Best Sci-Fi TV Shows
Best Sci-Fi TV shows of all time
About the author
This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.
Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.
Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.
The adventures of a late-20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the retro-futuristic
Genres: | Animation, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Networks: | FOX, Comedy Central |
Created By: | Matt Groening |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.2 / 10 (748) |
A missing child causes four families to help each other for answers. What they could not imagine is that this mystery would be connected to innumerable other secrets of the small town.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Baran bo Odar |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.9 / 10 (287) |
As her 16th birthday nears, Sabrina must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends. Based on the Archie comic.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.6 / 10 (66) |
Rick is a mentally-unbalanced but scientifically-gifted old man who has recently reconnected with his family. He spends most of his time involving his young grandson Morty in dangerous, outlandish adventures throughout space and alternate universes. Compo
Genres: | Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | Adult Swim |
Created By: | Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 8.6 / 10 (1060) |
True Blood is an American television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small tow
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Alan Ball |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (531) |
The Doctor looks and seems human. He's handsome, witty, and could be mistaken for just another man in the street. But he is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets f
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 12 |
Network: | BBC One |
Created By: | Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber, Donald Wilson |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (1340) |
Danny Rand resurfaces 15 years after being presumed dead. Now, with the power of the Iron Fist, he seeks to reclaim his past and fulfill his destiny.
Genres: | Crime, Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Scott Buck |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.1 / 10 (743) |
After 250 years on ice, a prisoner returns to life in a new body with one chance to win his freedom: by solving a mind-bending murder.
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Genres: | Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Created By: | Laeta Kalogridis |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.9 / 10 (326) |
When heroes alone are not enough ... the world needs legends. Having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confron
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | The CW |
Created By: | Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim, Phil Klemmer |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.1 / 10 (646) |
After a teenage girl's perplexing suicide, a classmate receives a series of tapes that unravel the mystery of her tragic choice.
Publisher: | Paramount Television, Anonymous Content |
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Brian Yorkey, Diana Son |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (682) |
CSI: Miami follows Crime Scene Investigators working for the Miami-Dade Police Department as they use physical evidence, similar to their Las Vegas counterparts, to solve grisly murders. The series mixes deduction, gritty subject matter, and character-dri
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 10 |
Network: | CBS |
Created By: | Ann Donahue, Anthony Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6 / 10 (186) |
The Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply referred to as Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series, created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. The show premiered on August 11, 1991, on Nickelodeon as part of its Nicktoons block along with Rugra
Genres: | Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Comedy |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Networks: | Nickelodeon, Spike |
Created By: | John Kricfalusi |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (106) |
After landing from a turbulent but routine flight, the crew and passengers of Montego Air Flight 828 discover five years have passed in what seemed like a few hours. As their new realities become clear, a deeper mystery unfolds and some of the returned pa
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | Jeff Rake |
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (28) |
Two strangers are drawn to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial that will, they're assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently. Things do not go as planned.
Genres: | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Patrick Somerville, Cary Joji Fukunaga |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.5 / 10 (87) |
Follow the crew of the not-so-functional exploratory ship in the Earth's interstellar fleet, 300 years in the future.
Genres: | Drama, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Seth MacFarlane |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (285) |
Valentine's Day, 1900. Three schoolgirls and their governess mysteriously disappear in Hanging Rock, Australia, without a trace.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Showcase |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (8) |
Masters of Horror is an informal social group of international film writers and directors specializing in horror movies and an American television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Showtime |
Created By: | Mick Garris |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.9 / 10 (57) |
Refugees from a war-torn country start showing up to seek asylum in an American town. Only the country these people are from is America and the war they are fleeing is 250 years in the future. The local sheriff with a past, a federal agent and a mother in
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (40) |
Vanessa Helsing, the daughter of famous vampire hunter and Dracula nemesis Abraham Van Helsing is resurrected five years in the future to find out that vampires have taken over the world and that she possesses unique power over them. She is humanity’s las
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | Syfy |
Created By: | Neil LaBute |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 5.8 / 10 (181) |
A dysfunctional family of superheroes comes together to solve the mystery of their father's death, the threat of the apocalypse and more.
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Steve Blackman |
Network: | Netflix |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 8.7 / 10 (7) |
In a place where young witches, vampires, and werewolves are nurtured to be their best selves in spite of their worst impulses, Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter, 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson, Alaric Saltzman’s twins, Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, among others, come
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Julie Plec |
Network: | The CW |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 6.8 / 10 (87) |
Decades ago, a hero from the stars left this world in peace. Now, the son of Ultraman must rise to protect the Earth from a new alien threat.
