Top 50 Sci-fi Shows! (IGN)

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Trek is the reason why so many ship-based sci-fi shows exist. In 1966, Gene Roddenberry's warp-fueled vision set the standard for sci-fi TV: Fill your shiny, iconic spaceship with a diverse and complex crew and boldly go on "missions of the week," with some serialized elements. Now the OG Enterprise crew may not have delivered the best drama with every one of their original 79 missions, but they inspired a generation with their Comic-Con friendly adventures, challenged the way networks can bring science fiction to the masses just as NASA was taking men to the moon, addressed Civil Rights issues with tact, challenged the Vietnam-sensitive time without preaching and laid pop-culture bedrock in the process.

It gave us Captain James T. Kirk, (and more importantly, the Shatner!) and his two best friends: Dr. Leonard McCoy and Mr. Spock. Kirk's phaser-first, talk later approach needed McCoy's passionate Country Doctor Ways and Spock's half-human, half-Vulcan logic to work, and in doing so helped make the characters of this triumvirate some of the genre's most iconic.

The show lives and dies on the strength of Kirk, Spock and McCoy's interactions, with a few "Givin' ya all she's gots" from Scotty and some Tribbles in between. The production values don't quite hold up, but the heart behind the storytelling does. Several spin-offs and symptoms of franchise fatigue later, Trek manages to weather the fickle tastes of fandom better than most. While J.J. Abrams' successful Trek reboot gave us a space worth calling the Final Frontier, TOS gave us a reason to want to explore that Frontier in the first place.

Rod Serling's seminal sci-fi/fantasy anthology series featured many of the most talented actors of its era, while showcasing the writing of some of the sci-fi/fantasy genre's most gifted scribes, such as Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Serling himself. What marks all of Serling's work, and it is what separates The Twilight Zone from so many of its imitators and contemporaries, is his abiding interest in and concern for humanity.

Confined by the limitations of network television at the time, Serling used genre to couch the then-controversial political issues and social concerns he was interested in writing about. The result was a series that pushed the boundaries of what genre television had done until that point, paving the way for all the other groundbreaking genre series that followed.

For us Yanks, Doctor Who was always a chore to get through back in the day. We wanted to watch it, we wanted to like it, as Tom Baker and his long scarf freaked us the freak out on our local PBS station. But it was too off, too weird, too low-budget. And yet, that all changed when writer-producer Russell T. Davies rebooted the show in 2005 (after a 16-year hiatus) with Christopher Eccleston starring as the Ninth Doctor.

Finally, we had the titular time traveler in a setting and style that we could appreciate – modernized and yet still very faithful to its origins. Some would say that Eccleston's brief one-season run was the best of this modern era, but the subsequent David Tennant/Tenth Doctor years have become the fan-favorite run of the show and have also done a great deal to spread the Time Lord word out across the world. "Fantastic."

"I Want To Believe." Alien abductions! Grotesque mutants! Far-reaching government conspiracies! This '90s FOX fright-fest had it all. David Duchovny's porn addict/conspiracy theorist, Fox Mulder, and Gillian Anderson's skeptical/hot-as-balls, Dana Scully, re-defined and re-invigorated the very idea of the paranormal investigator in this smart, thrilling series that left us all double-locking the doors, checking the windows and hiding under the covers for (mostly) nine years straight. Urban legends, mythological beasts and "science gone wrong" abominations all got their due as Mulder and Scully chased shadows, ran from "men in black" and provided us all with an appropriate amount of "will they?/won't they?" sexual tension.

And who could forget the mothereffin' Peacock Boys! They were so wretched in the episode "Home" that they nabbed the top spot on our Top 20 Creepiest TV Moments feature from a few years back.

A plane crashes on an Island, and those who survived the crash try to survive in a place governed by random monsoons and occasionally stirred by a monster's mwrrrroar. Now, on paper, this premise sounds like the mileage is limited; how dramatically satisfying can a sci-fi version of Cast Away be? Very, as it turns out.

