There are some good sci-fi TV shows on cable, network television, and streaming right now. With titles like Alien: Earth, Silo, From, and Stranger Things, there is a lot to love on TV right now. However, when digging deeper, it is clear that, after the modern-day elite sci-fi shows, there is a drop-off compared to past television shows. Sci-fi has been a popular genre on television for years, with Star Trek getting its start on TV and some of the biggest television franchises of all time being in that specific genre. Sci-fi doesn’t always get the respect it deserves from critics, but fans have always been along for the ride.
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From the best Star Trek series of all time to cult favorites and huge franchise favorites, here are seven sci-fi series that are better than 90% of anything released this decade.
7) Lost
Some people don’t consider Lost a sci-fi television series, but they would be wrong. With time travel, temporal anomalies, the machines that caused the plane to crash, the scientific experiments that created things like the Smoke Monster, and the Dharma Initiative, it fits easily into the sci-fi genre. There are also fantasy elements, but it is this combination of scientific and spiritual ideas that made the show so intriguing.
The debut episode of Lost was one of the most-watched in television history, and it remains a gripping and exciting episode to this day. There wasn’t much better on television than the first few seasons of Lost. The show started to lose steam when it began exploring the flash-forwards, and the finale remains polarizing: some call it one of the worst in history, while others call it a brilliant end to the story. However, when taken as a whole series, there wasn’t much that was as engrossing and exploratory as Lost.
6) Fringe
Looking back, Fringe is the perfect exploration of the sci-fi genre following the end of The X-Files. The title of the show refers to the idea that the team explores theories on the fringe edges of science. It is the commitment to this premise that helps set it apart from sci-fi shows this decade, as it really goes to the deep end with its mythology, especially with the parallel-universe concept.
It also helps that, while not shying away from the case-of-the-week format, it has a grounded center in the team’s family dynamic as they fight together through the different scientific discoveries they make along the way. What really makes Fringe stand out from other sci-fi shows, past and present, is that the series had a planned beginning, middle, and end, and told its whole story in five seasons without padding the runtime or rushing to an early end. More networks should treat their sci-fi shows with such respect.
5) Firefly
Unlike Fringe, which was treated with respect and was allowed to tell its story, Firefly was treated horribly and was doomed from the start. When FOX began airing Firefly, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, the network started airing the episodes out of order. This confused viewers, since it was episodic storytelling, and many tuned out, leading FOX to cancel the show. However, when Firefly hit home video, fans fell in love since they finally saw the series in the correct order.
What really made Firefly shine was a smart story with a fantastic cast, and the Western setting in a sci-fi space opera was just different enough to set it apart. Nathan Fillion was incredible in the lead role, and his entire supporting cast was perfect around him, making this a show that should have seen success for multiple seasons. However, it ended after one season, while lesser shows got long lives they didn’t deserve.
4) The Twilight Zone
There are several sci-fi, fantasy, and horror anthology series that have existed over the years. However, the best of the best has always been The Twilight Zone. Starting in 1959, Rob Serling created and opened every episode by sending fans into this wild world where anything could happen. There isn’t an anthology series this decade that touches the brilliance of The Twilight Zone.
Serling takes viewers into worlds where a nuclear bomb destroys everything, and only one man survives, happy to be alone to read his books until tragedy befalls him. In another world, a young boy has psychic powers that force everyone to make him happy, or else. William Shatner is even in an episode where a gremlin on the plane wing threatens to kill everyone on board. The Twilight Zone was a groundbreaking series and remains the best collection of sci-fi stories on TV.
3) Star Trek: The Next Generation
There have been several Star Trek television shows over the years, and while fans love the originals, there hasn’t been a better series than Star Trek: The Next Generation. While the original series was a fun trip into space and beyond, TNG was more mature and sophisticated in its storytelling. It often introduced philosophical storylines that made viewers think, with episodes like “The Measure of a Man” and “The Inner Light” as prime examples.
The cast also became as iconic as the original series, with Patrick Stewart perfect as Picard and his surrounding cast better than most of the series that aired since, especially with characters like Worf and Riker. This was also more straightforward, and while many Star Trek series, including some from this decade, were overly complicated, TNG was more refined and featured some of the franchise’s best stories.
2) The X-Files
The X-Files never should have been a success, given that FOX scheduled it on nights that were often a graveyard for television. It was put on Friday night, where almost nothing succeeded, and it was a ratings success. Eventually, FOX moved it to Sundays, another terrible night for television, and it succeeded there as well. The success came from great storytelling and a perfect leading duo of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Mulder and Scully.
There have been plenty of shows that copied the X-Files’ success over the years, with Supernatural being the most successful. However, it was The X-Files that created the template for monster-of-the-week episodes mixed with some fantastic mythological world-building that played out through the series. While the alien mythology was the weakest part of the series, The X-Files remains the best of its genre on TV.
1) Battlestar Galactica
In 1978, ABC launched a sci-fi television series to capitalize on the success of Star Wars. This was Battlestar Galactica, and it only lasted one season, even though it achieved cult status for several reasons, including a very popular toyline for kids at the time. No one could have ever imagined that it would return over 20 years later with one of the sci-fi genre’s most innovative and respected television shows.
What makes Battlestar Galactica so great is that it was smart and refused to take the easy way out, despite being on the Sci-Fi Channel at the time. This was a militaristic sci-fi space opera, and the cast took everything seriously thanks to Ronald D. Moore’s intense, groundbreaking storytelling. The series lasted four seasons and told one of the best space-based sci-fi stories in history; very few since then have come close.
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm.
