The 16 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Series of All Time

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

1

The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling's 1959 anthology, the template for speculative television.

1000pts

2

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The 1987-1994 flagship that turned Star Trek into a television institution.

647pts

3

Firefly

Joss Whedon's 2002 space western, cancelled after 14 episodes and adopted by a fiercely loyal following.

624pts

4

The X-Files

Chris Carter's 1993 paranormal procedural that made conspiracy TV mainstream.

560pts

5

Severance

Apple TV+'s workplace thriller about surgically divided memories.

485pts

6

Star Trek: The Original Series

The 1966 series that started it all, cancelled after three seasons and immortal in reruns.

485pts

7

Quantum Leap

Scott Bakula's 1989 series about a scientist bouncing through other people's lives.

485pts

8

Battlestar Galactica (2004)

Ronald D. Moore's grim reimagining, widely cited as the finest sci-fi drama of the 2000s.

485pts

9

Stranger Things

The Duffer Brothers' 1980s-set Netflix phenomenon.

397pts

10

Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker's anthology of near-future technological nightmares.

397pts

11

Westworld

HBO's android-uprising drama built on Michael Crichton's 1973 film.

397pts

12

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

The hard-science solar-system political drama adapted from the James S. A. Corey novels.

291pts

14

Fringe

J.J. Abrams' parallel-universe procedural that grew into a genuine sci-fi epic.

291pts

15

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

The darker, serialised Trek set on a frontier station, reappraised as the franchise's best-written show.

162pts