7 Sci-Fi Shows With Truly Dark Endings

Turning on a TV means opening a doorway to countless stories. With streaming now part of the mix, there really is something for everyone at any given moment. The current state of the world likely drives many to seek out shows that offer levity. Sitcoms have a knack for doing that because, even if they have dark moments, they always go back to having fun. However, there are only so many wacky situations that one can tolerate before they want to move on to something else, something with a bit more gravitas. Fortunately, there are plenty of shows that offer that as well.

Science-fiction series always have a way of drawing viewers in by utilizing mystery boxes and various difficult-to-understand concepts. The mission is usually impossible, but more often than not, good triumphs over evil. The cases where that doesn’t happen, though, are where the true intrigue lies. Here are seven sci-fi shows with truly dark endings.

7) ALF

While the text above mentions how sitcoms and sci-fi shows can’t scratch the same itch, ALF is the one exception. The show revolves around an alien who crash-lands in California and moves in with a nice family. While ALF enjoys being on Earth, he really wants to return home, and he gets a chance in the show’s finale. However, the government captures him before he can depart. ALF was cancelled before it could resolve its cliffhanger, with a television film having to pick up the slack six years later.

6) 12 Monkeys

Syfy’s 12 Monkeys doesn’t seem like a show that belongs on this list. After travelling through time to save the world from a nasty plague orchestrated by the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, Cole gets to have his cake and eat it, too, by surviving the timeline change. However, the show’s seemingly happy ending may not be as cozy as it seems, as there is evidence that being an anomaly could create problems for Cole and the people he cares about down the line.

5) Blake’s 7

The most popular BBC sci-fi show, of course, is Doctor Who, which has its fair share of dark moments. However, none of them compares to the ending of Blake’s 7. After the leader of the show’s crew, Roj Blake, disappears, his former right-hand man, Kerr Avon, tracks him down in the last episode of series four. The reunion doesn’t go as planned, though, as Avon kills Blake and watches as the rest of the crew gets shot by Federation troops. The screen cuts to black before he bites it, but the implication is that he doesn’t survive the battle.

4) Battlestar Galactica

Fighting for survival is the name of the game in Battlestar Galactica. The war between humanity and the Cylons drives both species to near extinction, but they find common ground at the end of the show. After discovering a new Earth, everyone agrees to give up technology and restart society from the beginning. But the ending, while wholesome, fails to consider how hard things will be for all the survivors. The best they can hope for is that half of them survive the difficult conditions.

3) Quantum Leap

An experiment gone awry forces Sam Beckett to spend his days travelling through time and living as other people. His unique circumstances allow him to make the world a better place, but he never gets to help himself. Even during Quantum Leap‘s final moments, the show decides to explain that Sam never returns home despite learning that he can control where he jumps. It’s a tough pill to swallow after watching Scott Bakula’s character give up so much.

2) Legends of Tomorrow

Despite being a spinoff of Arrow and The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow doesn’t have much in common with those shows. It’s a sci-fi series that follows a group of misfits tasked with keeping the timeline intact. Well, the Legends mess up big time and get themselves arrested in the show’s Season 7 finale. The cliffhanger doesn’t have a resolution, though, because Legends of Tomorrow got canceled before it could explain itself, leaving the fates of all of its characters a mystery.

1) Lost

There are very few shows with as many twists and turns as Lost. For nearly the entire series’ run, it’s difficult to tell whether the island is real or if Jack and Co. are just losing their minds. Lost’s final episode provides answers by revealing that nothing is fake and that Jack’s death saves everyone he cares for. However, while it’s nice to see Jack reunite with all of his friends in the church before the credits roll, it’s hard to move past the fact that they’re all dead.

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