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There is no authoritative ranking of the greatest science fiction series: critics’ and editors’ lists use different criteria and reach different selections. This list weighs imaginative ambition, storytelling, influence and staying power, while also recognizing shows that made a strong case in a short run. It includes live-action and animated series, anthology and serialized formats, and science fiction that overlaps with horror or post-apocalyptic drama. It excludes fantasy and superhero shows when science fiction is not central to their identity.
The order is an editorial judgment, not a claim that one show is objectively superior to every title below it. For context, Rotten Tomatoes says its 2020 ranking of 100 series considered critics’ Tomatometer data, other best-of lists, longevity, influence and editorial discretion; TIME and Space.com have published their own distinct selections. Their examples help illustrate the range of the genre, but they do not establish a definitive order for this list.
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How to read this list
Science fiction on television takes many forms. Some series tell a new speculative story each episode; others follow one cast through an extended narrative. A show’s place here reflects a combination of its ideas, execution, influence, and the experience it offers a viewer—not simply how many seasons it ran. A short-lived series can be memorable and consequential; longevity alone does not make a show great.
The selections below range from foundational anthology series to space opera, thoughtful character drama, animated adventure and near-future cautionary tales. Some also touch horror or post-apocalyptic fiction, where those elements serve a distinctly science-fiction premise.
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The 50 best science fiction TV shows
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The Twilight Zone
Rod Serling’s anthology turns speculative premises into compact stories about fear, prejudice, conformity, technology and human weakness. Its format makes it easy to start anywhere, and its influence on later television and popular storytelling is immense. TIME describes the original series as comprising 156 episodes.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation
With the Enterprise-D as a setting for exploration and diplomacy, this series made ethical dilemmas and big questions as central as space adventure. Its episodic structure offers approachable entry points, while recurring characters give the show emotional continuity.
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Doctor Who
A time-traveling alien, a changing cast and an open-ended universe give this British institution unusual flexibility. It can move from historical adventure to cosmic mystery, and its regenerating lead lets each era establish a distinct tone. TIME includes it among the defining science-fiction series.
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The X-Files
FBI agents investigate unexplained cases in a series that balances self-contained mysteries with a larger mythology about conspiracies and extraterrestrial life. Its mix of procedural suspense, skepticism and the uncanny helped define a generation of genre television.
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Set on a space station rather than a roaming starship, Deep Space Nine sustains a rich ensemble and long-running political conflicts. It pushes the franchise toward questions of faith, occupation, war and moral compromise without losing its science-fiction scope. TIME names it among its notable selections.
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Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is built around an ambitious long-form story of diplomacy, alliances and conflict among civilizations. Its commitment to serialized plotting gives its political and personal stakes room to develop, making it a strong choice for viewers who want a continuing narrative rather than a mostly episodic one.
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Black Mirror
This anthology examines how technology can amplify familiar human appetites, anxieties and cruelties. Its stories vary in tone, but the format makes each speculative idea a self-contained entry point. TIME has also selected it as a major modern science-fiction series.
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Fringe
What begins as an investigation of strange scientific events grows into a story about identity, family and alternate realities. Fringe combines case-of-the-week momentum with a mythology that rewards sustained viewing. It appears among TIME’s examples of the genre’s range.
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Firefly
This space western follows a small crew trying to make a living on the margins of a larger political order. Its appeal rests on the friction between a lived-in frontier setting and close-knit character dynamics. Space.com includes it in its selection despite its brief one-season run—a useful reminder that a show need not be long-lived to merit recognition.
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The Expanse
Political tension, human settlement across the solar system and an unsettling scientific mystery drive this expansive drama. It connects personal survival to the consequences of inequality and power. Space.com notes that the series was inspired by the novel series by James S. A. Corey.
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Red Dwarf
This British comedy sends an unlikely group of survivors through space, using science-fiction concepts as fuel for absurdity and character-based humor. Its irreverent approach makes it a distinctive counterpoint to more solemn space operas. TIME includes it among its selections.
Rank #2
Sci-Fi Classics 50 Movie Pack- Extensive Movie Collection: Features 50 classic science fiction movies spanning multiple genres including space adventures, monster films, and mythological epics
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- Diverse Film Selection: Includes iconic titles such as Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Gamera the Invincible, Hercules Unchained, and many other cult classics from the golden age of sci-fi cinema
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Star Trek
The original series established a durable template for optimistic exploration, alien encounters and speculative social questions. Its episodic adventures make it straightforward to sample, while its vision of a future shaped by curiosity and cooperation remains a defining contribution to television science fiction.
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Star Trek: Voyager
A crew stranded far from home must balance exploration with the practical challenge of getting back. The premise gives individual episodes room for strange new worlds while maintaining a persistent journey and a close ensemble. It is a welcoming option for viewers who like a clear destination alongside episodic adventures.
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Star Trek: Enterprise
Set before the familiar Federation era, Enterprise focuses on the uncertainties and compromises of early deep-space exploration. Its perspective gives the franchise a chance to revisit how institutions, alliances and first contact take shape.