Lost's pilot is one of the best things television has ever made, instantly getting us hooked on the science-vs.-faith struggle between Jack and John Locke, as subsequent episodes would introduce us to the series' dense and inspired mythology centered on flashbacks, DHARMA stations, Smoke Monsters and time travel. Entire act breaks and season finales hinged on the characters asking the same mythology questions that we did, so for showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to say that the series finale is built on what the series is all about – 100 percent characters – is not accurate, and accounts for why the final hours are met with a range of fan reactions.

Despite that, the series became must-see television even when it was more miss than hit – see Nikki and Paulo, chunks of Season 2 and most of Season 6. When the series did hit bullseye, however – finding a very rich, how'd-they-do-that balance between character and twisty turny plot – Lost was that rare idea that changed the way we watch television, spoiling us on its virtues and, in its absence, reminding us how barren the current genre TV landscape is.

After a rough first-two season start, The Next Generation proved that Trek can exist independent from The Original Crew. The adventures of Picard and his crew aboard their luxury Hilton-turned-Federation starship took point on leading the charge of quality syndicated TV content, while reinvigorating the then-dormant Trek brand with a new Enterprise crew and new mission. Fans of Kirk and Co. were and still are torn over which crew they love the most, and have yet to recover fully from whatever the @#!*% happened to Riker's waistline from Season 2 to Season 3, but we all agree that some of the best hours of Trek came from TNG.

The Borg taking Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard and making him one of their own in Season 3's "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" forever changed the stakes of the series, showing us that Trek, when done right, can pull off having a dark side despite the Federation's squeaky-clean way of doing business. "Yesterday's Enterprise," "The Defector," "The Enemy," "The Inner Light," "I, Borg" and "Chain of Command, Parts 1 & 2" are series highlights, and we defy you to find a better finale for a show like this than the two-hour "All Good Things…" Not every episode throughout the show's seven-year run was diamonds, but when it hit, TNG rarely struck anything less than bullseye.

Co-created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, who was well known for his spy-themed TV series Danger Man (a.k.a. Secret Agent) at the time, The Prisoner was a spin on that concept. And what a spin.

McGoohan stars as the nameless Number Six, a former spy who after resigning his commission is kidnapped and forced to take up residence in The Village – a community full of fellow ex-spies. Or is it? As Number Two, the de facto leader of the community, attempts to extract precious intelligence from Number Six – or break his will, or both (or none of the above?) – the 17-episode series gets stranger and stranger, combining psychedelic 1960s flourishes with pretty heady philosophical debates. Also, best opening sequence ever?

A science-fiction/fantasy/horror anthology series in the vein of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits was not a success in its day, lasting only 49 episodes.

During its first season, Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano was the series' creative shepherd. Other writers who worked on it included Robert Towne and Harlan Ellison, who successfully sued the makers of The Terminator for ripping off the idea from one of his episodes. (Even Alan Moore's Watchman "paid homage" to an alien invasion episode of the series, a debt that director Zack Snyder acknowledged with an Outer Limits reference in his film adaptation.) Outer Limits featured catchy opening and closing narration by the Control Voice, and saw many of its props and cast and crew members turn up later on Star Trek.

This is one of those shows where you just can't accept the fact that a second season will never come. Joss Whedon took his unique brand of awesome and put it on a spaceship full of space cowboy pirates who said "shiny" a lot and entertained us even more. Nathan Fillion's Mal Reynolds is one of the most dynamic and uncompromising anti-heroes the genre has ever made; and his crew – everyone from Shepherd Book to "Two in the brain pan – squish squish" River Tam – showed us that supporting characters don't have to be relegated solely to pushing buttons or answering hails.

Episodes like "Out of Gas" and "Ariel" have incredible repeat viewing value, mostly because we genuinely like these people even though what they do often errs on the side of "whatever it takes to get by." Firefly delivered on Trek's "Wagon Train to the stars" premise with much more fun and daring than Trek ever did. While Serenity tides us over, our craving for that second season fix never goes away.

