Gillian Anderson (left) and David Duchovny as Scully and Mulder in the X-Files
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Television has not been favorable to science fiction, with more modest budgets faithful to special effects and epic stories that cover the universe, canceled ahead of time. But despite all the obstacles, countless series have proven that enduring storytelling on the small screen is the ideal way to explore complex concepts and philosophies that make this genre so fascinating.
With so much gold available, the New Scientist team found that opting for their favorite sci-fi series was a tricky task: not everyone can limit themselves to just one. While this list is far from definitive (and is not presented in any specific order), we hope that our assortment includes something for everyone, no matter what kind of sci-fi fan you are.
Rebooted from an ill-fated 1978 series, Battlestar Galactica begins with a nuclear holocaust and the remnants of humanity reuniting aboard ramshackle spaceships to flee from intelligent machines. But its most compelling moments involve survivors suffering to balance social and moral norms with the bloodless calculation of survival. Jeremy H Su
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Katee Sackhoff as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in Battlestar Galactica
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The Leftovers isn’t just the best sci-fi series I have seen, it’s perhaps the greatest TV show ever made. Big claim, I know. The premise is weird: what if one day, out of nowhere, 2 per cent of the population disappeared? Don’t expect answers to why this happened – the series doesn’t offer any. Instead, it explores the gritty fallout of so much inexplicable grief and loss. Chelsea Whyte
My family didn’t like Doctor Who, so this show was, I think, my sci-fi entry (if you travel back in time to sci-fi, which is what I do the most). It follows physicist Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), who has invented a way to travel back in time, although it’s not exactly what he expected. Sam has disappeared from his own reality, but his consciousness flows into the bodies of other people, whose lives he will have to sort out before he can move on and hopefully return home. The series rebooted in 2022, and when I have a minute to myself that’s rarely filled with kids, books, or the urge to sleep, I’ll watch it. Alison Flood
The two science fiction components, a black film component and the richly detailed universe of the extension attracted me like no other. Set in a long term where humanity has colonized the solar system, follows the team of an ice conveyor from deep areas and a hard detective while investigating the disappearance of a rich heiress. In a short time, they were involved in plots and uprisings through the exploited Belters that inhabit asteroids. Long live the long alliance of the outer planets! Bethany Ackerley
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Black Mirror operates in a weird sci-fi twilight zone, not fancy enough to feel made-up indeed, but a little too futuristic to feel like a real-life drama. Each episode dives into how generation warps the human experience, jumping from genres from Romcom to Slasher Horror. The first series is the most exciting, the first episode, starring the British prime minister and a pig, will burn in your brain, but through the black mirror is what it does, disturbing and dark.
How many stories start with someone opening a door and stepping into the unknown? The joy of Doctor Who, and one of the two reasons for its longevity, is that the titular Doctor’s spacecraft is a portal to anywhere in time and space. You can set a story in Victorian London or a billion years in the future. The other reason why the show has lasted over 60 years is that the Doctor can regenerate into a new body – convenient when you want to cast a new lead. Rowan Hooper
I began watching The X-Files when I was about nine years old – way too young!I idea Mulder was the epitome of cool, I sought after to him, and I was fascinated and terrified through the monsters he and Scully encountered each and each week. In revisiting the display as an adult, I known more with the skeptical Scully and was drawn to the long-standing narrative of an alien conspiracy. It’s this layout of weaving self-contained plots with ongoing stories that makes The X-Files so good. Let’s pretend that the revival of the 2010s never happened. Jacob Aron
Futurama’s friend’s episode
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Set in New New York at the turn of the 31st century, this animated series is, in essence, your classic workplace sitcom, with all the main characters working at interplanetary delivery company Planet Express (including Philip J. Fry, who was cryogenically frozen in 1999 and wakes up 1000 years later). Futurama has an absurdly high gags-per-minute ratio, but there are also deeply poignant moments – even the mere thought of Fry’s dog makes me sob – and frequent, satisfying homages to science fiction. Tim Boddy
Imagine Han Solo from Star Wars walking into a Wild West saloon. A mash-up of Westerns and sci-fi, Firefly sees a crew of lovable misfits on the spacecraft Serenity trying to survive and make a difference in a space empire ruled by the Alliance. The series has become a cult classic thanks to its idiosyncratic characters, compelling cast, inventive storylines and snappy dialogue. Chris Simms
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At first glance, Fringe would possibly look as a successor of the X-Files: it presents a pair of somewhat antagonistic researchers and temporarily deepens the supernatural and the personal. But it is much more than that. Where X files had extraterrestrial beings and government conspiracies, Fringe has parallel universes, circle of secrets of relatives, psychedelic and sensory deprivations, as well as an incredibly strong element of secondary characters. men turned into giant porcupines. Karmela Padavic-Calaghan
I’m hesitant to admit that science fiction isn’t my favorite selection of entertainment: stories of robots and aliens don’t suit me. But Outlander offers a select take on the genre, with plenty of romance and a boastful heroine. It follows Claire Beauchamp, who accidentally traveled back in time from 1945 to 1743. Once she accepted her fate (and met the love of her life, Jamie), Claire, a nurse, mistakes her contemporaries for her wisdom in Anatomy of the 20th Century. And pathogens, not to mention their feminist attitude. Alexandra Thompson
The Star Wars franchise began as an undeniable local opera: the Empire is evil because its agents look fascist; Rebels are smart because they’re not. But recent bills have done much to complicate this narrative. Andor explores what an “orderly” empire would look like (colonialist, mundane, dehumanizing) and why those situations turn thieves into heroes. Linda Rodriguez-McRobbie
There is something about Altered Carbon that is awful and depressing, but also incredibly appealing. Who wouldn’t want to be able to try out a smorgasbord of different bodies, or “sleeves” as they are called in the show? Epic cities, gross inequality, affable AIs and a questionable storyline – this cyberpunk series has it all! Finn Grant
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I find it difficult to watch TV at night after work, the kids, or life in the day’s bag; I regularly fall asleep. Not when it comes to the adventures of Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and their motley crew. I’ve watched every episode of The Walking Dead, from Rick’s awakening in the hospital to finding a world ravaged by a virus that has turned each and every one into “walkers” into the horrific communities they keep coming to. It’s shocking, it’s well acted, and especially in the previous series, it’s full of surprises. Alison Flood
The Star Trek crew in 1966
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The original Star Trek is an ambitious style for a science-led society, with true equality and non-violent exploration. It’s a cathartic way to escape today’s tumultuous world, perhaps even more so than it would have been in the ’60s. It’s a wonderful exhibit to dip in and out of, and the over-the-top Technicolor, horrible special effects, and wooden acting only add to its appeal. The series has spawned a bewildering array of spin-offs of varying quality, but in my opinion, there’s nothing better than the original. Matthew Sparkes
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From an earth that has become a nuclear wasteland to one threatened through aliens, there has been a standout sci-fi television in 2024. Our columnist Bethan Ackerley showcases his five most productive exhibits
What would your life be like if you had made other decisions at key moments?And what would you do if you could only escape into the other multiverses that made the impression in the places, with other you?That’s the intriguing premise of dark matter, adapted for television through Blake Crouch from his own book. The first few episodes can be a little slow at times, but it gets bigger and bigger after that. Michael Le Page
The recency bias will be condemned: despite the fact that it starts in 2022, Severance has already received its position among the biggest sci-fi television of all time. Imagine if you could separate the memories of your paintings from the rest of your life. At first, outsourcing milling may seem obvious, but what horrors can your frame simply live unknowingly in the office, and what heartache can just the editing of choice?Bethan Ackerley