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The 16 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Series of All Time

By YPB Team

Network institutions, cancelled cult favourites and streaming newcomers, spanning black-and-white anthologies to prestige drama. Cast your vote.

  1. The Twilight Zone — ranked #11
    The Twilight Zone
    Rod Serling's 1959 anthology, the template for speculative television.
    1000pts
  2. Star Trek: The Next Generation — ranked #22
    Star Trek: The Next Generation
    The 1987-1994 flagship that turned Star Trek into a television institution.
    647pts
  3. Firefly — ranked #33
    Firefly
    Joss Whedon's 2002 space western, cancelled after 14 episodes and adopted by a fiercely loyal following.
    624pts
  4. The X-Files — ranked #44
    The X-Files
    Chris Carter's 1993 paranormal procedural that made conspiracy TV mainstream.
    560pts
  5. Severance — ranked #55
    Severance
    Apple TV+'s workplace thriller about surgically divided memories.
    485pts
  6. Star Trek: The Original Series — ranked #66
    Star Trek: The Original Series
    The 1966 series that started it all, cancelled after three seasons and immortal in reruns.
    485pts
  7. Quantum Leap — ranked #77
    Quantum Leap
    Scott Bakula's 1989 series about a scientist bouncing through other people's lives.
    485pts
  8. Battlestar Galactica (2004) — ranked #88
    Battlestar Galactica (2004)
    Ronald D. Moore's grim reimagining, widely cited as the finest sci-fi drama of the 2000s.
    485pts
  9. Stranger Things — ranked #99
    Stranger Things
    The Duffer Brothers' 1980s-set Netflix phenomenon.
    397pts
  10. Black Mirror — ranked #1010
    Black Mirror
    Charlie Brooker's anthology of near-future technological nightmares.
    397pts
  11. Westworld — ranked #1111
    Westworld
    HBO's android-uprising drama built on Michael Crichton's 1973 film.
    397pts
  12. Doctor Who — ranked #1212
    Doctor Who
    The BBC's time-travel serial, running on and off since 1963 and the longest-lived sci-fi show on television.
    291pts
  13. The Expanse — ranked #1313
    The Expanse
    The hard-science solar-system political drama adapted from the James S. A. Corey novels.
    291pts
  14. Fringe — ranked #1414
    Fringe
    J.J. Abrams' parallel-universe procedural that grew into a genuine sci-fi epic.
    291pts
  15. Babylon 5 — ranked #1515
    Babylon 5
    J. Michael Straczynski's 1993 station drama, an early proof that sci-fi TV could sustain a five-year arc.
    291pts
  16. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — ranked #1616
    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
    The darker, serialised Trek set on a frontier station, reappraised as the franchise's best-written show.
    0pts

#tv shows306#sci-fi75#classics479

Comments

Restrict the field to science fiction and one badge takes three of the sixteen slots, while Doctor Who takes one for sixty years: https://youpick.best/articles/star-trek-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·Aug 21·

Four separate genre labels get pinned on Stranger Things across this site, and science fiction is only the first of them. The other three: https://youpick.best/articles/stranger-things-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·6 days ago·
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