| Top 10 Sci Fi Shows |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 06:25 PM |
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Top 10 Sci Fi Shows
1. Babylon 5
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3. Star Trek: Next Generation
4. The Mandalorian
5. Andor
6. Star Trek: Voyager
7. Battlestar Galactica
8. Fallout
9. Dr Who (not the recent dungheap)
10. For All Mankind
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blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 06:41 PM |
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Honorable mention: Greenlander
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JollyJoker
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posted January 24, 2026 06:50 PM |
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That's a pretty ridiculous list - if you ignore for a moment that all these lists are crap anyway.
I wouldn't count apocalyptic stuff either (like Fallout) - that's not SF, it's more like Fantasy.
Then - what about Superhero stuff. The Boys? Also Fantasy?
What about:
The Expanse
Black Mirror
Severance
The Handmaid's Tale
To name only four that come to mind immediately.
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blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 06:52 PM |
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Edited by blizzard at 18:58, 24 Jan 2026.
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I have only seen the Expanse and I thought it took forever for anything to happen.
My list is pure gold.
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JollyJoker
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posted January 24, 2026 07:16 PM |
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From the look of your list I'd trust you to rank Star Trek TV shows halfwaay decently ...
Oh, and
blizzard said:
I have only seen the Expanse and I thought it took forever for anything to happen.
I suppose you like Game of Thrones. Took forever until "something happened" either, didn't it?
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JollyJoker
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posted January 24, 2026 08:52 PM |
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More SF shows that come to mind.
ReGenesis
Continuum
12 Monkeys
Person of Interest
Westworld
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blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 09:12 PM |
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The Copenhagen Test? Not quite as good as Greenlander.
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JollyJoker
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posted January 24, 2026 09:39 PM |
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Greenlander? There's a 2020 apocalyptic movie called Greenland (which wouldn't count), but no show of that title.
Copenhagen Test just started - what do you expect?
Also: Calling Battlestar Galactica an SF show is formally right, of course - but that tag is falling woefully short of what that show is actually delivering. The contrast to the first show couldn't be bigger. I mean, Westworld is covering part of the issues in that show, Person of Interest does - in its own way - deal with it as well, but the Biblical scope of Battlestar is virtually mind-blowing. It's an ambitious show and it succeeds on all levels.
I don't think, there has ever been a better TV show.
If you don't know it, check out ReGenesis. Awesome show for 4 seasons.
Handmaid's Tale is mind-blowing as well. Trump's US is actually making it all the more believable.
Black Mirror is really intelligent. It's an anthology show like Outer Limits. Artu adores it as well.
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blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 10:16 PM |
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Edited by blizzard at 22:21, 24 Jan 2026.
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I thought Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica was a little weak. The first three seasons were pure cinema.
Of course, the supreme example of a show that started out interesting and turned to pure garbage is Lost. I permanently lost respect for JJ Abrams.
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JollyJoker
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posted January 24, 2026 10:37 PM |
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Yeah, Lost was a superior case of wtF. 
Another one that comes to mind is Dead Zone. First 3 seasons are pretty good. The second half of the show was pretty meh.
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artu 
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posted January 24, 2026 11:44 PM |
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Edited by artu at 23:44, 24 Jan 2026.
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These are almost all light stuff.
I also prefer The Expanse, Westworld, Black Mirror and similar series that actually use the realm of possibility to present ontological questions rather than plain laser beam action. Although not on par with these, I’d definitely categorize Fallout as sci-fi. No magic, alternate universe and timeline, different technologies magnifiying different social and psychological issues. All conventional sci-fi elements, including the post-apocalyptic ones.
The Handmaiden’s Tale would be a dystopian political drama. There is no scientific speculation in it, none. It’s our world, our technology, our system going off the rail. It can hypothetically happen tomorrow. It isnt even “very near future sci-fi” like Black Mirror.