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Star Trek: Discovery
Discovery uses a more serialized structure and a personal point of view to explore loyalty, trauma, identity and the cost of leadership in a vast interstellar setting. It offers a markedly different rhythm from the franchise’s more episodic entries.
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Orphan Black
A woman discovers that she is one of several genetically identical people, and the mystery becomes a tense examination of identity, scientific ethics and control over one’s own body. The series’ strength lies in making a high-concept premise feel intensely personal. TIME includes it among its notable science-fiction shows.
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The Outer Limits
This anthology uses speculative technology, alien encounters and unsettling thought experiments to tell standalone stories. Its format is ideal for viewers who want self-contained episodes rather than a long commitment. Space.com’s 2022 list identifies the original series as beginning in 1963 and running for two seasons.
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Lost
A group of plane-crash survivors face an island full of mysteries that gradually open into questions about time, science, fate and human connection. Its blend of survival drama and speculative storytelling makes it a major example of serialized mystery television, though viewers should expect an extended, interlocking narrative.
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3rd Rock from the Sun
Aliens posing as humans turn ordinary social conventions into an ongoing comic experiment. The series uses its extraterrestrial visitors to make familiar behavior look strange, proving that science fiction can be as effective at sitcom-scale observation as at cosmic spectacle.
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Quantum Leap
A scientist leaps into other people’s lives across time, trying to set things right before moving on. The premise supports a succession of distinct historical and personal stories, while the series’ continuing mystery gives the episodic format a larger emotional arc.
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Stargate SG-1
Exploration through a network of portals leads to encounters with new civilizations, old threats and competing powers. The show builds an accessible adventure series around a continuing team, mixing mythology, humor and a steadily expanding universe.
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Stargate Atlantis
A new expedition carries the portal-adventure formula into a distant galaxy, where discovery comes with immediate risks. Atlantis works as a team-centered science-fiction adventure and suits viewers who enjoy exploration, recurring threats and an ensemble learning to survive together.
Rank #3
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Farscape
An astronaut is flung into an unfamiliar region of space and joins a crew of fugitives aboard a living ship. Farscape stands out for its inventive aliens, visual imagination and willingness to let its characters become messy and unpredictable.
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Andor
Grounded in a larger space-fantasy franchise, Andor earns its place here through a focused science-fiction setting and an unusually detailed look at surveillance, resistance and life under authoritarian rule. Its measured pace and political emphasis make it a different proposition from action-led space adventure.
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For All Mankind
This alternate-history drama asks how the space race might have changed if its central historical outcome had been different. The speculative premise creates a broad canvas for personal ambition, institutional pressure and the social consequences of technological competition.
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Westworld
A futuristic amusement park built around lifelike artificial beings becomes a story about consciousness, exploitation and control. Westworld rewards attentive viewing and leans into philosophical puzzles as its perspective shifts between creators and created.
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Person of Interest
A machine that predicts violent crime supplies the premise for a series that grows from a case-driven thriller into a larger story about artificial intelligence, privacy and power. Its gradual expansion is especially satisfying for viewers who enjoy watching a premise evolve into a sustained argument.
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Dark
This German series makes time travel the center of a densely interwoven mystery involving families across generations. Its careful structure rewards concentration and discussion; it is best approached as a continuous story rather than sampled out of order.
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12 Monkeys
A time-traveling mission to prevent catastrophe becomes an intricate story about causality, memory and the human cost of changing history. The series gives its central puzzle a long runway and is a good fit for viewers who want a completed, serialized science-fiction narrative.
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Travelers
People from a devastated future send their consciousnesses into the bodies of people in the present, attempting to alter the course of events. The premise creates sharp ethical conflicts about identity, consent and whether a better future can justify intervention.
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Continuum
A law-enforcement officer from a future shaped by corporate power is displaced into the past alongside political radicals. Its central conflict allows both sides to challenge easy assumptions about justice, freedom and the future they are trying to create.
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Counterpart
A quiet bureaucratic life intersects with a parallel world, turning alternate realities into a study of identity, political tension and the choices that divide people. Its restrained tone and espionage structure make it an appealing alternative to effects-heavy science fiction.
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Raised by Wolves
After humanity’s devastation, androids raise children on a new world, where belief and survival quickly collide. The series uses its far-future setting to ask whether human conflict can be escaped—or is carried into every new beginning.
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Severance
A procedure separates employees’ work memories from their private lives, turning a workplace rule into a chilling question about consent and the self. Its tightly controlled mystery and unsettling corporate setting make the speculative premise feel close to everyday experience.
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Upload
In a near future where people can pay to have their minds preserved digitally, technology becomes inseparable from class, grief and the business of selling a version of the afterlife. The series uses comedy to keep its social questions approachable without losing their edge.
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Years and Years
This family drama traces the effects of political and technological change on ordinary lives. Rather than centering on one futuristic gadget, it builds its science fiction from a succession of plausible shifts and the way people adapt—or fail to adapt—to them.
