government Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell). Dirk Benedict’s Starbuck was gender-swapped with Katee Sackhoff turning in a career-defining role that made her a huge geek favorite.
Battlestar Galactica aired for four seasons and 75 episodes and told one of the greatest sci-fi stories that television has ever seen.
There was a spinoff called Caprica that lasted one season and another called Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome as a web series.
While some felt the series ended on a whimper, the fact is that the ride was what made it worth it and Battlestar Galactica deserves all the credit it ever received.
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