Best Sci-Fi TV Shows Ever
a Yourlist ranking · the crowd decides the order
From time-traveling Time Lords to cylons who look human, sci-fi TV has spent seven decades imagining tomorrow. Vote up the shows that defined the genre and vote down the ones that don't belong in the pantheon.
What counts: ‘Best’ weighs cultural impact, critical acclaim, longevity, and influence on the genre; season, episode, and rating figures are approximate and drawn from public records and aggregator scores.
Picard's crew took Roddenberry's utopian vision and gave it philosophical teeth, turning episodes like 'The Inner Light' into some of the most emotionally devastating hours TV has produced. It proved a spinoff could eclipse its original and set the template for prestige ensemble
Years Aired: Seasons: 7Episodes: 178IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
added by IJRin 3 rankings
0Rod Serling's anthology invented the modern sci-fi morality play, using aliens and twist endings to smuggle Cold War anxiety and civil rights commentary past network censors. 'To Serve Man' alone rewired how audiences watch for twists forever.
Years Aired: Seasons: 5Episodes: 156IMDb Rating: 8.9/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0A campy 70s relic was reborn as a grim, post-9/11 parable about terrorism, faith, and what makes us human, anchored by the gut-punch reveal that the final Cylon was hiding in plain sight. 'So say we all' became a rallying cry for peak-TV era sci-fi seriousness.
Years Aired: Seasons: 4Episodes: 73IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
added by IJR
0Mulder and Scully turned government conspiracy and alien abduction into must-watch Friday nights, balancing a sprawling mythology with instant-classic standalone episodes like 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.' It made 'the truth is out there' a cultural mantra.
Years Aired: Seasons: 11Episodes: 218IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
added by IJRin 6 rankings
0Star Trek: The Original Series
Kirk, Spock, and Bones didn't just launch a franchise, they aired TV's first interracial kiss and imagined a hopeful multicultural future during actual Cold War panic. Every modern sci-fi show owes it a debt, even the ones that never mention it.
Years Aired: Seasons: 3Episodes: 79IMDb Rating: 8.4/10
added by IJRin 3 rankingsStar Trek: The Original Series
0Charlie Brooker's anthology weaponized smartphones and social media into nightmare fuel, with 'San Junipero' proving the format could do tenderness as well as dread. It became the defining sci-fi text of the algorithm age.
Years Aired: Seasons: 6Episodes: 27IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
added by IJRin 6 rankings
0A time-traveling alien in a police box has been regenerating since 1963, making it the longest-running sci-fi show on Earth and turning cast turnover into a storytelling superpower. From 'Blink' to the Weeping Angels, it keeps reinventing terror for new generations.
Years Aired: Seasons: 40Episodes: 870IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
added by IJRin 4 rankings
0Cancelled after just 14 episodes, Joss Whedon's space-western built a fanbase so fierce it forced a feature film sequel, 'Serenity,' into existence. Its blend of frontier grit and crew banter still makes 'you can't take the sky from me' hit hard two decades later.
Years Aired: Seasons: 1Episodes: 14IMDb Rating: 9/10
added by IJRin 5 rankings
0J. Michael Straczynski plotted a five-year arc before a single episode aired, pioneering serialized sci-fi storytelling years before it was fashionable. The Shadow War and Londo's tragic descent gave space opera real novelistic weight.
Years Aired: Seasons: 5Episodes: 110IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
added by IJR
0The franchise's darkest, most ambitious entry traded episodic optimism for a multi-season war epic and morally gray heroes like Sisko, who becomes a warrior and a myth. Fans who once dismissed it now call it Trek's most rewarding chapter.
Years Aired: Seasons: 7Episodes: 176IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
added by IJRStar Trek: Deep Space Nine
0Netflix's Spielberg-and-Stephen-King throwback turned a small Indiana town's Upside Down into a global phenomenon and made Eleven's nosebleeds iconic. It proved 80s nostalgia and cosmic horror could still dominate the streaming era.
Years Aired: Seasons: 4Episodes: 34IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
added by IJRin 10 rankings
0Adapted from the novels, this show built the most physically plausible depiction of interplanetary politics on TV, with zero-gravity combat and Belter creole adding texture few shows bother with. Fan campaigns literally saved it from cancellation after Syfy dropped it.
Years Aired: Seasons: 6Episodes: 62IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
added by IJR
0J.J. Abrams' fringe-science procedural quietly transformed into one of TV's best multiverse epics, with Walter Bishop's redemption arc and the parallel-universe 'Over There' episodes rewarding patient viewers. It never got Lost's audience but arguably stuck the landing better.
Years Aired: Seasons: 5Episodes: 100IMDb Rating: 8.4/10
added by IJR
0A plane crash on a mysterious island became a cultural obsession built on smoke monsters, hatches, and flash-sideways timelines that had water coolers buzzing for six years. Its divisive finale is still argued about, which is its own kind of legacy.
Years Aired: Seasons: 6Episodes: 121IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
added by IJRin 5 rankings
0HBO's android theme park started as a mind-bending puzzle box about consciousness and free will, with Dolores's awakening delivering one of TV's great slow-burn reveals. It cooled off later, but Season 1 remains a masterclass in twisty sci-fi.
Years Aired: Seasons: 4Episodes: 36IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0An alcoholic genius scientist and his anxious grandson turned interdimensional travel into existential comedy, with the Pickle Rick episode becoming an unlikely cultural touchstone. It's arguably the sharpest sci-fi satire on television, animated or not.
Years Aired: Seasons: 7Episodes: 71IMDb Rating: 9.1/10
added by IJRin 6 rankings
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Star Wars' first live-action TV series proved the galaxy far, far away could work episodically, and Grogu's reveal turned a lone bounty hunter drama into a global meme machine overnight. It revived Star Wars' TV ambitions almost single-handedly.
Years Aired: Seasons: 3Episodes: 24IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
added by IJRin 5 rankingsThe Mandalorian
0Stranded on the far side of the galaxy, Captain Janeway led the franchise's first female-led crew through 172 episodes of resourceful, if uneven, survival sci-fi. Seven of Nine's arrival reinvigorated the show and gave Trek one of its most compelling character studies.
Years Aired: Seasons: 7Episodes: 172IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
added by IJRStar Trek: Voyager
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