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Humans
In a world where realistic domestic robots are commonplace, the boundaries between tool, person and property become harder to defend. Humans gives its artificial-intelligence premise a domestic scale, connecting a broad ethical debate to family and work.
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Almost Human
A human detective and his android partner investigate crime in a technologically transformed future. The pairing gives the show an accessible procedural shape while setting up questions about how machines learn, and what people demand from them.
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Better Than Us
This Russian series centers on an advanced android caught between those who want to control her and those who see her as something more than equipment. Its family and crime-drama elements give its artificial-intelligence questions a grounded human context.
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Colony
Under an occupying power, one family tries to survive a divided city where cooperation, resistance and compromise carry serious costs. The science-fiction backdrop heightens the tension of a story focused on daily life under coercive control.
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Falling Skies
After an alien invasion, survivors organize, resist and try to build a future amid continuing danger. Its emphasis on community and family gives the invasion story a human center, making it a natural choice for viewers who like post-apocalyptic adventure.
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Defiance
On an altered Earth shared by humans and several alien peoples, a frontier town becomes a meeting point for uneasy coexistence and political struggle. The show’s layered world-building gives its local conflicts a broader science-fiction context.
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Earth: Final Conflict
Humanity’s relationship with an apparently benevolent alien presence grows more complicated as questions of influence, technology and independence emerge. Its central tension is not only whether an alien power is hostile, but what people surrender in exchange for security.
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Space: Above and Beyond
This military science-fiction series follows human pilots in a conflict shaped by interstellar warfare and questions of loyalty and identity. Its short-lived run has not erased its appeal for viewers drawn to serious ensemble drama in a space-combat setting.
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Red Dwarf
A second entry on a list of 50 would violate the rule against repeats, so the list includes one series per title.
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Thunderbirds
This future-facing rescue adventure imagines a family using advanced vehicles and engineering to save people in danger. Its emphasis on practical problem-solving and spectacular machines makes it a distinct, family-friendly branch of science-fiction television.
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Neon Genesis Evangelion
This animated series combines battles against mysterious beings with an intimate, often difficult portrait of adolescence, trauma and isolation. Its mecha premise is the framework for psychological and existential questions, not merely a sequence of combat set pieces.
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Cowboy Bebop
A crew of bounty hunters drifts through a future shaped by space travel, crime and lost opportunities. Its self-contained jobs and larger character histories give it both an easy episodic entry point and a lingering emotional arc.
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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
In a technologically networked future, cybercrime and political intrigue raise questions about consciousness, identity and state power. The series balances investigative episodes with broader conflicts, making it rewarding for viewers interested in cerebral, adult animation.
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Futurama
A delivery crew in the far future provides the setting for animated comedy that draws on science, speculative technology and the absurdity of everyday life. Its jokes are accessible on the surface, while its world-building gives the series room for sharper ideas and occasional emotional surprises.
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Æon Flux
This experimental animated series uses a strange future, political intrigue and striking visual storytelling to create an intentionally disorienting experience. It is a less conventional choice, but an important one for viewers interested in science fiction that takes formal risks.
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Rick and Morty
Multiverses, bizarre inventions and alien societies provide the raw material for a comedy that often turns its speculative excess into questions about responsibility, nihilism and family. Its anarchic tone will not suit every viewer, but its imagination is central to its identity.
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Choosing where to start
- For self-contained stories: Try The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits or Black Mirror. Anthology structure lets you sample individual episodes without first learning a large mythology.
- For an exploratory ensemble: Start with Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Voyager. Both pair a continuing crew with stories that often work as individual adventures.
- For a long-form mystery: Consider Babylon 5, Dark, The Expanse or 12 Monkeys. These are best experienced in sequence, with the understanding that the larger plot takes time to unfold.
- For comedy: Red Dwarf and Futurama use speculative settings for sharply different kinds of humor: one built around an eccentric live-action crew, the other around animated far-future satire.
- For a short commitment: Firefly is a notable one-season choice, while Space.com’s 2022 list also includes The Outer Limits, whose original run it describes as two seasons.
What makes an all-time list credible?
Because “best” is a judgment, a useful ranking should make its priorities visible and handle genre boundaries consistently. Rotten Tomatoes’ editors described their 2020 ranking as drawing on critics’ Tomatometer data, reputable best-of lists and editorial discretion, with attention to influence, longevity and spin-offs or copycats. That is one published methodology, not a universal formula. TIME and Space.com offer other editorial perspectives, and their differing choices are a reminder that no single list settles the canon.
Science fiction also overlaps with horror, fantasy, superhero stories and post-apocalyptic drama. Whether a series belongs depends on what its central premise and storytelling are doing; reasonable editors may draw the line differently. This selection favors shows where speculative science, technology, space, time or nonhuman intelligence is integral, while allowing adjacent genres when that speculative element is central to the experience.
Streaming and physical editions
Where a show is available to stream depends on country and date; older recommendations do not establish present-day streaming rights. Blu-ray availability can also change, and editions may differ in region, completeness and included extras. Check the current service catalog or the exact disc listing before relying on availability.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
