5 Oddball Sci-fi Shows That Every Doctor Who Fan Should Binge Right Now

Doctor Who began as a British TV show that helped educate children about science and history. From there, the series explored nearly every type of genre over the decades. That is probably one of the reasons fans enjoy it so much. One week, the Doctor might be fighting an alien invasion. The next, he could be trapped in a strange pocket of time, dealing with a creature that makes absolutely no sense. It is sci-fi, but it has never been afraid to be a bit of an oddball.

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And as of 2026, there have been many different leads as the Doctor. That leaves Doctor Who fans with a big selection of shows to explore. There are easy and popular choices to go with, but what about the stranger series that share some of that same DNA? The shows that mix science fiction with horror, comedy, surrealism, time travel, or some British eccentricity? If the strange side of Doctor Who is what keeps you hooked, these are five oddball sci-fi shows worth adding to the binge list.

5) The Prisoner

The Prisoner might seem like a fairly odd choice for Doctor Who fans. The show is about a former secret agent who suddenly finds himself trapped in a mysterious seaside village. To make matters worse, he doesn’t know where he is or who is controlling the place. And things only get stranger from there.

What makes The Prisoner such a good fit is how willing it is to abandon normal storytelling. The Village has its own rules, strange technology, bizarre inhabitants, and increasingly surreal situations. The series constantly plays with identity, authority, freedom, and reality itself. That should sound familiar to anyone who enjoys the more unusual corners of Doctor Who. Its lead, Number Six, is also a very different kind of protagonist from the Doctor. He wants answers, and he refuses to give up. The Prisoner can be confusing by design, but like the strangest Doctor Who stories, it leaves you wondering what on Earth you just watched.

4) Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

If you enjoy the more comedic and chaotic side of Doctor Who, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is for you. Based on the novels by Douglas Adams, the series follows the bizarre detective Dirk Gently and his unwilling companion Todd Brotzman. The basic idea is that everything in the universe is connected. Dirk isn’t a conventional detective, by the way. He simply goes along with what’s happening until the pieces eventually fit together.

If that sounds ridiculous—that’s because it is. But underneath all the chaos is the same kind of playful science fiction that made some of Doctor Who’s strangest stories work. There are time-travel elements, strange technology, assassins, and conspiracies. You’ll even get the sense that some characters have wandered in from completely different shows. Yet somehow, it all works out. Dirk himself also has some of the Doctor’s more eccentric qualities. He’s clever, unpredictable, confident, and not always concerned with explaining himself. The show has its own identity, but it understands that science fiction can be funny, strange, and completely unpredictable. It definitely belongs on our list of 7 sci-fi TV shows that ended too soon.

3) Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf puts a twist on the standard sci-fi concept of being stranded in deep space—and turns it into a comedy. The story follows four characters who probably shouldn’t have been trusted on a spaceship in the first place. The leader of the bunch is Dave Lister, the last surviving human from his ship. His crew includes a hologram, a creature that evolved from a cat, and a mechanoid named Kryten. And unfortunately, they are stuck millions of years away from Earth.

That setup gives Red Dwarf plenty of room to go completely off the rails. And it does. The crew encounters all kinds of bizarre situations. Expect to see strange planets, alternate realities, time travel, artificial intelligence, and alien technology. It also mixes serious science-fiction concepts with ridiculous comedy. One minute, the characters are going through a huge existential problem. Next, they’re arguing over something completely stupid. The show also has that distinctly British sense of humor. For Doctor Who fans who enjoy the show’s sillier moments, Red Dwarf is hard to resist. Tragically, the show’s creator, Rob Grant, almost returned to the series with a new book.

2) Farscape

Farscape is basically Doctor Who if the Doctor got stranded on the other side of the galaxy, lost the TARDIS, and had to make friends with a bunch of escaped aliens. An astronaut named John Crichton accidentally gets thrown through a wormhole and ends up in a distant part of the galaxy. He then joins a crew of fugitives aboard a living spaceship. Hunted by the Peacekeepers, they travel from place to place trying to survive, find their freedom, and somehow get Crichton back home.

That setup gives Farscape plenty of room to get weird. And it does. You get strange aliens, bizarre technology, dark comedy, and plenty of unexpected situations. The crew also slowly becomes a kind of found family, even though most of them probably wouldn’t have chosen each other under normal circumstances. Crichton is another big reason the show works. He’s clever and funny, but he’s also completely out of his depth in this strange part of the galaxy. For Doctor Who fans who enjoy the show’s sense of adventure, strange aliens, and occasional chaos, Farscape is one wild sci-fi show that has a lot to offer.

1) Sapphire & Steel

If there is one show that could have been hiding in a hidden corner of the Doctor Who universe, it is Sapphire & Steel. The series follows two operatives who are assigned to deal with disturbances to the timeline. Sapphire and Steel aren’t quite human in the conventional sense. The show also refuses to give viewers a coherent explanation for what they actually are.

Unlike Doctor Who, Sapphire & Steel isn’t particularly interested in making time travel look glamorous—it does the complete opposite. Time itself becomes something dangerous, and ordinary places can feel completely wrong. A seemingly harmless old house or a collection of photographs can become the center of something genuinely disturbing. The series also has a slow, eerie atmosphere that feels closer to supernatural horror than traditional space adventure. Sapphire and Steel themselves are another big part of the appeal. They are calm, strange, and almost impossibly difficult to understand. Watching them deal with whatever has gone wrong with time can feel like watching two alien beings quietly clean up a problem that humanity was never supposed to see. It is odd, atmospheric, and wonderfully British—perfect for Doctor Who fans.

If the TARDIS has taught us anything, it’s that the universe is a lot more fun when things get a little weird. So grab the sonic screwdriver, forget about playing it safe, and start watching these shows before time runs out—or something to that effect.