7 Frustrating Sci-Fi TV Cliffhangers That Will Never Be Resolved

Many science fiction series end on cliffhangers so that viewers will be excited to tune in to the next episode. The original Doctor Who epitomized this practice by offering serialized stories that were four to six parts each, with each part ending with a cliffhanger.

Modern science fiction series usually tell one story per episode rather than stretching into multiple episodes, but often end their season on a cliffhanger to give the audience something to talk about during the hiatus. This is a strong strategy for building excitement for when the series returns. However, several science fiction series were canceled before they should have been, and were not given an extra episode to wrap things up. This frustrating practice left characters in limbo and cliffhangers permanently unresolved.

7) Dark Matter’s Intergalactic War Won’t Be Fought

The ABC series Dark Matter (not to be confused with the recent Apple+ sci-fi series with the same name) had an intriguing premise: a group of people wake up on an intergalactic spaceship with no memory of how they got there or who they are. Over the course of three seasons, the crew gradually learned they had been criminals and evolved into heroes fighting forces bigger than they were.

Unfortunately, their last and biggest fight will remain forever unresolved. At the end of season 3, the Earth was under threat of invasion from a new race of aliens, the Black Ships, and the crew was scattered, with one person killed and another taken prisoner. This exciting cliffhanger was supposed to be the start of a new intergalactic war, but the series was canceled soon after the season 3 finale ended, so now the fate of the crew — and of Earth itself — is forever unknown.

6) FlashForward’s Alternative Future Can’t Be Resolved

FlashForward is a canceled science fiction series that deserves a second chance. The series revolved around the cause of a short blackout that allowed everyone to see their futures for a brief moment. While ordinary people were scrambling to understand what had happened, the FBI investigated the cause of the phenomenon.

The season 1 finale, which unfortunately became the series finale after the show was canceled, intensified the stakes. There was a second worldwide blackout, and this time, people saw a different future than they had before. Characters experienced waking from comas, children screaming in terror, and even a shootout with the FBI.

These new developments hinted at exciting reveals in season 2, but ABC canceled the show, so now the characters—and the audience—will never find out who was causing these blackouts or what these flash forwards meant.

5) The Whispers’ Children Will Forever Be Stuck on An Alien Ship

The third ABC casualty was The Whispers, which aired for only 1 season in 2015. The Whispers not only starred future This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia, but also offered a chilling concept: Aliens manipulating children into carrying out heinous attacks against Earth.

The season 1 finale upped the stakes considerably by having the aliens abduct a bunch of kids and take them aboard a spacecraft. What were they planning to do with them now? Were their parents ever going to realize they were missing, or would the aliens cause them to forget their own kids? We’ll never know, because ABC canceled the show before this cliffhanger could be resolved.

4) The Society’s Biggest Mystery Remains Unsolved

Netflix’s The Society was an interesting sci-fi teen drama in which a group of kids returned to a deserted town after a field trip. The kids had to set up their own society, learn to fend for themselves, and decide whether they would be a redux of Lord of the Flies or live in peace with each other.

The season 1 cliffhanger for the Netflix series was equally intriguing, revealing that the adults were living in a parallel universe in which they were mourning the loss of their missing children. We will never know which universe was the original one the kids came from or if they were ever reunited with their families, because Netflix canceled the series due to COVID-19-related scheduling problems.

3) The Fate of the Sliders Crew Is Forever Unknown

Sliders is one of the science-fiction shows that most needs a reboot, if for no other reason than to resolve its incredibly frustrating series finale. For five seasons, the characters slid from universe to universe, looking for home, but the fifth and final season finale upped the stakes considerably.

During the final episode, Quinn merged with his alternate universe self, and it was unclear whether this hybrid version of Quinns 1 and 2 survived the next slide. The other sliders jumped into the wormhole again, but it wasn’t revealed where they ended up. The series was canceled after that non-ending, leaving fans frustrated and with no way to get answers about any character’s fate, especially after NBC’s proposed Sliders reboot didn’t materialize.

2) The Fate of Alphas’ Dr. Rosen Forever Remains A Mystery

Alphas was an exciting blend of X-Men‘s core premise with the police procedurals that are so popular today. This SyFy series focused on a group of people with extraordinary powers that was helping the government find others like them. Its characters were fully developed and unique, and they often struggled with moral dilemmas.

At the end of the second season, the world had geared up for a civil war between Alphas and humans. The season finale featured an exciting battle that began with Dr. Rosen broadcasting a signal that appeared to result in mass casualties, one of whom appeared to be Rosen himself, who collapsed.

The final shot looked like something from The Walking Dead, with a body full of streets, but was that real or a fakeout? No one knows, nor does the audience know if Rosen survived his own attack, because SyFy canceled the series.

1) Quantum Leap’s Sam Beckett Will Never Get Back Into His Original Body

The ending cliffhanger of the original Quantum Leap is one of the most frustrating in science fiction history. Throughout the series, Sam jumped into others’ bodies to right historical wrongs, but his ultimate goal was supposed to be to eventually get back to his own body.

When NBC canceled the show, the producers tried to give it an ending, but what they chose was ultimately unsatisfying. The final episode featured Sam jumping into a bar outside of time and space and learning he’d been guiding his own leaps. Instead of returning home, he jumped into Al’s past, and a caption card informed the audience that he never returned to his own body.

That title card didn’t negate the cliffhanger of Sam trying to help Al, nor did it make for a satisfying ending to Sam’s journey. To make matters worse, the rebooted Quantum Leap didn’t feature Sam at all, so the audience still doesn’t have answers as to what happened next or why Sam was unable to ever return home.

What unresolved science fiction cliffhanger frustrated you the most? Leave a comment and join the conversation at the ComicBook Forum.

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