C'mon! Something on this list has to remind us that, as fun and breathtaking as great science fiction can be, there's nothing like cheesy, horribly bad sci-fi! And that the "kitsch factor" appreciation of these films is best done in groups. With snide, sarcastic referential remarks. Yes, we're absolutely crediting MST3K with creating the "viewing party." No, Joel (or Mike) and the Bots didn't always lampoon sci-fi flicks, but within their own show they were always the "trapped in space" victims of the malicious Dr. Clayton Forrester and the dim-witted TV's Frank, undergoing heinous bad-movie-watching experiments so that Clay could discover man's true breaking point.

As cheaply produced as MST3K was, its humor was always sharp as a scimitar and it constantly challenged us, as viewers, to smarten up rather than dumb down. It's the first show to produce high-quality quotables (that we still reference to this very day) based on nothing more than snarky side comments.

We've taken a couple of swipes at the Star Trek spin-offs on this list so far, but don't misinterpret us: We love Star Trek as much as the next guy. More, even. It's just that too much of a good thing can become a bad thing, and by the seventh season of The Next Generation, the crew of the Enterprise was spent. Luckily, the folks behind the show knew that as well, and the second Trek spin-off was a very deliberate attempt to break out of the way-too-familiar patterns of that world.

DS9 was set on a station deep in hostile space, where the starched uniforms and rules of the Federation didn't always apply. After an amazing pilot episode, the show shifted into low gear, afraid to push the boundaries too far at first, but eventually it found its stride and went on to provide some of the best seasons of Trek ever. The Dominion War, man! Oh, Captain Sisko, where have you gone...?

"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace." And for good sci-fi TV. At least, it seemed that way when the show debuted back in 1993. As we previously mentioned in our Farscape entry, the genre was stuck in an infinite loop of Picardian dimensions back in the mid-1990s, and it was shows like Babylon 5 that really helped to free us all from the conventions of Star Trek.

Religion, philosophy, war – these were all topics that were ripe for the picking in J. Michael Straczynski's show. And while B5 stumbled often, it more frequently scored. Babylon 5 was made of two million, 500 thousand tons of spinning metal – and a lot of damned good sci-fi storytelling.

This is a major shout out to the entire Kenneth Johnson V universe as a whole, but the real core here – the beating heart – are the two V alien-invasion miniseries (V and V: The Final Battle) that ran on NBC in 1983 and 1984. Back when ensemble mini-dramas were all the rage, V used the format to tell us a terrifying Nazi-parable involving space lizards wearing human skin suits. A scientist, a "man of action" war zone journalist, a priest, a doctor, a gardener and a badass dude named Ham all banded together in order to strike back, guerilla-style, at a race of super space beings who'd duped the entire world into thinking that they "meant no harm."

Borrowing themes from early sci-fi invasion tales, V managed to bring the terror home in a very real and personal way and show the world-wide ramifications of a giant inter-galactic "snow job." From giant flying saucers squatting over major cities, to the swallowing of live guinea pigs to icky alien-human baby hybrids, V created an entire new landscape of imagery and ideas that are still being used now, more than 25 years later.

The true pleasure of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen's Futurama – a pleasure which we don't often recognize these days – is how refreshingly different it was from its progenitor, The Simpsons. While the animation style is similar, Futurama forged its own path right from the start (there were never any suicide booths on The Simpsons, were there?)

Good sci-fi is hard, but good sci-fi comedy is even harder. And Fry, Leela, Bender and the rest of the Planet Express gang prove that they're up to the task in virtually every episode of this (twice-resurrected now) series.

It was hard not to be dismissive of the idea of a Terminator TV series, made without James Cameron's involvement. But in the hands of Josh Friedman and his writing team, TSCC was an involving, intense series that expertly built upon the Terminator mythology. From the awesomeness of Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green, we take every snarky comment back) to the complicated portrayal of Cameron (who, thanks to Summer Glau's portrayal, has us feeling "funny" about a Terminator in ways only John Connor could relate to), to the amazing "What comes next?!" finale, we find ourselves still mourning this show's too-brief run.