The Star Wars Universe, on the other hand, is traditionally fantasy and space-opera without any doubt. (If the hero is talking to a ghost who casts a lightning, it is fantasy. Lol.) Technology in SW is plain decor and costume. The robots for instance, do not underline anything about the human nature, bringing contrast with their mechanical existence, they are simply buttlers and pets dressed as machines. But there have been variants of the franchise recently, closer to sci-fi like Andor. Still, Mandalorian is just good ol’ laser action. It’s a good show, captures the traditional SW feel of the original trio perfectly unlike the prequels or sequels, but there is nothing special about it regarding sci-fi elements.
I’d say both Lost and BSG started out pretending to be sci-fi, yet, instead of solving the puzzles they presented, they mistified them as a cop out. So, I wouldnt call them sci-fi. Still, BSG is better. Lost is the series version of what we call a click-bait.
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blizzard
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posted January 24, 2026 11:55 PM |
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Edited by blizzard at 00:19, 25 Jan 2026.
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The Mandalorian is the only one on the list that is laser beam action... and very excellent laser beam action at that.
Fallout is machine gun action.. completely different.
What the top two have in common are FANTASTIC character arcs that exist within an EPIC narrative. Proper sci fi at its peak.
I probably shouldn't have ranked TNG as high as I did because it is much more episodic and therefore not as interesting, but I have fuzzy feelings towards so many of the characters.
Dr Who is basically a discount Star Trek without a proper budget (although the recent ones have a proper budget and are junk, so maybe they were better off being broke), but it still has some truly classic episodes.
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artu
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posted January 25, 2026 12:09 AM |
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I didnt say Fallout was laser beam action.
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Yogi
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of picnics
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posted January 25, 2026 05:19 AM |
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Re Battlestar should I watch the old ones or the new?
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artu
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posted January 25, 2026 06:56 AM |
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The remake is better. I had nostalgic sentiments for the original, it used to be on TV when I was a little kid, one of my earliest memories is seeing those droids on TV and going “wooow.” But it’s not an impressive show by today’s standards unless you have that kind of connection.
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JollyJoker
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posted January 25, 2026 11:17 AM |
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@ artu
You are wrong about BSG. It MASKS as a straight SciFi, but it immediately starts with humans believing in a pantheon of 12 gods that are attacked by SUPPOSEDLY man-made robots looking like humans who believe in ONE god.
It may look like a gigantic Frankenstein story - the creatures killing their masters -, but it's not. It's a RELIGIOUSLY motivated cleansing - the one true god wants to eradicate His misguided creation, a holocaust.
The key characters all have visions that tell them more than they could know, if they were just figments of their own mind. Balthars "vision" even tells him in season 2 that she is an angel of god sent to him to guard and protect him. And that Caprica 6 has the same visions of Balthar.
The show was never SCIENTIFIC in the sense that it's agnostic in a scientific modern way in which, if present at all, religion is only a quirk.
The show could have been titled: LOST CHAPTERS OF THE BIBLE
So say we all.
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artu
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posted January 25, 2026 11:45 AM |
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Edited by artu at 11:46, 25 Jan 2026.
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Well, I say “pretend” and you say “mask” and I dont think they are that different regarding the context. Let’s take your interpretation at face value, you know what you know NOW after the show is concluded. But we all started to watch it assuming it was sci-fi and expected that the puzzles (such as how did Starbuck return etc.) to be solved with rational conclusions. There was restless internet debate about what is what and how things will turn out.(As there was with Lost.) It was not an open allegory, people didnt resort to the Bible in order to know how things are going to turn out.
You can have religion in a sci-fi universe as long as the narrative itself isnt magical. If the all-seeing narrator of the story handles these religions of the characters in an anthropological manner, so to speak, it’s still sci-fi. So, the characters worshipping gods is not neccessseraly an indicator of the story itself turning into a religious allegory.