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Eiji Tsuburaya |
Networks: | TV Tokyo, TBS |
Status: | Ended |
Origin Country: | JP |
User Score (votes): | 9.5 / 10 (2) |
At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind's last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Animation, Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | TV Tokyo |
Status: | Ended |
Origin Country: | JP |
User Score (votes): | 8.1 / 10 (194) |
Spoiled billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is missing and presumed dead when his yacht is lost at sea. He returns five years later a changed man, determined to clean up the city as a hooded vigilante armed with a bow.
Genres: | Crime, Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | The CW |
Created By: | Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6 / 10 (2122) |
Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 6 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.8 / 10 (1145) |
Adventure Time is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of Finn, a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and gr
Genres: | Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 10 |
Network: | Cartoon Network |
Created By: | Pendleton Ward |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.1 / 10 (165) |
Prairie Johnson, blind as a child, comes home to the community she grew up in with her sight restored. Some hail her a miracle, others a dangerous mystery, but Prairie won’t talk with the FBI or her parents about the seven years she went missing.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (272) |
Under the Dome is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. It tells the story of the residents of the small town of Chester's Mill in Maine, where a massive, transparent, indestructible dome suddenly cuts them off from the rest of the world. W
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | CBS |
Created By: | Brian K. Vaughan |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.2 / 10 (420) |
An anthology series set in a single hotel room, where every guest who comes to stay reveals a unique set of circumstances and quirks.
Genres: | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 5.5 / 10 (39) |
Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a joint Canadian-American horror/fantasy-themed anthology television series. The original series was a joint production between the Canadian company Cinar and the American company Nickelodeon. The show was filmed in Richmond
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Family, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Networks: | ITV, Nickelodeon, YTV |
Created By: | D. J. MacHale, Ned Kandel |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (57) |
The Path explores the unknown and mysterious world of the cult-like Meyerist Movement in upstate New York. At the center of the movement lies Eddie, a conflicted husband; Sarah, his devoted wife; and Cal, an ambitious leader. We follow each as they conten
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | Hulu |
Created By: | Jessica Goldberg |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.6 / 10 (84) |
The Crains, a fractured family, confront haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Mike Flanagan |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.9 / 10 (136) |
The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film, when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets. SG-1 is an elite
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 10 |
Networks: | Showtime, Syfy |
Created By: | Jonathan Glassner, Brad Wright |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8 / 10 (492) |
A young mother kills in a fit of unexplainable rage a seemingly stranger. An inquisitive detective obsesses over the case, attempting to get to the bottom of the true motive behind the act.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | USA Network |
Created By: | Derek Simonds |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (196) |
When FBI Agent Peter Connelly, recently stationed in Jerusalem, begins investigating the murder of a young American, he realizes that he’s uncovered an ancient international conspiracy that threatens to change the course of human history. Certain that the
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | USA Network |
Created By: | Gideon Raff, Tim Kring |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (37) |
Harsh Realm is a science fiction television series about humans trapped inside a virtual reality simulation.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | FOX, FX |
Created By: | Chris Carter |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 8.7 / 10 (5) |
Rocko's Modern Life is an American animated series created by Joe Murray. The show aired for four seasons between 1993 and 1996 on Nickelodeon. Rocko's Modern Life is based around the surreal, parodic adventures of an anthropomorphic, Australian-immigrant
Genres: | Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Comedy |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Nickelodeon |
Created By: | Joe Murray |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.7 / 10 (81) |
Follow the lives of two very different priests tackling one family’s case of terrifying demonic possession.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Jeremy Slater |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (169) |
The Secret World of Alex Mack is an American television series that ran on Nickelodeon from October 8, 1994 to January 15, 1998, replacing Clarissa Explains It All on the SNICK line-up. It also aired on YTV in Canada and NHK in Japan, and was a popular st
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Comedy, Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Nickelodeon |
Created By: | Ken Lipman, Thomas W. Lynch |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.9 / 10 (12) |
The crew of a Royal Naval expedition searching for the Arctic's treacherous Northwest Passage discovers instead a monstrous predator.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | AMC |
Created By: | Edward Berger |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.8 / 10 (93) |