This Doctor Who spinoff has a foot in both X-Files and the Who-verse, but with emphasis on much darker and grittier stories centered on a team of specialists defending Earth from nasty alien threats. Torchwood's central member is an immortal and omni-sexual from the future by the name of Captain Jack Harkness. Former police officer-turned-Torchwood field operative Gwen Cooper and Harkness's partner Ianto form the core unit of the series, tackling some very heady, very powerful sci-fi that is more hit than miss.

The best thing Torchwood ever did (so far) was 2009's Children of Earth mini-series. The children of our planet – everywhere – drop what they are doing, turn to a foreboding sky and herald in unison the arrival of our alien invaders with three words: "We. Are. Coming." And when they arrive, what Captain Jack must do to save the world from what these aliens crave, is nothing short of the type of television that makes you say, "Why can't more things be this good?"

Once upon a time, Fringe, as a series, would have played out for as many seasons as The X-Files. But shows rarely run for nine seasons anymore and it was evident, early on, that the "monster of the week" format was not going to sustain this type of show.

So the writers and producers jumped-started the main, underlying arc and bumped up revelations that were meant for later seasons until the riveting, main thread – involving a mostly one-sided war between two parallel universes – became the entire show. Once the show found its groove midway through Season 1, it's been nothing but a series of satisfyingly jaw-dropping "holy eff!" moments layered with wonderful, nuanced performances from Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble. The simultaneous following of both our main characters and their devilish alternates pushed Fringe into the lead and helped it win IGN TV's Best Sci-Fi series of 2010.

The original Stargate movie was a modest success when it hit theaters in 1994. However, it was this syndicated spinoff that truly established Stargate as one of the preeminent sci-fi franchises on TV. SG-1 brought back the characters Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson from the film, now played by Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver!!!) and Michael Shanks. This pair was joined by a new crew of soldiers dedicated to defending Earth from the Goa'uld, the Replicators, and any other interstellar threats who would threaten Earth using the power of the Stargates.

SG-1 lasted for a full decade and currently has the distinction of being the longest-running sci-fi TV series in history. That's no small achievement, and it's not hard to understand why the series proved so successful. It took a winning concept and greatly expanded upon it, creating a vast mythology that further inspired new tie-ins and spinoffs series. The recent cancellation of Stargate Universe bodes ill for the franchise, but no one can argue it didn't have a good run.

he Laurel and Hardy of outer space – only if Laurel was a curry-loving Liverpudlian and Hardy was a holographic image of a dead guy – Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer are two of the greatest characters ever created for genre TV.

Foul, dumb and hilarious, the mismatched pair's misadventures form the crux of the British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, which takes many familiar sci-fi conventions (time travel, xenomorphs, cryogenics, etc.) and turns them on their ear in the most clever of ways. Attempts to create an Americanized version of the show (or a theatrical film) have failed time and again, which is probably for the better for this pair of futuristic chicken-soup repairmen – and for us.

Like Babylon 5, which will follow on this list shortly, Farscape was an oasis of sci-fi television in a time when Star Trek ruled the airwaves. Unlike the too-often staid world of Starfleet, the adventures of John Crichton (Ben Browder), Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and the rest felt alive and vibrant and, most of all, different. A living ship? Cutting your own crewmember's arm off and selling it for your own selfish needs? Fanboy humor ("Who's Yoda?")? Characters who have sex and seem like, you know, real people?!

While the Muppets in space aspect of the show was often a drag on the drama, and the overly arc-centric nature of later seasons doomed the series, Farscape gave a much-needed kick to the dren of genre television right when it needed it.

This 1970s Japanese anime classic was released stateside as Star Blazers, where its characters names were westernized and re-dubbed in English. In the late 22nd century, the Earth has been invaded by the Gamilons, whose radiation bombs have forced humans to flee underground. Hope for humanity comes in the form of a crashed spaceship from the planet Iscandar, which offers earthlings the designs to a "Wave Motion Engine" capable of transporting them thousands of light-years to Iscandar where they can attain the technology capable of eliminating the radiation and restoring Earth.