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JollyJoker
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posted January 25, 2026 01:17 PM |
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I'm sorry, but that's just the wrong expectations if you had watched the show closely enough. And with "you" I mean not just you, artu, but "the internet" discussing it.
I mean, the "pagan" so-called humans and the monotheistic also human cylons are open from the start.
Balthar has visions all the time, visions that are clearly not figments of his own mind, since the visions in the guise of Caprica 6 reveal things to him he can't possibly know.
In season two Caprica 6 sees visions of Balthar and Balthar's Caprica 6 vision tells him literally - in exactly these words - that she is an ANGEL OF GOD, sent to protect and guide him, and that's EXACTLY what she does, making sure, for example, that he can bear the pain of torture.
The cylons themselves state that they (tried to) exterminated the human race because it's god's will, that HE is sick of His creation and wants to start anew.
There is no "rational" explanation for this. Nor is there a rational explanation for the strange "coincidences" that lead to humans and cylons meeting each other and certaain key locations at key times (like shorty before a sun goes supernova) - and it's the cylons themselves that register that and speak out.
Then there is, also from early on, from since the Leoben cylon gets introduced, the claim "all of this has already happened many times and will happen again".
So OF COURSE it's Sci-Fi - but only because of the starships and the futuristic technology like the resurrection ships and the supposedly cybernetic guys - who are human - But it was NEVER "rational" as in scientifically rational in the first place.
It WASN'T. It ISN'T. It's always been Biblical in its scope, right from the start. I mean, how can there even be a shred of doubt about that. I mean, even if you are completely blind watching the show, end of the 3rd season, when the four singular cylons suddenly start talking in verse lines of that well-known song, "No reason to get excited" and "There's too much confusion" and "There must be some way out of here", that's a lantern pole of a tell. Lines from a song of OUR OWN history which seem to hint at a book of the Bible.
When I watched the show the first time, that was only the last nail. The whole situation ...
I mean, think of it: You have a FUTURISTIC (due to futuristic tech) technologically advanced humanity that follows a religion (and religion is important in that show - they even invented a different "amen") that is somehow part of our past. Polytheistic with names like Zeus and Hera who are from OUR past.
THAT humanity SUPPOSEDLY created intelligent robots who revolted and now come back being led by other "robots" looking like humans and believing in one god - a more advanced RELIGION. And those, umm, "proto-Jews" have been led to believe that their single god wants to eradicate the humans (because they believe in crappy gods).
That's Bible right away.
Now, obviously God's plan is different - to create a new race (but that we don't know, yet, in the beginning, but when that child of human and cylon is born, well) -, but it is pretty obvious that God doesn't want complete extinction, otherwise he wouldn't have Angels in His service whose task is to keep things on course in critical situations.
I have no clue what's supposed to be so difficult to get about it. It's all very obvious, and the whole Kara Thrace debate has been complete nonsense.
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artu
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My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted January 25, 2026 01:53 PM |
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I understand your perspective which basically says it’s sci-fi on the outside but religious allegory at the core. But again, the show didnt openly do that. It did “act out” puzzles as if they were actual puzzles that were eventually going to get resolved. I am very much convinced that this was a commercial decision based on creating suspense and cliffhangers. Not a deeply artistic one. It used all the conventions and instruments of suspense regarding editing, music, script arcs, yet, not resolved them accordingly. It switched the game in the end.
It’s been years since I watched it, everything is fuzzy, so I can not have an actual debate about how the details could have worked out. But since we never really knew who was actually a cyborg and who was human, (another element of suspense), visions, dreams etc. could all be about a collective cloud mind, distorted memory downloads, etc… It’s one thing to say they werent, it’s another thing to say a scenario where they are somehow explained was impossible from the beginning. The possibilities are almost endless, that is THE BAIT.
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bloodsucker
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posted January 25, 2026 02:32 PM |
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My favorite of all times is Espaço 1999 (Space 1999?) but it's not on that list.
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