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Some of the greatest science fiction TV shows of all time have vanished, almost without a trace. They don't get DVDs or listed in articles on the "Top 50 Science Fiction Shows Of All Time." Despite achieving true greatness, they don't even get as much praise or critical attention as Alf. Here's our countdown of the ten greatest unappreciated masterpieces of science fiction television.
Some of the greatest science fiction TV shows of all time have vanished, almost without a trace. They don't get DVDs or listed in We're focusing on really unsung series here, which means the list doesn't include shows like Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Blake's 7, which get plenty of love. Also, we're not including any shows currently on the air, on the theory that they could still get more love.
10. Space Island One (1998)
Why it's unsung: This German/Canadian co-production isn't out on DVD, and all of the websites about it have been down for a few years. There aren't even any clips on YouTube.
Why it rules: This is one of the most hard-science-focused SF shows. The crew of a corporate-funded space station mostly deals with scientifically plausible problems (with a couple of exceptions) and the stories focus on the ethical problems that come with profit-focused science. Yes, some episodes are a tad slow-moving, but the best dozen eps feature high drama and high weirdness. Sample plot lines: a lonely old NASA astronaut spends thousands of dollars calling 900 sex lines from the space station. The station gets the world's last sample of smallpox for safe-keeping, and the crew debates whether to destroy it.
9. Star Cops (1987)
Why it's unsung: This show about a police squad in the "Wild West" of space stations and moonbases suffered from a cheesy title and a ridiculous ELO-esque theme tune. (Which I've sort of gotten to love, for some dumb reason.)
Why it rules: Series creator Chris Boucher wrote some of the best episodes of the original Doctor Who, and then masterminded the scripts for Blake's 7. Several Star Cops episodes feature tons of Boucher's trademark razor-sharp dialog, plus the show fumbles towards a space-noir aesthetic, with the cop squad including a bribe-taker and a thuggish slob.
8. Surface (2005-2006)
Why it's unsung: Cancelled after just one season, this show about undersea intrigue failed to rope in the kind of audiences who were devouring Lost's tangled mysteries.
Why it rules: Dude, it had sea monsters! And there was a government coverup! And we had a strong female character — a scientist, even — investigating the emergence of a new and potentially world-ending form of sea life. And we never got to learn what was really going. 
7. Odyssey 5 (2002)
Why it's unsung: This Canadian show about space shuttle astronauts who witness the destruction of Earth never got enough publicity during its initial U.S. run on Showtime. It felt like an attempt to do a mature extended-cable show like Big Love, only with a science fiction premise, and it failed to reach either audience. Showtime didn't even bother to show all of the first season, until 2004.
Why it rules: The main characters are all well-rounded and flawed. And the show's set-up, in which an alien sends their consciousnesses back in time five years to try and avert the world's destruction, generates tons of potential. The show is appearing intermittently on Sci Fi, and it's worth catching despite the inconclusive ending. The show was created by Manny Coto, who went on to mastermind the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
6. Journeyman (2007)
Why it's unsung: The first few weeks this time-travel show was on, its nickname was: "Gah, post-Heroes buzzkill!" The drama of Kevin McKidd struggling to hold onto his job and his marriage, while he kept slipping into the past, just felt a bit too draggy. But then something funny happened: Heroes started being the pain we endured to get to the reward of Journeyman.
Why it rules: The mystery of why Dan Vasser is traveling in time gets more intriguing, once a weird physicist starts spouting about wormholes. And all of the characters get more nicely complex as the show goes along. Most of all, though, all of Dan's meddling in the timestream has consequences he can't predict — and they only pile up more alarmingly over time.
5. Lexx (1997-2002)
Why it's unsung: At least in the U.S., this Canadian show never quite crossed over and gained a broader audience.
Why it rules: Just the fact that they're in a planet-eating bug ship is good enough for me. Not to mention the weird robot head with the love-slave programming implanted in it, while the cluster lizard/slavegirl who was supposed to get the programming runs free. It's a weirdly campy show, but actually has moments of genuine greatness.
4. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)
Why it's unsung: I know: How can a Star Trek series be unsung? But this one really is. It only recently got a DVD release, and people often skip over it in discussing Trek lore.
Why it rules: Thanks to a writer's strike that didn't apply to animation, the show managed to get some decent science fiction writers to contribute scripts, including Larry Niven and Larry Brody, plus original series veterans like David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana. The episodes are pretty fast-paced, thanks to their 22-minute runtimes, but that doesn't stop them dealing with ambitious ideas like antimatter universes, an "ultimate weapon" and time paradoxes.
3. Farscape (1999-2004)
Why it's unsung: Even for a Sci Fi Channel series whose name doesn't rhyme with "cattle car," Farscape flew under the radar. The muppet-esque Henson animatronic character probably made a lot of people think it was a kids' show.
