After going almost two years without a new episode, fans are understandably excited about season 4 of Westworld, which will begin airing on HBO later this month. It signals a return to strength for ambitious sci-fi that’s comfortable with looking ahead to a future unrecognizable from our present.
Along with the announcement that both Futurama and Star Trek: Picard will get new episodes in 2023, the future is starting to look very appealing indeed for fans. With a ton of shows, past and present, to choose from, these are the ones that sci-fi fans on Ranker picked out as the greatest ever made.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airing and talk of a new Star Trek movie being released next year, it’s clear that the futuristic world of Star Trek has an enduring appeal. No show since the original series captured this as well as The Next Generation, a series that follows a new crew headed by Patrick Stewart’s iconic captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Whereas newer shows tend to focus on delivering high-intensity action, The Next Generation was happy to explore interesting themes in a more nuanced way at times, using its characters and their distant-future setting aboard the new Enterprise as a means to tell interesting and resonant stories. Of course, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have plenty of good old-fashioned phaser-based action too.
Firefly (2002)
When it comes to shows that were canceled before their time, one that comes to mind immediately for most sci-fi fans is Firefly. Following the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity, after they pick up some unusual passengers on their travels, the show presents a future that’s probably the closest there has been to the wild west in space.
Even without their illegitimate business schemes and mysterious passengers putting them on the radar of the galaxy’s ruthless authorities, the crew manages to find themselves in some kind of trouble every week. Despite presenting a future plagued by lawlessness and worse, Firefly manages to make the space-faring life feel like home.
The Expanse (2015)
A multilayered sci-fi show with six seasons as of earlier this year, The Expanse is set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System and a delicate balance of power now exists between the different factions this has caused. Mixing political tension with explosive action in a futuristic setting that feels very real, The Expanse manages to hit all the right notes for sci-fi fans.
The world of The Expanse goes from intriguing to fascinating as the show continues and dark conspiracies begin to unravel. Full of twists and revelations, despite being canceled previously, it’s now one of the best sci-fi shows on Amazon Prime and well worth checking out.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Star Trek: The Next Generation secured Jean-Luc Picard a place in many fans’ hearts as he was one of the most human Star Trek captains despite being highly logical and intelligent. After a far too long period without Picard on-screen, 2020 finally signaled the return of the now-retired captain.
Slow-paced and full of the character moments that made fans love Picard in the first place, Star Trek: Picard turned out to be a significant departure from the high stakes, action-dominated newest generation of Star Trek shows. This also means more time to take in just a small part of the complex and fascinating universe of the series, which will conclude with season 3 next year.
Altered Carbon (2018)
It may have been one of the victims of Netflix’s habit of canceling shows in their prime but Altered Carbon was also one of the series that made the streaming platform as huge as it is today. The show paints a cyberpunk world set in the huge metropolis of Bay City which, thanks to going all-out with the visuals, even gives the cities of cyberpunk icons like Blade Runner a run for their money.
Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has created a technology that can digitize human consciousness and even allows the possibility to transfer it between bodies. This makes homicide investigation an even more complicated task for protagonist Takeshi Kovacs in a show that put its setting and central premise to great use before it came to a premature end.
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)
None of the Star Trek franchises that exist today would be around if not for the incredible imagination and heart that went into crafting the original Star Trek television show. Bold and revolutionary, the show had a vision of an idyllic future where people dedicated their lives to the aim of exploring the mysteries of space without having to worry about many of the issues plaguing the present.
Despite this, the show still managed to be incredibly relevant to its age, and even still today. The central crew of the Enterprise are all icons in their own right and, though not everything about the series has aged perfectly, it’s easy to get caught up in their adventures and ignore the cliches and questionable special effects.
Terra Nova (2011)
Though its lofty ambitions may have been part of the reason it was so short-lived, Terra Nova‘s good execution of an intriguing premise meant it left a huge impression. The show technically mostly takes place in the distant past, where humanity has set up colonies to allow people to escape the polluted and overpopulated nightmare of 22nd-century earth, but the plot is very involved with the future.
Centered on Jim Shannon, a police officer who stows away to join the colony, the show contrasts the dystopian mess of the future that humans ruined with the idyllic nature of the unspoiled past that may not remain unspoiled for much longer. The advantage of telling stories based in the future is that it can unlock some genuinely unique ideas like Terra Nova.
Upload (2020)
Already renewed for a third season after the second dropped earlier this year, Upload takes its central premise that humans can be uploaded into a virtual afterlife after dying and manages to do a lot with it. A sci-fi comedy, the show is centered on a computer programmer called Nathan Brown as he adjusts to his new postmortem life in the digital plane.
Though the premise naturally means it deals with some dark ideas, Upload is a ton of fun and it keeps up an impressive pace when it comes to jokes. The possibilities of life in the virtual world are explored as well as some of the implications Nathan’s new existence has on his relationships but it’s the laughs that propel things along.
Futurama (1999)
It’s a testament to the world and characters that Matt Groening created in Futurama that no matter how many times the show gets canceled, it just keeps coming back. With its protagonist Philip J. Fry, the show portrays an incredible future full of aliens, robots, sewer people, and more through the eyes of the average 20th-century moron.
Endlessly inventive, every episode of Futurama tends to utilize at least one idea or trope from classic science fiction and find a way to make it hilarious. Most importantly, the central group of characters and even the side characters are some of the most memorable on television and it’s great to have them back.
Westworld (2016)
Based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, backed by some huge names including J. J. Abrams, and starring some incredible actors like Anthony Hopkins, it’s easy to see why Westworld got fans excited. Now 6 years on from its initial release, the tale of a western theme park with some worryingly alive-seeming android hosts has come a long way.
As it’s continued, Westworld has expanded its scope to explore how AI has changed the lives of people outside of the theme park. What hasn’t changed is the fascinating way the series depicts the future both in its incredible use of imagery and in the outstanding acting, for both the humans and the androids, which makes every revelation hit that much harder.
