We could all do with some escapism right now. And how better to leave the everyday world behind than by blasting off into deep space. That is the special magic of science fiction – a genre that engages with the challenges of life but in a way that make the viewer feel lifted up other than beaten down. Whether it’s zinging lightsabers, roaring monsters or time-travelling nasties, science fiction has something for all tastes. Hold on tight as we beam down the 20 essential sci-fi shows to stream.
20. Sapphire & Steel
from the early Eighties features Joanna Lumley and David MacCallum as supernatural guardians of the flow of time. One week, they are rescuing an 18th-century family after a “time fracture” steals the parents; the next, they’re at an abandoned train station tangling with the uneasy ghost of a World War One soldier. Lumley has become a national treasure – but Sapphire & Steel showcases her ability to chill rather than thrill her audience.
ITVX
19. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
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Apple TV+
18. For All Mankind, Apple TV+
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Apple TV+
17. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount +
). Plus, it made Patrick Stewart a star as the masterful Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Paramount+
16. Three Body Problem
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Netflix
15. Foundation
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Apple TV+
14. Battlestar Galactica
The original 1978 Battlestar Galactica was a silly and shameless Star Wars rip-off. For his early 21st-century reboot, Ronald D Moore goes off in another direction entirely—dialling into post-9/11 angst and anxiety over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to deliver a powerful tale of human civilisation fleeing robots who have turned on their creators.
Prime Video
13. Blake’s 7
Cheap as micro-chips but electrified by a commanding turn by Gareth Thomas as space-going dissident Roj Blake (though he left after just two seasons), Blake’s 7 is the BBC’s most successful sci-fi series that doesn’t have the words “Doctor” or “Who” in the title. Created by esteemed novelist and screenwriter Terry Nation, it ran from 1978 to 1981 and is infused with a Cold War chill and the sense of onrushing doom that was ever present in the early 1980s. It also gave us one of the best space-ship designs in the form of Blake’s spiky, swooping Liberator.
BritBox
12. Fallout
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Prime Video
11. The Expanse
It is rumoured that Prime Video bankrolled the later seasons of this SyFy channel series because Jeff Bezos’s daughter was a fan. If true, she should be commended for her taste. With an emphasis on realism, The Expanse chronicles the struggle for power in a future solar system where Earth competes for resources with colonies in the Asteroid Belt and on Mars. This is space as we’ve never seen it before – combat scenes play out in the eerie silence of the vacuum and navigation between planets is a complicated and potentially deadly process.
Prime Video
10. Severance
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Apple TV+
9. The Mandalorian, Disney +
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Disney+
8. Black Mirror
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Netflix
7. Dark
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Netflix
6: Andor, Disney +
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Disney+
5. Arcane
This beautiful French-made animation is adapted from the super-violent video game League of Legends. Set in a steam-punk sci-fi universe, it tells the story of sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) as they become drawn into a vast conspiracy involving forbidden magic and the tension between the wealthy and the downtrodden in the city of Piltover. Season two is due in November.
Netflix
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Considered among the most essential Japanese “anime” cartoons, this Nineties series about giant robots battling alien “angels” has influenced modern filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro and Jordan Peele. Shinji Ikari is a grumpy teenager pressured by his aloof, scientist father to take command of an “Eva” – a huge mechanical being that “bonds” with its pilot in order to repel the mysterious angels attacking earth. Del Toro’s Pacific Rim borrows heavily from Neon Genesis — but lacks the eerie majesty of a sci-fi classic.
Netflix
3. Stranger Things
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Netflix
2. Doctor Who
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iPlayer/Disney+
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
Science fiction at its best should fuel the viewer’s sense of wonder while also making them sit up and think. No show has pulled off that balancing act better than Gene Roddenberry’s original, 1966 – 1969 Star Trek, in which we join Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Doctor McCoy and the gang as they explore strange new worlds. Optimistic about mankind’s future – its multiracial cast was groundbreaking in the Sixties – but also silly and pulpy, Star Trek is small-screen sci-fi at its most exciting.
Paramount+
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