Why it rules:Farscape had smart writing, good science and believable aliens — plus, it featured Scorpius as a villain Crichton's head long before BSG ever did the head-villain thing. Plus, we love the Moya, the living ship that Crichton finds himself on. The Sci Fi Channel is supposedly going to make 10 webisodes, but their status is uncertain.
2. Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-1994)
Why it's unsung: This sci-fi Western ran in the "Friday night death slot," and breathed its last after only one season. Like many of the shows on this list, it has a cult following, but seldom gets much props as a science fiction show. And star Bruce Campbell in general deserves way more accolades than he ever gets.
Why it rules: It smudged genre lines with total abandon, and you never knew what sort of crazy gadgets would turn up, from an otherworldly superpowered orb to the Mobile Battle Wagon and the Amazing Rocket Car. Co-creator Carlton Cuse now works on Lost.
1. Max Headroom (1987-1988)
Why it's unsung: It's still not out on DVD, except for an out-of-print DVD of the original UK TV movie. The show has a cult following, but not as much as it deserves.
Why it rules: This cyberpunk show was prophetic in so many ways — TV ads feel so geared to short attention spans and DVR-skipping, they might as well be "blipverts." — and paranoia and corporate dystopias have seldom been so entertaining.
Comments
Surface was a steamin' pile.
Come on, the kid had a freakin' PET SEA MONSTER.
75% of the show revolved around that.
Good idea, horrible execution.
Threshold instead of Surface and I can run with it.
It's a nice list, but I have qualms about Lexx. I admit to watching a few eps on Friday nights because I had no social life at the time.
I seemed to have missed those moments of greatness as the episodes I've seen all seemed revolve around various aliens wanting to stick things or organs up Stanley Tweedle's ass.
How in the hell did you put Surface in, but not Threshold? A show that was about the guys who were covering the problem up, and ALSO had a strong female lead?
And, while we're at it, doesn't everyone that talks about Sci-Fi shows say that Farscape is teh best one evar? How is it unsung?
AND FOR GOD'S SAKES, WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE?
What? No "Powers of Mathew Star"? (No...I kid. HONEST)
Seriously though, Max Headroom was awesome. (someone should do a Max Headroom screensaver. I could soooo creep people out with that.)
farscape its one of the best sci-fi shows ever produced at so many levels
Great for naming Journeyman and Odyssey 5. I recently got into Odyssey 5 since they have them on Veoh, and man does it hold up well. I like that it was mature, with a cool arc, and included NASA (I always wondered why the X-files didn't include the machinations of NASA more often).
Journeyman was so, so good towards the end, and though it ended pitch-perfect, I was really sad to see it go. Such well rounded characters, and it was nice to see a main character who actually gave a damn about the right thing to do.
I also wouldn't consider FarScape unsung. I guess that's my only qualm. And would probably include Space: Above and Beyond and Earth2. Especially Earth2.
yay for max headroom! so much better than new coke.
one of the shows i used to love was earth 2, which ran in '94-'95. ok, the dialogue was a little cheesy, but it was a good premise and i remember loving the episodes. plus it had rebecca gayheart in it! and antonio sabato jr!
@Plague: Dude Threshold was a great idea but procedural as hell. It got good right before they cancelled it.
Surface had great production values, cool story and they ended the season on total mind screw flooding the planet and having those things take over. I loved that they basically made a TV show out of ripping off as many Spielberg movies they could. And I loved Nimrod.
Of course both Threshold and Surface were far better than Invasion which I will never get my time back from that.
I miss Max Headroom and Brisco County. Wasn't there a UK Max Headroom then a US one? And of course I miss Farscape. Who doesn't?
I remember watching the Star Trek animated series on Cartoon or wherever they ran it during the eighties. It was pretty good. Writing wasn't great, but good. As far as scifi cartoon writing, I think the old Ghostbusters series had some of the best during the eighties.
Also, they don't get DVDs?
[www.amazon.com]
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I don't even know what's going on anymore.
Would Nowhere Man qualify as sci-fi? There was some weird stuff going on like the kid who developed remote power sources and the massive conspiracy stuff. Anyways, that may be the most unsung show of all time period.
@braak:
This has all happened before..It will all happen again..
@Garrison Dean: Yeah, that was a bad year. Threshhold, Surface, and Invasion all in the same year with too similar concepts. I think there might have been more hope if they hadn't been the same year.
Where is the love for Eleventh Hour? I think it would have developed into a great series given a more than 4 episode lifespan.
I have a deep sense of dread about the Bruckheimer remake, based mainly on the steaming pile Homboys in Space that was somehow supposed to be and American Red Dwarf.
Also, there was this show with Debra messing called Pray or something like that, which was kind of decent. Probably hold up terrible though...