In the original Japanese series, the humans retrofit the ruins of the WWII battleship Yamato into a spacecraft, but in Star Blazers the ship is the U.S.S. Arizona, which is then renamed the Argo. Star Blazers was a dark and adult animated series that wasn't afraid to kill off main characters and paved the way for longer story arcs and deeper characterizations in animated sci-fi series.

Oh, for the inter-species misadventures of Detective Matthew Sikes and his alien "newcomer" partner, Detective Sam "George" Francisco. The FOX TV version of the movie (which was more of a "noir" piece) was part buddy-cop adventure series, part immigrant "clashing-of-worlds" comedy. With not-so-subtle storylines about persecution and racism, Sykes and Francisco had to learn to work together despite galaxy-sized differences.

With Francisco and his family having to make hard choices between assimilation and cultural preservation, Alien Nation might have been a bit "on the nose" at times, but it was still always wildly entertaining. Plus, watching Sykes, who for the most part was a stubborn bigot, fall for his "newcomer" next door neighbor, Cathy, was fun times 12. Also, as part of the "newcomer" biology, the men are the ones who give birth, meaning Francisco got to have the first ever male pregnancy storyline on TV.

Briscoe County was the '90s attempt to revive the sci-fi/western hybrid spirit of The Wild Wild West with the mothereffin' "Lord of all Things Awesome" Bruce Campbell. Campbell played a Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-bounty hunter, who makes it his mission in life to track down and capture the notorious John Bly and his gang in order to avenge the death of his legendary bounty hunter father, Briscoe County Sr. Once Briscoe learns about Bly's obsession with a mysterious orb from the future, he's forced to change his game a little in order to stop Bly from taking possession of the powerful artifact and… well, there are a few secrets we won't give away here.

Needless to say, this show was a heck of a fun ride and Kelly Rutherford's alluringly sassy Dixie Cousins made for a respectable romantic foil for Briscoe. And let's not forget the steampunk elements at work here as Briscoe was often provided an assortment of advanced "tech" such as diving suits, motorcycles, rockets and airships. Hail to the County, Baby!

This award-winning series followed physicist Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), whose failed time-travel experiment left him blindly "leaping" into the bodies of others throughout time, where he must then set things right that had once gone wrong – hoping that his next leap... would be the leap home. (Reference!)

Sam would always arrive after a leap with a Swiss-Cheese'd memory, making it hard to recall who he is and what he has to do. His only guide on this journey was cigar-chomping naval officer Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), who worked with Sam on Project Quantum Leap and appeared to him via hologram from the present. Ziggy was their artificial intelligence program. Some of the historical persons Sam became involved with included Elvis Presley, Lee Harvey Oswald, Michael Jackson, Stephen King, Sylvester Stallone, Buddy Holly, Donald Trump, Woody Allen and Jack Kerouac.

One of the most game-changing anime ever produced, Neon Genesis Evangelion is not only visually stunning, it's a complex and nuanced science fiction story… and well worthy of its place on any sci-fi greatest hits list. The story unfolds in a series of battles, as the military organization Nerv takes on huge, otherworldly enemies known as "Angels." In a decidedly Japanese wrinkle, the Nerv pilots – who control huge mechs known as Evangelion – are all teenagers, amplifying the emotion and the stakes as they struggle to save humanity while wrestling with their own growth.

The action is amazing, but it's not the only thing; the story is emotionally charged and tender, despite being epic in scope. Bold, gripping, sometimes opaque, but ultimately a work of great horror and beauty, Neon Genesis Evangelion redefined the mech sub-genre and ignited a passionate fan base around the world.

