I hear Babylon 5 and The Expanse is nice, but I hear so little about those two shows I don’t know what to expect of these stories.
live action as animated recommendation is allowed.
If you want funny scifi but with a frequent emotional edge, Red Dwarf is fantastic.
Gotta be honest, I lost interest after a while because the basic premise needs juuust a bit too much suspension of disbelief. Although I’m sure, if you can accept the premise, the individual episodes can be entertaining.
Yeah if the initial premise seems too far out for you, probably best to stop there. The first season gets pretty weird in very 1970s ways at times.
I loved it as a child but it’s hard to rewatch. It’s not good.
Well, I’d do a disservice to my hyperfixation if I didn’t at least bring up Doctor Who which does count as science fiction. If you’re looking for more in the vein of Star Trek, disregard and do go watch B5 and The Expanse.
Battlestar Galactica (2004) is my all-timer. A lot of it feels incredibly salient today imo.
Yes, I’d say BSG is where they take the concept of a federated military in space but move from story of the week to an overarching plot.
Babylon 5 did it too, but not to the same extent. TV was moving from weekly broadcast to streaming and binging.
I think I’m due a rewatch!
Lexx.
I hated it, but it’s something alright.
Upvoting the Lexx. Loved it. Some episodes were weak but that’s true of many shows.
I loved it because it was different.
What’s to hate?
That shit is hilarious.
It didn’t really resonate with me in the sense that it does its thing well, but that thing is not compatible with me.
Like you can respect someone’s work ethics or dedication to their hobby, but you don’t have to like them as a person.
The Two are nice. Babylone 5 could seems dated today but there’s some really cool things in it
I’m on my first watch of Farscape, so far so good, great puppets
Firefly maybe ? But Adam Baldwin and Joss Whedon are two very big asshole
“The Two” ?
Babylone 5 and The Expanse. This two. Don’t know why my keyboard capitalise « Two »
Babylon 5 is fantastic - I guess if I were to describe it briefly (and vaguely), it would be “interstellar political drama with mythological undertones.”
Any of the classics really are worth a watch.
The Expanse - more realistic sci-fi that actually accounts for thrust as gravity and slingshots around planets and such. Dystopian but not quite depressingly so. I’m on season 2. Much more serious. Still good. Read the books with a friend.
Babylon 5 - Deep space 9 basically. Complete with godlike alien beliefs and a Vulcan like character. Honestly holds up really well from what I recall though it’s been a while since I watched it.
Stargate - very fun. Campy. Not afraid to make fun of itself. Much more action and tropy but a very fun watch. Added bonus, between all three shows you’ve got like 18 seasons. Plenty to bite into. Honestly one of my favorite shows still.
Firefly - A Western, in space. Very good. Very fun. Love it.
Farscape - almost but not quite a sci-fi parody, but good. Guy gets lost in space, meets aliens, goes on adventure. Several of the actors also got roles in later seasons of Stargate.
Start gate series is my second favorite to star trek, I heard Babylon 5 is good. Didn’t like the expanse felt to just more capitalist hellscape then scifi to me but I only watched the first episode but that’s just my opinion and observations.
Dr who is a good sci-fi show as well as a rarely talked about show sliders from the 1990s. (Besides the last season imo)
Expanse is weird in that Season 1 is a completely different show than the rest of the seasons.
Season 1 is primarily a detective on a space station.
The rest of the seasons follow characters on a spaceship.
Your opinion on The Expanse is a valid and common one. It is a capitalist hellscape. But it’s been mentioned already, it’s a slow burn and by the second season you get why it took a while to get there. It’s an unfortunate cliche that is true a lot - sometimes, you have to get through the first parts, either because of the needed character/worldbuilding, or simply because the show hasn’t found its way yet. Don’t give up on it.
I don’t know anything about Babylon 5. But just watch the expanse without knowing anything first season is a slow burn but the payoff in season 2 is well worth it. Some of the best scifi I’ve watched
Somebody’s got to mention Red Dwarf. It’s kind of like if The Office (UK) and Farscape had a baby and raised it on an old Dr. Who set.
The Orville, Foundation, farscape, sliders (stop at end of s3), Stargate
Here to fanboy over Babylon 5.
B5 is a political comfort show for me, especially these days. It was brazen for the 90s, with characters facing questions like: recovering from drug addiction, cross-cultural romantic relationships and their hurdles, colonization and genocide, bisexual representation, the loss of family members, and what to do if you’re a military member serving a regime that you hate. It’s deeply philosophical and mature, and it’s had a profound impact on my life.
It had the time to develop complex relationships between characters. One of my favorite characters is an alien ambassador named G’kar, played by Andreas Katsulas.
Andreas KatsulasJust to add while the CGI aged the content of the dialog hits harder to me an adult than it did as a kids. Top work.
I’m here to recommend The Expanse. It’s more of a near-future dystopian scifi setting than Star Trek, with humanity petty much limited to our own solar system by technology. I read the books before the show became a thing, and I like them both.
I read the books before the show became a thing, and I like them both.
Because the books are great and the show is great I would actually suggest reading it all before watching the show.
Good call.
Not sure if you’re actually wanting animated or not, but Scavenger’s Reign is a good animated sci-fi miniseries of a spaceship crew stranded on a strange planet.
For live action check out the two Callister episodes of Black Mirror.
The Callister episodes are exceptional. I’m usually iffy on Black Mirror, but my partner insisted I watch those and I loved them.
animated
I said I want animated series too since Avatar seems to be the only good western animation and it’s not even a sci-fi thing.