I haven't heard of several of these shows, but the ones I watched (up until #3) are totally bunk. Journeyman felt like a redone "Quantum Leap". "Lexx" felt like it was selling sex over substance.
And Farscpe, despite never getting the popular appeal, was still heavily loved by the critics. (Once called TV guide's "best show on television" I believe) But any time you put on alien costumes, you're going to lose viewers, no matter how cool they look. And the last couple of seasons went downhill quickly.
One More...
Something is Out There.
@Spiral: Yeah too many people ripping off the wrong parts of Lost, but Surface was really different than all the others.
Lexx had some twisted premises (like a reanimated corpse assassin in goth fetish wear). Unfortunately, there was a lot of weak writing, and the last season was repetitive crap. I don't see why SciFi doesn't bring it back (insert complaint-about-wrestling-and-gullibility-programming here).
I'd like to see the Nickeloden show "The Tomorrow People" to this list (though I'm pretty sure that Nick didn't actually do the show, they just ran it in the US).
@ManchuCandidate: Ditto
I wouldn't say Farscape is "unsung" per se. While most sci-fi seems to truck it over to the side of a hill every time someone mentions Joss Whedon (Firefly does rock, but Buffy sucks) or BSG, the fan base--ahem, such as your's truly--are very vocal. Heck the show just doesn't die. Ever. Those 10 Webisodes didn't happen in a vacuum. And who can for Ben Browder on CNN? It's the cockroach of the sci-fi universe.
Lexx was way too weird for my tastes, Brisco doesn't hold up, but Journeyman deserved at a chance at the sunlight.
And where's EXOSquad?
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. was awesome!! I was so sad to see it go. It was kind of like a live-action version of The Tick but with westerns and science fiction instead of superheroes.
I'm still waiting for a proper DVD release of "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future."
@Woland: Yes! The Tomorrow People was an excellent show too. It was one of the first Nick shows I ever got into.
If we're giving love to short-lived british series, what about Ultraviolet, the vampire-hunter procedural? Only 6 eps long, but it had a good well-thought out mythology, was well acted and had some great production design. Love those gun-mounted cameras.
Farscape was the best show on TV. Even my wife liked it. Even though she referred to it as Blue chick, Yellow chick.
I miss the Dominator.
Also, for guilty pleasure, you can't beat "Andromeda".
Kevin Sorbo, Lisa Ryder, Lexa Doig, what more could you ask?
Oh, and what about "The Invisible Man" and "Third Wave" ... both of which were pretty cool initially and then died the ignominious death of a thousand "improvements" by Sciffy Network brass?
Other than that, I have only two small quibbles: Lexx was sex-in-spaceopera (I mean, the ship was a huge penis for crying out loud), and Farscape (my favorite ever until they introduced the screamer chick and the wall-crawling chick) was far from unsung.
Other than those two things, though, this was an excellent trek down memory lane.
@braak: Some of the shows on the list have DVDs, but not all of them.
@learned_hands: Ultraviolet wasn't scifi, sorry...
Farscape gets more love than many other shows and if you've ever spent time in a Firefly forum you know that Adventures of Brisco County, Jr gets all the love it needs from them.
@braak: I wanted to see more threshold, mostly for Guiguino. As for Farscape, yes, a fair amount of sci-fi fans loudly proclaim it as the best show ever, but you only think we're a lot of people because we're so loud and adamant about it. More rabid than even the Jericho fanbase at one time. Might not be unsung, but there's a lot of people who supposedly love sci-fi and still won't give it a chance.
@PVIII: Oh I remember prey. Don't remember it being great though. Course I was young.
@PVIII: Space: Above and Beyond is more unsung than Farscape, about on par with Lexx really. And Earth2 was great. I mean, Tim Curry as the villain, come on. Also, First Wave coulda been included, it flew pretty low under the radar, but I guess wasn't all that great.
Yeah, so maybe Farscape isn't nearly as unsung as lots of others, but... I like it, so I'm not arguing.
I saw "Tales from a Parallel Universe" that became Lexx. The show was great, but in the end it was about the main girl (not as good as the original, not by a long shot) and sex. I mean sex is good, but the show lost itself. The show did have incredible stories to tell.
Farscape is always will be a classic. Nuff said.
Brisco County Jr. was great, but again a show that was great got cancelled. *sigh*
Babylon 5 is a classic to, up there with Star Trek and Star Wars to me, unfortunately it never kept going and expanded the Babylon 5 world. Sad.
Is it too soon to add the newly-cancelled Buck Rogers?
@Garrison Dean:
Obviously, you have a fondness for badly CGI-animated sea monsters.
I recommend this to you: [imdb.com]
Invasion was a botch: but at least it had William Fichtner in it.