Perpetually underrated and under the radar, The 4400 was a cool show that will hopefully continue to find fans as the years go on. The show tells the story of 4400 people who vanished throughout the past century, only to mysteriously reappear – not a day older. The drama that premise creates unfolded and evolved significantly throughout its four-season run, with certain cast members (including Billy Campbell's fascinating Jordan Collier) coming and going. But its look at what happened to "the 4400," who began to manifest superhuman abilities, was extremely compelling, dealing with themes other series like Heroes would also touch upon, without hitting the mark so successfully. This series marks the first of three shows on this list to feature the awesome Summer Glau (she had a notable recurring role here), who we're happy to crown the unofficial queen of sci-fi at this point.

Sam Tyler (John Simm) is a detective in modern-day Manchester, who is hit by a car and awakens to find himself living a life of polyester, plaid and chops in the year 1973.

A metaphysical mystery wrapped in a sci-fi premise, Life on Mars works first and foremost because of Simm's performance as the tormented cop who's just trying to get home. (Has he really traveled through time? Is he insane? In a coma?) But the juxtaposition of Tyler's modern sensibilities against those of his rough-around-the-edges 1973 boss, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), is also a throughline of the show – sort of a weird spin on the age-old Spock/Kirk relationship, in fact. And the 1970s details are so spot-on, you almost think you're there yourself. Oh, and the female cops' miniskirts… ah, life on Mars is good.

At the intersection of sci-fi and cool lies Cowboy Bebop, a 1998 anime series that follows the misadventures of loveable scoundrel Spike Spiegel and a crew of intergalactic bounty hunters aboard the starship known as "Bebop." Written by Keiko Nobumoto (Wolf's Rain) and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Samurai Champloo), this Sunrise production is amazing at peeling back the layers of its characters, unfolding details as the story trips along at its own offbeat pace.

Full of intriguing storylines and style to waste, it's no wonder Cowboy Bebop is an anime fan-favorite. Admittedly, it is not as sci-fi heavy as some of the series on this list, but it's every bit as engaging and enduring. Accessible to all audiences, and fun as heck , Cowboy Bebop deserves its praise. Check it out, if you haven't already.

Mostly unhappy with the Special Editions and prequels, a lot of Star Wars fans initially scorned this animated series, which got off to a clumsy start with a weak feature film. But The Clone Wars then began to surprise, telling increasingly dark and intense stories. Ever-cooler animation has led to standout lightsaber fights and space battles, while the stakes have been increasingly raised, with some rather shocking moments of violence along the way. There are still some weak points too, but The Clone Wars has turned into a very strong series that, at its best, offers some of the most compelling Star Wars stories in years.

Thomas Veil (Bruce Greenwood) took a picture of a Black-Op execution, called it "Hidden Agenda", put it as the center piece in his gallery showroom and then lost every inch of his life. A marriage, a life – an identity – erased, by some very powerful people who want that photograph, who will do anything to get the negative. So Veil goes on the run, a la The Fugitive, trying to put his life together while uncovering if his life was really his at all.

Why a show this complicated and heady was on UPN back in the mid 1990s is… well you got us. Why it got canceled before its time makes sense; the TV landscape then didn't know what do with it. Now, serialized mythologies are everyone's favorite topping, assuming it's done right. Nowhere Man, from Joel Surnow, one of the men behind 24, is the type of show that would fit fine alongside genre TV like Lost. Re-visiting this underrated and little seen show will make you wonder why shows like The Event get airtime while shows like Nowhere Man get "Remember When" status.

Autobots vs. Decepticons. That's all this show wants to be, and despite the thinness of that concept (and the "make money selling toys!" mandate behind it), it is a concept that fuels legions of loyal fans, a concept that made a significant dent in our nerdular history.

Optimus Prime managed to become the coolest cab-over semi we have ever or will ever see, as he and his Autobots set out to defeat the evil forces of Megatron and his Decepticons. The stories never really tried to do much more than be about that; the most complex the series ever got was in the animated movie and, later, "The Return of Optimus Prime" storyline. Sure, the comics have Wiki-worthy backgrounds for each and every Cybertron native here, but less is more for us when it comes to appreciating this favorite from our childhood and its contribution to science fiction. (And no, we don't know where Prime's trailer disappears to when he is in robot form; best not to think about such things.)