Journeyman WAS a redone Quantum Leap, but the thing is it was still really good. I'm a big Quantum Leap fan, and at first, Journeyman really cheesed me off, but it really grew on me and I'm sad that it's gone now. If it hadn't been for Rome, I wouldn't have given it a chance, because Kevin McKidd is awesome.
Farscape "unsung"? Dunno about that. And I second the sentiment that Space: Above and Beyond belongs on this list.
@NefariousNewt: There's two Tomorrow People, a 1960s version, and the early 90s version with Naomi Harris (Selina from 28 Days Later...)
Oh, what about that UPN show from the mid 90s, Nowhere Man? Or Lazarus Man, or Time Trax?
Time Trax was good.
farscape is unsung? really?
@Woland: Tomorrow People was done by Thames, but that was a great show. I haven't thought about that in YEARS. Good call!
/looking for my jaunt belt...
Lexx, NO; Surface, no.
But much love for Brisco, Trek, Max, and wow-I-forgot-that-till-now for Star Cops and Space Island One. If only the latter had had a budget of more than could be found in couch cushions.
Yeah Brisco and Lord Bowler were always good for a laugh. I must say most of the shows on the list I have spent time watching. Not Surface though. Some one above mentioned Journeyman as a rehashed Quantum leap which I must say is an insult to Quantum leap. You always get into trouble with the whole time travel thing. As for Farscape like everyone else I don't see how you could possibly can it unsung Hell I watched the Peacekeaper wars this very morning.
@aspiringexpatriate: Also liked Earth2 and wish it had gotten equal promo/$$ to SeaQuest.
And Carla Gugino rocked on Threshold -- I'd definitely put it as both better and more unsung than Surface.
Pretty good list, but I'll throw rocks at a few:
Surface was fun, I'll give it that, but is was so horribly melodramatic, and the science was apalling.
Lexx was really campy. Like nothing but camp, and sort of fantasy-ish.
Ditto everyone's not-unsung Farscape comments.
And I'd include Nowhere Man, Earth 2, and Space:AAB as well!
What about VR5 and Otherworld and Team Knight Rider?
Just kidding.
The idea of "Lexx" being "unsung" struck me as odd at first, but then I remembered all the blank stares I've gotten over the years whenever I bring it up. Except for the last season (which took place on our Earth, due to budgetary constraints) it was truly beautiful visually. It was funny, kinky and with few SF cliches.
Red Dwarf
SpaceRangers and Legend (Q and MacGuyver, come on!)
I was one of the few people that liked Lexx growing up. I was just a high school kid when it came out so I started watching it because of the sexual nature of the show. But then I kept going back because the plots were crazy and different. I'm a sucker for individuality.
Space Above and Beyond was an excellent show.
I really, really didn't care for Space: AAB, which suffered from many of the same problems as X-files with less redeeming qualities, but I know it still has plenty of fans.
Liked this list though, especially Brisco County Jr, John de Lancie as Tesla in particular was awesome..;)
I loved Surface. Yes the show dwelled on the kid and his pet a little too much, but mystery surrounding the new species was awesome. It was like having X-Files again. And talk about a killer finale, the entire western seaboard is drowned under a man-made tidal wave. I was so dissapointed when the show wasn't renewed.
I also second a vote for Time Trax, as well as the Time Cop tv series. Sure they were campy like most early 90s shows, but they were loads of fun.
The one show I miss the most and still have yet to get my hands on is FX: The Series. A very lovable cast and a fun plot line involving a special effects wizard using his hight tech gadgets to assist the Toronto police department.
Lexx is unsung because admitting to liking it is the same as admitting you are a pervert.
speaking of which SeaQuest is pretty unsung nowadays. I loved it back then. And it certainly god weird, but the first two seasons were great.
Journeyman didn't get good until after it got canceled, they waited way to long to give you anything on why the timeshifting kept happening. Too bad, as Kevin Mckidd is a fantastic actor (IMHO season 1 of Rome was the best thing HBO has ever done).
BTW, the idea of time travel is far more believeable than the house he lived in on the series. 2 story Victorian with a yard and a stay at home mom on a reporter's salary in this town? Really??
@ratlas:
Word.
So Invasion was boring, but it did feel like it was going somewhere. There were good moments, like the brother meeting his half-formed doppleganger.
I would add Babylon 5's Crusade spinoff too. Great ensemble cast, no budget.
@femto:
What's the problem with that?
@ratlas: I know I defended FarScape, even though it's sung, but there's no way RedDwarf is unsung. It's great yes, but everyone knows that. If they haven't seen it, enough SF fans have told them it's great.
@Seth L: Yeah, Crusade had a lot of potential (Gary Cole AND Daniel Dae Kim!?!), but for some reason the music really pissed me off. I read a few of the un-produced scripts and they were really great. JMS had a pretty killer arc planned it seemed like. Damn TNT bastards.